Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit ~ July 11-13 ~ Las Vegas

Call for Proposals:

Join us in Las Vegas, NV for some show-stopping news in a show-stopping location as we unveil our next-generation collaboration solution.

The Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit 2011, our first combined user conference, will be July 11-13, 2011 at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino and Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, NV! Enjoy the warm desert air while learning from and networking with Blackboard Collaborate customers from around the world. In addition to the numerous Elluminate and Wimba customer-led sessions, hands-on workshops, executive-focused events, keynotes, and annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Connections Summit 2011 will feature the unveiling of the division’s next generation collaboration solution.

96% of attendees at Wimba Connect 2010 said the conference furthered their understanding of how collaboration technology can be used to deliver effective instruction, help, and meetings, and we’re confident that Elluminate customers will derive the same value from the Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit 2011 as well.


Among other benefits, learn how Blackboard Collaborate helps schools:

- Increase retention rates

- Increase student engagement

- Improve student outcomes

- Save time and money

Presentations by:

- Maurice Heiblum, President, Blackboard Collaborate

- Valerie Schreiner, Senior Director of Product Management & Annie Chechitelli, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Blackboard Collaborate

- More than 70 Elluminate and Wimba customers, from CTO’s and Provosts to Instructional Designers and Faculty

Special Issue on Technology Enhanced Information Retrieval for Online Learning

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Online learning has been developed for over decades and has become an important tool for education. Many tutors design web-based teaching materials and share them in the learning management systems. Learners develop knowledge from those materials, tutor supports, and the collaborations with other learners in distance in the online learning environment and platforms. While information technology changes rapidly and the variety of online learning activities increase, especially with the aid of social network and Web 2.0 tools that are available to instruction designers, we may need to consider how to provide learners personalized pedagogical service which can help them learn more efficiently. In order to have such personalized service, both course contents and learner's characteristics need to be well analyzed. How to retrieve useful information from learning materials, data stored in the learning management systems, and discussions and interactions among learners and how to design and use information retrieval technologies to improve learner's online learning performance become interesting and important topics. The purpose of this special issue is to explore how models, theories, and solutions of information retrieval and content analysis can be used in online learning and what benefits users can receive from such systems and agents.

April 30, 2012: Submission deadline
July 15, 2012: Review result notification
August 31, 2012: Revised manuscript submission deadline
September 30, 2012: Acceptance notification
October 31, 2012: Final camera-ready manuscript submission deadline

Please submit your article to the IRRODL site at http://www.irrodl,org, after registering as an author and hopefully also offering to be a reviewer by clicking the reviewer category in the enrollment form and noting your area of research expertise.

Digital Inclusion and Learning - Call for Papers

Digital Inclusion and Learning - Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Research in Learning Technology

This is the November 2011 call for papers for a Special Issue of Research in Learning Technology, the Journal of the Association for Learning Technology (Volume 20, Number 4).

From January 2012 Research in Learning Technology will be published by Co-Action Publishing as an Open Access journal. Read the media release regarding the journal's transition to Open Access.

Guest Editors

Jane Seale, Professor of Education, Plymouth University, UK

William Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK

Deadlines

Abstracts can be submitted to Jane Seale for informal feedback until 1 March 2012.

Papers should be submitted via the online submission system by 1 May 2012. The new online submission system will open in January 2012 and further information is available here.

The Special Issue will be published in autumn 2012.

Call Summary

Digital inequities relating to socioeconomic status, income, level of education, ethnicity, gender, age, connectivity and geography are still affecting levels of access to technology for all kinds of people. Digital inclusion research therefore has a role to play in providing explanations and solutions to these inequities. This call for papers on digital inclusion and learning aims to sharpen our focus on what is known and unknown about digital inclusion in the context of learning, learners and education. Our conceptualisation of digital inclusion encompasses a wide range of technologies, learners and learning contexts.

We are seeking articles that can inform digital inclusion practice, policy or research. A variety of papers will be considered, including empirical, review and discussion papers. Of particular interest are papers that offer conceptual, methodological and analytical rigour. We welcome papers that are multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary in nature. No particular method or theory will be privileged in this special issue, but we do expect all accepted papers to critically engage with the complexity of the concept of digital inclusion. In particular, we welcome papers that seek to challenge common assumptions or widely accepted positions in the field of digital inclusion.

The submission of abstracts for informal feedback is encouraged. They can be sent directly to Jane Seale until 1 March 2012.

Full papers must be submitted according to the journal's Instructions for Authors.

Papers should be submitted via the online submission system by 1 May 2012.

USDLA 2012 Annual Conference ~ St. Louis ~ April 29-May 2, 2012

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Submission Deadline: December 16, 2011

We welcome proposals from all corporate, education (higher and K-12), healthcare, government and military organizations on distance education topics related to:

Excellence, Leadership and Best Practices

Emerging Strategies, Technologies, Techniques and Research

Global Delivery and Mobile Learning

Meeting the Needs of Today’s Learners and Faculty

Course and Program Development

Distance Learning Ethics and Copyright

Administrative Issues and Concerns

There is also a continued opportunity this year to present your session in our virtual classroom setting, which means your session will be viewed by face-to-face attendees as well as those attendees joining us virtually.

