Now, more than ever, our education systems need an imperative to be able to react flexibly to labor market demands. This intensifies when we examine demographic developments. Digital media offers enormous potential here. Universities such as the Free University of Berlin are actively promoting a broad integration of e-learning in the form of “blended learning” in teaching and coursework for continuing education or advanced training. As life-long learning becomes more important to societies, e-learning offers new levels of freedom and opportunities due to the decoupling of time and location; for example, by offering diverse professional seminars that are better tailored to individual learning habits and career and familial commitments of individuals.
The goal of this interdisciplinary workshop is to further develop this potential in which both Japan and Germany have vested interests. Previously, two conferences were held in the years 2003 (Berlin) and 2005 (Tôkyô). This is also interesting given the fact that an increasing number of international forms of research and teaching are reliant on digital media (e.g., a Graduate School between the Universities of Halle and Tôkyô and supported by the German Research Association). Life-long learning will be the focus of papers submitted.