The learning environment is an (if not ‘the’) important outcome of a learning process, not just a stage to perform a ‘learning play’. In our article  in elearningpapers.eu (also July’s portal highlight at elearningeuropa) we propose a new model how to support learning with technology in the 21st century.

Therefore, we first elaborate key concepts and assumptions on personalised learning environments and summarise the critique on the contemporary models for personalised adaptive learning. Subsequently, we propose a new alternative: the concept of mash-up personal learning environments (MUPPLE). How does it work? See for yourself here and look at the prototypical implementation plus a – we think – comprehensible example.

The iCamp project was highly represented at this year’s ED-MEDIA conference, which tool place last week in Vienna, Austria.

Partner representatives presented overall 5 paper contributions to the conference. The topics that we addressed in our talks ranged from the more conceptual approaches towards Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and self-direction in social spaces to the technological challenges of distributed tools landscapes and some constructive criticism on learning design approaches (e.g. IMS).

All iCamp contributions to the conference can be found in the proceedings of ED-MEDIA.

Upon request we are extending the deadline for submissions
of the workshop on mash-up personal learning environments
(mupple ‘08) taking place at this year’s EC-TEL.

The extended deadline will be July 14, 2008.

The iCamp team says to “Good bye” to the participants of Trial 3. It was really a great pleasure to have such a strong team of facilitators and students to work with us in this educational experiment.

The grades are here and summer holidays are approaching. So we wish you all some nice and relaxing summer time!

The ED-MEDIA 2008 conference is taking place in Vienna this year. One of the workshops not to be missed is called “How Social is my Personal Learning Environment (PLE)?”

A lot of people working in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning are currently talking about PLEs. But is there a common agreement amongst the experts of what the concept of Personal Learning Environment stands for?

As a joint initiative of the two projects iCamp and Palette we are happy to have a group of international experts together to discuss for approx. 3 hours the recent developments in this area and to have a special focus on the implications that the tendency towards personal environments might have on group collaboration and communities.

We are looking forward to an exciting workshop!

Mash-ups, the ‘frankensteining’ of software artefacts and data, have enabled a new generation of learning tools. Web-applications, services, and data can now be endlessly recombined, no matter where they reside. Really? How? Why? Within this workshop at this years’ European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2008), researchers, developers, and an interested public are brought together to share findings and define the future of mash-up personal learning environments.

Click here to learn more about the call for papers (submission deadline: July 1st, 2008). The workshop will take place on September 17, 2008.

We have just developed a Firefox plugin for our ObjectSpot search engine, allowing users to quickly search ObjectSpot right from their browser at any time. This is the latest of many additions to our search engine portlet, which is now sporting both RSS-export support, as well as the COinS microformat which should be of special help to Zotero users wishing to enjoy the service.

The search plugin is installable by clicking the button below:

this is a call for participation:
Submission by June 29, 2008
Workshop on Social Information Retrieval for Technology-Enhanced Learning (SIRTEL’08)
in
the 3rd European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL08)
Maastricht, The Netherlands, September 17, 2008
http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/sirtel/
***************************************************************************************

IMPORTANT DATES

· Submission: June 29, 2008
· Results Notification: July 15, 2008
· Camera Ready Submission: August 31, 2008
· Workshop date: September 17, 2008
· Main conference dates: September 18-19, 2008

CALL FOR WORKSHOP CONTRIBUTIONS

After the successful first SIRTEL workshop last year, we are delighted to welcome
exciting new contributions for the 2nd Social Information Retrieval for Technology-
Enhanced Learning (SIRTEL) workshop:
· Research papers
· System demos
· Hands-on proposals
· “Pecha Kucha” talks

RATIONALE

Learning and teaching resources are available on the Web – both in terms of digital learning
content and people resources (e.g. other learners, experts, tutors). They can be used to
facilitate teaching and learning tasks. The remaining challenge is to develop, deploy and
evaluate Social Information Retrieval (SIR) methods, techniques and systems that provide
learners and teachers with guidance in a potentially overwhelming variety of choices.

The aim of the SIRTEL’08 workshop is to look onward beyond recent achievements to discuss
specific topics, emerging research issues, new trends and endeavors in SIR for Technology
Enhanced Learning (TEL). The workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners to
present, and more importantly,to discuss the current status of research in SIR and TEL and
its implications for science and teaching.

