First GamiLearn workshop-conference on Gamification in Spain

Gamification is enhanced education. 

Although the call for papers is closed, it is still a good idea to investigate the possibility to attend the first International workshop on gamification and games for learning conference that will take place on the beautiful volcanic island of Tenerife in Spain. Early-bird registration is open until 11 May and cost 75 Euro but the special rates for the hotel bookings will end on 4 May.  

The conference dates are 5-6 June 2017 and the awesome pac-man logo just emphasizes the need to link gaming with learning in all educational sectors. Research already confirmed that the inclusion of game-like experiences do engage students. The main objective of this workshop-conference is to bring stakeholders together to exchange their ideas and share their experiences. 

Two key note speakers are Prof Lennert Nacke from Canada and Prof Baltsasar Fernandes-Majon from Spain. Topics relevant to this conference are, among others:  
User studies
Design frameworks
Techniques and strategies
Methodologies
Tools and applications
Technological ecosystems
Analysis processes
Assessment
Personalized approaches
Systems integration
Data management
Human and computer interaction 

Technology enhanced education (that is the triangle of teaching, learning and assessment) is already part of the higher education system and would probably expand a lot in the coming years. Now it is time to give gamifaction - education through games - its rightful place in the higher education world. 

New directions in Humanities conference - London

London in July - why not? 

The 15th international conference on new directions in the humanities will be held at the Imperial College, London, between 5 and 7 July 2017 with an optional tour of London on the 4th of July. Late proposal deadline is the 5 of June and the registration fee is 600 USD. 

The special focus of this years' conference will be on new directions of the Humanities in a knowledge society. Five themes are listed: 1) Critical cultural studies 2)Communications and Linguistics 3) literary Humanities 4) Civic, political and community studies 5) Humanities education. Under each of these, there are detailed descriptions and pointers available on the web page. 

Today, the term society is synonymous with the term network: it is all about people and their relationships - with other people, with technology, with knowledge and with the realities of life which urge us to become agents of positive change. How does knowing in the academic world translate to doing in the needy world? What role can academics in the humanities play to promote and encourage positive change? 

Science and technology is dependent on humans.  So is commerce and economics. And the moral aspect of humanity should be firmly embedded in these and all other academic spheres. It is the task of the humanities to interrogate the nature and actions of humans and to provide a normative foundation for actions. What will this entail for the future? Where should the humanities go and how should it get there? These are crucial questions and academics in the humanities are urged to attend to providing useful and positive answers.  

International Education Association of South Africa conference in Durban

IEASA will take place in Durban this year

The 20th annual International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA) conference that focuses on advancing Internationalisation of Higher Education will take place from 23 to 25 August in Durban. The conference venue is the Tsogo Sun Elangeni and Maharani hotel. 

The theme for this years' conference is: Overcoming hostility and building communities. Sub-themes, all related to the higher education sector, are
1) The impact of migration and immigration
2) Funding and financing international higher education
3) Local and global community engagement to address xenophobic populism
4) The impact of staff and student mobility on international higher education
5) Ethical leadership and social justice.
In the light of the current social revolution towards a global village, and a technology based, network society, these are all very important issues that must be addressed in order for higher education to stay relevant on the one hand and to adopt to the changing demands of society in the next 30 years.  

The closing date for abstracts to present papers  and/or workshops is 15 May 2017.

IEASA is a non-profit organisation that opens up international contact that could benefit students and institutions as participants in the global higher education world. Both institutions and individuals can be members of IEASA. The annual individual membership fee is R365. 

Durban is a very popular city on the east coast of South Africa and international participants would find it an exceptional destination with the upgraded international airport, awesome coastline and excellent hotels. Not to mention the favorable exchange rate. We are looking forward to welcome international participants to this years' conference that could support and strengthen the cause and also provide international perspectives on the important issues that will be tabled. 

Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies: August and December

Explore London on your way to Oxford

Some of my colleagues at residential universities like to attend international conferences in December and January when there are no classes or students to attend to. I am forever planning to do this, but as yet, could not succeed. I would like to attend the IJAS conference in several disciplines in Freiburg with its two full day tours to the Christmas market and the Black forest (28 Nov - 2 Dec) or visit the United Arab Emirates to see the new year fireworks or to Australia to watch their fireworks in Sydney (but these two countries does not seem to have general conferences booked early for 2018). There is also the annual Hawaii International conference on Education that will take place from 4 to 7 January 2018.

For those of you who are planning to go to Europe at the end of the year, and especially for my colleagues in Theology and Religious studies, Christmas can start early with a conference in Oxford at the start of December (4-6). Abstract submission and registration is open for both the 2-4 August (before 10 July) and December Symposiums. Both are inter-disciplinary and has a broad-based theme.  Topics include Religion, Politics, and Public Discourse, Religions in conflict, Gender and religion, Church and State, State funding of Church schools, Religion and racial segregation, Religious traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora, Secularism, Philosophy of religion and Religious ethics (amongst others).

The conferences will take place in the old library of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, constructed in 1320, which is inside the walled city. It was the first university building in town. 

Registration is a stiff 380 Pound (especially to South Africans) for early birds but there are also reduced options for students, family members and observers.  Accommodation starts at 50 Pounds in the university and college facilities that promise to provide a genuine Oxford student and campus experience.

Two international conferences in Durban: June and August

Durban, South Africa

Durban is, next to Cape Town, a popular conference venue for South Africans. The Durban University of Technology (DUT) will be hosting the second Interdisciplinary Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Conference from 13 to 15 June on the theme: Enhancing multi-discipline  research in innovation and entrepreneurship for emerging researchers. The call for abstracts is open until 30 April 2017 and the following disciplines are invited to participate: Accounting and management Science, Arts and design, Basic and applied Science, Engineering and information Technology and Health Studies. The cost is R2000 and both academics and post graduate students are invited to participate in the conference and the workshops. 

On 24 and 25 August 2017, North West University and the Social Science Research Society of Turkey will host the 8th International Conference on Social Sciences (ICSS), also in Durban at the Southern Sun Maharani and Elangeni hotel. All subjects in social science will participate and there will be interesting presentations on economic issues, gamification, law, and international relations. Keynote speakers include Pat Obi from the USA and Bernedette Muthien from South Africa.  Early bird registration is 500 USD.

These are both international conferences but as they are hosted in South Africa, the costs for South African academics is limited and depending on the institutions your are linked to, there are often alternative funding options available. This means that academics can attend and participate in more international conferences while also saving on costs and time off from work. 

The use of technology in Education - abstracts due 18 May - Singapore

Oh, the potential and dreams locked up in the colourful tails of the aircraft parked at the Cape Town International Airport 

Not much time left to submit an abstract to present at the Singapore Education Technology Conference (SETC) that will be held on 23 and 24 August at the newly refurbished Holiday Inn Atrium. The conference hosts are East Asia Research (EAR) and Siam University. Early bird registration ends 4 July (SGD 750) after which the registration fee will be 820 SGD.

The fourth revolution in society is fast turning the world into a technology based system without which academics and tertiary students cannot function. For every person that access the internet through a computer, there are two persons accessing it through their mobile phones. This means that educators need to focus on mobile learning and the constant developments in technology should be a focus point for training and skills development opportunities for academics worldwide.

