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Latest news

Invite to scientific committee of Human-Computer Interaction, Tourism and Cultural Heritage (HCITOCH) Carl has been invited onto the scientific committee of HCITOCH. The international committee will explore strategies for creativity within Human-Computer Interaction, Tourism and Cultural Heritage using a triad of approaches from computer science, quality design and communication science. More information: http://www.ainci.com/workshop-2012/workshop_HCITOCH_2012.html

Book chapter published. Book chapter published: Smith, C. (2013). ‘(Re)Engineering Cultural Heritage Contexts using Creative Human Computer Interaction Techniques and Mixed Reality Methodologies’. Published in Advanced Research and Trends in New Technologies, Software, Human-Computer Interaction and Communicability’. IGI Global: Hershey, Pennsylvania –USA.

Full paper accepted for the Difference That Makes a Difference (DTMD) conference at the OU. The Difference That Makes a Difference conference is an interdisciplinary workshop on Information: Space, Time, and Identity that will focus on sharing insights on the nature of information. The paper is a joint effort between Carl Smith and Professor Ambjörn Naeve who is head of the Knowledge Management Research Group (KMR) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The KMR-group is driven by a desire to create new and powerful ways to structure and communicate information in order to support its exformation into knowledge and transmutation into understanding. The peer reviewed paper details are: Title: ‘Spacification: How to design and construct spaces that can enhance knowledge transformation.’ Which will be presented during Session 1: Information and Space. http://www.dtmd.org.uk/programme/session-1-information-and-space. The conference will take place at the Open University and the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK. 8-10 April 2013. More information: https://sites.google.com/site/dtmd2013

Full paper accepted for the British Computer Society, Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference. Full paper accepted for the British Computer Society, Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference: for the fifth year running Carl Smith has had a full peer reviewed paper accepted for the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference to be held at the British Computer Society in London. The paper details are: Smith, C. (2013). Experience Communication through Post Digital Design. The conference will take place from 29th-31st July, 2013. The EVA conference takes place annually in London, Beijing, Berlin, Florence, Montreal, Moscow, Vienna and Warsaw. It is primarily for those interested in using new technologies with a particular focus on visualisation in the arts and sciences. Further details: http://www.eva-london.org/

Invite to present at ‘Synergies in electronic, digital and tangible landscapes event’.Carl presented his work on the relationship between 3D digital landscapes, landscape photography and philosophy at the synergies in electronic, digital and tangible landscapes event. The event took place on Saturday 26 January 2013 at The Gallery, Alan Baxter & Associates LLP, 75 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EL from 13:00 to 18:00. More details: http://www.landartnet.org/  

Invite to international seminar at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Carl was invited to KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Knowledge Management Group in Stockholm, Sweden for a strategic international seminar on Advanced Technologies and links to Arts Industries and Cultural Heritage. Details: http://telmap.confolio.org/apps/index.html#context=2&entry=2571&view=default  

AR workshop event report and resources are now available. Following on from his workshop ‘Augmented Reality: Hands-on Workshop and Guide to Best Practice’ for the JISC Digital Creativity event, the report and resources are now available from: http://moodle.rsc-london.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=120  The workshop provided a mix of hands-on sessions alongside research and review talks enabling participants to understand what is technically feasible using mixed and augmented reality methodologies whilst establishing what potential impact this new medium is likely to have on their own teaching and learning practises.

Invite to submit a journal article to the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL). Carl has been invited to submit a journal article to the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL). Smith, C. (2013). Enabling Creative Context Engineering within Augmented Spaces. Special Issue On: Mobile Learning and Creativity: Current Concepts and Studies. The special issue will review and reconsider the role of mobile learning for fostering creativity, focusing on outlining definitions and concepts of creativity, exploring the relationship between learning and creativity in different contexts (for instance, formal education, workplace learning, informal learning), and analysing ways in which mobile media may – or may not – foster creative learning.  

Invite onto the Mobile Learning 2012 programme committee. Carl has been invited on to the Mobile Learning 2012 programme committee for the fifth year in a row, to be held in Berlin, 11-13 March. The call for papers is open until October 28, 2011, and the theme of the conference is Mobile Learning where to next? For details of the conference see: http://www.mlearning-conf.org

Carl Smith wins place on the ‘From Research to Entrepreneurship’ event. Carl recently won a place on the event ‘From Research to Entrepreneurship’ organised by the European Centre of Excellence in Media Computing & Communication. The event took place at the prestigious Hackney House venue at the heart of Tech City, London. The event was especially designed for technology researchers and provided practical skills and mentorship from top-flight Tech City entrepreneurs.

Peer reviewed paper accepted. Smith, C. (2012). Enabling Creative Context Engineering within Augmented Spaces. Paper accepted for the ‘Mobile Learning and Creativity Workshop (MLCW12): Fostering Creative Learning with Mobile Technologies workshop at EC-TEL2012 http://ec-tel.eu in Saarbrücken, Germany on September 19 (full day). Further details: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2412

Invited workshop Carl was invited to contribute to a workshop at the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning - mLearn conference. mLearn extends the theory and practice of learning and mobility in converging technological environments. This includes applications of innovative mobile and ubiquitous technologies for learning. It covers new educational and technological methods and concepts for supporting formal and informal learning, as well as seamless learning across contexts, and transitions between different types of learning. Workshop details: Smith, C. (2012). Developing Spatial Literacy using Context Engineering within Augmented Spaces. Invited Conference workshop for Mobile Augmented Reality for Learning http://portal.ou.nl/en/web/mlearn-2012/ws5_ar http://www.mlearn.org/mlearn2012  15-18th of October 2012. Helsinki, Finland.

