ASCILITE NEWS

New TELall Blog Post – ASCILITE 2018 Year in Review

In this latest blog post, the ASCILITE President, Prof Dominique Parrish (Macquarie University) describes the work of the ASCILITE Executive Committee and developments across the board during 2018 in relation to our membership services, including TELAS, the Spring into Excellence Research School held in October, our 7 SIGs, award winners and more. This post is a great way to get acquainted with ASCILITE and see what the society has been up to in 2018.

ASCILITE Executive Committee Changes

There have been a number of changes to the ASCILTIE Executive Committee following the executive elections held in October. These changes were announced at the AGM held during ASCILITE 2018 at Deakin University.

Two long serving committee members; Mark Northover (AUT) and Helen Farley (USQ) both retired. Mark was replaced by Thom Cochrane (AUT) which ensures New Zealand members have representation on the committee.

Helen Farley, who held the position of Vice-President, left the committee to be replaced in that role by an existing committee member, Chris Campbell (Griffith).

Another long-serving committee member, Allan Christie, retired as Treasurer to be replaced by existing committee member Mark Schier (Swinburne University of Technology). Allan will remain on the committee as a “co-opted” member to focus on the further development of the TELAS initiative.

Thom Cochrane (PhD) is new to the Executive Committee. He is an Academic Advisor and Senior Lecturer in educational Technology at Auckland University of Technology’s Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLAT) and he has been an active member of ASCILITE since 2003 and ALT since 2009. In 2011 Thomas received an ASCILITE Fellow award. Thomas is also one of the first SCMALT holders – Senior Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology (2018).

Thomas is also an AJET Associate Editor, and an editorial board member of RLT, BJET, and IJMBL and special issue guest editor of AJET and RLT. He is the coordinator of the ASCILITE Mobile Learning Special Interest Group. He is a regular reviewer for a number of educational technology journals including: CAE, BJET, AJET, CHB, IJMBL, JCHE, UAIS, and TLT, and received a top 1% reviewer on Publons in 2018.

In 2017 Thomas established the SOTEL Research Cluster, facilitating a research hub for Design Based Research and the inaugural annual SOTEL Symposium. It was also in 2017 that he became a member of the team winning the AUT Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence, Teaching Innovation Award. He also established the CMALT cMOOC to support CMALT accreditation internationally.

The other Executive Committee members are Dominique Parrish (President) and Alan Soong (National University of Singapore), Hazel Jones (Griffith), Sue Gregory (UNE) and Julie Willems (Monash).

You can view profiles of each Committee Member on the ASCILITE website here.

OTHER NEWS

Call for papers: Technology-enhanced academic language support (TALS)

You are warmly invited to consider submitting a paper to a special edition of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) focussed on Technology-enhanced academic language support (TALS). The Guest Editor of this issue is John Smith, Assistant Director of Studies, University Programs, Griffith University.

The timeline is as follows:

Expressions of interest due 20 January 2019 (max. 500 words) – Email EOI as attachment to John Smith
Acceptance notifications 30 January 2019
Full papers due 30 May 2019 5,000 – 7,000 words, including references
Final revised papers due 31 July 2019
Publication of Issue

Priority will be given to papers that address the areas below (but all proposals will be considered):

survey and critique of current TALS practices
exploration of associated theory
explication of relevant instructional and learning design practices
program quality assurance (e.g. measuring efficacy and/or digital engagement)

Case studies will also be considered, but authors should frame their work so that it has broader applicability to a variety of institutional contexts. For more information go to the JUTLP Website or email John Smith.

Open & Distance Learning Association of Australia 2019 Conference

ODLAA is pleased to announce its 2019 conference on the theme of ‘Open Thinking’ to be held 3 – 5 February 2019 in Brisbane, Australia.

This boutique conference will explore the theme of open thinking; reflecting on the growing area of interest, research and practice in recent years that has centered on the concept of ‘openness’. Openness in education has emerged in the context of Open Educational Resources (OERs), Open Universities, Open MOOCs, Open Badging and more, all of which have been previously explored by ODLAA through presentations or publications.

Our theme of Open Thinking is therefore intended to allow reflection on the learnings to date around the concept of openness and its application to education – from the specifics of pedagogy through to wider philosophical considerations regarding the industry and the impact of openness. What has been achieved so far and what does this indicate for the future possibilities of openness? Has openness been disruptive, or does it remain a pipe-dream yet to be fully embraced? Are the ground rules changing for education or does the concept of openness exist within a niche area of education with application for some and not others?

This conference will explore these questions under the broader topic of Open Thinking. Open thinking enables us to go beyond discussing programs and strategies, to asking the bigger question: what if we could do things better or differently in education? This theme will also allow for the consideration of the benefits of Open Thinking from other contexts of openness beyond education (crowd-sourcing, food rescue, social enterprise). What could education learn from these contexts, or how could they be applied?

Sub-themes

Sub-themes may include, but are not limited to:

the strengths and weaknesses of being open (research and evidence-based examples)
the multiple contexts of openness and open thinking
openness for education in a changing world and society
openness as disruption
open thinking as a wicked problem
open thinking strategies in education
open thinking for inclusion (diversity/accessibility)

Key dates

Early Bird Registration Open: 31 October 2018
Call for Abstracts Close: 22 October 2018
Author Notifications: 20 November 2018
Early Bird Registration Closes: 23 December 2018
Presenter Registration Deadline: 14 January 2019

For further information, please visit the website here.