The call for abstracts is open and some of the interesting suggested topics include: Academic Advising and Counselling; Adult Education; Asynchronous Learning; Authoring Tools; Building an Introductory Global Studies Course; Building E-Learning Architectures; Business Education; Casual Factors of Educational Development; Collaborative Learning; Courseware Development; Cross Cultural Aspects of Education; Cross-disciplinary areas of Education; Curriculum, Research and Development; Developing and Organizational e-Learning Strategy; Developing, Integrating, and Delivering E-Learning Solutions; Digital Libraries for E-Learning; Distance Education; Early Childhood Education; Education Policy and Leadership; Educational Administration; Educational Foundations; Educational Leadership; Educational Measurement and Evaluation; Educational Psychology; Educational Technology; E-Learning Tools and Systems; E-Learning Content Development; Publishing Tools for E-Learning; Equal Access to Education; Performance Measurement and Assessment; Gender in Education; Global Education Systems; Health Education; Higher Education; Mathematics Education; Methods and Procedures for the Global Classroom; Industry-University Partnering Infrastructure of E-Learning Environments; Kinesiology; Language Education; Politics and Education; Quality Management and Assessment in E-Learning; Social and Cultural Issues and Education; Special Education; Teaching Ethical Intercultural Communication; The Interdependence between Education and Development; Virtual Universities, Classrooms, and Laboratories.

Discourse Conference in New Zealand

One of the volcanic creators in Auckland provides spectacular views and pick-nick spots

The sixth New Zealand Discourse Conference (NZDC) addressing theoretical, methodological or empirical research in discourse analytic approaches will be held at the Auckland University of Technology from 6 to 9 December 2017. The first due date for abstracts is 14 May and the second due date is 16 July. 

The conference takes place every second year and the workshops presented by the keynote speakers add excellent value to the conference. Keynote speakers for this year include Michael Bamberg, David Barton, Sigrid Norris and Theo van Leeuwen. The following themes act as guidelines for abstracts but researchers are not limited to these: 

• Art and creativity 
• Culture and identity
• Environment and sustainability
• Gender and performativity
• Geosemiotics
• Health and wellbeing
• Indigenous studies
• Institutions and organisations
• Interpreting and translation
• Knowledge and learning
• Language and communication
• Language policy
• Mediated discourse
• Migrant and refugee studies
• Multimodal critical discourse
• Multimodal discourse
• Multimodality of identity
• Multimodal interactions
• Multimodal texts/artefacts
• Nexus analysis
• Other
• Sound and music
• Sports and lifestyle
• Technology and media

Although registration is open, the web page is not yet fully populated and vital information is still not uploaded. However, if you are planning to attend the conference, do submit your abstract as soon as possible. 

Auckland is a beautiful city and New Zealand most definitely worth a visit, but South Africans must note that they now need visas to enter New Zealand and cannot visit the country if they only have Australian visas.  

Awareness of the need for lifelong learning - conference in Portugal

On our way to Europe via Dubai 

Just more than 150 days to go to the start of the third International Conference on Lifelong Education and Leadership for all (ICLEL) that will be held in Porto from 12 to 14 September 2017. Porto is the second largest city after Lisbon in Portugal and is served by its own international airport that makes access easy from all over the world. The city is located on the Iberian Peninsula. 

Over the last twenty years it became clear that to be employable and promotable, people working in the technology driven network society need to embrace lifelong learning. On the one hand, this is overstating the obvious, as humans are constantly learning and adapting to circumstances anyway but on the other hand it is clear that there should be more focus on continuous opportunities for learning and development formal Higher Education if this sector wants to retain its influence and impact on society in the years to come. 

With more than 50 topics related to Life long learning in about every sector of Education, academics from all subject fields would be able to present research findings and learn from others. How awesome would it be to have research published on 'Lifelong learning in...' and having the topic or subject field of choice added to complete the title. Keynote speakers include Prof. John Holford (England), Prof. Danielle Taana Smith (USA) and Prof. Mehmet Saribiyilc (Turkey). One of the workshops will focus on outdoor learning and creativity. The aim of the conference is to have an enriching social and cultural learning curve as well as an academic learning experience.

Abstracts must be submitted by 30 June and the conference registration fee is 250 Euros. Academics are also welcome to present more than one paper (with an linked increase in registration fee). Previous year's abstract publications are ISI listed.  

