5 Calls for #papers or #proposals on #elearning and #mLearning mix of corporate and #academic

When calls for papers enter my mailbox, I organize them and ... I decided to share them on a regular basis (lets say once a month), hoping to meet up with this wonderful eLearning network that roams the globe.

Learning Solutions conference and expo (big conference)

When:  March 21-23, 2012
Where: Orlando, Florida

Deadline for submissions: 14 October 2011

Read the submission instructions and submit your proposal today.

Call for Research proposals on ICT4D from SIRCA II

When and where: A Grant for 18 months, you need to live in the country for which you put in a proposal.

Deadline for interest registration: October 14, 2011
Deadline for proposal submission: November 1, 2011

More information: www.sirca.org.sg

Proposals for research projects on Information Societies and Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) carried out in the Global South will be accepted.

Pre-application Registration
Applicants must register by October 14, 2011 via email at sirca2@ntu.ed.sg prior to submitting a proposal application.
The email subject header should read “SIRCA II Registration”, and the body should include the following details:
• Full Name of Principal Investigator
• (Tentative) Research Title (this can be changed at the time of fi lling in online application form)
• Country of Research

The 3rd International Conference on Education, Training and Informatics: ICETI 2012
More information(www.2012iiisconferences.org/iceti)

Where: Orlando, Florida, USA

When: 25 - 28 March 2012

Deadline for submissions: 26th October 2011.

 Submissions for *Face-to-Face* or for *Virtual* Participation are both accepted. Both kinds of submissions will have the same reviewing process and the accepted papers will be included in the same proceedings.

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MOBILE LEARNING 2012

Where: Berlin, Germany, 

When: 11 to 13 March 2012

Deadline for submissions: 28 October 2011

Focus: mLearning, more info: (http://www.mlearning-conf.org/) 

eLearning Africa 2012

Where: Benin at Le Palais des Congrès de Cotonou
When: May 23rd to 25th 2012
Deadline for submissions: 9 December 2011
The focus of eLA 2012 will be on education, development and sustainability. For more information on the specific themes, please click here. Details about the Call for Papers 2012, such as information on submission requirements and deadlines, session formats, as well as the proposal forms can be accessed here.

#Apple's Siri as part of our #education and #future

Apple's personal iPhone assistant Siri got me thinking about the future again and how the concept of 'future' becomes more and more speedy in getting here to our contemporary times. With ongoing amazement I have been following time changing technologies like the 3D printers (replicating materials), the food replicators, nano-technology and so on. The upcoming societal changes are so phenomenal! As I see my son growing up, at times I am jealous of what he will see, how he will be able to live in a society we cannot even begin to imagine in its full potential.

Coming back to Siri: this is an amazing real life adoption of artificial intelligence. Although many people were disappointed when Apple’s new iPhone was so limited in its innovations, the Siri application got me completely enthusiastic. The application has had a long history before it got to the stage it is in, look at this interview with Norman Winarsky, the co-founder of Siri.

Siri has all the potential of an incredible mobile learning and researching tool! It is also a spin-off of a US Government Artificial Intelligence program called the “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes” or CALO program (started in 2003). Why do I feel it is a major cognitive actor for educational/research change? Just imagine an interface into which you can enter – by voice – the objectives or data fields you have in mind and which reproduces the results. Learning becomes even more contextualized, you enter your questions and get answers. Or for research any hypothesis that comes to mind might be tested to get a rough idea on whether your hypothesis is worth research time and investment. It is such a great human machine interaction. It is as if the imaginary friend from our childhood days has come to live. The voice does not discuss, it only offers assistance and answers to the questions we pose it. I admit that currently Siri is not yet able to do far reaching answers to complex questions, but it is easy to see how this personal assistant – or at least its algorithms – can grow towards a more complex human machine interaction tool. But let’s say Siri would grow up to be such a complex giver of answers – a modern day oracle let’s say, based on our joint data that is mined from the cloud. In that case I do wonder how our brains would adapt? Are straight forward answers beneficiary for cognitive growth or do our brains need frustration to learn and really embed high-end knowledge construction?