Invited talk to faculty of computing (FOC) department, London Metropolitan University Title: Reality Hacking Via Context Engineering: What Happens to Learning When the World Becomes the Interface? Abstract: As human computer interfaces become more and more spatial in their design and implemenation, the role of the learning designer expands from composing situations for screen based interaction to developing actual structures and form which require the activation of embodiment and experiential learning. Augmented spaces should enable the creation of situations and concepts that could not have been realised with just physical or just virtual methods. These new learning spaces should unite the strengths, features and possibilities of both. Reality hacking is based on the principle that our physical world is actually constructed from compressed information which can be accessed and manipulated. The eruption of the digital into the physical is beginning to enable this hacking of reality via the alteration of consciousness in well designed contexts. As Jesse Schell states "The internet allowed us to think with shared memory... Augmented Reality should allow us to see with shared eyes". This talk will discuss how we can bring together these powerful design tools to explore the 'possibility space of our learning lives. The goal of AR is to augment our perception and our learning potential with methods for deconstruction, reconstruction, and visualization. These methods and techniques will be discussed using recent examples. More details: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/fms/MRSite/acad/foc/research/seminars/2012-13/carl-abstract.html

Webinar for Europlot project. Carl recently gave a webinar for the Europlot project entitled: Persuasive Design as Context Engineering. The webinar focused on how the GLOMaker (http://www.glomaker.org )can act as a context engineering tool. The new version of GLOMaker enables teachers, trainers and students to dynamically manipulate elements of the learning context. This is achieved by exploring the generation of 'meaning' in the physical environment and the inherent relationship between learning content and the context of that content. A recording of the webinar is available from here: http://www.eplot.eu/webinars

FP7 MACH Bid successfully submitted Under call FP7-SSH-2013-2. Project title; MACH: Manufacturing Cultural Heritage: European tensions, challenges and creative opportunities. Transmitting and benefiting from cultural heritage in Europe. The project lead and coordinator is Juan Carlos Revilla from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The London met team is led by Steve Jefferys who did a brilliant job of putting the bid together with the London Metropolitan University team. LTRI will lead on WP8 to provide an online and mobile cultural heritage visualisation tool. The tool will allow various stakeholders to share and manipulate cultural assets and resources in order to explore the transmission of cultural heritage. MACH focuses on the ways cultural heritage is used, neglected, revisited or recreated in order to be transmitted by different actors in specific territorial spaces. It embraces a complete definition of what can constitute a cultural heritage: historical, artistic, industrial, traditions and rituals, landscape, knowledge and skills, etc. Through historical, theoretical and empirical analysis, the project seeks also to understand the ways by which different stakeholders (individuals and collectives, public and private, traditional and creative classes) participate in the process of (re)creation of cultural heritage, thus analysing how collective identities are lived, enacted, resisted and eventually transformed in and between generations. It aims to assess the tangible and intangible benefits that may derive from these activities.

FP7 CRe-AM Bid successfully submitted Objective ICT-2013.8.1 Technologies and scientific foundations in the field of creativity. Project Title: CRe-AM Creativity Research Adaptive Roadmap. This project aims to bridge communities of creators with communities of technology providers and innovators, in a collective, strategic intelligence/road mapping effort. This is intended to streamline, coordinate and amplify collaborative work towards developing, enhancing, and mainstreaming new ICT technologies and tools, by addressing the needs of different sectors of the creative industries. The project also aims to support the creation of multipurpose and sustainable creative ecologies, addressing different sectors of the creative industries. LTRI will lead on a workpackage dedicated to Post Digital and Networked Design which will explore how we are moving from an era of ‘information communication’ to ‘experience communication’. The project lead and coordinator is Brunel University.


LTRI Invited to join consortium on PALLm - EU bid
LTRI invited to EU bid: LLP PALLm Project: Performance-Centered Approach for Language Learning on Mobile Devices. The project will aim to improve the quality of specialized language learning (SLL) and the accessibility to it, by implementing a mobile, performance-oriented learning environment and an underlying methodology into language education. Further to this the idea of the PALLm project is to develop tools and an approach that profiles learners, in context, in order to provide them with relevant vocabulary and content. Agile access to appropriate, ‘niche’ language content and practice based methods is needed as this is not usually a focus of attention for large content language learning providers. LTRI will lead on WP4 - Development of specialized language courses for Engineers and IT specialists. More details to follow.

LTRI Invited to join consortium on PLECSAL - EU bid LTRI invited to EU bid: Tempus PLECSAL project: Performance–centered Learning Environment for Curriculum Support in Applied Linguistics. More details to follow.

LTRI visit from the Ministry of Education, Argentina LTRI had a visit from the Ministry of Education of Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30th January. Carl presented recent EU work and talked about the latest technologies and their likely impact and application within the field of learning science. LTRI were amongst additional visits to MIT and UCL, who were also consulted during the tour made by the Ministry. More details to follow.