Transforming Together mentoring and coaching conference

The beautiful gigantic Lord of the Rings statue in the international airport in Auckland, New Zealand 

Although mentoring is part of the key performance areas for academics at our university (Unisa) for about ten year already, coaching was incorporated only in 2015. Being a great fan of coaching I am often asked what the difference is. The example of sport is sufficient to explain. The mentor is like the captain of the team. S/he is a senior player, has lots of experience, is playing alongside the mentees, in the same team and in the same sport, and is usually on the field and in the battle the whole time while the coach is watching from the side, pointing you towards improvement after carefully watching you play/work/perform. Coaches often (but not always or only) work on short term goals and achieving immanent improvement. Personally, I gained a lot from having an excellent mentor when I was a junior academic but recently I gained much more from the coaching sessions than the mentorship programme.

The Centre for Educational Leadership Research at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand will host the second Transforming Together coaching and mentoring conference from 11 to 13 October 2017. Registration is open and early-bird registration costs $695 (New Zealand Dollar I assume) with a 10 % discount for three or more people registering as a team from the same institution. 

The web page states that '[t]his international conference is for coaches and mentors, researchers and practitioners, students of coaching and mentoring, and interested parties working in all fields. It seeks to provide a platform for participants to connect; to deepen their knowledge of coaching and mentoring; and to contribute to the generation of quality research, theory, knowledge and expertise about coaching and mentoring.' David Clutterbuck will be the keynote speaker at this year's conference. 

The design of the web site makes it clear that cultural and language differences as influential in both mentoring and coaching, is fully recognized. South Africans, as part of the rainbow nation with its more than 30 languages (11 official) and wide range of cultures, can surely benefit from this opportunity to learn and present on our experiences. 

A brand new conference on advance research: a World of opportunity

Not many will do this, but we fly to Australia (from South Africa) via Dubai and enjoy every moment. 

Unisa is the oldest Distance Education Higher Education institution in the world (140+ years) and we are very proud of this but to stay relevant in the fast-changing world of networks and technology, academics in distance education need to focus on advanced research.

The Asia Pacific Institute of Advanced learning will host the first Australia and New Zealand Conference on Advanced Research (ANZCAR-  2017) from 17 to 18 June 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, on the theme 'World of opportunities' and covering business, Education, Social sciences and ICT. Early-bird registration is open ($400) until 8 May and abstracts must be submitted by 28 April. 

Looking at the topics, I am sure every academic can find an area of interest and should be spoiled for choice for the duration of the conference on which presentations to attend. Topics include:

Business: Accounting, Strategic Finance, Macro- and  Micro-economics, Management, Marketing, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Performance Management, Recruitment and Selection, Logistics and Supply Chains, Globalisation, E-commerce, and others.

Social Sciences: Anthropology, Archaeology, Area, Cultural and Ethnic Studies, Communications, Gender and Sexuality studies, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, International Relations, Development Studies, Population Studies, Journalism, Corporate Governance, Cross-Cultural Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Public Administration, Philosophy, Women’s Studies, Religious Studies and Social Welfare Studies.

Education: Theory of Education, Assertive and Assistive Educational Technology, Comparative Education, Counselling, Cultural Literacy, Curriculum Studies, Distance Education, Early Education, Educational Change, Educational Policy, Planning and Practice, Educational Psychology, Education and Public Policy, Educational Research and Statistics, E-learning, Health Education, Tertiary Education, Innovative Education, Information & Library Science, International Exchange Programs, Language Education, Liberal Education, Mathematics Education, Medical Education, Physical Education, Science Education, Secondary Education, Special Education and Technology Education.

