While it had been our intent to take all measures to welcome you at Ruhr University Bochum and to our City Bochum in Germany next summer, the Local Conference Organizers and the International Society of the Learning Sciences have now made the tough decision to hold the ISLS Annual Meeting 2021 completely online. Ongoing developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions for running in-person events with a larger number of people left no other alternative. We are very disappointed that we will not be able to give you the local experience that we were hoping for.  However, we will now take up the challenge of bringing the Bochum experience to you!

The dates for the ISLS Annual Meeting 2021 will not change. We’ll be running all workshops and sessions during the originally scheduled conference dates: June, 7-11, 2021. 

Journal of the Learning Sciences invites proposals for a special issue to be published in 2023. Instructions for preparing a proposal are posted on the Instructions to Authors at the publisher’s website, https://tinyurl.com/y9neyuhd. Proposals are due December 14, 2020 and will be peer reviewed by the journal’s editorial leadership team. We will notify the submitters of the accepted proposal in February 2021.

We are especially interested in proposals that develop emerging areas of research and conceptual/methodological innovations that will shape the future of the field and increase its impact on practice and policy. For example, we welcome proposals that address topics including – and not limited to – teacher learning and design; learning and development as part of social activism; changing notions of expertise in transforming technological and relational contexts; analyses of learning at the intersection of race, equity, and technology development; methodological innovations foregrounding the ethical, political, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions of learning across the lifespan, possibly linking to new approaches to data analytics; and synergy-building across disciplinary perspectives and frameworks to understand key dimensions of learning.

We encourage proposals that include and reflect international concerns and perspectives. Towards this end, proposal submissions may include names of suggested authors as well as their institutional affiliations and/or brief description of their geographic areas of expertise.

Susan Jurow and Jianwei Zhang
Incoming Co-Editors in Chief
2021-2024

Journal of the Learning Sciences invites proposals for a special issue to be published in 2023. Instructions for preparing a proposal are posted on the Instructions to Authors at the publisher’s website, https://tinyurl.com/y9neyuhd. Proposals are due December 14, 2020 and will be peer reviewed by the journal’s editorial leadership team. We will notify the submitters of the accepted proposal in February 2021.

 We are especially interested in proposals that develop emerging areas of research and conceptual/methodological innovations that will shape the future of the field and increase its impact on practice and policy.  For example, we welcome proposals that address topics including – and not limited to – teacher learning and design; learning and development as part of social activism; changing notions of expertise in transforming technological and relational contexts; analyses of learning at the intersection of race, equity, and technology development; methodological innovations foregrounding the ethical, political, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions of learning across the lifespan, possibly linking to new approaches to data analytics; and synergy-building across disciplinary perspectives and frameworks to understand key dimensions of learning.

The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) invites proposals to host the 2023 ISLS Annual Meeting. The ISLS Annual Meeting consists of two concurrent programs - Learning Sciences and CSCL, preceded by workshops and professional development activities.  Proposals are invited from current ISLS members representing institutions or organizations around the world. Hosts of the 2023 meeting can expect to work with the ISLS Conference Committee to plan the Annual Meeting.

International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting 2021

Reflecting the Past and Embracing the Future

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, June 7-11

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed school and higher education on a global scale with the rise of online teaching and learning. Online education typically involves the organization of learning objects for widely self-regulated forms of individual learning. Students and teachers alike often miss out on direct, mutual feedback of co-present social interaction.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed school and higher education on a global scale with the rise of online teaching and learning. Online education typically involves the organization of learning objects for widely self-regulated forms of individual learning. Students and teachers alike often miss out on direct, mutual feedback of co-present social interaction.

As an official publication of the International Society of the Learning Sciences, the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (IJCSCL) fosters a deep understanding of the nature, theory, and practice of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). For the first time, the co-editors-in-chief announce an Open Call for a Special Issue, which offers a team of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers about an innovative theme. This 2021 Open Call for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning solicits high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a highly competitive procedure.

The call welcomes contributions covering any topics within the scope of the journal.  The journal serves as a forum for experts from such disciplines as education, computer science, information technology, psychology, communications, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and business. Articles investigate how to design the technological settings for collaboration and how people learn in the context of collaborative activity.  Thus, the papers included in special issue proposals may represent a variety of theoretical perspectives and different methodological approaches. The major criteria in the review and the selection process concern the significance of the contribution to the area of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, and the rigor of the study.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS: ISLS Annual Meeting 2021

International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting 2021

Reflecting the Past and Embracing the Future

There are a number of discussions taking place right now related to the nature and format of formal schooling in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many places, these discussions take the form of disagreements about whether students should return to physical school buildings and campuses. In others, they take the form of a rapid embrace of new learning technologies without thoughtful critique, evaluation, or discussion of best practices. As a professional academic organization, we are dedicated to the study and design of learning across settings, environments, and the lifespan. Given that expertise, the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) offers the following:

