Conference (Re)Call


Reports

 

Collaborate Discussion List

Coordinating Ring member Nick Bowskill is an active member of the Computer Based Collaborative Group Work Project in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Sheffield (UK).  The CBCGW initiated the Collaborate discussion list in December 1998, and it has gone from strength to strength in fostering networked collaborative learning among colleagues within the university and in wider online and distance education spheres.  In its own words,

Our main aim in setting up the list is to provide a place for discussion of issues around networked collaborative learning in small groups.  We would like to share your ideas and concerns, and to continue the many conversations begun at the Launch Event.  We are aware that there is already a great deal of interest and expertise within the University.  We also understand the need for professional development activities to support colleagues as they work to create high quality learning and teaching in this medium.  This list will be a starting point and a forum for discussion of these needs and sharing of this expertise.All contributions to the list in the general areas outlined above will be welcomed.  We are aware that colleagues are very busy, and in recognition of this we will use project resources to facilitate discussions in order to support the aims of the list.  We have also undertaken to develop and make available other resources to support.
Here's just a small sample of the discusison threads which are still open on the listserve.  They illustrate the highly practical focus of teh site across a wide variety of topics:

A particularly interesting feature of the listserve is the series of structured "conversations" around a specific topic nicknamed "Fishbowl.".  The following very recent example of a Fishbowl about getting students online shows how the concept is expected to work:

AIM
The aim is to model a fishbowl strategy using an email discussion list.
The topic forms material for trying the activity together as an experiment.

GROUND RULES
During the first week you are requested to 'listen' to the discussion and NOT to send any messages to the list.
The fishbowl is conceived as a conversation so please keep messages as short as possible. Messages should ideally be 2 paragraphs at most.
Reference to external materials risks disruption to the conversation so they are to be avoided if possible.

TIMETABLE
Duration of Fishbowl: 3 weeks
Start Date: Tuesday 1st Feb. 2000
Finish Date: Friday 18th Feb. 2000
Collaborative Evaluation of the Strategy: Mon. 21st Feb to Fri. 25th Feb.

Week 1:    Tuesday 1st Feb. to Friday 4th Feb.
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The 4 members of the project team will discuss the topic for one week. This discussion will all be held on the Collaborate email discussion list.  After this first week, a message will be sent to declare the list open for your comments and thoughts. Please note that comments should be on the topic rather than the strategy.

Weeks 2-3     Monday 7th Feb. to Friday 18th Feb.
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For these 2 weeks you are all welcome to join in and send messages to the list on the topic and the discussion so far.

Evaluation Week:   Mon. 21st Feb to Fri. 25th Feb.
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Following the Fishbowl activity there will be an opportunity to review and discuss the effectiveness of the fishbowl strategy as a collaborative experiment. This will also be a chance to explore implications for transfer into your practice.

To subscribe to the list send an e-mail message, consisting of a single line command, in the following form: subscribe collaborate <YourFirstName> <YourLastName> to the Collaborate link.  To unsubscribe send an e-mail message, consisting of a single line command, in the following form: unsubscribe collaborate

If you have any difficulties with subscribing to the list or with any other list-related matters please send an e-mail message to the following address:
collaborate-request@sheffield.ac.uk

While you're looking at the Collaborate forum, it's well worth the extra time to explore the rest of the Computer Based Collaborative Group Work Project site.  And the Centre for the Study of Networked Learning.

 

 

Distance Learning 2000

Seeing recent accouncements that the 16th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2-4, 2000, prompted a look back to the available online archives for 1998 and 1999.  This Conference is offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin-Extension.  Estimated cost for the 2000 event is a reasonable $295, covering program materials, proceedings, box lunches, breaks, and receptions.  Workshops entail an additional cost of $25 each.  According to the current Website:

The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning is recognized internationally for the quality and integrity of its program.  Each year the conference provides a forum for the exchange of information on distance education and training.  The conference addresses the needs of educators, trainers, managers and designers from throughout the world who are involved in the application of technology to the teaching and learning process and in the planning, administration and management of distance education programs.  ...

More than 1000 participants attended last year's conference, and 95 percent said they would recommend attending this conference to others.  Conference participants are experienced professionals in distance education as well as newcomers.  They represent a variety of distance education directors, managers, developers, and instructors in higher education, business, government, and the military.