Information and Communication Technology: Advanced IT Bio/Medical Engineering, Bioinformatics and applications, Business and Information Systems, Cloud computing, Convergence in Information Technology Security, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Digital convergence, Electronic Commerce, Business and Management, Grid and Cloud Computing, Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents, Hardware and Software Design, Health and Medical Informatics, Hybrid information technology, Intelligent communications and networks, IT-based Convergence Technology and Service, Multimedia convergence, Smart Card and RFID Technologies, Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems, Social and Business Aspects of Convergence IT, Ubiquitous Computing and Embedded Systems, Recent Trends in Computing & Information technology.

Durban in November: HELTASA conference

Durban has an excellent bird park - do not miss this attraction while there

Registration and the call for abstracts are open for the Higher Education, Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) conference that will be held at the Coastlands Umhlanga Hotel and Convention Centre in Durban, between 21 and 24 November 2017. 

The event will be hosted by the Durban University of Technology and the theme for this year's conference is: Higher Education well-being: Transcending boundaries, re-framing excellence. Sub-themes are: 'Greater purpose of higher education; access and parity of participation; reframing student success; enriching the curriculum; and knowledge in the academy. All abstracts must focus on the linking of theory and practice and its connection to higher education well-being. I am sure these challenging topics and the link between theory and practice will ensure a very high standard and stimulating discussions, as previous HELTASA conferences are proof of. 


Registration is open and early bird registration (that is costing R4500) ends 30 June 2017 after which standard registration will cost R5000. Registration closes on 30 August. 

In addition to the pre-conference workshops, this conference will also host oral presentations, poster presentations, critical dialogue sessions and flipped paper sessions (discussions on completed or draft papers). Abstracts for all of these categories are invited and the closing date is 31 May. 

Keynote speakers include Prof Bal Chandra Luitel from the Kathmandu University, Prof Yusef Waghid from the University of Stellenbosch and Prof Stephanie Allain from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Most of us do not need a second invitation to visit the warm waters of the beautiful hibiscus and dolphin coasts of KwaZuluNatal. If you can get yourself away from the beech you can visit uShaka marine world or go bungy jumping from the roof of the Moses Mabhida stadium. The oldest surviving botanical garden is also worth a visit and our favourite is the Umgeni River Bird Park with more than 300 species, a packed programme and cheap enough to visit with the family.  

Postgraduate Conference 2017 - awesome experience

One of the ponds on the Spier wine farm near Stellenbosch 

The postgraduate forum for Southern Africa held its' first annual meeting during the Postgraduate Supervision Conference at Spier, near Stellenbosch in South Africa last week. This is an interest group in support of South African postgraduate schools and centres, initiated during the previous two Postgraduate Supervision conferences held in 2013 and 2015 also at Spier. The chair is Henriette van den Berg from the University of the Free State and the secretary is Bloodless Dzwairo from DUT. We hope the see and hear great things from this forum in the coming months. 

While the next Postgraduate Supervision Conference in South Africa will only take place in 2019, the sister conference will, as usual, take place next year in Australia. The 13th biannual Quality in Postgraduate research (QPR) conference will take place on 17, 18 and 19 April 2018 in Adelaide. Just as its sister conference that takes place every second year at Spier which is a wine farm, the Australian conference takes place at the National wine Centre in Adelaide. So keep an eye open for the call for participation in next years conference in Australia.

This year, here in South Africa at the six Postgraduate Conference, 160 people gathered to participate in the pre-conference workshops, listened to keynoted addresses by Nick Hopwood (Australia), Suzanne Otega (USA), Kirsti Pyhalto (Finland) and Amaleya Goneos-Malka (South Africa) and enjoyed the conference dinner at Nooitgedagt wine farm. International speakers came from England, Israel, Sweden, Canada and Rwanda. The conference also attracted speakers and participants from all over South Africa who were interested to hear, see and learn more about the Spaces, Journeys and New horizons in postgraduate supervision. This was our third attendance of this conference and we are building networking ties with other participants whom also tend to come back for more every second year. Hope to see you all back in 2019, or at Adelaide in 2018.