• The well-being, health, and safety of the learners, educators, staff, and community members should be the primary consideration in any decision regarding the resumption and format of formal schooling. We oppose the use of political pressure that discounts or dismisses these as primary considerations. Expert recommendations and guidance regarding public health and safety should be consulted to inform decision-making.
• Learning Sciences research has firmly established that meaningful and consequential learning takes place across the lifespan and in a multitude of settings, including but not limited to home, work, community groups, online, in the natural world, and in schools. Should the physical operation of schools be temporarily delayed or greatly altered, ISLS expects that there will still be a number of rich learning opportunities available to affected students, even during this challenging time. Statements that a resumption of physical schooling is necessary in order for students to learn is a mischaracterization of what we know about when and how meaningful learning occurs.
• The design of high quality learning experiences and curricula requires substantial time, resources, and investment, even in the best of conditions. To best support educators and researchers who are now pursuing new forms of educational design and implementation work in response to the pandemic, we urge patience and the provision of adequate support and resources so that this complex work can be done. A number of quick fixes and technocentric solutions are being proposed and endorsed without sufficient considerations of equity or the many roles that the formal education system plays in people’s lives. To find truly desirable and responsive solutions, we encourage interested parties to pursue meaningful and equal partnerships that directly involve educators and communities.
• The pandemic has affected and continues to affect individuals, families, and communities in unequal ways. For those in positions of power and influence, we urge acknowledgment of the differential impact the pandemic is having on different populations along with advocacy and meaningful action for those most negatively affected. For example, this may take the form of additional funding and the deliberate pursuit of community-responsive policies and solutions.

Individual and collective actions taken in the coming days and months will determine the nature of the pandemic’s impact on how we live and learn. Many in our community are doing important work to respond to the unexpected challenges we are all facing. As a professional academic organization, the International Society of the Learning Sciences will continue to seek out ways to support and advocate for our members and the communities that we serve.

Conferences are always a great time to join a committee - and that's no different for a virtual conference!

If you're interested in learning more about the work of the ISLS Communications Committee, please join our online committee meeting on Monday, June 22 at 7:30 - 8:30 am US CST (that's 8:30 - 9:30am US EST, 5:30-6:30am US PST, 1:30-2:30pm UK, 2:30-3:30pm Central Europe [e.g., Netherlands]). You can join using this link.

The recent brutal murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY; Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA; Tony McDade in Tallahassee, FL; and countless others across the United States, by police officers and civilians, have once again called attention to the history of violent anti-Black racism that has shaped the country’s history. What’s more, the problem and very real consequences of police and state-sanctioned violence against Black and other minoritized groups is a global phenomenon. As we witness these killings and continued violence against Black people, our hearts are breaking. This is a moment when we need to come together to create a different way of being with each other and of holding each other accountable to our dearest values of justice and care.

As a global organization dedicated to the study of human learning and improvement of education, the  International Society of the Learning Sciences also concerns itself with how consequential learning is inextricably intertwined with the systemic inequities and oppressive ideologies that harbor anti-Black racist violence. In our educational contexts, this violence appears in our curriculum, in the voices we neglect in our syllabi, in unexamined grading and assessment policies. For our Black students, these forms of violence are compounded by the knowledge of state-sanctioned dismissal of Black bodies and life, resulting in a relentless and untenable trauma. At the same time, we must recognize and remember the strength and brilliance of these children and communities who survive and thrive under these hostile conditions.  

• Are you a PhD or Postdoc?
• Are you interested in Learning Sciences?
• Are you up for meeting peers and experts in the field?

May 4, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, due to COVID 19 we were forced to cancel the face-to-face meeting of the ICLS 2020 conference in Nashville, TN. As you might imagine this was an extremely difficult decision to make. Many people have already invested a great deal of time and effort in the conference, especially the conference co-organizers Melissa Gresalfi and Lani Horn and the strand leaders, reviewers, and of course the members who have worked hard to submit your work and submissions. To each and every one of you we express our gratitude and appreciation for all of these efforts.

As our conference co-organizers have announced, we have developed a plan that will allow us to connect as scholars. This plan takes into account the impact the pandemic is having on all of our lives - the new challenges, uncertainties, and responsibilities we are faced with on a day to day basis. In this new reality we are sometimes forced to make choices about what we can and cannot do. The co-organizers have organized an exciting online conference that offers livestreaming and video recordings of the highlighted features of the conference—the keynotes, a subset of special sessions, and the best paper awardees. Watch for forthcoming announcements from the Conference Organizers for additional information.

