Invited Speakers/Workshops...

• Keynote Speakers
• BBC Event
• Ensemble Workshop
• Archive of Educational Computing
• Telematic Dance

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Keynote Speakers – view speaker biographies and abstracts

• Professor Steve Benford, University of Nottingham, UK
• Dr. Jabari Mahiri, University of California at Berkeley, USA
• Professor Jean Underwood, Nottingham Trent University, UK

BBC Event: A Conversation with the BBC’s George Auckland – sign up now!

On the evening of Tuesday 12th April, the BBC and the CAL Conference will be hosting a special event with George Auckland, Head of Learning Innovation at the BBC for over thirty years. George Auckland is one of the world’s pioneers of disruptive innovation in learning, media and technology. CAL delegates will have privileged access to this exciting event and a reception afterwards!

The event will be held at the Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, 7.00pm, Tuesday 12th April. Spaces are limited so please REGISTER NOW to guarantee your place. http://cal-conference.eventbrite.com

Find out more about George Auckland

The Ensemble Workshop:

A Semantic Web Application in a Day!

Over the past three years, the ESRC/EPSRC Ensemble Project (full name: “Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based Learning”) has been working with teachers and students to develop interactive web applications using semantic web technologies. We have used elements of the SIMILE semantic web toolkit) to build:

• interactive maps and timelines
• web 'front-ends' to databases of mixed content (texts, images, video... )
• search tools linking local content and data from across the web
• and many others ...

Examples include a timeline of plant evolution for undergraduate bioscientists; interactive maps showing how the worlds' media respond to natural disasters; course gazetteers linking case studies to readings … if you can think of a situation in which it would be useful to combine and visualise different data sets, then semantic technologies may be the answer, and this workshop will get you started.

From datasets, catalogues and web services…	to an integrated, interactive web application…
	…and the Ensemble project team think they can get you well on the way inside a day!

Participants (numbers are limited to 25) will need to bring a network-enabled laptop and some data (in spreadsheet or other structured form), or have access to sources of data with which they want to work (Google docs, online image albums, databases, open government data…).

Full documentation will be provided and the Ensemble team will provide further guidance to participants who want to take their work forward.

Workshop Outline

Morning Session

• The 'Semantic Web', 'Semantic Technologies' and the 'Linked Web of Data' in Education'
• About the Ensemble Project: Exploring Semantic Technologies in Case based Learning
• A 'Work through' case study: How we are supporting teaching and learning in Education Studies using the SIMILE toolkit and other semantic technologies
• Fresh from the Ensemble Labs!  First glimpses of some of our new tools and prototypes

Afternoon Session

• From Data to Web Application: Rapid prototyping with the Exhibit Web Application Framework and Ensemble project tools, supported by members of the project
• Review and Next Steps
• Show and Tell: with prizes for different categories of rapid prototypes!

Archive of Educational Computing

Come and add your story to the National Archive of Educational Computing - it could be a first inspiration, a reaction to a particular development, a success or failure or a life story! To trigger your ideas and capture your stories, some artefacts and the web site will be available throughout the conference, and a workshop at 10:45 on Friday 15th April is being held if you wish to discuss next steps.

The National Archive of Educational Computing attempts to preserve and interpret the heritage created by the widespread adoption of computers in education alongside the rapid development of technology over the last 30 years. It is working to represent the history of innovation in Educational Computing experienced in the UK. This history is marked by imaginative and participative activities engaged in by teachers, pupils, and families. The academic, private and public sectors have all played their part in a flowering of invention and creativity which continues to the present day. The archive consists of computers and associated equipment, software, papers, policy documents, supporting materials, peoples memories and experiences. A significant collection of these artefacts is currently held which requires cataloguing, curation and interpretation.

As new generations embrace the use of technology in learning they often repeat earlier mistakes and may not realise the important historical role played by the UK. This field is not recorded coherently or well.

Participants, practitioners and researchers need better access to this legacy so that they can innovate with wisdom. At CAL 2011, delegates will be invited to add their recollections to the stories already collected through the website or to make a short video report of their experience www.naec.org.uk

Telematic Dance

More information coming soon!