The conference emphasizes:

These promises are borne out by the highlights of the previous two years' events.  The 1998 Conference focused on critical success factors, offering more than 150 speakers in 110 different sessions, including 22 "How to" workshops, 10 pre-Conference "Cracker Barrel"** sessions, and 80 concurrent sessions in 10 "tracks":

** A Cracker Barrel is an ice breaker activity to connect people with each other, discuss and share ideas, and provide new information or perspectives.   It has become an annual conference tradition to sponsor an informal evening of roundtable discussions to foster networking among people arriving for the Conference.   The Cracker Barrel in 2000 will be based on approximately 15 discussion tables. Attendees change tables every half-hour, so facilitators are expected to be knowledgeable on a topic that is narrow enough to discuss meaningfully in such a short time.

In addition - apart from keynote addresses and spotlight presentations by leading experts, the Conference included:

The 1999 Conference followed a similar but extended pattern, with a slight difference in the selection of tracks - Course Design rather than Instructional Design, and Advanced Roundtable Discussions instead of Internet Conferencing Tools and Applications.

Previous Conferences have pursued similarly useful, practice-related focal topics - eg Designing for Active Learning; Teaching Strategies for Distance Learning; Designing Learner Centered Systems; Designing for Learner Access; Helping Learners Learn at a Distance; Evaluation of Teaching/Learning at a Distance.  Proceedings for all the events from 1985 onwards are available by mail at costs (within the USA) ranging from $5 for the earliest volumes to $25 for the most recent, plus shipping charges.

The 2000 Conference features keynotes and more than 125 workshops, roundtables, and information sessions that examine critical success factors in
using technology, including:

A booklet with all sessions and registration information will be available in May 2000, and an electronic version of the brochure will then be accessible at the Conference Website.

 

CanLearn Interactive

CanLearn Interactive is a bilingual information resource and online community for Canadian learning and career development.  The site won the Internet World Canada 2000 Impact Award for "Changing the Way People Learn."  This is the fourth year that the Impact Awards have recognized Canadian organizations that use "innovation, imagination and determination" in creating and developing websites that change the way people "work, learn, buy, play, live and communicate."

The citation for CanLearn Interactive's award is for the "Web site that optimizes the Internet's total absence of limitations and boundaries for learning."  Here's how the  Impact Awards Website describes Canlearn:

Canlearn.ca (Human Resources Development Canada) is Canada's one-stop resource for the information and interactive planning tools people need to explore learning and education opportunities, research occupations, develop learning strategies, and create the financial plans to achieve their personal and career goals.  Contact: Stephen B. Walker - tel: 819-997-3333 or cell: 613-292-8052, email: swalker@canlearn.ca.
CanLearn Interactive  went live on the Internet on October 29th, 1999, offering itself as:
Canada's only Internet-based, one-stop resource to help people make informed decisions about learning and to figure out how to pay for it.  To make sure that everyone has the information and tools they need, we have been working for over a year to build not only this web-resource, but to construct a solid base for collaboration among the range of learning organizations and providers in this country.

The CanLearn Bulletin is your free inside track to learning in Canada. This monthly newsletter will connect you to  high-quality interactive planning tools so that you can explore opportunities, and develop learning strategies and develop financial plans to achieve your personal and career goals.   Your subscription to the CanLearn Bulletin will help you to gain everything needed to plan and pay for your education.

An unusual, but highly useful, aspect of the site (in Canada, at least!) is its attention to the practical details of affordability and value for money.  These are matters that seem all too often to be neglected in promotions of online self-education or training opportunities.  How often have you waded through pages of promising descriptions of courses, conferences, newsletters, discussion forums etc only to find - at the tail end of the sign-on-the-dotted-line subscription page - that access to all that lovely information will cost you and arm and a leg?

 Specifically justifying its inclusion in the Conference (Re)Call section of WEB, CanLearn Interactive is FREE, and incorporates the CanLearn Cafe, which provides Chat Rooms and Discussion Groups, as well as an online magazine and "cool resources."  It is obviously still early days for the enterprise, however, since nothing much seems to be happening right now at the person input and discussion venues.  Perhaps some North American members of WAOE would like to kickstart a thread or two?

 

 

Coming Events

With the exception of the low-cost TCC Online Conference 2000, wwe've been unable to locate any conference, seminar, workshop or other event to tell members about which meets the principal criteria that it is:

So, we've just pulled out some of the promotional material for, and provided direct links to, some f2f events which are taking place over the next few months, in the hope that some members are already going, or will be interested in doing so when they see the following notices.  Of course, if any member do attend these or any other f2f events, we'd love you to send a summary and reflections about it to the WEB Editor, for inclusion in the Reports section of Conference (Re)Call.

It seems that we desperately need members' input to Mary Ellen's current survey.  Even more, we need members to maintain a continuing look-out for online and free or low-cost events in their own countries or globally that they can not only advise colleagues about but - better still - attend and report for everybody's information and benefit.

