The next NERALLT meeting, Virtually Anything: Modes of Communication, will take place on Thursday and Friday, October 26 and 27, 2006 and will be hosted by Thomas Hammond at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.  

This meeting will examine the generational shift occurring in young people, regarding the use of communication and collaboration technologies by these "digital natives.” How will their social and learning styles shape instructional language technology and pedagogy for the next generation of students?

Connecticut College will host the Spring Meeting of NERALLT on April 28th. The program for the day is entitled The Language Resource Center and Emerging Structures on Campus: Integration, Innovation, and Independence, and will discuss how advances in technology are making colleges re-examine the traditional role of Language Labs. Nina Garret, Director, Center for Language Study at Yale University, will give the keynote address. Other speakers will describe the structural models being used at a vareity of institutions.  Language technology and IT professionals from a variety of schools will also participate in a panel discussion that examines commonalities that can help bridge the gap between their departments.

For more information or to register for this event, please visit the NERALLT website.

Seats are still available for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop on May 13th:  "Collaboration: Empowering Active Learning through the Application of Technology." 

Conferences are great, but after they’re over it can be difficult to remember all that you’ve learned, as well as to share that learning with others who didn’t attend.  To address this challenge, NERCOMP is piloting a blogging initiative for its 2008 conference (conference to be held March 10-12 in Providence, RI).

Four sessions and one pre-conference workshop will be documented in The NERCOMP 2008 Blog.  Each session’s moderator will serve as its blogger, and presenters will also contribute.  Sessions topics include:

• Open Source Learning Management Systems (LMSs)
• Rethinking Computer Labs
• Supporting Digital Humanities Research
• Supporting Learning Initiatives with WordPress
• The Future of the Library

To read about these sessions and to access the blog, go to http://blogs.nercomp.org/blogs/nac2008/

Registration is now open for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop:
"Preparing Faculty to Teach Online"

This announcement has come in from Educause:

NLII Becomes EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

We are pleased to announce that the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) has a new focus and a new name, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Under the leadership of EDUCAUSE Vice President Diana G. Oblinger, the strategic planning team and our current NLII members have reframed the organization's mission to be advancing learning through IT innovation. ELI will be focused on learners and successful learning -- a unique emphasis in the teaching and learning with technology community. We will explore three areas in particular: learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies.

Below is a last-minute reminder of a chance to present works and insights at one of NMC's regional conferences. The deadline is Friday, so get out your pens. The themes seems right on, and the crowd is always interesting and engaged. 

New Challenges ... New Ideas

The 2006 Fall Regional NMC Conference at Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas, November 8-10, 2006

Proposals for presentations are being solicited now through this coming Friday, September 15th for the 2006 Fall Regional NMC Conference, to be held November 8-10, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas.  Join keynoters Aaron Delwiche (http://delwiche.livejournal.com/) and John Lister, aka Pathfinder Linden of Linden Labs, creators of Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com), on the program of this important exploration of solutions to the challenges that face us all in higher education.

Befitting the rich traditions of Trinity and its sister institutions across the southwest, the conference will bring together scholars and technologists from across the world to explore new ideas, discuss the issues which surround them, and share stories of successful efforts.   We will be staying on the River Walk, an area steeped in the rich cultural history of old San Antonio.

NMC Regional Conferences are one-of-a-kind events, each very much a reflection of the host institution.  In fall 2006, the NMC comes to Texas for a very special regional event to be held on the campus of Trinity University (http://www.trinity.edu).  

The ongoing theme of the NMC's series of regional conferences is "New Challenges ... New Ideas,” and this year, three challenges in particular will provide the spark at the core of the program.


§        The Future of Scholarship 
The future of scholarship is evolving, and evolving rapidly.  Contemporary writing and other creative works have seen considerable scholarly experimentation, but all areas of scholarship are seeing examples that diverge from traditional forms and take advantage of affordances offered by emerging media and tools. This track is designed to highlight exciting new forms of scholarship that are arising, and to showcase model practices.  At the same time, the goal is to look not only at the promise and potential of these developments, but also to encourage frank discussions about the challenges they pose, especially for aspiring scholars.

 

§         Bringing Virtual 3-D Worlds to Reality
The science and technology underlying virtual worlds have long made these metaverses rich landscapes for explorations of 3-dimensional forms in science and engineering. Recently, with the influence of immersive gaming technologies, we have also begun to see them develop as compelling social spaces.  This track is devoted to an exploration of emerging practices in the use of these spaces, including experimental worlds created with new tools like Croquet, commercial metaverses like Second Life and World of Warcraft, as well as the range of supporting concepts and assessment strategies.


§         Embracing the New Web 
The web is undergoing yet another transformation, one being driven by the tremendous impact of social networking and folksonomic tools.  Community-driven sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, MySpace, and others that have almost no content of their own, yet have become some of the most popular and most-visited sites on the web.  How are these approaches going to impact the way we develop content for college, university, or museum web sites?  What are the implications we should be considering, and what are the unresolved issues?

Find complete information about the conference, including full details on travel and lodging, by visiting the conference website at http://www.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/

We encourage you to submit a proposal for a session in one or more of the conference tracks. Sessions can include demonstrations, panel discussions, and descriptions of work being done on your campus or solutions to challenges you face. Ample time should be allowed for questions and group discussion, as informality and candor are the hallmarks of our conferences.

Submitting a Proposal
Proposals should be submitted online using the NMC's proposal submission system:

http://www.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/submit_proposal.shtml

For full consideration, proposals should be submitted no later than September 15, 2006, as the review and selection of session proposals begins on that date.

Questions or ideas for potential sessions should be directed to Rachel Smith, rachel@nmc.org, or via phone at 512 445-4200.