Full paper accepted for the Difference That Makes a Difference (DTMD) conference at the OU The Difference That Makes a Difference conference is an interdisciplinary workshop on Information: Space, Time, and Identity that will focus on sharing insights on the nature of information. The paper is a joint effort between Carl Smith and Professor Ambjörn Naeve who is head of the Knowledge Management Research Group (KMR) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The KMR-group is driven by a desire to create new and powerful ways to structure and communicate information in order to support its exformation into knowledge and transmutation into understanding. The peer reviewed paper details are: Title: ‘Spacification: How to design and construct spaces that can enhance knowledge transformation.’ Which will be presented during Session 1: Information and Space. http://www.dtmd.org.uk/programme/session-1-information-and-space. The conference will take place at the Open University and the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK. 8-10 April 2013. More information: https://sites.google.com/site/dtmd2013

Carl Smith awarded ECQA mLearning Manager qualification Carl has been awarded the trainer certificate for the ECQA mLearning Manager course which took place between October 2010 and October 2012. mLeMan (http://mleman.dipseil.net) aims to develop and mainstream Europe wide skills recognition and provides a qualification service for mobile-learning managers, and other individual management level charged with evaluating sourcing or implementing m-learning solutions. mLeMan will contribute to the quality assurance of m-learning provision in Europe by developing vocational skills according to pre-defined and continuously up-dated common European standards.

Invite to participate in an international research workshop at Birkbeck Carl was invited to participate in an international research workshop at Birkbeck on Culture, Computers & Communications Planning: Towards framework programme 8 (FP8) 2020. The aim of the workshop was the exploration of opportunities, challenges and cooperation between archives, museums & libraries. The international participants were from Government, Academia and the Cultural Sector. Carl discussed advanced telepresence technologies. The title of his presentation was : Telepresence: Reclaiming the Site Specific through ‘Context Engineering’ and ‘Post Digital Design’. The workshop took place on Monday 25th Feb, 2013.

Carl Smith has been appointed deputy chair of the Landscape and Arts Network (LAN) Carl has been appointed and accepted the position of deputy chair of the Landscape and Arts Network (http://www.landartnet.org). The Landscape and Arts Network was launched in 1993 by artist Francis Carr with the aim of bringing together landscape architects, engineers, architects, artists, educationalists and ecologists: in effect, all those individuals, professional or otherwise, who feel passionate about improving and sustaining the quality of our urban and natural environment. As a network one of its founding aims is to encourage collaboration and cross-fertilisation, both in theory and practice. Creativity is at the heart of its agenda, offering unique opportunities for members to explore and relate to a variety of challenges.

distance learning category.
3D graphic prize
Carl Smith wins 2nd prize for 3D graphics work by the Musion Academy for his recent work in holographic art. A reconstructed 3D model of a world heritage site is used to explore in context the spatial literacy of the user by allowing them to question whether more can be learnt about a specific building or style of architecture if that building is itself treated as an interface. Musion is the technology behind the Madonna and Gorillaz holographic Grammy performance and the holographic projections of HRH Prince of Wales and David Beckham. The work has been nominated in the open source distance learning category.

Augmented Learning Carl was invited to share his expertise in Augmented Learning by the MobiMOOC (8 - 30 September 2012) and covered: augmented mLearning, mHealth, mobile gaming, mLearning pedagogy, global mLearning impact, building a mobile learning curriculum framework, train-the-trainer, mobile activism, looking at tools collaboratively, ICT for development, and an overall introduction to mLearning. The course wiki tells all.

Augmented Reality: Hands-on Workshop and Guide to Best PracticeFollowing his keynote talk for the JISC Digital Creativity 2012 event ‘Space is the machine: best practices and techniques for using mixed and augmented reality in education’, Carl gave a full day Augmented and Mixed reality workshop, 14 Nov 2012. ‘Augmented Reality: Hands-on Workshop and Guide to Best Practice’ offered a mix of hands-on sessions alongside research and review talks. The event took place atThe Tomlinson Centre, Hackney, London.

Latest publication Smith, C. (2012). (Re)Engineering Cultural Heritage Contexts using Creative Human Computer Interaction Techniques and Mixed Reality Methodologies. Full paper accepted for the Third International Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction, Tourism and Cultural Heritage -HCITOCH 2012 Strategies for a Creative Future with Computer Science, Quality Design and Communicability. The workshop will take place in Venice, Italy. September 27–28, 2012

Literature Review Carl has been invited to produce a literature review on augmented and mixed reality for the University of Leicester. The literature review will focus on location specific cultural heritage provision, scope and effectiveness of mobile heritage apps alongside emergent and best practice. The review will help the ‘Representing Re-formation’ project research team with market and user intelligence to inform the writing of an invitation to tender for a heritage-based mobile media app. Further information: http://representingreformation.net/ 3/8/2012

Invited talks

Carl recently gave a keynote talk for the DHI group http://www.dhigroup.com in Denmark. DHI is an independent, international consulting and research organisation. Their objectives are to advance technological development and competence within the fields of water, environment and health. On Thursday 28th June project partner Carl Smith gave a presentation on 'Building the Context Engine to Drive Creativity using Spatial Literacy’. DHI is cooperating with Carl Smith on the EU project EuroPLOT (http://www.eplot.eu/ ) under the Lifelong Learning Program. 3/8/2012

Awards

LTRI is delighted that Tom Boyle has been made Professor Emeritus at London Metropolitan University. 3/8/2012

Invited talks

Following on from his talk ‘Space is the machine: best practices and techniques for using mixed and augmented reality in education’ for the JISC Digital Creativity 2012 event a rather colourful review has been posted by the JISC RSC London team: http://moodle.rsc-london.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=115 Carl has now been invited to do a full Augmented and Mixed reality workshop in October. More details to follow.