 

 

TCC Online Conference 2000

Don't forget to look at the program for the  5th Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference.  Sponsored by the University of Hawaii-Kapiolani Community College and Teaching in the Community Colleges Electronic Journal, this is a major event in the WAOE calendar.  Members of the Coordinating Ring and other long-standing participants in the Association have fond memories of the seminal discussions which were sparked by Steve McCarty's keynote address to the 1998 TCC Conference, and the intensive debates about structure and organisation and sustainability and so on and so on that followed ... and are still going on!

The 2000 event will be held between April 12 and 14, 2000.  The Conference theme is:  "A Virtual Odyssey: What's Ahead for New Technologies in Learning?"  Registration is now available.  If you hurry, the registration fee is a low $US45, but it increases to $US55 (still fairly low) from March 16.  The organisers offer a $US10 discount for people who attended the TCCC in 1998 or 1999.

For information other than registration, contact the conference coordinators, Jim Shimabukuro jamess@hawaii.edu or Bert Kimura bert@hawaii.edu.

 

 

The New England Regional Computing Program

The NERCOMP program in historic Sturbridge, Massachusetts, features presentations, discussions, and workshops centered on the challenges facing information technology practitioners on campus.

How are new technologies changing the way our institutionsâ missions are delivered and how, in turn, are the new technologies and new customer expectations changing IT organizationsâ strategies for organizing the campus infrastructure and our information services and resources?

This conference brings together a national audience to meet in one of New Englandâs most charming locations to discuss topics such as IT architectures, systems, and applications and their impact on student learning, instruction, and the delivery of campus services.

Networks are making it possible for institutions to redefine their geographic boundaries and, therefore, their mission and markets.  Supporting the growing cadre of sophisticated users of campus information technology and resources is  placing strain on traditional IT organizations.  The emergence of new technologies and the rethinking of traditional campus roles and services are reshaping the face of our IT organizations and profession.  Join fellow IT managers, staff, librarians, administrators, faculty, and colleagues from higher education this spring.

On Tuesday, March 21, 2000, the University of Massachusetts Instructional Technology Conference 2000 will be held concurrently (with this conference).  ITC2000 will feature more than 100 UMass faculty, staff and students demonstrating uses of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Both UMass and NERCOMP sessions are open to all attendees.

Please see the Program page for the current NERCOMP/ITC 2000 conference agenda.
Now that the February 25 watershed has passed, attendance fees are as follows:

 

EUNIS 2000 Congress

EUNIS is the European University Information Systems Organisation.  Its membership is open, through national associations, to those responsible for the management and development of information systems in higher education in Europe.  The EUNIS 2000 Congress, "Towards Virtual Universities," will be held in Poznan, Poland, on April 13-14, 2000.  Poznan is the capital city of the Wielkopolska Region of Poland.

The Congress follows the ISThmus 2000 Conference which is beingheld between April 11-13, 2000. The EUNIS/ISThmus Exhibition joins the conferences together by presenting fields and activities they have in common.

Both conferences and exhibition are organised by the Institute of Computing Science - Poznan University of Technology and Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre during the International Fair of Electronics, Telecommunications and Computer Engineering - INFOSYSTEM 2000.

Previous EUNIS events have been held in Helsinki, Finland (1999); Prague, Czech Republic (1998); Grenoble, France (1997); Manchaster, United Kingdom (1996); and Düsseldorf, Germany (1995).

As at February 28 2000, registration fees are as follows:


**The current exchange rate of the dollar is $1 = 4.2 PLN.  The current exchange rate of mark is 1DM = 2.25 PLN.


About Conference (Re)Call
The Conference (Re)Call column aims mainly to provide feedback from members on the new knowledge or other value they gained from attending a recent conference or other event to do with one aspect or another of online education. It also includes a Coming Events section, advertising relevant conferences, seminars, workshops or other forums which members will be able to attend at little or no cost. This section will concentrate mainly on online events, because that is WAOEâs special interest, and because the idea is to promote opportunities which are more or less equally available to WAOE members no matter what part of the world they live in.

The success of Conference (Re)Call therefore depends very heavily on input from members. WAOE officers are already out there reporting on events theyâve attended and spotting others to come. Weâd like to see all other members doing likewise. You will see from the items in this issue that reports donât need to be lengthy or detailed, let alone polished. We think the segment will work best on the simple premise that whatever any one member found worthwhile in attending an online education event, or attractive about an event in the offing is likely to benefit and interest other members. So, letâs keep those reports and notices coming in to the WEB Editor.

Reports: Collaborate Discussion List ~ Distance Learning 2000 ~ CanLearn Interactive | Coming Events: TCC Online Conference 2000 ~ The New England Regional Computing Program ~ EUNIS 2000 Congress | About This Section | Top