Association for Learning Technology
Fortnightly news digest 192, issued 11 December 2009
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Table of Contents
1.Association news
2.Association events
3.News
4.Other events – some with close deadlines
5.The most recent issue of the ALT Journal – links to individual
articles
1. Association news
1.1 ALT will shortly be issuing a brief for the development of the ALT
website. We will be looking to commission a supplier with relevant
experience who can work closely with Oxford based staff, and who can
provide work of high quality that is good value for money. To recommend
suppliers or to indicate an interest in being sent the brief complete
the form at http://tinyurl.com/ycshj5g by no later than 12 noon on
Wednesday 16/12/2009. Existing suppliers need not respond.
1.2 ALT-C 2010: 'Into something rich and strange' - making sense of the
sea-change, 7 - 9 September 2010, Nottingham, UK
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/
The Calls and Guidelines for the 2010 ALT Conference are now available:
* Call and Guidelines for Proceedings Papers
http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/ALTC2010_proceedings_papers.pdf [9 page 54
kB PDF file];
* Proceedings Paper Template
http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/ALTC2010_proceedings_paper_template.doc [4
page 56 kB DOC file];
* Call and Guidelines for Short Papers, Posters, Symposia, Workshops and
Demonstrations http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/ALTC2010_abstracts.pdf [10 page
59 kB PDF file].
The submission system will open mid-December and close on 15 February 2010.
For further information go to http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/
1.3 Call for papers for a Special Issue of the ALT Journal - The
Transformational Impact of Learning Technology. Guest edited by John
Bourne (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Franklin
W. Olin College of Engineering, Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship
at Babson College, and Executive Director of the Sloan Consortium, USA),
Martin Hall (Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford, UK); Mike
Keppell (Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Flexible
Learning Institute, at Charles Sturt University, Australia). The call is
at http://www.alt.ac.uk/callforpapers_altj_tilt.html. The closing date
for submissions is 31/1/2010. Please draw the call to the attention of
colleagues whom you think may be interested in writing for the Journal.
1.4 ALT Research Strategy 2009. We have published a revised and much
shortened version of the ALT Research Strategy:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/ALT_2009_Research_Strategy.html Meanwhile ALT has
responded in detail to the UK Funding Councils’ consultation on the
Research Excellence Framework. The response is in the ALT Open Access
Repository at http://repository.alt.ac.uk/683/
1.5 New white paper from ALT sponsoring member - BTL Group Ltd (with
partners AlphaPlus Consultancy Ltd) – “Speed & Accuracy in Skills
Assessment”. This white paper explores the benefits and techniques of
computerised skills assessment. It particularly looks into the enhanced
formative assessment opportunities derived from computerised approaches.
Go to http://www.btl.com/pdfs/btl_skillsassessment_whitepaper_web.pdf
1.6 Subscribing to ALT-ANNOUNCE - Staff of organisational and sponsoring
members, alongside individual members of ALT, are entitled to subscribe
to ALT-ANNOUNCE, the Jiscmail list we use to distribute this fortnightly
Digest, the quarterly ALT News, and infrequent brief announcements about
ALT. Please encourage relevant colleagues to subscribe. Please encourage
relevant colleagues to subscribe from the simple form at
http://www.alt.ac.uk/lists.html. In the case of staff of organisational
and sponsoring members, provided the staff member joining has an email
address consistent with the domain name of an organisational or
sponsoring member of ALT, we will approve the subscription.
2. Association events
2.1 Rewiring Inclusion: Strategies, Tools and Techniques to promote
barrier-free learning organised jointly by ALT and JISC TechDis, 9
February 2010, National College, Nottingham. Visit
http://www.alt.ac.uk/conferences.php *Programme to be announced
imminently – contributors will include colleagues from Google, Yahoo!,
universities and colleges, and there will be an extensive and varied
workshop programme*. To register your interest for the event, and to be
kept informed about arrangements, please join the relevant low-volume
email announcements list at http://www.alt.ac.uk/lists.html
2.2 Mobile Enabling Technologies: one day workshop, 26 March 2010,
University of Bradford, Dr Christine Dearnley, Stuart Walker, John
Fairhall, Jak Radice. This one day workshop will present the outcomes of
two studies undertaken at the University of Bradford. The first study
focused on establishing what advantages mobile devices can offer
disabled students, as well as identifying the challenges that they face
when using mobile technologies. The second study then built on these
findings to explore the relationship between the desirability of mobile
devices and the student’s engagement with mobile learning and
assessment. The research methods in both studies proved to be innovative
and the team involved will share their experiences at the workshop. £100
ALT members, £155 non ALT members. Go to
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=348
2.3 Workshop announcements – dates in early 2010 to be confirmed in the
next Digest
2.3.1 Podcasting in Learning and Teaching. A one day workshop at
Sheffield Hallam University led by Graham McElearney of Sheffield
University and Andrew Middleton of Sheffield Hallam University. The
recent explosion in the popularity of podcasting provides exciting new
possibilities for the development and delivery of learning resources.
