From Evolve

What is the Thought Fest?

Thought Fest is a two-day event being organized by Pontydysgu with the support of the JISC Evolve network and the European Mature-IP project. The event will bring together researchers in Technology Enhanced Learning in an open forum to debate the current issues surrounding educational technologies and discuss how and where research impacts on practice and where practice drives research.

Who is the Thought Fest aimed at?

Thought Fest aims at being an event for researchers organised by researchers in the area of Learning Technologies. When is the Thought Fest?

Thought Fest will be held in on 12th-13th December 2008.

Where is the Thought Fest taking place?

The first workshop will take place in Manchester, UK, hosted at the University of Salford

How can you get involved?

We will provide the physical space for discussion, debate and an exchange of ideas. But of course for that to happen we want the participants to get involved in shaping the event.

Are you up for the challenge?

Tired of having a passive role when taking part in events in your field of research? Would you like, at least for once, to take part in an event where people actually do what they preach, that is communicate and collaborate with people in your field instead of talking at them? If yes, here is your chance to do so.
 
In order for this to happen we need people to help us organize the Winter Thought Fest 2008. Give us your ideas on how you think this event should be organized and how we should be approach the different issues concerned with Technology Enhanced Learning.


What are those issues?

Here are some of the questions we have been thinking about:

• Is social software incompatible with the majority of formal educational settings?

• Will PLEs and MUPLEs (Mash-up PLEs) become mainstream over the next few years?

• What does the term personalization actually mean an educational context?

• How do we know what to learn and where do we develop the cognitive tools we need to think with?

• Does the concept 'Communities of Practice' still have currency?

• Are we paying enough attention to the issues of digital identity and digital reputation management?

• Where is the Open content/Open Access and now the Open Accreditation movement heading?

• Is there such a thing as new digital literacies and what are they?

• How does the ‘Control versus Innovation’ debate impact on the future of HE institutions?

• Do 'learner generated contexts' offer one solution to bringing the student voice into curriculum planning

• How are notions of groups, communities and networks changing and what do they mean to formal and informal learning?

Possible formats you may consider for your contribution:

Show and Tell: Slots of 3-5 minutes where people share an idea, something they know about or that they would like to do – something like teach meet which can be seen here

TEL Fair: Maximum of 4 stands / 4 researchers (more researchers allowed if it’s a collaborative presentation) - each speaker will prepare their presentation for 15 minutes and try to sell their message – a project they want to create, a project they are working on and want to disseminated, research results they want to share – every 15 minutes the audience has to rotate to the next stand.

Debating ideas: have a topic you are passionate about and are willing to get involved in a lively discussion? Pick a topic, get your group of speakers together, decide who the moderator is going to be and go for it!

Researchers’ Corner: Stuck with your research? Could use some feedback on the working in Progress? Then come and join the researchers’ corner and share your work with us. In return you will receive constructive feedback from experienced researchers.

However you may have other ideas, issues, questions and concerns, as well as other formats in mind. Please let us know what you would like to discuss and how you think we could best exchange ideas in a workshop or unconferencing event.

We are especially looking for originality and relevancy of ideas. We are looking for creative proposals, in form and content rather than the traditional, paper presentation abstracts. We welcome submissions and ideas for videos, photos, podcasts, cartoons, poster - or any other kind of artifact you can think of!

Who can take part and what support is available for attendees?

The event is open to everyone working in this field. But we have limited places and we will be keeping numbers to a level that will encourage a productive and intensive interchange of ideas. Please tell us as soon as possible if you are interested in attending. Support is available but limited: The Mature IP project may be able to assist members of the project consortium. We will sponsor lunches and an evening social event. Accommodation for 2 days will also be provided. However, you will have to seek funding for your own travel. Manchester has good access to cheap flights from many European countries.

Submissions:

Submissions can be submitted to Cristina Costa (all submissions will be acknowledged )

Deadlines:

Deadline for submissions is 26th October 2008

Notification of acceptance will be 3rd November 2008 at the latest.

Working together before the meeting

We intend to organise collaboration with one another prior to the face-to-face gathering. An online space for collaboration will be provided for this purpose.

We hope also that this space will be used for participants to negotiate among themselves how the two days of the Thought Fest will be organized around their ideas. For instances, will individuals merge into small clusters and individual plan a joint session? How will the sessions be designed to appeal to the rest of the fellow participants? What will participants get from engaging from these two f2f days? Creativity is not the limit, it is just the start!

What is in it for you?

This is a great opportunity to meet and collaborate with researchers in your area. It is a chance to explore educational issues with an international group. It is an opportunity to participate in building a roadmap for the key research questions of the future. And whatever the outcomes, we do promise some serious FUN!

Organising team:

Cristina Costa, University of Salford

Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu

Steven Warburton, King’s College London