eLit 2006

eLit 2006, the 5th International Conference on eLiteracy, will be held at Loughborough University from June 28-30th. The theme for this year is "Digital literacies and learning in the information society":

eLit2006 is the 5th international conference examining the challenge of eLiteracy. eLit2006 will draw together teachers, educational researchers, policymakers, trainers, librarians, IT support staff, learning technologists, and many others to share experiences and to talk and think through issues such as the embedding of eLiteracy skills in the curriculum to the challenges of creating online education.

For more information, visit the eLit Conference website.

SERA Conference 2006: “Connecting Communities of Learning”

Call for Papers

The Scottish Educational Research Association Conference 2006: “Connecting Communities of Learning” will take place in the Royal George Hotel, Perth, from Thursday 23 November to Saturday 25 November 2006.

The SERA conference provides a forum for the educational research community in Scotland. Educators and educational researchers from outside Scotland are also warmly invited to participate. Papers are welcomed from newly emerging researchers as well as more established figures.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Connecting Communities of Learning”. Within that overall theme papers and symposia are invited covering, but not restricted to, the following areas of research:

• A Curriculum for Excellence
  
• Inclusive Education
  
• Knowledge Transfer
  
• Learning, Teaching and Assessment
  
• Partnership and Collaboration
  
• Social Justice
  
• Transitions

For further information, visit the SERA website.

Perceptions and Experiences of Assessment: Facilitating Students as Change Agents

This innovative 24-hour event, targeted at students in Scottish HEIs, aims to:

• find out students' perceptions and experiences of the assessment process
  
• raise students' awareness of the complex nature of assessment
  
• facilitate students as change agents.

The Perceptions and Experiences of Assessment event will explore the many issues and opportunities offered by the assessment of student learning. It is an exciting way of bringing together a group of students and staff to jointly explore perceptions and experiences offered by assessment. It will be highly interactive and will include videos, a card sort, a game on assessment and the exploration and discussion of case studies. It will also provide an opportunity to produce a briefing for students on assessment and enable students to act as effective change agents in their own institutions.

For more information, visit the HEA website

HEA Newsletter for Scotland

The Higher Education Academy is now producing a bimonthly newsletter, News for Scotland, which features news, events and information for the Scottish HE sector.

The inaugural edition is available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/4137.htm

Glasgow Caledonian Learning & Teaching Showcase Event

Glasgow Caledonian's annual Learning & Teaching Showcase Event will be held on Thursday the 25th of May 2006 and is designed to "celebrate and learn about our innovative practice!"

The Learning and Teaching Showcase Social Point will be open all day in the North Hanover Street Building offering more than 30 presentations and a host of posters highlighting good practice in T&L at GCU.

For more information, visit the programme here.

Preparing Tutors and Demonstrators for their Teaching and Academic Roles in Complex University Environments

The University of Edinburgh is putting on a Higher Education Colloquium entitled Preparing Tutors and Demonstrators for their Teaching and Academic Roles in Complex University Environments: New Research Perspectives on GTA Teaching Practices and Policies on the 19th of June 2006 from 10.00 am - 4.15 pm.

The colloquium will be held in Room G.21, Paterson's Land, The Moray House School of Education, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh.

The delegation of undergraduate teaching to post-graduate research students is widespread practice, predominantly in research-intensive higher education institutions. Several models of training for these tutors and demonstrators have been developed especially in North American contexts, where the preparation of GTAs for their academic roles has a strong tradition.

This Colloquium examines how theoretical concepts and frameworks that feature widely in the literature relating to full-time academics can be applied to tutors and demonstrators. This raises questions such as: How appropriate are the well-established notions around academic identity when applied to this group of teachers? How is their induction organised in different institutional and subject-specific contexts? And: In the context of a research-intensive university, where the research-teaching nexus is prized, what opportunities exist for them to develop synergies between their research and their teaching? These themes are examined under three headings:

1. Notions of Academic Identity

Of what potential relevance are these notions when applied to tutors and demonstrators?

2. Delegating Teaching to Tutors and Demonstrators

Are there subject-specific dimensions to the training, briefing and support that is provided for them?

3. Developing the Teaching/Research Nexus

What might this look like for tutors and demonstrators?

The programme will end with an overview of emerging research including contributions from the Centre of Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice, University of Oxford in partnership with The University of Edinburgh, London School of Economics and Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine.

For more information, please visit http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/events/Colloquium2006.htm