2nd STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous 2011 in the French Alps
The 2nd STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous will take place in March 2011 in the French Alps.
More information on location, date, and workshop proposals can be found in the Call for Workshops which is now open.
By popular demand, new extended deadline August 1st, 2010!
1st STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany 30th November to 3rd December 2009
The complete report on the first STELLAR Rendez-Vous including the results of the workshops and a Social Network Analysis is now available here!
The non-standard conference called Alpine Rendez-Vous has been organised as part of ‘Scientific Capacity Building’ in the Network of Excellence STELLAR (work package 3) and took place in December 2009 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Main goals were (a) to identify and advance emerging topics, methodologies and technologies in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) and (b) to build community within and beyond STELLAR.
With respect to the first goal, seven workshops each advanced one topic related to one or more of the STELLAR Grand Challenges ‘Connecting Learners’, ‘Contextualisation’, and ‘Orchestration’. This report includes the peer-reviewed 3 to 4-page Workshop White Papers, followed by some overarching conclusions in the form of 17 key questions with respect to current TEL research on the Grand Challenges that have been identified in or derived from the Workshop White Papers. A recurring question with respect to connecting learners has been how to use technologies to bring together learners who might benefit from collaboration. As advanced technologies increasingly grant connection from everywhere at every point in time, new questions arise concerning the coordination of different tasks and phases in life, captured in questions like ‘To what extent do practices around some new technologies influence the work-life balance?’. With respect to contextualisation a main research focus has been on the question ‘How can advanced technologies bring educational activities in places like museums, restaurants or trains to support informal learning?’. Beyond that, further important challenges were identified including how to define and capture the context of individuals and groups of learners and how to exploit such contextual information for advanced software technologies (e.g., recommender systems) in order to facilitate knowledge processes. With respect to orchestration, an important question has been asked: ‘How can advanced technologies be designed and used to orchestrate processes of learning and instruction with different time scales (e.g., a pro-con argument, a seminar session, a semester)?’. A specifically interesting challenge is also captured in the question ‘How can new technologies empower teachers in the management of classroom activities?’.
With respect to the second goal, (b) community building, participation analyses as well as Social Networking Evaluations have been conducted. 134 researchers participated in the event, representing different career levels (PhD candidates, mid-career researchers, professors) and different TEL-related disciplines. Results of the analyses indicate a substantial increase in network ties and a substantial number of plans for future collaborations (independently of the career level and the home discipline). In addition, there is indication of integration, for example in terms of increased networking among STELLAR members as well as of STELLAR members with non-STELLAR participants, and between members of the two earlier Networks of Excellence, Kaleidoscope and ProLearn.
With respect to organisation of the event, the STELLAR standard evaluation indicated high overall satisfaction of the participants with some suggestions for improvement of the Rendez-Vous, e.g. to further increase the possibilities of networking beyond the single workshops.
The Rendez-Vous is a series of independent but collocated workshops broaching Technology-Enhanced Learning with a special focus on "Orchestration", "Connecting Learners" and "Contextualisation".
Workshop Structure
There will be 2 rounds of workshops connected by a half day community event.
The Community Event will be a platform for individual talks, getting to know each other outside the "working environment" of the workshops.
The Community Event will start with a torches-walk through the Partnach-Klamm (www.partnachklamm.eu) at night. (Remember to bring warm clothes and shoes!)
The 45-minutes walk will lead us through a (hopefully) snowy winterland to an Alpine hut where we will have Cheese-Fondue. Later that night, the Excellence Awards Ceremony will take place at the Alpine hut.
Each workshop day will contain about two to three hours of spare time which can be used for own activities. Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a huge ski-alpine resort: You can go ski, snowboard, snowshoe hiking etc. all in walking distance to the hotel.
Time Schedule
* including coffee break
Workshops
November, 30th - December, 1st
1. Pinpointing pivotal moments in collaboration.
3. Context-aware recommendation for learning.
4. Technology-enhanced learning in the context of technological, societal and cultural transformation.
December, 2nd - December, 3rd
6. Education in the wild: contextual and location-based mobile learning in action.
7. Tabletops for education and training.
8. STELLAR Doctoral Consortium.
Programme Committee: Reviewer Board:
Rosa Bottino (CNR-ITD) Rosa Bottino (CNR-ITD)
Sally Barnes (UB) Pierre Dillenbourg (EPFL)
Nicolas Balacheff (CNRS) Marcus Specht (OUNL)
Pierre Tchounikine (UJF) Daniel Burgos (ATOS)
Hans Spada (UF) Frank Fischer (LMU)
Marcus Specht (OUNL)
Daniel Burgos (ATOS)
Frank Fischer (LMU)
Pierre Dillenbourg (EPFL)
Peter Scott (UKOU)
Conference Hotel
Dorint Sporthotel Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Mittenwalder Straße 59
82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
phone: +49 8821 706-0
fax: +49 8821 706-618
http://dorint.com/en/hotel-garmisch-partenkirchen
email: info.garmisch@dorint.com
Arrival
Via Munich Airport or Train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Arrival at Munich Airport:
Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen via train
- S8 to Munich Pasing
- In Pasing: Regionalbahn (platform 3) to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (tickets can be purchased in advance via www.bahn.de or at the local ticket offices): travel time appr. 1,5 hrs (It is possible that you will have to change for the bus due to construction; it will then take you about 2,5 hrs.)
Shared Shuttle Bus
On the basis of your requests, we can now offer times for shuttle buses (arrival and departure).
Please, download the following fax forms to book a shuttle to and from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Please, note that we will not be able organise single shuttles during days before and after the conference, i.e.shuttles will start at November 29th and end December 3rd.
Dates and times: see fax forms above.
One additional shuttle will leave Munich airport to GAP: Sunday, Nov 29, 07.00 a.m.
Where?: Meet the shuttle driver in Terminal 2 at the information desk.
If you stay a few days longer in Munich after December 3rd, we suggest to take the train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen back to Munich.
Ski
The possiblility to ski directly in Garmisch seems quite small at the moment. Forecasts say it is going to become much cooler though at the end of November. If there will be enough snow, it will take you about 15 minutes to be ready to ski.
A certain alternative is to ski at the mountain "Zugspitze". We will organise a shuttle to the lift; costs depend on the number of persons.
Travel time: about 45 minutes to be ready to ski.
You may rent ski, snowboard and clothes - renting those the night before saves time on the ski day.
You may also book ski or snowboard teachers.
For assistance and booking a ski trip, please contact our team at the desk in the main hall at the hotel the day/night before you want to ski. We will be happy to assist you.
Contact / local organisation
For any questions regarding the Alpine Rendez-Vous, please don't hesitate to contact us:
Prof. Dr. Frank Fischer (Organising Team Leader): frank.fischer@psy.lmu.de
Lena Hofmann, Dipl.-Psych. (Organising Team Member): lena.hofmann@psy.lmu.de
Silvia Schulz, M.A. (Organising Team Member): silvia.schulz@psy.lmu.de