[Air-L] Call for Papers: Digital Media & Learning 2012 (deadline tomorrow!)

[Alex Halavais]

I've been to the last couple of DML conferences, and if you have any
interest in learning an networked media, this is a great place to meet
with folks and talk. Deadline is nowish...

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

BEYOND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: LEARNING INNOVATIONS IN A CONNECTED WORLD

Digital Media and Learning Conference
Website: http://dml2012.dmlcentral.net/

San Francisco, California
March 1-3, 2012

Conference Chair:
Diana Rhoten (News Corp.)

Conference Committee:
Tracy Fullerton (USC)
Antero Garcia (UCLA)
Mitch Resnick (MIT)
Mark Surman (Mozilla Foundation)

Technology will revolutionize education. That was the shout heard
around the world as early as the 1970s when “microcomputers” first
appeared on the scene. In the last forty years, the exponentially
increasing powers and dramatically decreasing costs of computer
technologies have surpassed even the wildest dreams of those early
days. Yet, there is still little evidence of any major
technology-enabled disruptions to the structure and culture of
mainstream education.  Today, technology has once again become the
rallying call for education innovation. Whether as efforts to
establish new institutions, experiment with mobile devices, develop
learning applications, or incorporate personalized and distance
education platforms, information technologies and digital media are at
the center of the education innovation conversation.

In 20th Century United States, schools were seen as the primary locus
of education, where teachers are transmitters and students are
receivers of information and knowledge. As a result, education reform
movements focused on promoting school-based practices and processes
that would maximize institutional efficiencies. In that context, the
then emerging “education technology” community (as it has since come
to be known) drew from the “best practice” of their time and focused
mainly on the development of instructional hardware to increase
standardized test scores, administrative technology to facilitate
record keeping, or content management systems to deliver traditional
curriculum online.

More recently, however, cutting-edge research from the social and
behavioral sciences has begun to show that an individual’s learning
can be accelerated by tapping into personal interests that span
different social experiences including but beyond schooling. Evidence
also suggests that individuals may learn more efficaciously and more
equitably, without gaps between rich and poor, when they learn in
specialty domains and practice areas that they choose and for which
they are motivated. Compared to older education paradigms, this 21st
Century pedagogical view reframes learning as the creation and
acquisition of knowledge through observing, interacting and
collaborating with others anywhere, anytime. As a result, we are now
seeing new technologies and digital media designed not to deliver a
faster, cheaper schooling but rather to enable richer, deeper
learning. As this new “digital media and learning” movement (as it is
becoming known) expands, we are seeing the emergence of Web-enabled,
mobile-based platforms that promote new models of peer-to-peer
learning, anywhere / anytime learning, blended learning and game-based
learning.

The “education technology” and “digital media and learning” views on
education innovation represent differences in thinking not just about
technologies for but also – more importantly – pedagogies and
epistemologies of learning.  While there are fundamental differences
between these perspectives, we do not think these two visions need be
or should be in conflict with one another. In fact, we believe they
are complements to one another, with critical and necessary synergies
between their approaches. For example, there is great evidence to
suggest that "basic skills" and “core competencies” may be best
learned in classroom environments but then augmented and advanced with
the type of independent, interactive learner-centered experiences that
new technologies can provide outside of the classroom. Building a new
future for education and learning in a connected world not only allows
but actually requires bridging in-school and out-of-school learning
practices and philosophies through networks of learning institutions
and alliances.

Inspired by Silicon Valley’s culture of technology-led innovation, the
2012 Digital Media and Learning Conference will explore ongoing
questions and debates around the role of technology and the future of
education and learning.

* What are the primary purposes and practices of education, and how
can technology accelerate or decelerate them?

* When we talk about disruptive technologies, what systems and players
are we really seeking to change and to what end?

* What sectors, institutions and populations are we mobilizing for
innovation and for whom are we mobilizing them?

* How do we design, build and fund infrastructures around new
connections across and configurations of learning?

* How do we cultivate a healthy, symbiotic ecosystem of innovation
that leads to a future of Connected Learning?

In answering these and other questions, we hope attendees will
challenge their assumptions and share their visions about what
education and learning could or should look like in a connected world.
To that end, we invite provocative sessions that address the
intersections and tensions inherent in different approaches to
innovation, and we strongly encourage interactive discussions that
push panelists and participants alike to ask themselves where they are
in the innovation conversation and how they plan to translate that
conversation into action.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP, PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS

We welcome workshops, panels and papers along five themes: Making,
Tinkering and Remixing; Re-imagining Media for Learning; Democratizing
Learning Innovation; Innovations for Public Education and Digital
Media and Learning.

Making, Tinkering and Remixing. To become full and active participants
in 21st century society, young people must learn to design, create,
and invent with new technologies, not simply interact with them. What
are the pathways for becoming a maker and not just a user in a world
of Connected Learning? What social and technical infrastructures
provide the best support for young people as they learn to tinker with
materials, remix one another’s work, and iteratively refine their
creations?

Re-imagining Media for Learning. What does it mean to think of media
and games in the service of diverse educational goals and within a
broad ecology of learning? In particular, how can we balance the needs
of multi-stakeholder alliances against the challenges of designing
engaging, playful and truly innovative media experiences?  Especially
those that go beyond implementations of technologies and platforms to
create real communities of playful learning and rich opportunities for
individual discovery and growth.

Democratizing Learning Innovation. Looking to the groundswell for
massively collaborative innovation and change, what does it take to
pull from a participatory and networked ecology to push innovation
from the bottom up and from the outside in versus top down and inside
out?

Innovations for Public Education. Too often cutting edge technology
innovations serve the interests of the already privileged “creative
class.”  What can we do to ensure that the most innovative forms of
learning are accessible to all educators and young people relying on
public education infrastructures? How can digital innovation directly
impact disparities in achievement of students based on race and class?

Digital Media and Learning. We also welcome submissions that address
innovative research and practice in the field of digital media and
learning.

Presentation Formats

This year we will be accepting proposals in three formats: panels,
workshops and short talks.
Panels bring together in discussion four participants or presentations
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. We also encourage the use of
discussants.

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 90 minutes and should be highly
participatory.

Finally, we welcome short, ten minute talks where presenters speak for
ten minutes on their work, research or a subject relevant to the
conference theme and/or subthemes.

Note: Proposals for ignite sessions will be announced in January 2012.

Submitting Your Proposal

The DML2012 Conference proposal system is now open and full proposals
will be due on October 19, 2011 (11:59 pm PST). To propose a panel,
participants will be required to register with Fastapps
http://fastapps.dmlcentral.org, our submission system at the Digital
Media and Learning Research Hub. Participants will be able to edit
their proposals up until the final deadline.

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 500
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. We will not be soliciting
full papers or publishing conference proceedings.

Please note that each participant 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.

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// Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur
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