TOPICS OF INTEREST (but not limited to):

Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and Social Information Retrieval (SIR) techniques such as:
· Recommender systems
· Social collaborative searching, browsing and sharing of queries
· Social network analysis
· Game-theoretic approaches to select learning materials and learning partners in the long tail
· Social bookmarking and tagging, folksonomies
· Annotations, ratings and evaluations

Concepts for Social Information Retrieval (SIR)
· Defining the scope, purpose and objects of social information retrieval in TEL
· Defining user requirements for the deployment of SIR systems in a learning setting
· Current and new trends in SIR methods for TEL
· Approaches to TEL metadata that reflect social ties and collaborative experiences
in the field of education
· Analytical modelling of strategic intentions in TEL communities
· Interoperability of SIR systems for TEL

Implementation of SIR in TEL
· Methods and models of SIR in the area of learning and teaching
· Social processes and metaphors in learning communities and social networks for searching
acquiring and sharing information
· Pedagogical aspects of SIR in TEL; how to scaffold students, activity patterns, etc.
Integrating SIR services in existing learning platforms
· Visualisation techniques to support SIR in TEL
· Successful scaffolding techniques for SIR implementation

Evaluation of SIR in TEL
· Ideas on how can we get more empirical on evaluation
· Best practices
· Evaluation of the success and acceptance of SIR systems in the context of teaching,
learning and/or TEL community building
· Challenges and enablers
· Evaluating the performance and measuring the effectiveness of SIR systems in learning applications
· Evaluation the user satisfaction with SIR system in supporting learning and teaching, etc.

WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS

The workshop invites several types of contributions which allow a wide level of participation:
· Research papers (upto 8 pages)
· System Demos (upto 2 pages)
· Hands-On proposals (1-pager)
· Abstract for Pecha Kucha style presentation (5min)

Papers are to be submitted to: https://togather.eu/handle/123456789/274
Accepted papers will be published online as EC-TEL workshop proceedings
as part of the CEUR Workshop proceedings series.

The two best papers of the workshop will be published in a special issue of
the International Journal of Technology-Enhanced Learning (IJTEL)
http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=ijtel

All questions and submissions should be sent to: sirtel @ cs.kuleuven.be

PROGRAM COMMITTEE (TBC)

· Alexander Felfernig, University of Klagenfurt, Germany
· Brandon Muramatsu, Utah State University, USA
· Clemens Cap, University of Rostock, Germany
· Hendrik Drachsler, Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
· Frans van Assche, European Schoolnet, Belgium
· Fridolin Wild, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria
· Lisa Petrides, ISKME, USA
· Marc Spaniol, Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics, Germany
· Markus Strohmaier, Technical University of Graz, TBC
· Martin Wolpers, Fraunhofer, Germany
· Miguel-Angel Sicilia, University of Alcala, Spain
· Nikos Manouselis. Greek Research & Technology Network, Greece
· Selmin Nurcan, University of Paris 1, France
· Yiwei Cao, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
· Barry Smyth, University College Dublin, Ireland – TBC
· John Dron, Athabasca University, Canada – TBC
· Rick D. Hangartner, MyStrands, USA – TBC
· Oliver Bohl, Accenture GmbH, TBC
· Martin Memmel, DFKI, TBC

ORGANISERS

* Riina Vuorikari, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) & European Schoolnet (EUN), Belgium
* Barbara Kieslinger, Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Austria
* Ralf Klamma, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
* Prof. Erik Duval, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium & ARIADNE Foundation

ABOUT EC-TEL08

Times of convergence: Technologies across learning contexts
In this age of pedagogical and technological convergence, the two European Networks of
Excellence are also converging. After the two successful EC-TEL conferences organized
in 2006 and 2007 by the ProLearn network, this third edition conveys an explicit invitation
to all researchers across any network and outside any network and intends to offer
a large platform to research across Europe.

17. – 19. September 2008, Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, The Netherlands

The pedagogical team of the iCamp project is going to meet in Murcia. Thanks to our facilitator Linda Castañeda from the University of Murcia we will be able to hold our 3 days meeting in the Southwest of Spain. Since Linda and her college Mar Sanchez have also been heavily involved in our trials we expect some fruitful discussions both from the scientific and the more practical point of view.

we recently received the confirmation from our project officer at the EC that our project was granted an extension of 3 months. So our official project period will last until the end of 2008.

This gives us the possibility to intensify our dissemination activities for promoting our final results. So watch out for iCamp events!