The Conference has three main themes: future trends and developments in media-supported learning, digital and media production skills and competences including media literacy, and the use and reuse of existing media resources in education and training at all levels.

Keynote speakers include Flemish Minister for Education and Training Pascal Smet and Belgian child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens; the latter argues that creative education is essential for the development of the brain and personality of children. Giving insight into future developments will be Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK and Conor Galvin, from UCD in Ireland, who has keen interest in the impact of new and emergent technology on learning and society.

The Conference programme includes screening sessions that demonstrate excellent examples of media use in education and training from organisations like Thomson Reuters in the UK; TV.Klasse in Belgium; and FWU, the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education in Germany, as well as the finalists in the MEDEA Awards 2011.

This year the discussion topics are

• What is the best business model for a learning game?
• Can media make a difference in supporting early and special-needs education?
• Re-imagining sacred cows: What are the implications of social networking on media and learning?
• What impact does the move from a literacy culture to a media culture have on learning?
• What is the best way to create sustainable, media-rich learning repositories?

Practical workshop topics include

• schemes that involve students training teachers in setting up and using social media tools and services run by Bart Verswijvel from TeacherAid
• identifying and using video content from YouTube for learning purposes by Paul Ashton from Times Educational Services
• designing and delivering media literacy campaigns by Paul Bottelberghs from Platform for mediawisdom, Belgium.

Conference participants are invited to come and play with different devices and software at Media & Learning 2011 in a dedicated Play Area in the dining and networking space, where they can try out and use different devices and applications. Companies showing devices, apps, and applications for participants to try out in this area include Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple.

The MEDEA Awards Ceremony takes place alongside the Conference on Thursday 24 November. Participants are welcome to join this event where the overall winners of this year's competition will be announced.

Interaction and exchange are central to what the Media & Learning Conference is about. Participants can join the online conference community to share knowledge and experience before, during, and after the Conference and also join the active Media & Learning groups in Facebook and LinkedIn. The event also provides Pigeon, the SMS messaging service, during the Conference, which ensures you can easily get in touch with other event participants without revealing your mobile number.

Registration is now open and includes an opportunity to register for free by taking advantage of the Media & Learning recommendation offer: Get a refund on your registration fee by having your friends and colleagues register with your registration code. If four or more do this, you get to attend for free!