Call for Special Track

This special track is issued under the scientific coordination of the Open University of the Netherlands and the TENCompetence project (EU Integrated project) and Salzburg Research. Expected contributions should be interdisciplinary, targeting both technological and pedagogical views on semantic learning tools and/or other educational technologies for the interactive web of the future.

Self-organised learning covers ways of learning, which allow learners- in comparison to traditional educational scenarios- a major dimension of self-determination and self-regulation: self-regulated learning is a self-initiated action that involves goal setting (why and what is learned?) and regulating one’s efforts to reach the goal (how it is learned?). Nowadays this way of learning is increasingly supported by interactive learning environments, semantically enhanced content and social software (e.g. Wikis, Weblogs, ePortfolios, Social Bookmarks, Social networks like YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr).

Self-organised learning is pre-requisite for competence based development. This is defined as an activity in which individuals have primary responsibility for the planning, the performance and evaluation of learning activities in order to attain specific learning goals. Although the importance of self-regulatd learning has been discussed intensively in the educational field, it has not been an important topic for technology-enhanced learning until today.

The focus of most technological development for learning and competence development was the support of institutions as a provider of learning opportunities. With the widespread acceptance and use of social software this focus is starting to change towards supporting consequently the individual and her/his competence development throughout life. This change of perspectives has a significant impact on the way learning technologies are envisioned, planned, developed and evaluated. This special track is dedicated to advanced learning technologies supporting the self-directed learner in all phases of competence development.

The track invites contributions to the following topics:

• Technology-Enhanced Workplace Learning  
• Semantic Learning Tools 
• Planning & Overview tools and methods
• Feedback & Formative Assessment support
• Reflection & Awareness support  
• Recommendation of social & learning activities
• Learning Process Support 
• Competence detection & recognition
• Applications in informal and non-formal learning
• Context-aware technology
• Personal Learning Environments
• Personal Competence Management Systems
• Boundaries between personal learning environments and institutional learning environments
• Educational Mashups

Scientific Committee

• Heidrun Allert, FH Hagenberg, Austria    
• Gráinne Conole, Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, UK (requested)    
• Werner Behrendt, Research Group “Knowledge Information Systems”, Salzburg Research, Austria    
• Jan van Bruggen, Educational Technology Expertise Centre, Open University of the Netherlands    
• Guntram Geser, Research Group “Information Society Research”, Salzburg Research, Austria    
• Eelco Herder, Research Center L3S, Universität Hannover, Germany    
• Margit Hofer, ZSI, Austria    
• Daniel Kaspar Schneider, TECFA, Geneve, Switzerland    * Ralf Klamma, Information Systems and Database Technology, RWTH Aachen, Germany    
• Rob Koper, Educational Technology Expertise Centre, Open University of the Netherlands    
• Stephanie Lindstaedt, Know-Center Graz, Austria    
• Paul Meinl, factline Webservice GmbH, Austria    
• Bernd Simon, Institute for Information Systems and New Media of Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria    
• Henk Sligte, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands    
• Steve Wheeler, Faculty of Education, University of Plymouth, UK

For Authors
The special track asks for full-papers (4000 - 7000 words) and short papers (3000 words) in English targeting the issues of the conference. All submitted papers will undergo a double-blind review. All accepted papers will be published in CEUR Workshop Proceedings (partly indexed in DPLP) with a dedicated ISBN. All papers will be publicly accessible. After the conference some papers will be selected for a special issue of an Educational Technology journal. Please use this template for submissions.

Submission Procedure
To submit a paper to the Special Track please follow this procedure:

1. Prepare your paper with the template above and convert it to PDF. No other formats are accepted for submission!!! Please note that you should not include author details (name, institution etc.) into the paper – they will be specified during submission.  
2. Visit the Conference Submission System at the following page: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tssol07  
3. Register at the EasyChair System.  
4. Login with your EasyChair username and password  
5. Choose “New Submission” in the top menu   
6. Fill out all details of the form   
7. Please specify the category, some keywords and topics for your contribution  
8. Upload your paper as a PDF

Dates
Submission deadline: 15.03.2008
Notification of acceptance: 30.04.2008
Camera-ready version of the paper: 15.05.2008
Conference: 2. & 3. of June 2008

Contact
Marco Kalz, M.A.
Educational Technology Expertise Centre
Open University of the Netherlands
Heerlen, The Netherlands
marco.kalz@ou.nl
0031-45567-2145