The future is such a nice space in time to think about. Some of us are of course better at envisioning the future. As such I see Siri as yet another link to Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry. Who is - in my mind - one of the most underestimated visionaries of the 20th century. To me, he is on the same line as Leanardo Da Vinci (he draw a helicopter, a glider...) and Jules Verne (submarine, new worlds...). Roddenberry saw the future at a time contemporary technology was only at its infancy (well… that is a sentence one can repeat every couple of decennia I guess), Siri is ‘computer’, the terminal that can be asked for information and adjustment in any Star Trek ship. Always there, always knowledgeable of straight forward facts… Siri makes it so tempting to buy the new iPhone. What an algorithm, sigh…

Choosing a free on- and offline #reference software: Zotero

As my thesis is becoming a reality, I felt a need to reevaluate the online reference tools that are currently available and choose one I would use for the next couple of months (at least).

After having a closer look at Mendeley, Zotero and Endnote, I decided that Zotero would be the tool for me. But I must admit it was a close shave with Mendeley. Why?

• There is an online and offline option (the offline one is called standalone);
• When searching in scholar google, Zotero got the most details out of the references (this was why I choose Zotero over Mendeley, the funny thing is scholar must have the option 'import into endnote' to import into Zotero :-);
• Zotero offers different publication styles for its references, and the one I need (APA 6) is amongst these options;
• Zotero allows pdf's metadate to be screened for its details and import it into Zotero itself (see here);
• You can build shared repositories for your research team or colleague group;
• It allows notes to be added: enabling me to put my quotations into the notes section, thus I only need to filter these notes to find relevant quotes;
• Zotero allows grouping of references;
• It allows tags to be added to the papers;
• Stored tags, notes and references can be searched;
• Free up to 100 MB (which is not much), if you want more storage space you need to purchase it on a monthly basis (which might add up to quite an amount, so be careful to see when switching to another reference tool might be necessary. But same is true for Mendeley and Endnote is a commercial software);
• You can add multimedia files as well as text files;
  
• And last but not least: I would think a mobile option will be built, but in the mean time the Zotero community is posting trials with android tablets.

So... off to add more references to the Zotero library....

On #Higher #Education and Society in Changing Times and searching for the reason why educational research centres are under siege

As the economic crisis is hitting a lot of countries, the strategies to counter this crisis are quite diverse. Certain countries opt to increase education and research (e.g. Germany) and cut budgets in other areas, other countries are slicing down education/research (e.g. United Kingdom). Personally, I cannot imagine how any politician that understands the growing knowledge era can vote in favor of research/educational cuts. But then I am a firm believer that education will add to human solutions (which is not the same as that education will save us all, but .... most of us will be able to improve our own path through life). In times of need, I think you must run ahead, move forward and explore to find new horizons. In that respect I like the American adagio of looking for the new frontier.

How strange is it to read on the one hand that education is changing rapidly and is in need for a new balance, while on the other hand educational research centres are - just in these times - shut down?

The UK has been a knowledge bastion for centuries (just like other regions in the world), but recently some major Technology Enhanced Learning centers were closed, without alternatives being set up. Last year Becta was closed, this year CHERI, or the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information is closed.

Before closing down, CHERI has published a final document that is of interest to Higher Education: "Higher Education and Society in Changing Times: looking back and looking forward."

It is an interesting document, looking at different aspects of Higher Ed:

• Higher education and social change: researching the ‘end times’ (John Brennan)
• Looking back, looking forward: the changing structure of UK higher education, 1980-2012. (Roger Brown)
• Globalisation and higher education.(Roger King)
• Learning and engagement dimensions of higher education in knowledge society discourses. (Mala Singh and Brenda Little)
• Supporting students in a time of change (Ruth Williams)
• Higher education in the ‘risk society’ (Sofia Branco Sousa)
• Implementing the Bologna Process: an example of policy recontextualisation – the case of Spain. (Marina Elias)
• The public role of higher education and student participation in higher education governance. ( Manja Klemenčič)

If a nation or region is in crisis, looking at succesful strategies to climb out of recessions, difficult situations, natural disasters... is a worthwhile investment. Cutting educational research downsizes chances for the weakest of any regions citizens, and a nation or region can only be as strong as its weakest members, or is this just some idealistic illusion speaking from within my heart?

#html5 #authoring tools and how you can code it yourself

Html5 is the new magical solution for cross-device publications. It is all the rave for mobile developers and newbies. The amazing thing about html5 however, is that it is not really breathtakingly new. In fact, like Brian Fling (expert in mobile design, so connect to his media to stay updated) mentioned on his blogpost on html5 anatomy: "if you know HTML, then chances are you’ll understand what’s new in HTML5 in under an hour."

Teach yourself html5
For those of you with html5 expertise, simply take the free, online html5 course offered by W3C.
But to make really beautiful html5 accessible webpages, you need to digg into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as well as they will allow you to produce an eye-catching look and feel. This is also at anyone's fingertips thanks to the W3C tutorial on CSS.

