The early approval call for Proposals is open for ICDE 2017 in Toronto

Flowers near Niagara falls, summer 2015

As you probably know by now, Toronto, which is home to the Blue Jays baseball team and their awesome Rogers centre right next to the CN Tower, the hockey hall of fame and the Bata shoe museum is hosting the 27^th International Council for Open and Distance Education world conference in October 2017. This beautiful city also boasts with 11 swimming beaches and lovely waterfront parks. And friendly people. (The people of Montreal is also friendly but most of them speak French and my French vocabulary of about 100 words did not cut it). Another bonus about Toronto is that you get to see the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side! I love food and therefore I need to mention Canada’s poutine here – simply delicious and definitely worth a try.

The theme of the conference is: ‘Teaching in a digital age – re-thinking teaching and learning’ and all proposals must be in line with one of the 5 specified tracks. Presentations can be done in English, French or Spanish. The 2017 conference promise to be even bigger than the 2015 conference that was held in Sun City, South Africa. The Contact North University is expecting 2000 delegates from 95 countries. In line with this large show of interest, the organizers arranged for an early approval option for proposals. Although the last date for proposal submissions is 30 April 2017, people who submit their proposals before 31 December 2016 will receive feedback about the results of the peer review process after about 8 weeks and can start planning accordingly.

Abstract proposals must be submitted on the conference web page and the maximum word count is 600 words. Here are the 5 tracks that will be covered: 1) Emerging pedagogies and designs for online learning 2) Expanding access, openness and flexibility 3) Changing models of assessment 4) New delivery tools and resources for learning 5) Re-designing institutional business models.   

Early bird registration for the 2017 Postgraduate Supervision conference at Spier is open!

The Protea garden at Spier is so nice and beautiful.

This is a conference and workshop that neither M and D supervisors nor M and D students can afford to miss. The conference theme is: Postgraduate supervision: Spaces, journeys and new horizons. If you are enrolled for a M or D, and you can afford this, do attend.  The doctorateness workshop that is led by Leshem from Israel and Trafford from England is a unique opportunity to see a doctoral thesis from a new perspective. Their ‘stepping stones’ focus on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions that the researcher and the supervisor should ask at each step of the way towards the compilation of content that should construct a doctoral degree.

Other workshops, which precede the conference, include ‘Getting them to write and write well’ – also a useful topic for both supervisors and students; ‘Publishing pedagogies’, ‘Trends in doctorate education’ and ‘Supervisory resources’. There is also a full-day workshop on sustainable relationships with international funders which would complicate the choice of where one should focus.

One thing that I personally like is the reduced registration fee for South Africans and students. Early bird registration for South African academics is R5 500, and the workshops cost an additional fee of R1500 each. The welcoming function is included in the registration but the Gala dinner which is always exceptionally well organised and include awesome entertainment, cost an additional R450 per person (and you can take a partner with).

But the very best part of this conference (even better than the opportunities to learn from experts and be amazed by what is indeed possible in the field of postgraduate supervision) is the venue. Spier wine estate, just outside Stellenbosch is simply one of the very best conference venues I ever been to in the Western Cape region. I cannot list all their activities here (check out their web page) but one of my favourite things to do is to stroll over the bridge and walk through the protea garden on the other side of the water. And crossing back on the other bridge down the path, I would stand for a while to watch the birds on the water below. Oh, and there is nothing like the bathrooms (especially the shape of the bath – just right for two people to cuddle in with candles and wine and something to eat to the side). Spier accommodation for the conference is R2060 for two people sharing per night and this includes a very nice buffet style breakfast. Do ensure that you make the booking as soon as possible because each year, they are fully booked and several the delegates then need to find accommodation elsewhere. ​

2 full-day bus tours included with the conference – what a bonus for academics

The bus tour took us to the Niagara falls.

The International Journal of Arts and Sciences or IJAS as it is also known, offers 13 conferences annually in spectacular places in Europe and North America. Each of these conferences hosts several academic tracks, including Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Education and Technology and Science. Best of all, included in the registration fee are two full-day bus tours for all participants (and their companions – at an additional fee) to enjoy the special attractions of the region and to use the opportunity to network with other participants in a very innovative way, outside of the conference venue and setting.

Academics tend to attend subject specific conferences and I also do that, but every now and again, it is fun and an enlightening experience to attend a multi-discipline and more general conference. This is also one way to broaden your networking opportunities for possible multi-disciplinary cooperation with academics from other subject fields.

Two years ago, we attended the Boston conference on the famous Harvard campus and enjoyed it very much. The conference organizers are seasoned in this activity, have a vast knowledge and like to engage with and answer tourist-like questions. This year we attended the Toronto conference and had a ball of a time. To our surprise the same people we met in Boston were responsible for organizing this conference and we are already planning to attend another one of these conferences next year.

The bus tours are normally structured in a particular way; one day is set aside for the major tourist attractions in the area (like the Niagara falls in Toronto and the Black forest in Germany) while the second day focuses on the culture and history of the region (like the Indian village near Boston and the Mormon community market in Toronto – both tours were fascinating and stimulating and provided us with a lot of knowledge and insight and a different perspective on other cultures and the way people live and cherish their heritage.