As well as placing a renewed focus on the use of audio as a medium for
learning and teaching, it offers great flexibility in how learning
resources can be created and used by staff and students alike, offering
new opportunities for independent study and creativity within the
curriculum. This timely workshop will provide an overview of podcasting
and related technologies, will examine how the technologies can be used
in a range of learning and teaching contexts, and provide hands on
training in the production of podcasts, using the freely available
Audacity software.
2.3.2 Twitter in HE, one day workshop led by Matt Lingard of LSE and
Tony McNeil of Kingston University. More information to follow.
3. News
3.1 The latest HEFCE news headlines are at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/
3.2 The latest JISC news headlines are at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news.aspx
3.3 Task force to “help extend the position of UK as world leader in
online learning”. An task force has been set up by the Government to
make recommendations for the development of excellence in online
learning. The task force will meet between autumn 2009 and 2010,
providing an interim report in April or May, and a final report around
October 2010. Go to http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/taskforce.htm
3.4 JISC Collections has commissioned a team of consultants to undertake
a study on how e-books might best be provided to the FE sector.
Collections wishes to understand more about your current situation in
textbook provision and the potential for providing textbooks online,
including how these may be paid for and incorporated into existing
systems, e.g. VLEs etc. Go to http://tinyurl.com/yf32td5
4.Other events
4.1 AntiSocial. The 10th Annual Durham Blackboard Users' Conference. 5 -
6 January 2010, Durham University, UK
Go to http://www.dur.ac.uk/lt.team/blog/?page_id=405
You can follow the conference preparations on Twitter via the tag
#durbbu10 and on Twubs (!) at http://twubs.com/durbbu10
4.2 Where Next for Digital Identity? 7 January 2010, British Library,
London, go to http://www.eduserv.org.uk/events/wn4di
4.3 UCISA 2010 Annual Management Conference, 3 - 5 March 2010, Harrogate
International Centre, North Yorkshire, UK
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/events/2010/conference2010.aspx
5. Current Issue of the ALT Journal – links to individual articles The
latest issue of the ALT Journal, Volume 17 Issue 2, can be accessed
online from the links below. (If your organisation is a member of ALT,
or if it has an online subscription to the Journal, *and* if its network
is appropriately configured, then you should be able to click straight
through to the individual articles. Note that all organisational and
sponsoring members of ALT are entitled to online access to ALT-J for all
their employees when logged into the network. If you cannot access the
Journal online, this is something we may be able to help you fix).
Table of contents http://preview.tinyurl.com/n6b75z Editorial – “The
agency of students, teachers and learning technologists” by Frances Bell.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903037109
http://preview.tinyurl.com/np3b8w
Article – “Students make a plan: understanding student agency in
constraining conditions” by Laura Czerniewicz, Kevin Williams and Cheryl
Brown.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903033058
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nu4kur
Article – “Using community development theory to improve student
engagement in online discussion: a case study” by Elisabeth Skinner.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760902951599
http://preview.tinyurl.com/m7yl8b
Article – “Discontent with content analysis of online transcripts” by
Judith Guevarra Enriquez.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903033066
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lp48ln
Article – “The role of learning technologists in supporting e-research”
by Susi Peacock, Ann Robertson, Sarah Williams and Maria Giatsi Clausen.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903033041
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lduw6w
Article – “Guidelines for supporting re-use of existing digital learning
materials and methods in higher education” by Judith Schoonenboom, Henk
Sligte and Eja Kliphuis.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903033074
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nvarqh
Article – “Beyond podcasting: creative approaches to designing
educational audio” by Andrew Middleton.
DOI:10.1080/09687760903033082
http://preview.tinyurl.com/noqlzm
Miscellany - Reviewers for volumes 15, 16 and 17.1, by Frances Bell and
Rhona Sharpe.
DOI: 10.1080/09687760903069433
http://preview.tinyurl.com/n6997g
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This is the final digest of 2009. The digest returns on 8 January 2010.
All news, jobs, events, etc, to [log in to unmask] by Tuesday 5 January.
Please see below for important submission formatting details. This issue
was compiled by Melanie Fox and very lightly edited by Seb Schmoller.
With season's greetings to all our readers.
Seb Schmoller
Chief Executive
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Disclaimer: Whilst every care is taken to provide accurate information
in compiling this digest, ALT cannot vouch for the accuracy of
information provided on other web sites to which the digest links, and
opinions expressed on those sites should not be construed to be those of
ALT.
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