András BENEDEK

Preface

This year again, the OPUS English issue will be as we hope, rich in interesting information. The main theme is digitalization and its impact on education and communication, including different stakeholders perspective. Thanks to András Szűcs, guest editor of this issue, member of the EU 2020 Digital Skills and Competencies Working Group, Secretary-General of the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN), coordinated the edition of this issue and contributed with a comprehensive paper as well.

In the Papers/Reports section, articles strive to systemize the new information highlighting the specific political and business dimensions of the digital transformation going on in higher education (Éva Szalma). In terms of the real and the virtual extension of the technological scope the re-interpretation of the theoretical and practical inter-connections of life-long learning is of outstanding importance. This is what the engaging paper of an international authors’ triumvirate (Maletic, Xhomaki, and Di Mitri) tells us about the contemporary interpretation of policy questions in our digital era. Connecting to this theme, Claudio Dondi analyses the current debates of the international fora by surveying the experiences of the EDEN conference of 2018, presenting the thematic hubs that may indicate main directions of further development.

In the Studies section readers will find articles presenting innovative practice as well as the change of the environment. At macro level, the cooperation between generations and the impact exerted by the parents on their children’s career and the development of their competences are of outstanding importance (Salamon).

The study by János Horváth Cz. analysing the relations of content in learning and teaching is somewhat a counter pole to the previous article. In the era of the spread of community based content development and bio-attitudes the innovative solutions have made the online-collaborative way of developing micro content and learning units at the user level possible. This topic connects to the creation of new communication methods and the recognition of their development features (Zsuzsanna Horváth) as well as to the conscious intertwining of language and the visual elements of culture which is the subject of the study by Brian Noran with reference to the Visual Learning Conference held in Budapest this year.

I hope this short resume gives an attractive introduction to the rich content of the English issue of Opus et Education published at the end of 2018. I wish our readers joyful reading, and coming to the end of the year, a Marry Christmas and a New Year rich in success.

Editor in chief of Opus et Educatio