NMIS-Skills Soft Launch #NMIS

 I've sent out some initial invitations tonight to what will become a different sort of on-line community. The targets and mission are clear . You can find them here on the website . I'll move this post across to the project's blog site in next day or two.

While for some there is not much new in webinars and some teachmeets , nor in driving at the torpidness of the education sector and industry around sharing learning materials and knowledge. There are still many who have not changed their methods of working and we are really going to have a go at it in an innovative way.

What has been done before :

• We are trying to summarise a lot of the excellent work that is already out there in one place.

What is new:

• We are trying to model best practice by using open tools and resources and sharing with a creative commons licence.
• We will showcase tools that are within the reach of anyone.  
• We have quite a compelling offer for ambassadors. 
• We are mapping our offer to the digital competency frameworks for education as they exist in Scotland, so that the offer is relevant to all who wish to boost their skills in collaborating , sharing and co-creating.
• There will be plenty of space for collaborating and working together. 

The only thing that is out of scope is the kind of support that staff get already from within their own institutions and organisations . So we will be talking about learning design and tools for building learning content but we won't be talking use of specific virtual learning environments.

We have started by sucking up and pointing to the useful courses and resources that we know about already. We do know when the discussion gets going there are many that we have not discovered yet.

To some,  the website and resources,  might look a bit different . The whole resource is being built in a way that we hope can move from being a website with some interesting bits to being a community resource owned and led by the ambassadors.  This is thanks to some creative thinking and support from  Google Apps for Education.

I am sure this won't be without some initial technical hitches - but that is what learning is all about.

I'm afraid everyone can't be ambassadors, our target is membership from Scottish Schools , Colleges, Universities , Employers and Work-based learning providers with an interest in Industry4.0 and the innovation centres and agencies in Scotland around this. If we break some of the silos down around this we will have achieved our mission.

So why this post - if you work in one of the above please consider becoming an ambassador and start following NMIS-Skills . Have a look around the website and feedback please.

If you are from my network  and the bigger wider world of digital skills for education and open learning, then let us know what we need to add to help our community find your resources.

ALT Annual Conference 2019, taking place 3-5 September 2019 in Edinburgh #ALTC #OpenScot

It is only once every few years that the Association for Learning Technology Conference arrives in Scotland. 

The request below arrived today and I thought it worth simply blogging around.

It would be great to see a strong Scottish Education presence - public bodies , Schools and FE Colleges could both learn a lot and contribute a lot to the discussion at the conference.  It is also an opportunity for those working in the private sector to come along and share opportunities. 

The praxis in Education is a global one. Here is an opportunity to share with a UK and International Audience in Edinburgh and take some great ideas back to your own institution to support your learners , and build your network to weather the storms ahead. 

Joe Wilson 

Co-Chair ALT Scotland Special Interest Group 

The Call for Proposals for the ALT Annual Conference 2019, taking place 3-5 September 2019 in Edinburgh, is open until 13 March. We would be very grateful for your help in disseminating the information below within your networks and encouraging colleagues to consider submitting a proposal.

The Call for Proposals for ALT’s Annual Conference 2019 is now open for you to contribute to the critical dialogue we seek to foster on technology in education and its political, social and economic context.

All submissions are made via the ALT Online Submission Form
Call for Proposals open until 13 March 2019

We are particularly keen to look at the big picture across sectors and find common challenges, promote closer scrutiny of evidence and theory, and a stronger commitment to values that we share. Values that include creativity, community, social good, openness, and more democratic access to knowledge and learning. We invite you to submit proposals in response to one of the conference themes:

1. Student data and learning analytics: Critically exploring the intersections between learning technology practice, policy and projects and student data, learning analytics, and evidence relating to engagement. Where do we need to strengthen these intersections, in order to make more critical and effective use of student data and analytics in enhancing policy and practice? What are the ethical dimensions to data and learning analytics we need to better understand and respond to?
2. Creativity across the curriculum: Nurturing the development of curiosity, open-mindedness, problem solving and imagination. How can digital learning and teaching across the curriculum foster creativity skills? What benefits can this bring? What can educators working across the schools, further and higher education curricula learn from each other?
3. Critical frames of reference: To what extent are established concepts, models and frameworks relating to digital education still relevant to emerging practices and possibilities? What are the concepts and theoretical frames of reference that can support further critical research and reflection, and inform more critically grounded digital education practices going forward?
4. Learning Technology for wider impact: using Learning Technology to enable learning which is distributed across formal and informal communities, that supports more inclusive curricula and promotes accessibility, transcends established digital silos and institutional boundaries, creates digital ‘third spaces’ to enable learning amongst those who would otherwise not meet, or which locates opportunities for learning within contexts and communities where there is disadvantage, disenfranchisement or a lack of opportunity to engage. Work which has a high impact on lifelong learning, in democratising access to socially valuable knowledge, and in addressing wider societal needs.
5. Wildcard: if your work doesn’t relate directly to any of the conference themes, then we encourage you to select the wildcard theme when submitting your learning technology research, practice or policy work from any sector including further and higher education, schools, vocational learning and training, lifelong learning and work-based learning.

How to submit a proposal

We look for session proposals that will make an innovative contribution to the conference programme and be of value to other participants.

All submissions are made via the ALT Online Submission Form.

You can only submit 1 proposal as lead author/presenter. You can add additional contributors to your proposal and be a contributor to other proposals.

All rooms will have a projector or screen and laptop as standard.

As there are up to 6 parallel sessions running at any time, you need to ensure that your session can work well with 10-50 participants.

Your proposal

You will need to select what kind of session you would like to run from the following options:

• GASTA talk (5 min, concise, punchy talk, usually in the main auditorium)
• Poster & GASTA talk (digital/print poster + 5 min lightning talk, usually in the main auditorium)
• Research or practice presentation (20 min, with min.5 minutes for Q&A)
• Reflective session (30 min, usually interactive and seeking feedback from participants)
• Workshop, panels or demonstration (1 hour, usually BYOD for participants)

You will need to include a session title, description and further supporting information. You should not submit proposals that have been published, presented or submitted elsewhere.

What we are looking for

We review all submissions to ensure that we maintain the highest quality and include the broad range of learning technology research, practice and policy of interest to our participants.

Each proposal will be reviewed by two members of the conference committee. We ask that you remove any information from your proposal that will identify you as the author, so that the review is conducted impartially. Proposals are reviewed against the following criteria:

• Does it explain how the session relates to the chosen conference theme?
• Is it clearly written (i.e. acronyms are explained, and language appropriate for an international audience and from participants from different sectors)?
• Does it state what participants will gain from the session and why they should attend?
• Does it include details of what the session is based on, such as a particular project or initiative or practice? Does it critically reflect on this and evaluate it (i.e. state how many learners/staff are involved, what feedback was collected and how transferable your experience/findings/tools are)?
• If it is a commercial proposal, we ask that it meets all the above criteria and clearly states what products are being demonstrated or discussed and acknowledges the role of the company in the session.

Increasing impact and professional recognition

If you are seeking to increase the impact of your work or looking to disseminate your work beyond the conference, we encourage you to make a submission to the Research in Learning Technology journal. The journal is a Gold Open Access journal and we do not levy any charges to ensure researchers can disseminate new work in learning technology as widely as possible.

We also invite you to consider entering the ALT Awards which are now open for entries from individuals, teams and research project, with winners announced at the conference.

Registration for presenters

At least one presenter for each proposal needs to register for the conference. We offer a special early bird discount for presenters and we also offer a discounted rate for presenters who are members of ALT or members of the conference committee.

Lead presenters need to attend in conference in person, but can facilitate contributions from virtually attending presenters.

Is this conference for you?

We invite proposals from learning technology professionals and learners from all sectors in the UK and internationally. The Association for learning technology (ALT) represents individual and organisational members from all sectors and parts of the UK. Our membership includes practitioners, researchers and policy makers with an interest in learning technology. Our community grows more diverse as learning technology has become recognised as a fundamental part of learning, teaching and assessment.

What to expect?

This is the 26th ALT Annual Conference. We will welcome 400-500 participants in Edinburgh over three days with a packed programme and social activities. We design our conference to be welcoming and friendly, with specific activities for first time participants. During the conference ALT members organise meetings and sessions such as annual meet ups of local Member Groups, meetings of Special Interest Groups and information sessions to offer ways to get involved and showcase what’s going on across the community.

We look forward to welcoming you in September and wish you good luck with your submission!

You can also view this Call for Proposals as a Google Doc or download a PDF.