Just to remind you that the deadline for submitting a paper to ALT-C is fast approaching.  As some projects or teams will have more to report in September 2008 than they can summarise in an abstract written in February 2008. To take account of this, the Co-Chairs of the Conference Committee emphasise that: "in judging proposals, ALT Reviewers will take an understanding attitude regarding proposals referring to or reporting on work taking place between now and the date of the conference".

Details of the conference is as follows: 

ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the digital divide
9-11 September 2008, Leeds, UK
Second call for papers and abstracts - deadline, 29 February 2008

Keynote speakers:
* David Cavallo, Chief Learning Architect for One Laptop per Child, and Head of the Future of Learning Research Group at MIT Media Lab;
* Dr Itiel Dror, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Southampton;
* Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and Director of the Gapminder Foundation.

Proposals should address up to three of the conference dimensions:
global or local; institutional or individual; pedagogy or technology; access or exclusion; open or proprietary; private or public; for the learner or by the learner.

For more detail on these, see:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/papers.html

The online submission system for ALT-C 2008 is now open at:
https://alt.conference-services.net/.

Prior to submitting please read the Guidelines for Research Papers and for Abstracts - http://www.alt.ac.uk/guidelines_papers.html - and download the Research Paper Template if you intend to to submit a research paper.

Key dates:
Submissions open 14 December 2007
Submissions close 29 February 2008
Presenters' registration deadline: 6 June 2008
Early bird registration deadline: 30 June 2008
Registrations close: 15 August 2008

For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities got to:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/sponsor_information.html
or contact Hayley Willis, ALT Events Administrator:
hayley.willis@alt.ac.uk

Please note a call for papers for the ALT Journal (ALT-J) which may be of interest:

LEARNING AND TEACHING IN IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL WORLDS
A special issue of ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology

Immersive virtual worlds (IVWs), such as Second Life, Active Worlds, Croquet and Forterra and massive multi-player games (MMPGs), such as EverQuest and  World of Warcraft represent a paradigm shift in learning technology, and an important challenge to the world of education. The aim of this special issue of ALT-J is to develop and publish a timely collection of papers representing current research, developments and ideas in educational applications of IVWs and MMPGs. Of particular interest are papers that go beyond descriptions of objects and activities to build links between practice and pedagogy, and offer conceptual, methodological and analytical rigour.

Full details of how to submit can be found at: http://www.alt.ac.uk/callforpapers_altj_ivw.html.

For queries and guidance relating to the call please contact:
Robert Ward r.d.ward@hud.ac.uk
or
Maggi Savin-Baden m.savinbaden@coventry.ac.uk

Important dates:
- Until 22 February 2008: Submission of abstracts and formal/informal response from Special Issue Editors.
- Submission of full papers: 31st March 2008.

Research and Dissemination Manager 
The Emerge project team is recruiting a "Research and Dissemination Manager". Reporting to the Project Director, and working closely with all project team members and the wider community of practice we need someone to take an active, hands-on role in encouraging contributions from all community members at all levels, and stimulating activity and networking within the community. 

For full details please see: 
http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/george/weblog/1059.html 

https://edm.brookes.ac.uk/hr/hr/vacancies.do?id=4902462 
or http://tinyurl.com/22ukgf 

The closing date is the 1st February 2008.

Thank you 
Marion

Whether you have already booked to attend the Project Launch event next week or you are still thinking of booking, here are three key pieces of information:

1.  Book now for the York event:

The closing date for booking your place to attend the EMERGE Project Phase II - start up meeting in York is this Thursday (17th January 2008).  If you would like to attend and have yet to book, please do so as soon as possible
via: http://www.alt.ac.uk/events.php;

2.  Pre-Conference activities for the York event:

For those of you wishing to attend this conference, we have a series of pre-conference activities that we would be grateful if you could complete before your attendance at the event.  This will help you get the most out of the two days and as they say ' 'hit the ground running'.

Pre-conference activity one:

Set up an Emerge platform account, and enrol on the conference Moodle space.

Make sure you have an Emerge account! If you already have one, why not spruce it up a little for the conference? It's a great way to let everyone know who you are, where they can find you, and of course pretty essential to your project support.

You can find activity sheets to help you set up your profile, use profiles, create communities and more here:
http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/news/files/8

The Emerge Moodle is here:  http://jiscemerge.org.uk/vle/

Pre-conference activity two:

Create a Second Life account/avatar.

