While ISLS sees many Learning Sciences researchers around the world come to present their studies and discuss new ideas intensively at our annual conferences (ICLS and CSCL), it also recognizes that more researchers are interested in the field but cannot be at the annual conference for financial reasons. We receive many requests of support for regional or affinity group activities. There are also scientists that do research having affinity to ours, but are not aware of ISLS.

The newly initiated Grants Program for Regional and Affinity Outreach & Engagement Promoting the Learning Sciences is funding three programs this year. 

The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) is searching for a new Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (ijCSCL) for 2020–2023. Applications will be welcomed either from an individual or from a team of co-Editors-in-Chief.

ijCSCL is a journal of, by and for the international CSCL research community, and, as such, applications are encouraged from active international members of this community.

In 2018, the ISLS Board approved holding a single Annual Meeting. An ad-hoc committee was subsequently appointed by the Executive Committee to develop a structure for this new annual meeting. The ad-hoc committee drew on the efforts of numerous ISLS members (including the CSCL community Committee, ISLS Conference Committee, ISLS Board members, and past CSCL and ICLS conference organizers) who over the course of the past two years have considered how to move the Society toward an annual meeting. That process resulted in the structure of the new ISLS Annual Meeting described here. The new "Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences" will feature concurrent LS and CSCL programs in a joint, annual event.

The first ISLS Annual Meeting under this new structure will take place in 2021.

On May 8 and 9, the Exploratorium will host VISUALISE, the first conference focused on creating effective visualizations for science museums and other venues for informal science education. VISUALISE will bring together museum professionals, learning researchers, computer scientists, artists, and technology developers to share their work and identify opportunities, knowledge gaps, and emerging research.

For more information, go to www.exploratorium.edu/visualise or email [email protected]

Call for Nominations: 
ISLS 2019 Board of Directors 

Dear ISLS members,

One of the most important ways to contribute to the International Society of the Learning Sciences is to serve on the ISLS Board of Directors. The Board consists of 12 ISLS members, who serve terms of 6 years each, and represent the range of expertise, experience levels, and geographical locations of Society members.  Elections occur every two years for four board members. The first step in this process is to solicit nominations from the membership. That is the purpose of this email.

Call for Nominations for ISLS Fellows 
Deadline for Receipt of Materials: January 15, 2019, FEBRUARY 1, 2019

We are pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2018 International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) fellows. The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Fellows program has three main goals:

Call for Proposals 

Grants Program for Regional and Affinity Outreach & Engagement 
Promoting the Learning Sciences

While we see many Learning Sciences researchers around the world come to present their studies and discuss new ideas intensively at our annual conferences (ICLS and CSCL), we also recognize that more researchers are interested in the field but cannot be at our annual conference for financial reasons and we receive many requests of support for regional or affinity group activities. There are also scientists that do research having affinity to ours, but are not aware of ISLS.

This is a call for proposals for support for interested regional and affinity outreach and engagement activities to take place during 2019. It is our hope that the accepted projects will lead to sustainable collaboration and engagement with ISLS in future years.  Preference will be given to proposals for new programs, but proposals for support of ongoing programs will be considered. Proposals are due December 31^st, 2018. January 7, 2019.

Computer-Based Learning in Context is a new completely and permanently free and open-access journal for rigorous scientific research on computer-based learning in context. We are particularly interested in how learners’ contexts impact their interactions, within as well as around computer-based learning, and how those differences in interaction impact learning, long-term learner outcomes, and educational effectiveness.

CBLC is interested in these themes writ large:

ICLS 2018 Doctoral Consortium and Early Career Workshop

On June 23 and 24th, the International Society of the Learning Sciences will proudly host its annual Doctoral Consortium (Chaired by Carolyn Rose, Ben du Boulay, and Jun Oshima) and Early Career Workshop (Chaired by Erica Halverson, Rich Halverson and Eduardo Guzmán). These annual workshops are valuable as networking and mentoring opportunities in our community. We are grateful for funding from the ISLS and from the National Science Foundation in the US for funding to support these important workshops.

Both workshops have recently completed their review process. Between the two workshops, we received over a hundred applications this year. Overall, we were only able to accept 22 applications, 10 for the Doctoral Consortium and 12 for the Early Career Workshop. In our review process, we kept an eye toward accepting applications that were at an appropriate stage to benefit from the workshop while also showing a spark that demonstrates particular promise. At the same time, we balanced for representation across regions and disciplines.

Lifelong technology enhanced learning: Dealing with the complexity of 21st century challenges

3rd-6th September 2018, Leeds, United Kingdom

http://www.ec-tel.eu

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CALL FOR PAPERS & DEADLINES

Deadline for Receipt of Materials: April 23, 2018

We are pleased to invite nominations for the 2018 cohort of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Fellows.

The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Fellows program has three main goals:

Workshop website: http://wits.alliancelss.com  

As part of an effort to engage scholars from around the globe in advancing the Learning Sciences, the First Workshop of the International Society of the Learning Sciences to take place in Africa will be February 12-13, 2018. The location of this meeting is University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa. Please see the link to this workshop for more information about speakers and the program for the workshop.

For the past few years, ISLS has taken an active leadership role in bridge building among other societies with overlapping missions. This effort has lead to the founding of a bridging organization called The International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era (IAALDE).  The goal is to facilitate partnership among societies rather than competition. We can accomplish more if we can both foster the diversity among these societies while working together in unity.  See more at the IAALDE website: http://www.alliancelss.com/.

The two flagship journals of the International Society of the Learning Sciences would like to share a few updates.

First, the Journal of the Learning Sciences continues its strong performance, with impact factors continuing to be near or above the 90th percentile in Education and Educational Research for the last 20 years. The journal recently completed the transition to new editors, Susan Yoon and Jan van Aalst. Manuscript decision times have improved! The new editorial team has increased efficiencies so as to reduce decision times to less than 3 months for more than half of the submissions. New submissions that take longer are getting decisions within 5 months. The editors are working hard to make further improvements and improve the publication process. Please note that the changes in the Instructions to Authors announced in January are now in effect. Follow and retweet announcements from Journal of the Learning Sciences on Twitter at @JLearnSciences.

The International Society of the Learning Sciences is pleased to announce the creation of the ISLS Fellows program. An endeavor begun years ago by the Awards committee and approved by the Board of Directors, the ISLS Fellows program recognizes those who have made major contributions to the field of the Learning Sciences since its inception nearly three decades ago. These individuals are each highly accomplished scholars and community members who will continue to serve in critical roles for the society in the future through their continued leadership and mentorship activities. The formal announcement took place on June 22, 2017 at the 2017 Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) conference in Philadelphia, one of two biennial academic research conferences sponsored by ISLS. The next society conference is the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, to take place in London during June of 2018.

The inaugural cohort of fellows consists of 18 distinguished learning scientists who have served previously as elected presidents of the society, editors of the two flagship journals (Journal of the Learning Sciences and International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning), and founders of the field. New fellows will be named in subsequent years through a selection committee consisting of existing ISLS fellows.