Dear all,
I am delighted to invite you to the Seventh Durham Blackboard Users'
Conference in Durham (UK), to be held at the end of this year. Please
accept my apologies if you get this more than once!
This is a long-standing User conference run by and for the user community,
which predates and compliments the formal Blackboard events. Full details
of the conference and registration tools are available on the "Conference"
tab of our server:
https://duo.dur.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_152_1
The theme for 2006 is "the Power of 2" and the programme will be a mix of
keynote speakers, panel discussions, talks with Blackboard and themed
strands. One of the "powers of 2" we want to consider is "Web 2.0". What
impact will it have on learning environments? Are there opportunities for
them to become more learner-focused, more customisable and more
collaborative? How could technologies such as tagging and clouds be used to
promote learning? What impact will initiatives such as the creative
commons, and collective intelligence (e.g. wikis) have on our approaches?
Are the opportunities technical or pedagogical? Are Ajax and Flash the
answer to Blackboard's interface or just something that your Granny may
have used to clean her sink?
Another "two" is (are) the user communities - after the merger of
Blackboard and WebCT, what can we learn from each other? Yet another is HE
and FE - we want applications from both communities. There are many
other "two"s - see the website for more details...
This year we are leaving the "delights" of the Elvet Riverside site and
holding the conference at the University's Business School. Returning
delegates should find the facilities much improved. It will run over two
days, with registration (and coffee) available from 9.00 am on Thursday the
14th and lunches on-site. There is a conference dinner in one of Durham's
historic colleges on Thursday night.
For those hoping to plan travel early, the programme will commence
officially at the more civilised hour of 10.00 am on Thursday. The second
day's formal proceedings should draw to a close around 4.30 pm on Friday
the 15th.
Accomodation is available in Durham's Colleges or in one of the nearby
hotels. The full conference fee is £125.00 for both days (including lunches
and the dinner). Full details are available from the registration module on
our server.
We will consider anything, but particularly encourage submissions related
to the "power of two":
* reflection
* collaboration
* extension (e.g. building blocks)
* personalisation
We will have an interactive voting system available for speakers to use if
they want, so bear this in mind in your planning! Paper/workshop/discussion
proposals can be sent electronically - each will be peer reviewed. The
deadline for submission of proposals (title and abstract) is Friday the
10th of November. Accepted papers will receive a discounted delegate rate.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us via this
email address: [log in to unmask]
I hope to see you there :-)
Cheers,
Malcolm.
--
Dr Malcolm Murray
Learning Technologies Team Leader
IT Service
Durham University