There are several ways to participate:

• Concurrent information sessions provide an opportunity for you to give an interactive presentation in one or more of the conference topic areas. Conference attendees expect sessions to provide practical advice and the sharing of experiences. The committee seeks high quality, thought-provoking and interactive sessions, not lecture format. Co-presenters are encouraged. (45 minutes)

• Poster sessions allow presenters to prepare a standing table-top poster that describes a project, process, research or other activity. This will be an opportunity to meet and network with a majority of conference attendees and USDLA Award Winners as these sessions are held during the Award Dinner Reception. The poster presenters will be grouped by topic to provide an even more in-depth discussion and comparison of the various issues. (60 minutes)

• *NEW. Panels of “like topics” are a new option and allow attendees to hear about a topic from several points of view. The program committee may select your proposal to be featured in a panel along with other presenters. (90 minutes)

• *NEW. Collaborative Sessions will be highlighted throughout the conference and feature an expert leader on a particular topic. If you would like to lead a collaborative session, please select the collaborative session option in your proposal. You will be directed to a form to: (1) identify a hot or controversial topic for discussion; (2) note your credentials as an expert in this subject; (3) state how you would engage the participants in the discussion, and (4) note your willingness to turn the discussion into a short white paper for publication by USDLA.

(90 minutes)

Annual Distance Teaching and Learning Conference Aug 8-10~Madison, WI

2012 Call for Proposals is now open!

Submit online by: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 4 pm (CST)

We invite you to submit your proposal(s) to present at the 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, hosted in Madison, Wisconsin next August.

Lead sessions on the planning and management of distance education/training programs.

Share your research and expertise.

Network with other professionals in your field.

Distill essential knowledge/skills.

Demonstrate your successful course and/or training materials to others.

Guide interactive discussions with your colleagues.

Learn more about the presentation formats by selecting from the session types on the left menu.

Frequently asked questions

• How do I submit a proposal?

All proposals must be submitted online. Go to the "Create/edit Proposal" button on the left menu to create a login account.

• How many proposals may I submit?

You may submit multiple proposals. If you are accepted for more than one proposal, you are eligible foronly one discounted registration.

EdMedia - Call for Presentations: June 26 - June 29, 2012 - Denver, CO, USA

EdMedia--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an international conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Call for Presentations : December 12, 2011

This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

EdMedia, the premiere international conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and annually attracts more than 1,500 leaders in the field from over 70 countries. For a list, see: Countries @ EdMedia.

We invite you to attend EdMedia and submit proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, tutorials, workshops, posters/demonstrations, corporate showcases/demos, and SIG discussions. The Conference Review Policy requires that each proposal will be peer-reviewed by for inclusion in the conference program, proceedings book, and online proceedings available on EdITLib - Education and Information Technology Digital Library.

TOPICS

The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following major topics as they relate to the educational and developmental aspects of multimedia/hypermedia and telecommunications. Sub-topics listed here.

1. Infrastructure
2. Tools & Content-Oriented Applications
3. New Roles of the Instructor & Learner
4. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI/CHI)
5. Cases & Projects
6. Universal Web Accessibility
7. Indigenous Peoples & Technology

PRESENTATION CATEGORIES

The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information.

• Keynote Speakers
• Invited Panels/Speakers
• Papers
• Panels
• Student Panels
• Posters/Demonstrations
• Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations
• Workshops
• Roundtables
• Symposia
• Virtual Papers

The 9th Annual SLATE Conference ~ October 13-14, 2011 in Chicago, IL.

The 9th Annual SLATE Conference will be held on October 13-14, 2011 in Chicago, IL. This conference has become a premier event in the Midwest and has attracted participants from around the world in higher-ed, K-12, government, and the corporate sector. Realizing that everyone has the same challenges and issues (no matter the platform) this conference reaches out to institutions and individuals that are using and supporting technology and web-based teaching tools tools such as Blackboard’s family of products (WebCT, Angel), along with Moodle or other open source systems. Here is your opportunity to share your experiences and expertise with friends and colleagues and learn from each other.

Call for Papers
We invite submissions for presentations, panel discussions, or working group activities (now through July 15, 2011) which can cover a broad range of topics that relate to best practices, innovative, engaging, and pedagogically sound uses of technology in teaching and learning, etc. The conference theme of “build it better,” hopes to ask the next question, explore new possibilities, and develop sound models that can be implemented in online, distance education, and classroom instruction.

Some of the topics presented in past conferences included:

• Using Podcasting to Meet the Needs of Millennial Students
• Platform-Independent Course Design
• Teaching Writing Using Blogs and Wikis
• Student GPA and Course Delivery Methods
• Using Technology Tools to Ensure Faculty Success
• Online Assessment Strategies
• Using Your CMS as a Retention Tool