Carl is helping to organise the ‘Mobile Learning and Creativity Workshop (MLCW12): Fostering Creative Learning with Mobile Technologies workshop at EC-TEL2012 http://ec-tel.eu/ in Saarbrücken/Germany on September 19 (full day). The call for papers (Workshop and IJMBL) is available via : http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2412

Reports

LTRI research on contextualised learning has been featured in the final report from the STELLAR Network of Excellence. The report is titled ‘A Vision and Strategy for Technology Enhanced Learning: Report from the STELLAR Network of Excellence’. The report can be downloaded from here (p.18): www.teleurope.eu/mod/file/download.php?file_guid=152343

Invited Reviewer

Carl has been invited to review submissions for the premier international conference on research into the science, technology, applications and uses of Mixed and Augmented Reality. Carl will review the Science and Technology track of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2012. The position of a reviewer for ISMAR 2012 is of vital importance to the conference as they rely on leading researchers in the field in order to generate an outstanding program. Further information: http://ismar.vgtc.org/

Invited Talk

Carl was recently invited to give a pecha kucha presentation regarding his work in LTRI concerned with ‘Augmenting and Shaping Learning Contexts’. The aim was to strengthen connections between practitioners of all creative disciplines at London Met. The event took place in the Graduate Centre on Thursday May 17th, 2012.

Invited Chair

Carl was invited to chair the session ‘The place and the digital’ at the upcoming ‘Electronic Visualisation & the Arts’ conference. EVA London is one of the international EVA conferences. It is an event where people using or interested in new technologies can share their experiences and network in a friendly, collaborative atmosphere. Its focus is on the development and application of visualisation technologies. Carl also presented a full paper ‘Enhancing spatial cognition to improve pattern recognition within mixed reality environments’. The event took place at the British Computer Society from 10th-12th July, 2012. Further details: http://www.eva-london.org

 

Journals

LTRI's John Cook: Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Journal of Education Technology. Due Summer 2012. 3/4/12

Invited talks

Cook, J. (2012). Social Network(ing) and Mobile Learning in Workplace Practice. Invited talk, 12th June, University of Paderborn, Germany.

Cook, J. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social Mobile Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. Invited talk 4th July at University of Augsburg, Germany.

Cook, J. (2012). Social Media and Mobile Technologies in Workplace Practices: Interpretations of What Counts as Good Research. Lecture, 8th Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning (JTEL), 21-25th May, Estoril, Portugal.

Cook, J. (2012). What is the Potential for the Use of Social Media and Mobile Devices in Informal, Professional, Work-Based Learning? Invited talk at Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on 16th April. Slides available at http://tinyurl.com/6lhlrwu

Cook, J. (2012). Can Social Media and Mobile Devices be Used to Design Transformative, Augmented Contexts for Learning? Invited talk at Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on 16th April. Slides available at http://tinyurl.com/ctns4l5

Conferences (accepted)

Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social Mobile Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference. 4 - 6 September, University of Manchester, UK.

Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social Mobile Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2012, Cadiz, Spain, 18 - 21 September

Book Chapter

Cook, J., Pachler, N., & Bachmair, B. (2012). Using Social Network Sites and Mobile Technology to Scaffold Equity of Access to Cultural Resources. In G. Trentin & M. Repetto (Eds.), Using Network and Mobile Technology to Bridge Formal and Informal Learning. Chandos.

Talks at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT)

LTRI's John Cook will be involved in a series of talks at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on 16th April. There will be a public facing morning session where SoMobNet and UBC colleagues will present to a wider public and an afternoon session with a more restricted audience which looks at possible future collaboration, etc.

John's talks:
1. Can social media and mobile devices be used to design transformative, augmented contexts for learning? (John Cook)
2. What is the potential for the use of social media and mobile devices in informal, professional, work-based learning? (John Cook and Norbert Pachler)

Over the past five years LTRI's DILL research theme and the London Mobile Learning Group (LMLG) have developed a body of literature and project outcomes upon which John has based six guiding principles for thinking about the use of social media and mobile devices for social justice and learning (see http://slidesha.re/GYYP7X for details and related publications). The above talks will explore 2 of these principles. The trip is funded by LTRI projects: SoMobNet and MATURE. 3/4/12

Keynote, Workshop and Conference paper

Following his Keynote ‘The Role of Design and Technology in the Development of Augmented Learning Contexts’ for Brunel Univesity Carl Smith has been invited by JISC to give a follow up keynote and workshop for their Digital Creativity conference to be held on the 23 May 2012. The keynote is titled: ‘Space is the machine: Best practices and techniques for using mixed and augmented reality in education’. The session will exploit the web of relationships made possible through combining the physical, digital and conceptual aspects of space to increase knowledge formation. As interfaces become more and more spatial the role of the learning designer expands from composing situations for screen based interaction to developing actual structures and form which activate embodiment and experiential learning. Further details: 3/4/12

http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/london/events/2012/may/digital-creativity-2012.aspx

Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference

For the fourth year running Carl Smith has had a full paper accepted for the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference to be held at the British Computer Society in London. The paper details are: Smith, C. (2012). Enhancing spatial cognition to improve pattern recognition within mixed reality environments. The conference will take place from 10th-12th July, 2012. The EVA conference takes place annually in London, Beijing, Berlin, Florence, Montreal, Moscow, Vienna and Warsaw. It is primarily for those interested in using new technologies with a particular focus on visualisation in the arts and sciences. Further details: 3/4/12

http://www.eva-london.org

British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) article accepted

LTRI's John Cook is lead author on a paper that has been accepted in the highly regarded British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET). The paper is based on LTRI's work on social mobile network(ing) for the MATURE project. Abstract and full reference is below. Please email John for a final draft. BJET is a tier 1 journal, Impact Factor: 2.139; ISI Journal Citation Reports Ranking: 2010: 11/177 (Education & Educational Research).
Abstract: Social and mobile technologies offer users unprecedented opportunities for communicating, interacting, sharing, meaning-making, content and context generation. And, these affordances are in constant flux driven by a powerful interplay between technological innovation and emerging cultural practices. Significantly, also, they are starting to transcend the everyday life-worlds of users and permeate the workplace and its practices. However, given the emergent nature of this area, the literature on the use of social and mobile technologies in workplace practices is still small. Our main focus will, therefore, be on the question of what, if any, potential there is for the use of social media in informal, professional, work-based learning. The paper provides a critical overview of key issues from the literature on work-based learning, face-to-face and technology supported, as well as social (mobile) networking services with particular attention being paid to people tagging. It then introduces an initial typology of informal workplace learning in order to provide a frame for understanding social (mobile) network(ing) services in work-based learning. Finally, a case study (taken from the literature) of people tagging in digital social networks in the European Commission funded MATURE project is used to illustrate aspects of our typology.
Cook, J. & Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Journal of Educational Technology. Accepted, due Summer 2012. 26/3/12

New book: Refining current practices in mobile and blended learning

The International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL) special issues from the Alpine Rendezvous that LTRI took part in in (2009) and other contributions we made to the IJMBL feature centrally in a new book which is basically a reprint of IJMBL journal papers framed by an introduction/editorial in which our triangle (e.g. Cook et al., 2011) is used as a central theoretical perspective for thinking about mobile learning: http://www.igi-global.com/book/refining-current-practices-mobile-blended/56020
Cook, J., Pachler, N., & Bachmair, B. (2011). Ubiquitous Mobility with Mobile Phones: A Cultural Ecology for Mobile Learning. E–Learning and Digital Media, 8(3), 181-195. See www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA 6/3/12

New journal article published

Tom Boyle and Debbie Holley (now at Anglia Ruskin University) have a new journal paper published on working with staff at LondonMet to develop multimedia learning resources with GLO Maker. The paper is available online.
Holley, D. & Boyle T. (2012) Empowering teachers to author multimedia learning resources that support students’ critical thinking. EURODL, European Journal of Open and Distance Learning. Available at: http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2012/Holley_Boyle.pdf

ECQA Certified mobile Learning Manager
Improve and certify your skills
Register for a FREE online training trial and become a mobile Learning Manager
Valid until 22nd March 2012
Contact: Carl Smith carl.smith@londonmet.ac.uk or Colin Rainey c.rainey@londonmet.ac.uk
Project name: mobile Learning Manager (mLeMan)
Websites: http://mleman.dipseil.net and http://www.ecqa.org
23/2/12

New LTRI publication on our innovative work at the European work-based learning level
Cook, J. (2012). Using Educational Technology to Mediate Informal Task-Conscious Learning: Design Innovations in Two European Projects. Invited paper for Educational Technology Magazine, Special Issue on 'Educational Technology in Europe'.
"Educational Technology Magazine is the world's leading periodical publication covering the entire field of educational technology, an area pioneered by the magazine's editors in the early 1960s. Read by leaders in more than one hundred countries, the magazine has been at the forefront of every important new trend in the development of the field throughout the past five decades. Its list of published authors is a virtual "who's who" of the leading personalities and authorities from all over the world active in educational technology research, development, and application." http://asianvu.com/bookstoread/etp/ 
As the magazine is subscription only email John for a 'final proof'.

ALT logoALT Workshop 'Making a difference: How can we demonstrate the impact of learning technology research?', 20/3/12
ALT (the Association for Learning Technology) are running a research workshop at London Met, led by Jane Seale, member of the REF Education sub panel. The DVC Professor Peter McCaffery will provide a welcoming address. The workshop is free to attend, but booking is essential (see link below for more details and booking).
Date: March 20, 2012, 13:30 - 17.00
Venue: London Metropolitan University, Tower Building
More info:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/events/making-difference-how-can-we-demonstrate-impact-learning-technology-research
The Twitter hashtag for this event is #ltrimpact

LTRI visited by HRH the Duke of York
Photo of HRH visiting LTRI - click for larger imageHRH the Duke of York visited the Shoreditch Building of London Met on February 1st, to officially launch the University’s successful business start-up programme. Whilst he was there, he also spent some time with LTRI, talking to Tom Boyle and John Cook about current areas of work in the Institute.
More info about Accelerator can be found at www.accelerator-london.com

