Friday, January 06, 2006

CFP: HigherEd BlogCon 2006: Transforming Academic Communities with New Tools of the Social Web

CFP: HigherEd BlogCon 2006: Transforming Academic Communities with New Tools of the Social Web

Dates: April 3–28, 2006
An all-online event: http://www.higheredblogcon.com

Presented by Thomson Peterson's, PRNewswire, and The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

CALL CLOSES JANUARY 31, 2006

Thomson Peterson's, PRNewswire, and CASE are proud to present HigherEd BlogCon - Transforming Academic Communities with New Tools of the Social Web. This brand-new, all-online event aims to bring together in a single Web space many of the leading players who are transforming academe with their use of the new tools of the Social Web. All presentations will be made available on the event Web site at no charge to participants (with the exception of the live, Web/audio CASE Online Speaker Series events). Modeled after Global PR Blog Week 2.0, Higher Ed BlogCon 2006 will focus on the use of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, vblogs, and other digital tools in a range of areas in academe.

We are looking for informational and inspiring presentations on the use of these Web tools from practitioners in the following areas:

-Teaching
-Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing
-Web sites and Web Development
-Library & Information Resources

PROGRAM INFORMATION

This all-online conference will feature presentations published on the event Web site throughout the month of April 2006. Presentations will be offered asynchronously, and attendees will have the opportunity to dialogue online in blog style with presenters. In addition, during April, several live online seminars addressing key topics and issues will be offered through the CASE Online Speaker Series.

Teaching
~The changing nature of in-class activity in the age of podcast lectures
~Impact of new media on attendance patterns
~Impact of new media on online learning
~New media and course platforms
~Challenges surrounding intellectual property
~What do new media mean for the so-called digital divide?
~Video versus screencast versus podcast
~Wikis and learning
~The RSS divide
~The role of games in education
~Open courseware
~Changing expectations of the student and teacher at the educational interface

Admissions, Alumni Relations, Communications & Marketing
~Effective integration of new media and conventional media in marketing campaigns
~Demographics of prospective students: Who's using what tools?
~Student blogging and podcasting in marketing campaigns
~Social networks and prospective students
~Consumer-generated media as a new source of marketing material
~Addition of syndicated communication channels to the marketing mix
~Measurement and evaluation of blogging and podcasting efforts
~Social network analysis applied to admissions and alumni relations
~Intersection of online alumni and donor communities with social and business networks
~RSS as a medium for student recruitment and alumni and donor communities
~Use of wikis in university relations

Web sites and Web Development
~The evolving role of the Webmaster in the age of social tools (including how these technologies will affect working relationships across areas and disciplines)
~Uses of and coordination of RSS and syndication across the institution
~Implementation and utilization of social software and other applications in higher education Web sites
~Web standards and accessibility in blogs, wikis, etc.
~Utilizing students in the development of Web sites, Web applications, and social applications
~Production and distribution methods for podcasting
~Choosing, installing, and maintaining a blogging system
~On the horizon: Next-generation Web 2.0 applications

Library and Information Resources
~Library 2.0: What does Web 2.0 mean for libraries?
~New media and the new librarian (What skills do librarians need to create the 2.0 library?)
~Impact of social software on learning in library and information science
~Using social software to communicate, educate, and build community online in libraries (blogs, wikis, RSS, IM, podcasting, photo sharing, screencasting, etc.)
~Improving Access to Resources (search engines, Federated Search, OpenURL, collaborative filtering, usability, accessibility, etc.)
~Web services and the library: seamless, interoperable, modular, reusable
~User-created content (folksonomies, wikis, wiki-like function in the catalog, etc.)
~Does or should technology affect the way we define and teach information literacy?
~Guidelines for evaluating and recommending tools
~Emerging technologies in libraries: Looking ahead

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS

Proposals must relate to and be submitted under a specific track.
Proposals should be written (maximum 500 words). Please do not submit full presentations.
Proposals should be submitted online: http://higheredblogcon.editme.com/Proposals
Proposals should include the following elements:
~Presenter's name
~Presenter's e-mail address
~Presenter's blog or Web site address (optional)
~Presenter's institution or organization
~Intended format of presentation (text, audio, video, or screencast)
~Type of presentation: longer thought or research piece; shorter application-focused piece
~Presentation title
~Presentation description (250–500 words)
~Brief biography of the presenter

PROPOSAL REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE

Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the appropriate subcommittee consisting of the section chair, section editor, and steering committee members. Each submission will be reviewed by a minimum of three reviewers. Once all submissions have been reviewed, the subcommittees will select those presentations that meet the evaluation criteria as outlined on the conference planning Web site and that support the goals of the track. All committee members and reviewers are listed on the conference planning Web site: http://higheredblogcon.editme.com.
Presenters will be notified of proposal acceptance by February 20, 2006.
Presenters whose proposals are selected for presentation at the event will be required to submit their final presentation material (or, in the case of an audio, screencast, or video presentation, a summary with links to it) via the conference blog, where it will be reviewed by the Section Chair and published on the blog at the appropriate time. All presentation materials must be submitted by March 15, 2006.

Presentations will be offered under the Creative Commons License.
Product pitches will not be considered.

KEY DEADLINES
Due Date for Proposals: January 31, 2006
Notification of Acceptance: February 20, 2006
Due Date for Presentations: March 15, 2006

CONTACT INFORMATION
Dan Karleen
Event Chair, HigherEd BlogCon
Thomson Peterson's
E-mail: dan.karleen@thomson.com
Phone: (+1) 1-609-896-5515

More information can be found at http://www.higheredblogcon.com or on the planning wiki http://higheredblogcon.editme.com/