Die Wiederentdeckung der LangsamkeitIt is a great pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the LFUI as the vicerector for research to this conference dealing with the subject of Media, Knowledge and Education. It is always extremely exciting to observe the emergence of a new field in science, in this special case a new field due to the interaction between science, technology and our modern communication society. I am impressed by the contents of this first conference and in particular by the fact that Exploring new Spaces, Relations and Dynamics in Digital Media Ecologies are at the center of the conference subjects. So, I would like to thank especially those who initiated and brought this important conference in the field of media to Innsbruck. Clearly, we have to thank Prof. Theo Hug, Associate Professor and member of the successful Faculty and Institute of Education. Moreover, Prof. Theo Hug was initiating and is now coordinating the new research network platform "Innsbruck Media Studies (IMS)". During the past three years our university has started a reform process according to the Universities Act 2002. In the frame of this process we discussed at our university whether to organize our research profile around research centers dedicated to special topics. Our aim was to approve only centers which would fulfil certain rather stringent qualifying criteria. Among the applications and proposals I received, there was an application entitled "Innsbruck Media Studies" putting a wide range of media related work in research and also in teaching under an umbrella of interdisciplinary media research. Due to the high quality of this application, since the beginning of this year, the activities of the Innsbruck Media Studies group are part of the officially accepted research centers, approved by the senate and our board of trustees. This center of excellence has the aim to enlarge competences in the field of new media at all levels of the University, including our research and teaching activities. Recently, some of these activities have been presented in the frame of a successful LFUI Media-day workshop, demonstrating the plethora of e-based research and teaching activities. I guess, thanks to all of these activities today's conference is taking place here in Innsbruck and I take it also as a sign of recognition of the successful work of the media studies community in Innsbruck.Looking at the topics of the conference, I support the notion about an increasing importance of media research. Looking at the widespread claims of societal developments in terms of knowledge-based society I must agree that the university has certainly to pioneer in this field. The role of the university in society is changing, the role of media is obviously getting more important in particular questions concerning educational systems. On the one hand, we have fast technological developments, but at the same time we have to consider cultural and societal issues, if we want socially acceptable and economically successful developments. So, finally, let ...