*	Keynote addresses by some of the world's leading thinkers in education.
	*	Parallel paper and workshop sessions for presentation new research findings and descriptions of teaching practice.
	*	Informal garden chats conducted by plenary speakers have been scheduled during the parallel sessions.
	*	Presenters include: academics, teachers, educational managers and higher degree students-from early childhood, to school, to vocational and higher education, to workplace and lifelong learning.
	*	Conference opening: evening, Tuesday 16 July 2002; Close: evening, Saturday 20 July 2002.
	*	Daily schedule: OPENING: Tuesday 16 July 2002 - Welcome & Opening Sessions (start 6.00pm) CONFERENCE DAYS 1-4, daily from 9.00am to 5.00pm Plenary & Parallel Sessions (Papers, Workshops & Garden Chats): day 1) Wednesday 17 July day 2) Thursday 18 July day 3) Friday 19 July day 4) Saturday 20 July
	The world is certainly a different place to what it was when we held our last conference, in Spetses, Greece, in July this year. One can only hope that some good might come from the evil we have witnessed of late. In one sense, the themes of the conference, around cultural diversity, globalisation, citizenship and new information and communications technologies now seem more important than ever. Despite the troubled times, we have decided to press ahead with the Ninth International Literacy and Education Research Network Conference on Learning. The conference is to be hosted jointly by Beijing Normal University and RMIT University. The conference is to be held at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, a very large and attractive venue in central Beijing, with an opening session on the evening of Tuesday 16 July 2002, and running for four and a half days until the evening of 20 July 2002. We are very honoured to be able to announce that the Chinese organising committee will be chaired by Professor Zhong Binglin, President of Beijing Normal University, the largest and most significant university in the field of Education in China. 2002 will be a special year for the university, as it will be celebrating its centenary. As usual, the conference will be surrounded by cultural events, both within the conference program, and visits to nearby sites of world-historical significance including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. The 2002 Learning Conference will be a participants' conference, with everything from plenary presentations by world renowned educators, to research paper presentations and workshop descriptions of practice, to informal outdoor sessions with the keynote speakers.
	*	Papers and workshop presentations will be published in refereed conference proceedings, available in printed and online editions. Deadline for submission of finalised papers: 20 August 2002; to be published 20 November 2002.
	*	Virtual registration available for those who cannot attend in person: includes access to the online edition of the conference proceedings and provision to present virtual papers for publication in the online and print editions.

ABOUT THE 2002 LEARNING CONFERENCE