[Air-L] Digital Media & Learning Conf. Extended Deadline (11/5)

[Alex Halavais]

Just a quick note to let you know that the Digital Media & Learning
conference has extended its proposal deadline to November 5th. Hope to
see many of you in Long Beach.

- Alex

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Digital Media and Learning Conference 2011: http://dmlcentral.net/conference2011

DML Conference Submission System:
http://fastapps.hri.uci.edu/

** Submission Deadline extended to Friday, November 5th (11:59pm PST) **

Conference dates: March 3 -5, 2011
Location: Hilton Long Beach, Long Beach, California


DESIGNING LEARNING FUTURES

In the twenty-first century a profound shift is underway. Digital
media are central in almost every aspect of daily life, most notably
in how we learn, communicate, reflect, (co-) produce, consume, create
identities, share knowledge, and understand political issues.
Corresponding with this increasing accessibility of digital and
networked tools, we see new forms of public and private collectives
which serve as seedbeds for user-driven innovation, the prevalence of
many-to-many distribution models and the large-scale online
aggregation of information and culture. This increased access to
information, knowledge, and platforms has prompted new learning
ecologies that possess the potential to support the kinds of situated,
learner-driven, socially inflected, participatory learning
opportunities we know are possible today.

Alongside transforming how we create, access, and use knowledge, these
changes raise a series of socio-technical concerns regarding the
tools, technologies, and policies that underpin digital media
practices and their related learning opportunities. These issues
operate on both macro and micro levels. They range from processes and
protocols shaping the flow and tracking of data in social network
sites like Facebook or MySpace to reward and reputation systems in
multiplayer online games, collaborative DIY communities like
Instructable.com or deviantART, as well as to emergent problematic
practices like sexting and cyberbullying. These are, in short,
concerns that give shape to both formal and informal learning
ecologies and learning experiences. Developing an understanding of the
impact of digital media experiences on learning, civic engagement, and
professional and ethical development requires that we consider the
implications of the design frameworks, institutional configurations,
social practices, and research methodologies at play in our connected
world.

As Bruno Latour notes, “New innovation will be absolutely necessary if
we are to adequately represent the conflicting natures of all the
things that are to be designed.” Understanding the role of innovation
in light of past and present digital media practices is thus central
to imagining and designing learning futures. To this end, the
conference will focus upon themes of understanding the types of
processes, methods, collaborations, and institutional models required
for innovation. We are also concerned with gaining insight into the
roles contradicting stakeholders (disciplines, institutions,
economies, etc.) may play. This includes designers of social network
sites, games, or mobile applications and learning environments such as
afterschool programs, schools and other sites of learning. It also
includes social scientists studying youth engagement in interest or
friendship-driven communities, those involved in developing profiles
of participants in intergenerational learning environments,
practitioners looking to help integrate technology into learning
environments, researchers studying the intersection of learning and
socio-technical practices, and policy makers seeking to shape the
future of connected learning, to name but a few possible participant
profiles.

>From these diverse perspectives, we seek to address the following questions:

What are the central concerns shaping learning within peer-based,
participatory, open ecologies? What are the new collectives (including
hybrid public institutional models) that are emerging in today's open
learning ecologies? How is learning happening in user-innovation
communities? How does remix, mentorship, sharing, and exchange occur?
How do issues such as cyberbullying, problematic content, and privacy
shape participation in these ecologies? How is diversity shaping
learning constituencies? What forms of identities become possible?
What are the relationships between different stakeholders, such as
learner-centered partnerships and collaborations between teachers,
administrators, students, institutions, policy makers, researchers,
and designers? What are the design-driven pedagogies and learning
models we should explore? What is the role of embedded assessment in
understanding learning? How do we understand flow and engagement?

What is the knowledge base required of designers, researchers, and
practitioners working on peer-based, participatory, open learning
ecologies today? What is missing? What new forms of knowledge need to
be developed? What existing frameworks need to be rethought?

What core socio-technical practices are shaping (or have the potential
to shape) the future of learning? What practices may be impeding
innovation or getting in the way of learning? How can and should
knowledge about practices shape policy, design, and implementation of
innovations?

We seek to support collective inquiry into the infrastructures and
practices key to digital media and learning, whether research
practices, learning protocols, assessment schemes, game design, or the
creation of participatory undertakings. This conversation welcomes
those engaged in developing a critical understanding of the design and
broader socio-technical concerns shaping learning futures, as well as
in other well articulated issues key to comprehending the impact and
possibilities of digital media for learning. All participants are
encouraged to reflect on the implications of their work for social
practice—to consider the impact of their own practice or research
findings on how things are currently done or could be done
differently.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP AND PANEL PROPOSALS

We welcome workshops and panels along four themes: Youth, Digital
Media and Empowerment; Emerging Platforms and Policies; New
Collectives and Digital Media and Participatory Learning. The themes
have been conceptualized by key members of the conference committee.
All proposed panels and workshops will be collectively evaluated by
the conference committee.

