22 February 2013

Plenary talks for #mlearngulf

The plenary talks for Mobile Learning: Gulf Perspectives are now confirmed.  The three plenary talks will take place in the morning of the symposium on 25 April, and will review research on different areas of mobile learning from regional and international perspectives:

Researching the UAE iPad initiative
Dr. Christina Gitsaki (Higher Colleges of Technology), Troy Priest (Zayed University), Dr. Matt Robby (Higher Colleges of Technology)

Bring your own mobile devices to the classroom
Dr. Ieda Santos (Emirates College for Advanced Education)

Mobile learning: from research to practice to impact education
Prof. Mohamed Ally (Athabasca University)

The plenary speakers will also lead workshops for smaller groups in the afternoon session.

Registration will open soon, and proposals for interactive presentations will be accepted until 28 February.

04 February 2013

Mobile Learning: Gulf Perspectives - call for participation



You are invited to participate and to present your work at Mobile Learning: Gulf Perspectives, a research symposium on Thursday 25 April 2013 at Zayed University’s Abu Dhabi campus.

The goals of the symposium are to provide a forum for research on mobile learning and teaching in all subject areas in Gulf universities and colleges, and to stimulate research in the region.  The symposium will include plenary talks, interactive presentations and a panel discussion on iPad use, BYOD and other aspects of mobile learning.  It will also include workshops by leading local and international researchers, in which participants will discuss how to apply insights from the symposium to their own work in a Gulf context, and how to gather their own data for possible future publication.

The symposium is organized by ZU’s Center for Educational Innovation in collaboration with the Office of Research, and is linked to the refereed online journal Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives (LTHE), published by ZU Press.

You are invited to submit a proposal for an interactive presentation in the symposium.  The interactive presentations will take place in an open space during the symposium, and should present data and insights related to mobile learning with Gulf university/college students, using visual and other media to engage participants in discussion.  This may be done for example through poster presentations or interactive presentations on screen.  We particularly encourage presentations which allow participants to interact with the presented materials using mobile technologies (for example via QR codes or augmented reality).

If you would like to propose an interactive presentation, please send your proposal to Dr. David Palfreyman (email address below), including:
* The title of your presentation
* The proposed medium for the presentation (see possible ideas above)
* An abstract (150 words max) outlining (a) the context in which you carried out your work (where, when, why, how, with whom), (b) the data you will present and (c) key insights arising from this data.

The deadline for interactive presentation proposals is 28 February 2013.  Selected presenters will be informed by 7 March; their registration fees will be waived and they will be invited to write up their presentation for publication in a special issue of LTHE.

Registration will open soon.  To keep informed of further details, please check the symposium website regularly, register as a reader with LTHE and/or follow LTHEgulf on Twitter (#mlearngulf).

Proposals, questions and comments to: David "dot" Palfreyman "at" zu.ac.ae