15th CIED – Brazilian International Congress of Distance Education
The Search for Innovations in the Teaching-Learning Process: Identifying and Disseminating Innovations in Distance Education
Fortaleza, Ceará - Brasil - September, 27-30

We are surrounded today, in all sectors of human activity, by slogans that insist that we always be innovative--constantly making new products and services to guarantee a differentiation from competitors, to maximize profits, and to assure sustainability. But can innovation be something so simple, so controllable, so easy to create (as though following an algorithm), that we can assume it to be possible to urge everyone to be “more innovative”? Is it not true that the ability to innovate is like the capacity to have a musical talent, or logical-mathematical intelligence, a “gift” that blossoms when it finds a propitious environment? As an example in the world of business we have a unique individual, the Englishman Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795), who, 250 years ago, in order to sell his refined ceramics, invented a significant part of the techniques known today for obtaining success: direct mail; guarantee of money back; door-to-door salesmen; self-service; free delivery; illustrated catalogs; and “buy one, gain two”.

The Oslo Manual - Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data. 3a ed. (Paris: OECD, 2005) defines four types of innovation: of products, of processes, of marketing and of organization. Where, then, should we look for the innovations in distance education – in pedagogy, in technology, in the recruitment of the learner and his support given by the institution?

Is Brazil an innovative country in distance education, or is it just a “follower”? Among the individuals and institutions who make up the Brazilian community of distance learning, who has demonstrated being a true innovator? Does Brazilian culture encourage or inhibit the innovative spirit? Does it create boundaries to its functioning? What would be the ideal infrastructure of conditions to promote innovation in distance learning within the Brazilian “reality”?

Although it is always true that the papers which authors submit for presentation in ABED’s International Congresses can be of the preferred subject chosen by each one, for the 15th CIED the organizers would like to receive the greatest possible number of papers that deal with the proposed theme: the identification of innovations that demonstrably were successful in distance learning, whether in or out of Brazil, and whose originality and significance can be proven by the use of traditional scientific methods.

Call for papers:
- The authors must submit the papers to papers@abed.org.br
- The submission deadline is 5th, June, 2009 (Just for foreigns)

15º CIED:
27-30 September, 2009
Hotel Praia Centro - Av. Monsenhor Tabosa, 740 - Praia de Iracema - Fortaleza (CE) - Brasil

ABED Headquarters - Phone: 55 (11) 3275-3561

Fredric M. Litto
President, ABED