Advanced learning technologies have been touted for six decades as either a cost-effective or an exciting new way to provide real benefits to a wide audience. Yet, even given some stellar exceptions, the broader promise is demonstrably false.

The essence of the problem is that new-tech disguising old ideas is almost certainly doomed to failure. Learning Management Systems and Learning Objects, for example, despite the noble intentions of many protagonists, can in fact conceal neo-behaviourist drill-and-practice thinking. Equally frustrating is the paradox that, despite Moore�fs Law, sustainable computing for schools gets more and more expensive annually in real human terms. And what about Elearnng2.0, Moodle, Semantic Multimedia, Wikiversity, The Grid, MySpace, Moblogging, Vodcasting, YouTube, Second Life campuses, Plazes, Bebo, Elgg, and Twitter? More promises, but for now the jury is out, and a parental backlash against computers in schools is underway!

But all is not gloom and doom. This presentation considers success stories ranging from decades-old cognitively-based intelligent tutoring systems and problem-based learning to current day learning ecosystems, star teachers, thumb-twitching social networking, geo-social mashups, simulations, peer-to-peer mentoring, numerous �gbanned�h games and resources, and tasks that engender creativity and ownership directly in learners, in both formal and informal (non-school) settings. It also looks at the UK Open University�fs OpenLearn initiative, which offers high quality educational resources for free, embeds them in a strong pedagogical framework, and encourages educators to download, re-mix and upload fresh material, while leveraging real-time peer presence awareness, large-scale multi-party video interactions and knowledge capture, and a purpose-built knowledge mapping tool.

Is this kind of peer-supported open educational resource the way of the future, and can it overcome some of the negative stereotyping of elearning? Maybe: much depends on a strong commitment from ICALT practitioners, and a willingness to confront some long-standing myths!

Professor Marc Eisenstadt studied Biology and Psychology at Washington University (B.A., 1970), and then began investigations into the computer simulation of human problem solving, attaining a Ph.D. in 1974 from Prof. Donald Norman�fs cognitive science research lab at the University of California at San Diego. Following a post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, he joined the UK's Open University, where, in the context of teaching AI to undergraduates, he helped design and develop a variety of automatic program debugging systems, program visualization systems, and knowledge engineering environments. He was appointed to a Professorship in Artificial Intelligence in 1986, and began undertaking work in the converging areas of cognitive science, multimedia, telematics, and knowledge systems. He co-founded the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) in 1995, Directed KMi from then until October 2000, is now its Chief Scientist.

Professor Eisenstadt is a member of numerous advisory panels, councils, professional bodies and editorial boards (e.g. scientific advisory boards of L3S Hannover and Science Foundation Ireland, editorial board of the International Journal of Human Computer Studies, etc). He is the designer, inventor or co-creator of popular software tools like BuddySpace, Lyceum, KMi Stadium, and Meet-O-Matic. Professor Eisenstadt has published hundreds of articles and several edited books on human-computer interaction, automatic debugging, human problem solving, knowledge engineering, knowledge acquisition, advanced AI programming environments, remote telepresence, knowledge media, and distance learning. In addition to his personal and academic writings, he has also been a committed blogger for years, including guest stints at Corante.com, a Technorati 'top 25' site.