Another bonus is that all conference registrations include the bus tours, and is charged in USA Dollars (even those in Europe which means that these conferences, although in Europe, are not so expensive for South Africans who are always looking at the hole in the pocket when it comes to other currencies). The registration fee is also the same amount for America and Europe.

One word of advice, please study the itinerary of the bus tours before you pack your suitcase as some of the excursions include a day at the beach (so pack a swimsuit and sun protection) or other activities that you would need to plan for. And if you do not want to eat the special lunch (for instance the lobster included in the Boston tour), there are always other options available.

The IJAS is hosting conferences in the following cities: Prague, London, Rome, Freiburg, Malta, Vegas, Paris, Harvard, Sicily, Montreal, Toronto, Venice and Vienna. So make your pick, read the conference page to ensure you know what the bus tours will be like and sent your abstract through! ​

Can Qatar match Emirates with stopovers?

The beautiful departing facility at Dubai airport

Today my focus will not be on international conferences as such, but instead on getting there and back. And more specifically on the wonderful opportunity to add a short stopover on to your journey. A few days ago I was stunned to read something like this on an economic forum post: One advantage that CEOs and celebrities have is that they do not need to spend time on uninteresting and time consuming issues such as making travel plans. Really? Searching for interesting stopovers, different airfares linked to different transits, and planning a day or two that can be added onto the trip just to unwind and recharge, is one of the major joys of travelling. Well, at least that is how I see it. I spend hours and hours on planning and also start months in advance – and because I do it in ‘my personal time’ I see this activity as my hobby.

   

This week Qatar announced that, like Emirates (which is based in Dubai), they would provide 96 hour visas to passengers using their airline and airport hub (Doha) to get to their final destination.  This is great news to me because although I only managed to fly Qatar once before, I was seriously impressed then with their standard of service and personal attention and would also like to see more of Doha than just the airport. We were treated like royalty on board the aircraft and because we only had three hours to connect with our next flight, were escorted by an official from the aircraft right through to the door of the next aircraft – support service that I liked a lot – and no, we flew ordinary economic class and we are not VIPs.  

We are members of the Emirates loyalty program and we really enjoy the stopovers that we usually take on our way back to South Africa. The arrangements for airport transfers, hotel accommodation that includes breakfast and the visa issues are all taken care of by the Emirates office in Johannesburg and done electronically. We just select when and where we want to go and they arrange it. And on arrival at the airport in Dubai, there is always a person waiting for us with my name on a board before we come to customs to provide me with an info pack and to direct me to the Arabian Adventures booth where the transport is arranged to get us to the hotel of our choice.

The first time I was informed about the stopover program was when I booked a flight and we had a transit time of more than 8 hours in Dubai. Someone from Emirates phoned and said that Emirates would like to put us up in a hotel so we do not need to stay at the airport. Wow. We enjoyed this so much and after that, arranged for our own stopover, each time that we fly Emirates. On a recent trip, we had a stopover of 5-6 hours early morning and were given vouchers for breakfast that we could use at one of several restaurants. Again, we were pleasantly surprised by the gesture and had a lovely breakfast without our South African wallets suffering due to our indulgence.

So I cannot wait to try the Qatar stopover to compare it to that of Emirates…hopefully soon. 

A late but much needed start for Digital Humanities in South Africa

One of the many beauties in the town of Stellenbosch is the lovely huge and very old trees.

One can ask why it took so long for South Africans working within the field of Humanities to establish a Digital Humanities association but it would be more productive to focus on the fact that it finally happened and to everyone’s delight, the first Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa conference will be held early next year in the lovely town of Stellenbosch, able to accommodate about 220 people.

From the sound of it, I gathered that this must be a relatively new subject field, but I was proven wrong. The father of ‘Humanities computing’ is Roberto Busa who already in the 1940’s introduced the subject field and the name change only came in 2008 when the publication ‘A Companion to Digital Humanities’ saw the light under editorship of Unsworth, Schreibman and Siemens.

Digital Humanities is, as the name suggests, the area of scholarly activity at the intersection between technology and Humanities. The movement is in both directions: Naturally, scholars use technology to enhance their work within the field of Humanities, but they also subject technology to investigation from their particular point of view.

What I want to do today is to inform you about the DHASA conference that will take place at the University of Stellenbosch on 17-20 January 2017. The first two days will packed with workshops and the conference will commence thereafter. The organizers also arranged for lovely and worthwhile tours and excursions on the weekend following the conference (at extra costs). There are two wine tours in the vicinity of Stellenbosch, the city tour of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula tour that will take us to where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. O and the gala dinner promise to be something out of this world with the price tag set at R470 per person for a three course meal and the dress semi-formal.

As I said, better late than never, and hopefully the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa will grow extensively and rapidly and have a huge positive influence on lifting Humanities high in academic life. All the best of luck for the conference organizers and thank you for getting the ball rolling.