Now you have the basic coding, you have a nice look and feel, this combination will already allow you to publish neat html5 pages. But for those wanting to run the extra mile, the only thing that remains is to add more interactivity and for this you can use JavaScript. Take a look at these 6 free JavaScript books and tutorials from the read and write blog.

Why is html suddenly back as the best webpage coding language?
Let's be honest html is an easy coding language, as such it was put into a corner a bit, pressed away by php, asp, and other more complex coding languages. So I wondered, why did it become cool again to use html?
I feel that with the rise of html5 we see a rise in specialization in instructional design. This makes room for instructional designers that are in fact no longer building designs from scratch, but who use templates and designer tools to put any content in a beautiful and accessible jacket.

And ... of course html5 enables designers to come up with cross device designs, even allowing a variety of mobile phones to access material in a pleasing way (well, it is not that standardized yet, but we are getting there).

For those wanting to test there html5 coding
If you do delve into the html5 code and you have come up with some pages, make sure to test drive them through the free W3C markup validation tool. You have two validation tools, one is for html in general: html validation markup.
And one focuses on mobile html (great tool!), which will allow you to feel confident with the coding you are providing (and that it fits specific browser needs): Mobile Validation.

Looking for an easier option? Use html5 authoring tools
Simply take a look at these html5 designer tools:

Rapid Intake Mobile Studio (I really recommend this one, sooo easy!) and it allows publication to both Flash and html5, so really useful and it has scorm compliant quizzes (for the LMS lovers amongst us): http://www.rapidintake.com/products/mobile/mobile-learning-studio/

And an interesting tool from Adobe Labs, Edge (to download it you will need to make an Adobe account if you don't have one yet): there is an Edge 2 preview you can download http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/

For those using Mac, there is a nice app, the Tumult Hype app: http://tumultco.com/hype/

IBM has also launched a html5 authoring tool project, called Maqetta, but to look at this tool you need to upgrade (if needed) your browser to Firefox 4, Chrome 5 or Safari 5. This tool has to be installed on your server. Get more information here: http://maqetta.org

Learning happens by sharing #knowledge, #DevLearn is an inspiring #eLearning conferences

Last year I had the pleasure of attending DevLearn and this conference is surely worth a visit. Not only because of this years location (Las Vegas!), but most of all because you will get the opportunity to get in touch with eLearning professionals that know how to inspire and it will elevate your eLearning expertise in just 3 days.

The early registration is still open for a day, so check out this wonderful set of concurrent sessions and keynote speakers in order to decide whether you want to attend or not.

When and where? November 2 - 4 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

There are a lot of strong concurrent sessions (on iPad use, reaching hard to get learners, mLearning, knowledge, statistics for analysing eLearning...).

Keynote speakers
Keynote speakers should inspire and challenge you. DevLearn|11's keynotes include:

Dr. Michio Kaku
Professor, Theoretical Physics, CUNY
Host of Science Channel’s Sci Fi Science
Author, Physics of the Future

Tom Koulopoulos
Author, The Innovation Zone, and Living in the Cloud

Steve Rosenbaum
Author, Curation Nation

Register by Friday, September 16th, in order to save $100 or more with our early registration discount. Experience all the excitement, learning, and inspiration that is DevLearn for less. But hurry, there are fewer than 10 business days left to take advantage of this discount.

Add your knowledge to the #mLearning toolkit from #JISC

JISC, the UK agency for leadership in digital technology and learning (and also the host of the IAmLearn mail list) launched a new guide: Emerging Practice in a Digital Age: A guide to technology-enhanced institutional innovation.

To augment this guide, JISC infoNet are developing a Mobile Learning infoKit with version 0.1 of this resource now available at http://bit.ly/mobilelearninginfokit.

The Mobile Learning infoKit is a practical guide for educational institutions planning to implement mobile learning initiatives. At launch, it comprises a wiki-based resource collating information and guidance from JISC and others sources. It will develop to include a section on future trends, incorporate additional examples, and be made available in a variety of formats.

If you have any questions or feedback about the Mobile Learning infoKit, please get in touch with Doug Belshaw at doug.belshaw (at) northumbria.ac.uk

CIDER free online session on project based learning for postgraduate distance education

For those interested in pedagogical principles in clinical education: get behind your computer tomorrow!