Of course, these changes to ICLS 2020 have implications for Membership and Registration Fees.  The International Society of the Learning Sciences, compared to many academic societies, is relatively small and operates mostly on voluntary commitments from the larger community. The change in conference format substantially impacts the financial situation for ISLS, which provides the thousands of dollars in initial funding required for each year’s conference with the hope that conference registrations will be sufficient to break even so that funds are available to provide the seed funding for the next year’s conference, and so on. In order to maintain sustainability, the board has approved the following decisions.

Registration fees that have been paid for the face to face conference will be refunded. Further information will be sent to those who are due refunds within the very near future.
To be included in the Proceedings of ICLS 2020 at least one author of a presentation, paper, or poster must register for the conference. This is the case for the Proceedings of every ISLS conference.  For the ICLS 2020 Proceedings, at least one author must be registered no later than June 5, 2020.
The ICLS 2020 Conference Registration fee has been substantially reduced and offers four payment options. You must be registered for the Conference to access the online conference.

Rationale: Conference registration fees are based on projected costs of running the conference. The projected costs for running ICLS 2020 in the online format are substantial, although much less than what they would have been for a face to face meeting. The costs reflect funds already expended for professional conference organization services, professional preparation of the Proceedings, and technology infrastructure and services for the conference (e.g., submission and review system, website development and management).  In the past conference registration fees have typically covered the costs of running the conference and have had a neutral impact on the financial status of the ISLS. This year, however, ISLS anticipates a major net loss because of the COVID-19 crisis and is asking for help to mitigate this loss.
 
To that end:
a. We have reduced the ICLS 2020 Conference Registration Fee to $150.
b. We are asking those of you who can to please pay the full fee.
c. Additional Options: If the full fee is beyond your means, you may select one of three other options: $100, $50, or $0. Please pay whatever you feel you can.
 
To Register: Go to https://www.isls.org/conferences/icls-2020-registration.
You must be a member to register for the conference. (Regular membership: $100 per year; Student membership: $60.). Become a member at https://www.isls.org/members/member-registration or renew your membership at https://www.isls.org/members/membership-renewal.
 
If you have any questions or concerns please direct them to [email protected].

These are indeed trying times for all of us. Please know that we are trying to make the best decisions we can for the sake of our community. We ask for your patience as we figure this out. We hope you are all doing what you can to take care of yourselves at this difficult time. We hope to see you in person soon.

With warm regards,

Heisawn Jeong and the ISLS Board of Directors

ISLS President 2019-2020

Earlier this week, ISLS announced that Susan Jurow and Jianwei Zhang will be the Co-editors in Chief for the next 4 volumes (2021-2024). Congratulations Susan and Jianwei! Both have extensive experience as authors, reviewers and associate editors at JLS. We look forward to working with them during the transition and wish them well in this exciting role. -- Jan and Susan. 

The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) has concluded the search for new Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of the Learning Sciences (JLS). Information about the call can be found here. We are happy to announce that Susan Jurow (University of Colorado Boulder, USA) and Jianwei Zhang (University at Albany, State University of New York, USA) will serve as the new co-editors of JLS for 2021-2024.
 
The incoming JLS Editors-in-Chief will begin working this summer with the outgoing Editors-in-Chief (Susan Yoon and Jan van Aalst) for transitioning into the position. The first journal issue for which the incoming Editors will be responsible is issue 1 of volume 30, in 2021.
 
ISLS is grateful to the outgoing editors and to our new editors.

This year, as part of our annual analysis of how the journal is doing, we looked at the fate of articles for which we issues an invitation to revise and resubmit. We looked at all such invitations made in 2017 and 2018. A "revise and resubmit" decision is really a rejection with an invitation to try again, and is accompanied by a lot of feedback. If the article is resubmitted it is again sent out form a full review. It turns out the news is rather good! Almost 70% of invitations resulted in resubmissions within one year, and more than 50% of those were eventually accepted. Things could be better in terms of the number of (timely) resubmissions and the quality of the revisions, but the odds of getting an article accepted after an invitation to revise and resubmit are much better than starting over at another high-impact journal. So, send us your revised paper if you have been invited.

We would like to share the top 3 articles from the last 5 years in terns of SSCI citations as of a few weeks ago. We also show the number of views at the publisher website.

1. Gutierrez, K. D. & Jurow, A. S. (2016). Social Design Experiments: Toward equity by design. 49 citations and 3268 views. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1204548
2. Akkerman, S., & Bruining, T. (2016). Multilevel boundary crossing in a professional development school partnerships. 42 citations and 3656 views. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1147448
3. Sannino, A. et al. (2016). Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. 38 citations and 3542 views. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1204547 

Congratulations to all the authors!