It's About Learning

Clayton encourages his colleagues to pass on his Educational Technology amp Education Conferences June to December 2013 Clayton R. Wright list. I have gone a step further and have included his email summary. Enjoy!
Conferences that May Be Worth Your Time

Frequently, I receive requests from those new to the field of educational technology to suggest conferences that would be worthwhile to attend. It can be a difficult request to fulfill as the response:

• primarily depends on the interests of the individual, for example, is she/he interested in K-12, post-secondary, or business applications, or prefers an emphasis on technology as oppose to teaching and learning; 
• must address his or her expectations regarding the level of interactivity and the balance between theory and practice;
• must take into account the funds available for registration, travel, and accommodation;
• depends on the requestor’s location (for example, I am based in Canada but undertake projects in Southeast Asia and Africa); and
• can be highly subjective.  

If you are new to educational technology and can attend only one event in the upcoming year, do CONSIDER one of the major events below (out of the NUMEROUS possibilities. In subsequent years, you could select a different adventure.). Suggested conferences on my shortlists are arranged in alphabetical order. My selections for the first group comprise events I would want to be associated with as an organizer and, at times, covered the entire conference experience with my own personal funds. I also presented at most of them. Those in the second group come highly recommended and, in most cases, I contributed to conference papers, and/or viewed video-taped sessions or papers placed online.

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), May
Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), October/November
DevLearn, organized by eLearning Guild, October
Ed Media, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), June
eLearning Africa, May
Educa (Berlin), November/December
EDUCAUSE, September/October
International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), date varies
League for Innovation in the Community College, March
Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, organized by the Commonwealth of Learning, date varies
Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE), March
The Performance Improvement Conference, organized by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), April
You may also want to consider the events below. Prior to making your decision, do take a look at current and past conferences of the organizations listed.
Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), October to December
Association for Learning Technology (UK), September
Australasia Computing Education, January
Brazilian Association of Distance Education, September
E-Learn, organized by AACE, October
Elliott Masie’s Learning, November
Emerging Technologies for Online Learning, organized by Sloan Consortium and MERLOT, April
European Association of Distance and Teaching Universities (EADTU), October
European Distance and e-Learning Network (EDEN), June
Global Time: Global Conference on Technology, Innovation, Media and Education, offered online in February
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), June
Learning Solutions, organized by eLearning Guild, March
MIT Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC), May/June
New Learning Technologies Conference, organized by the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT), March
Sloan Consortium Online Learning, November
Training Conference and Expo, organized by Training Magazine, February

If your focus is on learning and teaching, below are a few suggestions for your consideration. Many of these events occur in North America. I would highlight events elsewhere if I was aware of them.

Best Teachers Summer Institute, June
Committee on College Teaching and Learning (CCTL) Conference, January
Faculty Development Summer Institute on Active Learning and Teaching, July/August
International Conference on College Teaching and Learning, April
International Conference on Improving University Teaching, July
International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association, January
International Institute for SoTL Scholars and Mentors (IISSAM), May/June
International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning (ISETL), October
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), October
International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT), July
Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, dates vary
National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), May
North American Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD), October
Professional and Organizational Development (POD), October
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons, March
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), June
Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), May
Teaching Professor Conference, May/June
Teaching Professor Technology Conference, October

Note also that every major area of study, such as English as a second language, nursing, mathematics, psychology, science, teacher education, and vocational education, all have their own associations that offer newsletters, journals, and/or conferences. It would be advantageous to examine http://fakejournals.blogspot.ca/ or Jeffry Beale’s list of questionable publishers and organizations http://scholarlyoa.com/2012/12/06/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2013/ so that you could consider whether you want to attend events sponsored by these organizations.
Despite the shortlist I provided above, the conference you select must be congruent with YOUR interests, needs, and resources. Once you have selected a conference, do read “How to Get the Most Out of a Conference” by Stephen Downes, http://halfanhour.blogspot.ca/2011/11/how-to-get-most-out-of-conference.html

I trust that the 29th version of this conference list will be useful to you and your colleagues. Background to the list and suggestions for promoting your event on the web can be found at http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/2011/08/why-distribute-documents-in-ms-word-or-openoffice-for-an-international-audience/, an article published by Seb Schmoller. According to Rory McGreal, all the suggestions in the article are helpful for presenting your conference on the web; however, the use of frames may work well on a desktop, but is not recommended for mobile devices. Increasingly, we must consider how best to design a website that can be viewed across all platforms.

If I missed an event that you would highly recommend your colleagues to attend, let me know so I can add it to the 30th edition of the conference list.
Best regards,
Clayton

P.S. You are encouraged to share the list with your colleagues or cut and paste a customized list that meets their specific needs. But, kindly retain the contact information when you re-distribute the list or mount it on the web as that is how I receive updates and find out about new events. It is relatively easy to find events scheduled for the next two or three months, but much more difficult to ascertain information for events beyond that time period. May your day be a productive one! crw