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Recent news

January 2012

Horizon report now available
2012 Horizon Report cover imageThe NMC Horizon Report 2012 for Higher Education Edition is now available. Six emerging technologies are identified. LTRI’s John Cook serves on the Advisory Board for this report. Two key trends that John pushed for, and that are included, are: 1. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. 2. The world of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured. The report is available from here: http://bit.ly/vLD2fr

JISC online session on ‘Anytime Learning Literacies Environment’ (ALLE) project, January 20, 14.00-15.00
Lyn Greaves from the University of West London is presenting an online session for JISC on the findings from the ‘Anytime Learning Literacies Environment’ (ALLE) project (http://alle.uwl.ac.uk/) which LTRI was involved in. The ALLE project has developed online learning resources in the form of a Learner Journey to help students acquire digital literacy skills.
The session is free and will take place online via Blackboard Collaborate - details and how to register are here

Tom Boyle to co-present HEA Discipline Workshop, University of West London, January 25
LTRI's Tom Boyle with Lyn Greaves from the University of West London are presenting a workshop for the HEA Discipline Workshop & Seminar Series, 2011-2012. The workshop is entitled ‘Learning journeys: supporting learner digital literacy acquisition with 1st year West London Business School undergraduate students’. Participants will be introduced to the Learner Journeys created for the JISC-funded ‘Anytime Learning Literacies Environment’ (ALLE) project (http://alle.uwl.ac.uk/). They will also be shown how to use the GLO Maker learning object authoring tool to adapt the learning journeys for their own requirements. Students will also be a the workshop to provide their views and experiences of using the resources.
See flyer [PDF]
See workshop programme [PDF]
To register for the event email charmaine.julien@uwl.ac.uk

John Cook to give seminar at Anglia Ruskin University
LTRI’s John Cook will give an invited talk to the ‘Research Matters’ seminar at Anglia Ruskin University, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education. 4.30 - 6 pm on Thursday 19 January. Title: ‘Unpack that tweet! Open debate on the links between scholarly activity and research into Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)’. 12/1/12

Claire Bradley to give HERS seminar, January 31
Claire Bradley with Debbie Holley from Anglia Ruskin University are giving a Higher Education Research Seminar (HERS) seminar on January 31. Entitled ‘Using text messages to engage students in academic work’, the seminar reports on findings from their recent ESCalate-funded project ‘Balancing the demands of in-school placement with out-of-school study’. The seminar takes place at Holloway Road at 12.30.

Preview of the Horizon Report
A preview of the NMC Horizon Report 2012 for Higher Ed Edition is now available. Six emerging technologies are identified - for details see http://bit.ly/vLD2fr. LTRI’s John Cook serves on the Advisory Board for this report. Two key trends that John pushed for, and that are in this preliminary version, are: 1. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. 2. The world of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured. 12/1/12

Klaus Rummler from the University of Bremen gave seminar at LTRI
Klaus Rummler from the University of Bremen gave a talk on 'Learning with shared videos. Recent findings on usage production and publication of online videos and implications for at-risk learners' on January 12.
Klaus Rummler is a Media Educator working for the Department of Media Education and Didactical Design of Interactive Learning, at the Faculty for Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen.
Seminar slides: http://www.slideshare.net/KlausR/learning-with-shared-videos
More about Klaus here: http://www.klaus-rummler.de/about/

Research in Learning Technology journal goes Open Access
Research in Learning Technology (formerly ALT-J), the journal for the Association of Learning Technology is now Open Access. LTRI's John Cook is on the journal's Editorial Board and is a member of the Journal's Steering Board. Articles from the last 19 years are now freely available at http://ow.ly/8eZce 12/1/12

December 2011

John Cook invited to mLearn 2012 programme committee
John has been invited again to become a member of the program committee for the 11th World conference on mobile and contextual learning (mLearn 2012) in Helsinki, Finland on 16th-18th October. 14/12/11

Workshop on Evidence-Based Policy Development in Learning Technology
LTRI's John Cook will chair a workshop on 9 January about Evidence-Based Policy Development in Learning Technology, to be held in London. Contributions will include Jonathan Shepherd, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Cardiff and Director of the Violence Research Group, and John Naughton, Vice-President of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Emeritus Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open University, and the Observer's technology columnist. The workshop is by invitation only and is organised by ALT with the support of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Intellect, and the TEL Programme. 8/12/11

Workshop at BETT 2012
The London Mobile Learning Group (Norbert Pachler, Ben Bachmair, John Cook, Klaus Rummler, Judith Seipold), in conjunction with Achievement for All, will run a workshop entitled 'Exploiting mobile technologies in learning' on January 11, 2012 at Olympia in London as part of BETT 2012, the leading event for educational technology. Part 1 will run from 1200-1430 hours, Part 2 from 1530-1800 hours. The focus is on integrating mobile media in schools and classrooms in productive ways with a particular focus on at-risk learners and the bridging of the gap between the use of technology in school and everyday life. The event is free but free registration is required at http://www.bettshow.com/ or on the day. For details, see http://bit.ly/lmlg