Iain Doherty will discuss the pedagogical principles underlying a taught postgraduate distance course, ClinED 711 eLearning and Clinical Education. The aim of ClinED 711 is to teach clinical educators the necessary knowledge and skills to convert their own courses for flexible and distance delivery. ClinED 711 was designed to offer a personalized and authentic learning experience and Iain’s presentation will focus on how these aims were progressively realized through refining and improving the course design for ClinED 711. Whilst ClinED 711 is a specialized postgraduate course, the principles for the design and delivery of the course should be of interest to a wide audience.

When: Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 11am-12pm Mountain Time (Canada) *Local times for the CIDER sessions are provided on the CIDER website.

Where: The CIDER sessions have moved to Adobe Connect! To join this session go to: https://connect.athabascau.ca/cider/

Pre-Configuration:
Please note that it is extremely important that you get your system set up prior to the start of the event. Make sure your Mac or PC is equipped with a microphone and speakers, so that you can use the audio functionality built into the web conferencing software. Also, the Adobe Connect platform may require an update to your Adobe Flash Player. Allow time for this update by joining the session 20 minutes prior to the scheduled presentation start time.

Running race between open learning and formal higher education

As the discussion on the future of higher education keeps on going, it is interesting to see how the presidents of colleges look upon these changes, particularly when looking at how top management looks at the pro's and con's of online learning.

The Pew Research Center just published a 29-page document on the digital revolution and higher education, where they look at the difference in valuating online learning between presidents of both for-profit, private and public colleges/universities and the public at l. The document is a result of a survey conducted in spring 2011. One is a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other is an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities. The report is quite interesting, as it clearly shows the difference of appreciation of online learning.

While going through the report I could not but wonder why online learning still is not embraced by the larger public. This resistance seems to me to have parallels in the adoption of technology. Just look back at the discussions that started when the television started to enter the mainstream shops, or when the CD's started to rise in interest, let alone the first personal computers... But on the upside, one can see that an increasing number of college/university presidents is embracing online learning and is increasingly offering online learning at their institute.

But what did surprise me was that although mobile devices are all around us, and we use it in many cases for contextualized, informal learning, most of the educational institutes don't yet have a clear guideline for these new learning devices. Which immediately suggests to me that the content resources will probably also not be designed taken into consideration mobile learning affordances. Or web-based affordances at that. For although courses are mentioned in the report, the quality of these online courses, and whether these courses are designed following online contemporary needs (peer interaction, scaffolding, designed for reconfiguration depending on the device which accesses the content...) is unclear.

Nice report though.

Here is a summary of the key findings (taken from the report):

The Value of Online Learning. The public and college presidents differ over the educational value of online courses. Only 29% of the public says online courses offer an equal value compared with courses taken in a classroom. Half (51%) of the college presidents surveyed say online courses provide the same value.

The Prevalence of Online Courses. More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions now offer online courses. These courses are more prevalent in some sectors of higher education than in others. While 89% of four-year public colleges and universities offer online classes, just 60% of four-year private schools offer them.

Online Students. Roughly one-in-four college graduates (23%) report that they have taken a class online. However, the share doubles to 46% among those who have graduated in the past ten years. Among all adults who have taken a class online, 39% say the format’s educational value is equal to that of a course taken in a classroom.

The Future of Online Learning. College presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, and 50% predict that 10 years from now most of their students will take classes online.

Digital Textbooks.Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (62%) anticipate that 10 years from now, more than half of the textbooks used by their undergraduate students will be entirely digital.

The Internet and Plagiarism. Most college presidents (55%) say that plagiarism in students’ papers has increased over the past 10 years. Among those who have seen an increase in plagiarism, 89% say computers and the internet have played a major role.

Do Laptops and Smartphones Belong in the Classroom? More than half of recent college graduates (57%) say when they were in college they used a laptop, smartphone or tablet computer in class at least sometime. Most colleges and universities do not have institutional guidelines in place for the use of these devices in class. Some 41% of college presidents say students are allowed to use laptops or other portable devices during class; at 56% of colleges and universities it is up to the individual instructors. Only 2% of presidents say the use of these devices is prohibited.

College Presidents and Technology. The leaders of the nation’s colleges and universities are a tech-savvy group. Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) use a smartphone daily, 83% use a desktop computer and 65% use a laptop. And they are ahead of the curve on some of the newer digital technologies: Fully half (49%) use a tablet computer such as an iPad at least occasionally, and 42% use an e-reader such as a Kindle or Nook.

College Presidents and Social Networking. Roughly one-third of college presidents (32%) report that they use Facebook weekly or more often; 18% say they use Twitter at least occasionally.