[Air-L] Call for Participation: AoIR 9.0 panels on OLPC, Development, and Adolescent Education

[elw at stderr.org]

Call for Participation, Association of Internet Researchers 9.0 Panel

Is this the Diamond Age? Exploring competing goals for the OLPC project.

The One Laptop Per Child project has hit a raw nerve, and is presently
at the centre of competing tensions and conflicts. Is it a real
computer, or just a toy. Is the project really about education or new
technologies?  Does the laptop actually address existing needs, or is
it a hegemonic imposition?  Does the project meet anyone's legitimate
needs?  Is it reasonable to abandon established interface and software
conventions in favor of a novel interface?  How can research
communities best navigate the borderlands between developmental and
theoretical models and the practical requirements of a scale-driven
technological deployment?

We are soliciting theoretical and practical papers addressing, but not
limited to, such as:

(basic grounding)
* low cost or disposable computing
* design innovations for youth computing
* novel uses of low-power / low-eco-impact technologies
* grassroots educational projects
* mesh-networking as a model for social communication

(pedagogy and education)
* social construction of knowledge
* constructionist learning
* transfer of pedagogical experiences and knowledge
* education across cultural boundaries
* adolescent Internet adoption
* child and adolescent development theory
* hackable hardware and hackable pedagogy
* subversive education
* the ethics of radical/emancipatory pedagogy (cf. Ivan Illich and Paolo
Friere)

(content)
* cultural influence / localization of content, privacy, censorship
* conflicts between Western notions and  'native' rationales for learning
* translating existing technology into XO activities
* age-appropriate technology and content
* local vs. remote instruction, communication, discussion
* technology and the child's cognitive development
* technology-driven pedagogy vs. educator drive initiatives
* the cultural hegemony of international educational initiatives

(platforms)
* OLPC, Classmate, and eee platforms
* platform ecosystem / development
* platform ethics
* transgression of expectations
* children as software engineers / inventors
* user-initiated design

Submissions will be reviewed and organizational decisions made
quickly. :-)

Due date: YESTERDAY

Panel participants are requested to submit their brief proposals (200-250 
words) to the organizers as quickly as possible, so that we have an 
opportunity to organize and sequence panels prior to the AoIR submission 
deadline.


Best,

Elijah Wright, Indiana University [ellwrigh at indiana.edu]
Jason Nolan, Ryerson University [jnolan at ryerson.ca]
Lois Scheidt, Indiana University [lscheidt at indiana.edu]