November 2011

SoMobNet logoSoMobNet Roundtable 'Social Mobile Networking for Informal Learning', Nov 21st
LTRI's John Cook is co-organising and presenting at the SoMobNet Roundtable 'Social Mobile Networking for Informal Learning' to be held at Institute of Education, November 21st, 2011. Keynotes by Guy Merchant, Charles Crook and Gunther Kress with roundup and outlook by Sonia Livingstone.
The paper: Online people tagging: Social Mobile Networking Services in Work-based Learning, John Cook, Norbert Pachler
Full programme: http://www.somobnet.eu/2011/11/somobnet-roundtable-final-programme/
Check out our #somobnet app at twoppy http://t.co/0xxSfJds
Virtual participation: use twitter #somobnet or/& live blogging http://t.co/5O6IoOga to post comments/questions

John Cook to advise on the Horizon Project Advisory Board
LTRI’s John Cook has been invited to serve on the prestigious Tenth Anniversary Horizon Project Advisory Board, an international group of experts that will work to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition (in conjunction with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative). The Horizon Project Advisory Boards provide vision and stimulus to the Horizon Project, NMC's annual effort to identify and describe the key emerging technologies that will be influential for teaching, learning, and creative expression in tertiary education over the next five years.
See Richard Noss's blog on #publicsectorinnovation at http://bit.ly/vdy8Au
Additional information can be found at http://horizon.nmc.org

Claire Bradley to demonstrate use of GLO Maker at the Bloomsbury Colleges E-Learning Showcase event
Claire has been invited to show how learning materials can be created and adapted using GLO Maker, our learning object authoring tool. This is part of an E-Learning Showcase being held on November 28 to encourage more staff across the colleges to use tools for creating interactive learning materials. The Bloomsbury Colleges group and consists of the following six colleges of the University of London: Birkbeck, the Institute of Education, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Royal Veterinary College, the School of Oriental and African Studies and The School of Pharmacy. See http://www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/

John Cook to be part of group to visit and talk to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills
Prof Richard Noss, Co-Director of the London Knowledge Lab, has asked John Cook to join his Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Research Programme Group for a visit to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) on the 3rd Nov; see http://tinyurl.com/63lowbe for details of an earlier visit. The four discussion topics are here: http://bit.ly/px0jzz, and these will form the basis of informal, ongoing ‘Curated Conversations’ with BIS on  Innovation in Education and Learning.

Carl Smith invited to submit a paper for a special issue
Carl has been invited to submit a paper for a special issue of the JCR indexed journal Journal of Universal Computer Science. The special issue will focus on technology for learning across physical and virtual spaces. For more detailed information, see here

BJET logoCall for papers for a special issue of BJET on Social Networking and Mobile Learning
There is currently a call for papers for a special issue of BJET (the British Journal of Educational Technology) on Social Networking and Mobile Learning. LTRI's John Cook is co-editor with colleagues from the SoMobNet STELLAR Theme Team: http://www.somobnet.eu/
Important dates:
9th January 2012: Submission of manuscripts
12th February 201: Notification to authors
12th March 2012: Final versions due
April 2012: Manuscripts go to publisher for copy editing and typesetting July 2012: Special issue published
For details see: http://bit.ly/pNIbWD

October 2011

LTRI staff invited on Mobile Learning 2012 programme committee
John Cook, Claire Bradley and Carl Smith have been invited again to join the programme committee for this conference, to be held in Berlin, 11-13 March. The call for papers is open until October 28, 2011, and the theme of the conference is Mobile Learning where to next? For details of the conference see: http://www.mlearning-conf.org

Image of ASLD11Art and Science of Learning Design Workshop, London Knowledge Lab,
13-14 October

John Cook presented a position paper accepted for this Workshop.
Title: Two Cases of Design Research that Explore How Mobile Devices and Social Media Mediate ‘Informal Learning’ to Drive the Debate: Can Learning Design Hack it? Web site: http://www.ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11

September 2011

GLO Maker logoGLO Maker downloads
In the 2 years since GLO Maker 2, our learning object authoring tool was launched in August 2009, it has been downloaded over 3,000 times in 122 countries internationally. For more details about GLO Maker and to download it for free go to: http://www.glomaker.org/

SOMOBNET logoCall for proposals for International Roundtable on Social Mobile Networking for Informal Learning
John Cook of LTRI is a partner in the STELLAR (a European Network of Excellence in TEL) Theme Team on “Social Mobile Networking for Informal Learning” (SoMobNet, http://www.somobnet.eu). SoMobNet invites proposals for an International Roundtable which will take place at the Institute of Education in London on 21st November 2011. Participation at the event is by invitation only and free of charge. Places are limited (max 35). The round table will feature two keynotes, a series of paper presentations as well as two discussion sessions moderated by a facilitator and reported by a network member. The discussion sessions will provide the opportunity for participants to respond to inputs from the perspectives of their own research and professional practice. The roundtable will provide opportunity to network with colleagues to learn about each other’s work, formulate collaborative ideas and scope challenges to advance theory and practice in the field of mobile learning and social network. Confirmed speakers include Aleks Krotoski (Guardian), Gunther Kress (IoE), Sonia Livingstone (LSE), Ben Bachmair (Kassel/IoE), Beat Doebeli (Goldau), Klaus Bredl (Augsburg) and Christoph Pimmer (Basel). Selected potential contributors will be invited to present a draft of their paper at the roundtable and subsequently to submit a paper for a special issue of a journal or an edited book on the topic. Please, see the full call and the program of the roundtable on the SoMobNet website: http://www.somobnet.eu/roundtable. The application deadline for the submission of abstracts (300-500 words) is Friday 30th September.

