Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning

Will you be at the Online Educa Berlin Conference? On the second and third of December we will be presenting our radio programme, Sounds of the Bazaar, LIVE from the conference. The programmes will go out from 11am to 11.40 CET. As ever Dirk Stieglitz will be producing with able help from Klaus Rummler. Graham Attwell, Jenny Hughes, Eileen Luebcke and Judith Seipold will be presenting the programmes. Would you like to come on the programme to talk about your work and projects? Or just to chat about your feelings about the conference or that ate of the world and learning?

If so we would be very grateful if you could send a short email to graham10 [at] mac [dot] com

Look forward to seeing you in Berlin.

Organising conferences is hard work and takes a serious amount of time. So the number of events we can be actively associated with is limited. But we are delighted to be associated with this conference and would ask you to circulate the call for proposals in your networks.

‘Mobile learning: Crossing boundaries in convergent environments’ Conference

Monday to Tuesday, March 21st to 22nd, 2011
In Bremen, Germany

The conference is hosted by the University of Bremen, run by the Department for Media Education and Design of Multimodal Learning Environments and by the Institute Technology and Education (ITB) in association with the London Mobile Learning Group (LMLG), Pontydysgu and MirandaNet.

The ‘Mobile learning: Crossing boundaries in convergent environments’ Conference builds on a series of mobile learning research symposia hosted by the WLE Centre for Excellence at the Institute of Education, University of London between 2007 and 2009. It will focus on the challenges of developing new pedagogic approaches and on the potential of mobile devices for learning in formal and informal contexts. As mobile learning is not only about learning with mobile technologies, but also considered to be “new” learning, the conference will look at challenges for research and practice in understanding the changing social and technological structures allowing the use of technology for learning that are present in our personal lives, in school and in work places. Thus mobile learning crosses the boundary of institutional learning and looks at practical fields like work-based learning and medicine, too. Also, the conference will look at the latest developments in hardware and software which can support personalised learning. By focusing on theory and practice, development and use, teaching and learning, formal and informal contexts, the conference intends to offer spaces for researchers, practitioners, developers, the industry and policy makers to exchange ideas, experiences and research around issues and approaches to mobile learning, including sociological and educational issues and their effectiveness and desirability as learning spaces as well as the design of environments.

The conference is preceded by the EduCamp, a BarCamp for people interested in media and learning, which will take place in Bremen from March 19-20, 2011. In collaboration with MirandaNet, the conference is running a MirandaMod on March 21-22, 2011 which addresses teachers and practitioners who are interested in teaching and learning with new technologies.

The call for papers and further information is available at the conference website: http://bremen.londonmobilelearning.net.

Important dates:

• October 31, 2010: submission opens
• November 2010: registration opens
• December 5, 2010: submission closes
• March 6, 2011: registration closes
• March 21-22, 2011: conference

We are looking forward to seeing you in Bremen,

The Organising Committee

Klaus Rummler (London Mobile Learning Group (LMLG); University of Bremen)

Judith Seipold (LMLG; Bremen)

Prof. Karsten Wolf (University of Bremen)

Dr. Norbert Pachler (LMLG; Institute of Education, University of London)

Dr. Eileen Lübcke (University of Bremen, Institute Technology and Education (ITB))

Graham Attwell (LMLG; Pontydysgu)

A very quick post on an issue I have been thinking about recently.

Over the last two years or so we have been working with a number of organisations on what has become known as amplifying events. This involves using multi media and social software to link up conferences, seminars and other events with the outside world, for instance through setting up twitter and Flickr streams and through live streaming keynote sessions.

This has proved relatively effective at projecting events outwards to a wider community, and however rudimentary at allowing those unable to attend face to face to follow ideas and debates.

Where we have proved less successful is getting the outside world into the conference, seminar or workshop. A projection of the twitter stream is a good start but is limited as we all know and some conferences such as Alt-C still see such a stream as disruptive. More disturbing, is the low level of audio contributions in events held on  online platforms such as Elluminate. As an aside, participation seems better in the less sophisticated Flash Meeting. I wonder if the permissions hierarchies in Elluminate and the rigmarole of putting your hand up to speak is a pedagogic inhibition to full participation.

What I am thinking about now is how we can better blend face to face and online participation in events. Some events have been holding pre or post conference online sessions. Although these work well ahead of events, they seldom seem to happen post event. I wonder if it is possible to start designing learning activities so online events feed into the face to face session and the face to face activities naturally generate further participation online. Of course that requires rethinking how we manage and design face to face events. But one of the big successes of a range of recent seminars and conference  I have attended is a rethinking of formats. Most popular is the introduction of learning cafes, in all their variants. OK this is becoming a little formulaic but it is a big advance on the tired rehearsals of reading of conference papers accompanied by endless text based  and bullet pointed Powerpoint presentations.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is persuading conference organisers and presenters that the form of the event is a pedagogic issue. And the extension to using technology both provides new accordances and opportunities and at the same time some restrictions in pedagogies which could be deployed.

Please find below the Call for Papers for the ‘Mobile learning: Crossing boundaries in convergent environments’ Conference, to take place over Monday to Tuesday, March 21st to 22nd, 2011 in Bremen, Germany:

The conference is hosted by the University of Bremen, run by the Department for Media Education and Design of Multimodal Learning Environments and by the Institute Technology and Education (ITB) in association with the London Mobile Learning Group (LMLG), Pontydysgu and MirandaNet.

The ‘Mobile learning: Crossing boundaries in convergent environments’ Conference builds on a series of mobile learning research symposia hosted by the WLE Centre for Excellence at the Institute of Education, University of London between 2007 and 2009. It will focus on the challenges of developing new pedagogic approaches and on the potential of mobile devices for learning in formal and informal contexts. As mobile learning is not only about learning with mobile technologies, but also considered to be “new” learning, the conference will look at challenges for research and practice in understanding the changing social and technological structures allowing the use of technology for learning that are present in our personal lives, in school and in work places. Thus mobile learning crosses the boundary of institutional learning and looks at practical fields like work-based learning and medicine, too. Also, the conference will look at the latest developments in hardware and software which can support personalised learning. By focusing on theory and practice, development and use, teaching and learning, formal and informal contexts, the conference intends to offer spaces for researchers, practitioners, developers, the industry and policy makers to exchange ideas, experiences and research around issues and approaches to mobile learning, including sociological and educational issues and their effectiveness and desirability as learning spaces as well as the design of environments.

The conference is preceded by the EduCamp, a BarCamp for people interested in media and learning, which will take place in Bremen from March 19-20, 2011. In collaboration with MirandaNet, the conference is running a MirandaMod on March 21-22, 2011 which addresses teachers and practitioners who are interested in teaching and learning with new technologies.

The call for papers and further information is available at the conference website: http://bremen.londonmobilelearning.net.

Important dates:
* October 31, 2010: submission opens
* November N.N., 2010: registration opens
* December 5, 2010: submission closes
* March 6, 2011: registration closes
* March 21-22, 2011: conference

We are looking forward to seeing you in Bremen.

The Organising Committee
Klaus Rummler (LMLG; University of Bremen, FB12, Department for Media Education and Design of Multimodal Learning Environments)
Judith Seipold (LMLG; Bremen)
Prof. Karsten Wolf (University of Bremen, FB12, Department for Media Education and Design of Multimodal Learning Environments)
Dr. Norbert Pachler (LMLG; Institute of Education, University of London)
Dr. Eileen Lübcke (University of Bremen, Institute Technology and Education (ITB))
Graham Attwell (LMLG; University of Bremen, Institute Technology and Education (ITB))

text via Klaus Rummler, photo via conference Web site