• Connecting learners
• Orchestrating learning
• Contextualising learning environments.

The summer school provides a learning environment where participants get opportunities to: develop their research skills; increase their knowledge base; collaborate with others in their own and complementary research areas; engage in debate; have access to experts in the field; and discuss their own work. Participants will record ideas and develop thinking by contributing to a Grand Challenges wiki (http://www.stellarnet.eu/d/1/1/Home) where they will also find contributions from experts in the field.
The programme will include lectures from experts in the Grand Challenge areas and presentations exploring the Grand Challenges from both summer school participants and experts. Research projects within TEL are encouraged to represent their work as it relates to the Grand Challenges. The programme will also include practical and methodological workshops and opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop their own work. All participants will be expected to read and contribute to the Grand Challenges wiki. Students will have opportunities to present and discuss their doctoral work.
Applications should be submitted online before Friday 26th March. The online application form will be available from Friday 19th February.

This year the JTEL Summer School will benefit from special funding from the STELLAR Network of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning, the Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office, and the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning.

For further details see: www.JTELSummerSchool.eu

• Quality of the Education: A new vision
• Technology Enhanced Learning – Learning Technologies – Personalization -
  E-learning
• Educational Strategies
• The Collaborative/Constructive/Pedagogical/Didactic Approaches
• The Formal / Informal / and Life Long Learning Perspectives
• The Contribution of Education to Sustainable Development

For further details see http://www.reform-education.org.

In the context of STELLAR the LFA has been adapted to the specifics of our context. Via various means of getting input and collecting feedback the project objectives of STELLAR have been slightly reformulated to express the indented change that STELLAR wants to achieve via its joint programme of activities. Apart from supporting the actors in STELLAR to perform according to the description of work as defined in the contract the evaluation framework also aligns the project performance to the overall project objectives and identifies indicators for their achievement.

In the future we will use the evaluation framework as a diagnostic instrument to continuously assess the status and the direction of the various activities within STELLAR and their contribution to the overall project objectives.

For monitoring the development of the STELLAR network, the involved actors, topics and disciplines, two additional methods are applied, namely Social Network Analysis and Ego-centric Network Analysis. First results give a rather heterogeneous picture of the network regarding TEL-related disciplines and topics as well as a strong involvement of all partners in the activities of the network. The reporting and data collection process for the monitoring activities still needs to be improved and coupled more closely with the management reporting process in the future.

Click here to get to the deliverable.

The deliverable is structured into the following parts. First, a vision is sketched, summarising the current debate about Science 2.0 and mash-ups to support it. This vision is informed by the ‘Science 2.0 for TEL’ and ‘Mash-Up PLE’ workshops we have held at the 4^th European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning. Within this chapter, requirements are elaborated using scenarios and use-cases.  Second, an architectural framework is elaborated within which the mash-up developments move. A process accompanies this framework to allow for maturing those ideas and concepts into end-user ready widgets that have proven valuable in exploratory research. Third, a collection of initial building blocks for STELLAR’s Science 2.0 mash-ups is listed along two lines: infrastructure components (data sources and services) and use-case sized web applications – what we call Science 2.0 widgets. Finally, a conclusion rounds up the picture.

Click here, to get to the deliverable.

More information are available in the Call that can be downloaded at the following link: http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp3/rendez-vous/.

The other parts of the workshop asked presenters to share examples of good practice and also invited contributions to a debate that asked the question ‘does location-based contextual mobile learning lead to shallower learning?’

It was a thoroughly enjoyable event that brought together researchers from across the EU and North America to discuss critical issues surrounding location-based mobile learning. A full report from the workshop will be available in Spring 2010.

What is STELLAR?
The STELLAR Network of Excellence, supported by the European Commission, is about strengthening networks and building research capacity in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL).

What is the Doctoral Mobility Programme?
The mobility programme aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between doctoral and researchers within the field of Technology Enhance Learning. The programme includes a two-month visit to a host site to conduct research which is clearly linked to the STELLAR Grand Challenges and the associated research questions.

Funding
A Scholarship of up to €1,000 will be granted to 10 top-ranked applicants to support travel and accommodation expenses. In addition, one Excellence Award of €800 will be given based on evaluation of the merit of the participant’s work.

Procedure and Time tables
Visit the following STELLAR web page for more details and application forms: http://www.stellarnet.eu/instruments/doctoral_consortium/mobility_programme

Publication of 1st call: 08/12/2009
Deadline for submission of applications: 15/01/2010
An evaluation stage, including possible interview with hosts, will take place during January. Acceptance will be announced by the beginning of February.

The JTEL Winter School brings interdisciplinary doctoral researchers together in order to provide intense research training and to foster cross-domain collaboration. The event will engage participants in high-level courses and workshops with leading scientists. These workshops and lectures focus on theoretical, methodological, educational, and technological issues of relevance to TEL research, providing space for interaction, group work, and informal discussions. Doctoral students will also be expected to present their own research for constructive feedback from other participants of the Winter School.

The purpose of the STELLAR Doctoral School is both to induct TEL doctoral students into the STELLAR research community and provide research training for doctoral students, particularly within the early and mid stages of their doctoral research. The STELLAR Doctoral School will engage doctoral students in high-level courses, workshops with leading scientists and as an integrated part of the research teams from all the participating research units, they will be exposed to a very rich learning environment. The workshops and lectures organized during the doctoral school will focus on theoretical, methodological and technological issues of relevance to TEL research (for example activity theory, embodied cognition, individual, social & organisational learning processes, and the work of TEN Competence).

Doctoral students will also be expected to present their own research for constructive feedback from other participants in the Doctoral School. Workshops will also be offered on: writing research papers; communicating TEL research to policy makers, industry and practitioners. The workshops constitute a useful platform to enable the community to engage in the scientific work being carried out in WP1, 2 and 3. Another important goal of the Doctoral School is to recruit participants from beyond STELLAR core partners as a means of offering doctoral training to the worldwide TEL community. This would establish the Doctoral School as a cornerstone for sustaining the STELLAR initiative.

Interested doctoral students are invited to submit their application until 14 December 2009.

More information on the JTEL Winter School can be found at
http://www.teleurope.eu/pg/groups/43

Some impressions from last year are available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrYcL2nTwUo

Funds for Incubator scholarships will be devoted to junior researchers’ mobility, thus to travel and subsistence. The Incubator eligibility period may vary from 3 weeks to 3 months (to be proposed by the applicant). Each applicant should also specify how s/he is planning to use the budget (maximum budget available for each Incubator scholarship: € 5.000).

The present Call will be closed on January 2010, 15th. Click here for more information.