ALT-C logoLTRI had a large presence at this year's ALT-C conference
LTRI's John Cook was co-chair at the 18th conference for the Association of Learning Technology, held at the University of Leeds, 6-8 September 2011. The theme of the conference was 'Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate. In addition, LTRI staff gave a number of presentations and demonstrations at the conference:
> Boyle, T. Authoring rich, adaptable learning resources using GLO Maker. Demonstration
> Bradley, C. Our students all have mobile phones: what do they have and how are they using them for learning? Short paper.
> Greaves, L, Boyle, T, and Bradley C. Demonstration of the ALLE learning resources for Digital Literacy.
> Greaves, L and Bradley, C. Supporting digital literacy skills with HE students: what we have learnt. Short paper.
> Sentence, S., Holley D, and Bradley, C. Supporting education students on school placements with mobile devices. Short paper.
For full details see: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2011

Carl Smith invited to be a judge on the Mobile Learning Challenge
Carl has been invited to be a judge on behalf of the International Association for Mobile Learning (IAMLearn, www.iamlearn.org), in collaboration with Epic (www.epic.co.uk), for the Mobile Learning Challenge. The Mobile Learning Challenge is searching for innovative and visionary solutions for learning using mobile technologies. The solution can be related to research, design, educational practice, or evaluation. It must not represent work that has already been done, but should focus on a problem or opportunity that has not yet been successfully addressed by mobile learning so far. For more information: http://www.iamlearn.org/competition.php

New publication
Bradley, C. and Holley, D. (2011). Learning on the move, Investigations in university teaching and learning, Vol 7, Spring 2011 12/9/11

Carl Smith invited to become a member of the AMD cross faculty research platform at London Metropolitan University
Carl has been invited to become a member of the cross faculty research platform at AMD (Art Media and Design). This initiative has secured funding for a year. Hardware and software is being purchased for a laboratory that will be used as a vehicle for R&D. The research platform will also act as a base for developing further funding applications. 12/9/11

Carl Smith invited to become a member of an integrated research platform in the Faculty of Computing
Carl has been invited to become a member of an integrated research platform in the Faculty of Computing, London Metropolitan University. The platform believes that creative Experiences can be offered using a range of integrated technology platforms to enable user-generated content - be it narratives, visualisations, witness or documentary material. Potential users are museums, theme parks, shows and events. We aim to integrate our specialisms include 3D design, mobile apps, virtual avatar worlds, special effects, augmented 3d virtual worlds, games and animation, intelligent interface design, knowledge management systems, tangible and embedded media. More information to follow. 12/9/11

Event logoLTRI staff give 3 presentations at Mobile Learning: Now and the Future, 28/9/11, College of North West London
Tom Boyle, John Cook and Carl Smith have all been invited to give presentations at this event on 28 September. The event is being organised by Brunel University, and focuses on mobile learning in further and higher Education.
> Tom Boyle is presenting a session 'Create your own mobile learning objects with GLO Maker'.
> John Cook has been invited to give keynote, 'Putting Learning into Context with Mobile Devices'.
> Carl has been invited to give a keynote address, ‘The Role of Design and Technology in the Development of Augmented Learning Contexts’.
Description: The presentation will investigate the emerging practice within education that merges digital virtual experiences with physical spatial experiences. Well designed ‘augmented spaces’ should enable the creation of situations and concepts that could not have been realised with just physical or just virtual methods because they should unite the strengths, features and possibilities of both.
For more details see the event website

ALT response to the Review of the National Curriculum Call for Evidence
As reported in LTRI News (9/5/11), LTRI's John Cook has been involved in the ALT (Association for Learning Technology) response to the Review of the National Curriculum Call for Evidence. See press release and link to full response here. The Observer's John Naughton picks up on our submission to Michael Gove in his article reviewing the National Curriculum ow.ly/6eRRp

Mobile Learning: Now and the Future, 28/9/11, College of North West London
Tom Boyle, John Cook and Carl Smith were all been invited to give presentations at this event on 28 September. The event was organised by Brunel University, and focused on mobile learning in further and higher Education.
> Tom Boyle presented a session 'Create your own mobile learning objects with GLO Maker'.
> John Cook gave a keynote, 'Putting Learning into Context with Mobile Devices'.
> Carl Smith gave a keynote, ‘The Role of Design and Technology in the Development of Augmented Learning Contexts’.
For more details see the event website

EC-TEL logoPapers presented atEuropean Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) 2011, Palermo, Itay, 20-23 September
John Cook presented 2 papers at the EC-TEL conference that disseminate MATURE work:
> Cook, J., Schmidt, A., Kunzmann, C. and Braun, S. (2011). The Challenge of Integrating Motivational and Affective Aspects into the Design of Networks of Practice. In 2nd Motivational and Affective Aspects of Technology Enhanced Learning and Web 2.0 (MATEL), European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning 2011.
> Cook, J. (2011). User Generated Contexts Across Spaces – Design Research Perspectives. In Across Spaces, European Conference-Technology Enhanced Learning 2011.
For details see: http://www.ec-tel.eu/index.php

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