Youth, Digital Media, and Empowerment

This strand focuses specifically on young people’s participation in
the digital media world. Youth participatory practices are influenced
by a variety of social and contextual factors including distinct
youth-driven interests and learning ecologies, adult mentoring,
institutional infrastructures, creative partnerships, and cultural
diversity. We are especially interested in panels, papers, and
workshops that explore how new media technologies are leveraged to
promote youth health and well-being, youth media production, and
dynamic expressions of civic engagement. Moreover, what kinds of
institutional infrastructures lead to programs and interventions that
empower young voices, fortify social and knowledge networks, and
develop the digital media skills and competencies that invigorate
young critical citizens? Also, how are creative partnerships,
programmatic initiatives, and the widespread diffusion of social and
mobile media platforms challenging the “participation gap?” How are
socially stigmatized and marginal youth populations embracing social
media to build networks for personal enrichment, communal empowerment,
and social change? Finally, workshops and panels that discuss the art
and science of interdisciplinary collaboration, design innovation, and
programming offer the opportunity for vibrant discussion, planning and
intervention.

Emerging Platforms and Policies

The rise of Web2.0 has introduced numerous platforms into everyday
life, from social network sites like MySpace and Facebook to
media-sharing services like YouTube and uStream to blogging and
microblogging tools like Tumblr and Twitter. These platforms have been
leveraged by people of all ages to build community, share ideas,
collaborate, and hang out. While many of these platforms were designed
to enable “user-generated content,” there are often conflicts between
what designers intend and what participants actually do on each site.
In short, these platforms were not designed for the kinds of learning
that often transpires on these sites.

The goal of this track is to explore the tensions between the design
of emerging platforms and the practices that unfold on them, with
specific attention given to the policy challenges that emerge. How
does the technology respond practice and how do users repurpose
technology? Who gets to set the community norms and how are these
norms negotiated? How are values— like privacy, safety, and
transparency—embedded in the technology and how does this shape
socio-technical practices? What happens when conflicts emerge between
the users and the creators? How does the tension between technical
design and personal practices configure these spaces?

New Collectives

The last 10 years have seen the rise of organizations and institutions
that mash-up mission, market and mass participation. Organizations
like Wikipedia, Mozilla and Creative Commons have shown that this
hybrid model can shift whole industries—increasing how knowledge is
shared and spread, promoting the wide adoption of web standards,
making legally-backed knowledge sharing easy and widespread. Many have
proclaimed that these new collectives can also transform education and
learning for the better. The track will explore the ways that
innovators in the learning world might tap into the power of these
hybrid organizational models. We’ll ask questions like: What makes new
collectives tick? Where are they getting traction in the world of
learning? Where are they getting stuck? Can they challenge traditional
approaches to accreditation, assessment and content creation in
education? Or even shift the terrain of learning and education as a
whole?

Digital Media and Learning

We welcome submissions that address ongoing or innovative directions
in research and practice relating to digital media and learning.

WORKSHOP PROPOSALS AND FORMATS

This year we will be accepting proposals in three formats: panels,
workshops and short talks. Panels bring together in discussion four
participants representing a range of ideas and projects. Panels are
scheduled for 90 minutes and should include a mix of individuals
working in areas of research, theory, and practice. Workshops provide
an opportunity for hands-on exploration and/or problem solving. They
can be organized around a core challenge that participants come
together to work on or around a tool, platform, or concept. Workshops
are scheduled for 120 minutes and should be highly participatory.
Finally, we welcome short, 5 minute talks where presenters speak for
five minutes on their work, research or a subject relevant to the
conference theme and/or subthemes. We will not be soliciting full
papers. To organize a panel or workshop, please feel free to use our
DML2011 Discussion Forum on wikidot.

The DML2011 Conference proposal system will open on October 18, 2010
and full proposals will be due on November 5, 2010. To propose a
panel, participants will be required to register with Fastapps
http://fastapps.hri.uci.edu/, our submission system at the Digital
Media and Learning Research Hub. We encourage participants to submit
proposals when their application materials are complete.

Panel and Workshop proposal abstracts should cover the theme, format
(e.g. discussion, interactive, presentations), how the session
addresses the theme of the conference and/or subtheme in up to 400
words.

Short talk abstracts should cover the theme, format (e.g. discussion,
interactive, presentations), how the talk addresses the theme of the
conference and/or subtheme in up to 250 words. List of participants,
affiliations, emails and titles of talks/presentations (if applicable)
should also be included.

Each individual will be limited to participation on no more than two
panels at the conference. Participants will be expected to fund their
own travel and accommodation.

Student Volunteers Wanted: The DML Conference Committee is looking for
student volunteers to assist with the 2011 Annual Conference in Long
Beach, CA from March 3-5, 2010. Duties include assisting with
registration, providing information to conference participants and
troubleshooting technical problems along with other administrative
tasks. Student volunteers will work scheduled shifts lasting 4 to 5
hours each day during the conference. The Committee will waive
registration fees and provide accommodations for student volunteers.
Applicants are to submit a letter of interest no longer than 500 words
that also addresses their qualifications for the position. Experience
with computing platforms and audio/visual equipment is not required
but valued. Email letters of interest to Kimberly Austin kaustin <at>
uchicago <dot> edu no later than November 6, 2010. We will notify
selected volunteers by Dec. 12


-- 
--
//
// This email is
// [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded.
// [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing.
//
// Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur
// http://alex.halavais.net
//