FP7 Call 8 Info Day in Luxembourg

In July, the new Call 8 of the European Framework Programme 7 (FP-7) has been launched. On Wednesday, 5.October 2011, there will be an information day held in Luxembourg.

The topics to be dealt at this meeting are:

• Adaptive learning systems - Objective 8.1.a
• Educational technologies for science, technology and maths - Objective 8.1.b
• Advanced solutions for fast and flexible learning at the workplace (targeting, in particular, SMEs) - Objective 8.1.c
• Creativity in learning processes - Objective 8.1.d
• Exploratory activities and networks- Objective 8.1.e

The deadline for proposal submissions to this call is 17.January 2012.

Visitor from Austria: Gerhard Schwed

Today, Gerhard Schwed from the Danube University Krems (Austria), Head of e-Learning, arrived at LeedsMet. He will stay here for the next two weeks in an ERASMUS-funded exchange visit, for sharing eLearning expertise with our teams at LeedsMet.

ISMAR 2011 in Basel: 26.-29.October

This year, the annual ISMAR Conference (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality) will take place in Switzerland: in Basel, from 26.-29.October 2011. Since the time when this conference was founded 13 years ago, in 1998, as the "International Workshop on Augmented Reality (IWAR)", it has established itself as the world's leading conference on Mixed and Augmented Reality.

I was fortunate enough to have been involved for many years in this very successful conference, and I am also glad that this year I could help in selecting the papers to be published, as one of the 12 area chairs. Next Monday is the deadline for submission of the final camera-ready papers - there were many excellent submissions, but the review criteria were also very strict.

Unfortunately I will not be able to participate this year at ISMAR 2011, but I wish the organizers the very best! This shall be an excellent conference, and the participants will surely enjoy their attendance.

The EuroPLOT project

My colleague at LeedsMet, Prof Janet Finlay, has started her sabbatical year this September, and after that she will leave LeedsMet to pursue other things in life. I wish her the very best for this move!

As a result, I have now "inherited" leading the project "EuroPLOT", which she has initiated and led since last year. This project is devoted to the development of "persuasive learning objects and technologies" (PLOTs). LeedsMet's role is here to lead the project, to contribute to all the work packages, and to lead the dissemination activities. For this project, I began to expand some of the online activities: we set up a blogger page and a page on Facebook, and opened a Twitter account.

Since August 2011 we had a few internal meetings at LeedsMet, with the next teleconference meeting coming up next week. Every 6 months there is also a face-to-face meeting; the next one in November will take place in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.

The project is moving towards the end of its first year, with two more years after that. It is funded by the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme (Project ref: 511633-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP).

Another academic year begins

It has been exactly to the date one year, when I posted my last entry into this blog here. For some reason, I did neglect writing here. Not because of a lack of things to report, but because I was busy with actually doing work, rather than writing about it. But I want to restart posting here, to give an account and an insight into my work at LeedsMet. As one year ago, also this year around this time the new semester is starting. Things are still quiet, next week the International students will come, a week after this all other students will have their induction.