Even if you don't plan on working in Second Life in the near future, many of our projects do and there may be some scope for you to use the Emerge Second Life space. The conference can support you in finding out what Second Life
looks and feels like, and make exploring inworld a bit more fun and a little less daunting. In order to get the most out of the opportunities to explore you'll need to have:

Full details of how to access second life are available on the EMERGE Moodle site at:

http://vle.jiscemerge.org.uk/course/view.php?id=8

A summary is as follows:

- First of all go to the Second Life website (http://secondlife.com) and check the system requirements (http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php).
- Then join Second Life by creating a user account (https://secure-web1.secondlife.com/join/ ).

Pre-conference activity three:

Make sure your team members are familiar with the Jisc Project Management InfoKit.

It's a funding requirement that all of the projects are represented at the Project Management sessions that are running on day one - UIDM and successful JISC project management. This session builds upon a working
knowledge of the JISC Project methodology outlined in the Project Management InfoKit, available from:
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/InfoKits/project-management/index_html.  Project teams will also find JISC's Project Management Guidelines a useful resource:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/proj_manguide.aspx

Pre-conference activity four:

Project will need to bring along a hard copy poster for display at the benefits realization workshop and showcase session. The poster should provide an introduction to your project. We want you to approach this creatively, but you could for example cover the technologies your work addresses/uses/focuses on, your current team and network/s, and your project audience/users.

Delegates are also requested to bring along their own wifi enabled laptop as we are working on having wireless access available for all during the event.  We would also appreciate if you can bring a ethernet connection
cable in case you will need to connect to a hard wired connection.

3.  Joining Instructions for the event:

Joining instructions for the event and a complete programme will be sent out via email on Friday, 18th January 2008 that is once bookings have been closed.

Any questions, please do get in touch with me on email address marion.samler@alt.ac.uk.

Marion
EMERGE Project Manager

Here are the details of the EMERGE Project Phase II start-up meeting arranged for the 24th and 25th January 2008 at the Royal York Hotel in York.  To book a place please visit:  http://www.alt.ac.uk/events.php

The event objectives are:

To welcome new projects to the programme and the EMERGE Community;

To allow projects members to understand how the programme will be evaluated;

To ensure that projects are aware of what JISC expects of them;

To ensure that projects are aware of what they can expect from the JISC Programme Team and the Emerge Support Project;

To induct projects into JISC and Emerge methodologies of working;

To demonstrate ways from non project community members pathways for participation;

To enable participants to develop their networks across projects and the community and benefit from each others areas of interests and expertise.

'One Laptop per Adult'
Each person attending this event is asked to bring a laptop to enable full participation in all activities.

Outline Programme
Day 1 - Thursday, 24 January 2008

10:45 – 12:45 Personal e-administration projects meeting

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 13:45 Welcome and introduction to the event

13:45 – 14:15 Programme and Project Expectations

14:15 – 15:45 Session One: UIDM and successful JISC project management
The session will start in plenary, but split into breakout groups covering:

Project Management;

UIDM stage 1 from a product development perspective;

UIDM stage 1 from a practice-change perspective;

UIDM stage 2 and beyond.
The session concludes with a briefing on the UIDM Challenge event (further information to follow)

15:45 – 16:15 Coffee

16.15 - 17.45 Session Two: Parallel workshops (each session will run twice)

P1: IPR Issues;

P2: e-framework;

P3: Learning from existing projects;

P4: Second Life Support.

17:45 – 18:00 Benefits Realisation Workshop

18:00 – 19:30 Networking/relax in the beautiful surroundings

19:30 - 20:00 Drinks in the bar

20:00 onwards Dinner and activities

Day 2 - Friday, 25 January 2008

09:00 – 09:15 Welcome and introduction to Day 2

09:15 – 10:15 Benefits realisation showcase & community mapping

10:15 – 10:45 Coffee

10:45 – 11:15 Plenary: Evaluation

11:15 - 11:45 Session 2: Parallel Workshops

P1: Stories from Emerge teams;

P2: UIDM Evaluation;

P3: Second Life Session;

P4: Developing groups using the Emerge platform

11:45 – 12:15 Session 3: Parallel Workshops - repeated

12:30 – 13:00 Plenary

13:00 Lunch and Depart

Representatives from Projects will be asked to undertake Pre and post conference activities. Further information will be sent to all by email at the beginning of January together with a fuller programme for the two days with details of those leading workshops and presenting over the two days.

If you would like to attend, please book your place via the following url:  http://www.alt.ac.uk/events.php

Hope to see you there.

Marion

EMERGE Project Manager

ALT is advertising a post, the following information may be of interest : http://www.alt.ac.uk/director_of_development.html, or you may know of people who would be interested, in which case please highlight the job to them.

The closing date is 9 January 2008.

Marion Samler, ALT Director of Operations (Designate) and EMERGE Project Manager

 It is not too late to book to attend the Future of EMERGE event which is happening at the Lakeside Centre as Aston University in Birmingham next Tuesday.  For more information, see Rhona's and Lawrie's blog at:

 http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/rjsharpe/weblog/872.html

http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/lawrie/weblog/883.html

 Bookings can still be taken at:

 http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=268

Hope to see you there.

 Marion

Don't forget to book your place on our 'Dragons Den' event on Friday, 7th September 2007.  Here are the details I posted a while back: 

Project Development – Pitch your project in a ‘Dragon’s Den’

To support the development of projects, on Friday, 7th September 2007 (after ALT-C), at the National College of School Leadership in Nottingham the Emerge project will host a one day event for U&I community of practice project development teams to come together for a project development day. The morning will be given to project development round-tables where you can work up the key points of your bid. In the afternoon you will pitch your bid to a set of project "dragons", who will critique your plans and provide further guidance on how to respond to the call. This event has been compared to the famous BBC’s Dragon Den TV programme.  If you are interested in attending, book your place now at:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=267

Kind regards

Marion

I would like to tell you about a new event we are organising for the Emerge Community.  The theme of this event is the 'Future of the EMERGE Community: Purpose and Practice'.  This has been arranged for Tuesday, 9th October 2007 at the Lakeside Conference Centre at Aston University in Birmingham. 

The main purpose of this event is to take the opportunity to review the future of Emerge. Attendees will be asked to take time to review the hopes and aspirations for how the community should continue. Following our collective appreciative inquiry approach to community development, this event will encourage community members to 'dream' a vision for the future of Emerge.

This one-day event will be facilited by Glynis Cousin, senior adviser at the Higher Education Academy. Glynis's background is in educational research and evaluation methods, particularly appreciative inquiry.

We expect each team, cluster or community in Emerge to send at least one person to this event to help shape the future for their community.

Please book your place using the following link: 

 http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=268

The booking deadline for this event is Monday, 1st October 2007.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Marion

All of you may have seen by now last Friday’s blog from Lawrie Phipps (http://elgg.jiscemerge.org.uk/lawrie/weblog/742.html), announcing that the call has been released (this is available from:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2007/07/circular0207 ).

As the EMERGE support team, we are offering a range of activities for
those who are working towards submitting a bid in response to this call.
These are:

1.    An online support environment for those working towards a bid proposal

As it is August and people's schedules will make it difficult to hold either a traditional or on-line "Town Meeting" we are providing a Moodle site to give you the opportunity to contact members of the EMERGE support team and JISC Programme Manager, seek advice, have your questions answered, and also see the questions others are asking surrounding the whole subject of writing the bid.  This will also be an opportunity for you to listen to an interview we are making with Lawrie Phipps, during which we will be asking him lots of questions surrounding the bid, mainly the kinds of questions you may not otherwise have had the opportunity to ask. Details of all of the above can be found at our Moodle page on the platform.  See the beginnings of this here at:
http://jiscemerge.org.uk/vle/course/view.php?id=7. (you need to be signed in to access this)

This site will be open to all the community. Keep in touch with the Moodle page for the latest information and timings.

2.    Project Development – Pitch your project in a ‘Dragon’s Den’

To support the development of projects, on Friday, 7th September 2007 (after ALT-C), at the National College of School Leadership in Nottingham the Emerge project will host a one day event for U&I community of practice project development teams to come together for a project development day. The morning will be given to project development round-tables where you can work up the key points of your bid. In the afternoon you will pitch your bid to a set of project "dragons", who will critique your plans and provide further guidance on how to respond to the call. This event has been compared to the famous BBC’s Dragon Den TV programme.  If you are interested in attending, book your place now at:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=267

3.    Project Launch event

This event is transitional and celebratory, marking the start of the new projects following the results bidding round and the continuation of the U&I community: those with projects and those still in a developmental phase.  This event is planned for London (venue to be confirmed) and will run from lunch time on day 1 , through dinner in the evening and a ‘hive’ of activity the following day. Although the exact date is to be confirmed, this is planned for late January 2008.  As soon as we have the details I will let you know.

Hope to see you all at the events outlined above.

Kind regards

Marion Samler
Emerge Project Manager
Writing on behalf of the EMERGE project team.