The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning has established a grant program to assist K-12 schools in the United States who have state-approved blended or online learning programs.

The program is administered by Scholarship Management Services, a division of Scholarship America. Scholarship Management Services is the nation’s largest designer and manager of scholarship and tuition reimbursement programs for corporations, foundations, associations and individuals. Awards are granted without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, disability or national origin.

Eligibility

Applicants to The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning Teacher Grant Program must:

• Be a teacher or guidance counselor, grades K-12, who is employed by an accredited, state-approved blended or online learning program in the United States.
• Propose an innovative project that relates specifically to one or more of the following areas:
  • Special education support using technology as a catalyst for individual growth
  • English Language Acquisition/English Language Learning (ELA/ELL)
  • Innovative math enhancement programs
  • Literacy/reading interventions

Proposals for robotics programs and engineering and engineering-related programs are not eligible.

Awards

One-time grants of up to $10,000 each will be awarded. Total distribution is up to $200,000. Grants are made payable to the school, specifically for use on the project.

Grant funds may be used for: technology (excluding smartboards), software, curriculum, classroom supplies and materials. Grants may not be used for facility costs or salary or payroll expenses.

Grantees are required to submit a grant accountability report including verification of funds used and measurable outcomes at the conclusion of the school year.

For the application process, see more here:

https://www.scholarsapply.org/fbol-teachergrant/

*** Call for Papers ***

Joint Special Issue of IEEE TETC and TLT on “Innovation in Technologies for Educational Computing”

IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC)
IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT)

Link: https://www.computer.org/cms/transactions/cfps/cfp_tetcsi_itec.pdf

*** Guest Editors ***

Fabrizio Lamberti, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Gwo-Jen Hwang, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Baltasar Fernández, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Wenping Wang, The University of  Hong Kong, Hong Kong

*** Topics of interest ***

The goal of this joint Special Issue is to provide an overview of most recent emerging and “fringe” learning technologies. Sample topics of interest include:

1. Virtual, augmented and mixed reality: game-based learning, edutainment, gamification, intrinsic integration of game mechanics, virtual worlds and communities for education and training, digital humans and avatars in education, work-based and augmented learning

2. Learning at Scale: service-oriented architectures for learning, MOOCs, interoperability of learning systems, standards for knowledge sharing, open educational resources, linked open data, ontologies and reasoning

3. Ubiquitous and wearable computing: educational applications of sensor-based learning, smart watches and activity trackers, body sensor networks, ego-vision devices and life-logging equipment, Internet of Things, smart environments, context-aware services and tools

4. Social computing: educational data mining and filtering on social networks, social media for e-learning and e-assessment, social learning at scale, informal learning in social communities, peer review and assessment, trust and reputation in social communities

5. Big Data and data analytics: modeling of learners and learning processes, learning analytics, educational data mining, student profiling, behavioral and emotional analytics, learning data visualization, quantified self

6. Intelligent systems: adaptive learning, recommender systems, tools for smart tutoring and training, pedagogical agents and assistants, course and material personalization

7. Learning in the making: 3D printers and computer-controlled fabrication devices, open micro-controller, sensor and actuator technologies, smart programming environments, robotics

8. Human-computer interaction: natural and multi-modal interfaces, conversational agents, affective computing, interactive tabletops and surfaces, innovative interaction devices and techniques

*** Submission instructions ***

This partial list is not exclusive and does not cover all novel learning technologies. As a part of the submission letter the authors are requested to argue why the technology presented in the submission should be counted as “emergent” and “cutting edge”.

Submitted papers must describe original research which is not published nor currently under review by other journals or conferences. Authors are responsible for understanding and adhering to submission guidelines published on the IEEE Computer Society website (http://www.computer.org).

Authors are invited to submit manuscripts focused on odd labeled topics directly to Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC) at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tetc-cs and papers focused on even labeled topics directly to Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT) at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tlt-cs.

In special cases, authors are welcome to submit to the journal of their choice. Although with the above choice the authors are indicating which Transaction represents the primary target of their submission, they should be aware that papers may be published in TETC or TLT depending on the availability of space with the final allocation at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief of the respective Transactions.

Correspondence should be addressed to: InnoTechEduComp-SI@polito.it

*** Important dates ***

– Submission Deadline: December 1, 2016
– Reviews Completed: March 1, 2017
– Major Revisions Due (if Needed): April 1, 2017
– Reviews of Revisions Completed (if Needed): May 1, 2017
– Minor Revisions Due (if Needed): June 1, 2017
– Notification of Final Acceptance: July 1, 2017
– Publication Materials for Final Manuscripts Due: August 1, 2017
– Publication date: October-December Issues of 2017

Distance Education (volume 38, number 2, 2017)
Special Issue on “Social Presence and Identity in Online Learning”

Social Presence is a multi-faceted  and complicated construct (see Biocca et al., 2003; Lombard & Ditto, 1997) that dates back to the 1970s (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976). Short et al. originally defined social presence as the degree of salience (i.e., quality or state of being there) between two communicators using a communication medium, arguing that media differ in their degree of social presence, influencing how people interact. During the 1990s, as online education grew, researchers began to notice that computer-mediated discourse (CMC) can be social, interpersonal (Gunawardena, 1995; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997), and at times even hyperpersonal (Walther, 1996). Online educators even began to argue that social presence is a key component to educational experiences (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000).

While the majority of research on  social presence is grounded in the Community of Inquiry framework (see Diaz, Swan, Ice, & Kupczynski, 2010; Lowenthal, 2009; Rourke & Kanuka, 2009), researchers over the years have investigated social presence from various perspectives (e.g., Bronack et al., 2008; Caspi & Blau, 2008; Gunawardena, 1995; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Keengwe, Adjei-Boateng, & Diteeyont, 2012; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Rogers & Lea, 2005; Tu, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). Regardless of perspective, very few researchers–besides a few notable exceptions (e.g., Dennen, 2007; Rogers & Leas, 2005)–have focused on the role of identity when investigating how people establish themselves as “real” and “there” in online learning environments. Identity, like presence, is a complex topic (see Buckingham, 2007; Greenhow & Robelia, 2009; Hughes & Oliver, 2010). Identity is dynamic (Côté & Levine, 2002); people develop multiple identities (Gee, 2003), which shift and are influenced by cultural practices (Nasir & Hand, 2006). Identity is performed by the individual, communicated primarily via visual (e.g., avatars and photos) and textual cues (e.g., user names, profiles, writing style or voice). However, it’s also negotiated via discursive positioning (Dennen, 2007, 2011; Harré and van Langenhove, 1999) with other participants, who engage reciprocal membership categorization based on the identity cues that are provided (Schegloff, 2007).

This special issue focused on social presence and identity will bring together researchers working in these two areas and, in turn, various perspectives (e.g., CoI framework as well as others), whether focused on formal or informal learning, and whether situated in private or public discourse contexts.

Possible Topics:
We invite articles that investigate the interaction of social presence and identity in various online learning contexts, including but not limited to the following:

• Development of social presence and identity in online classes
• Effects of instructor social presence and identity on learning
• Effects of learner social presence and identity on peer engagement and community development
• The relationship between performed identity and level of social presence
• Differences in how identity and social presence are conveyed across categories of tools
• Effects of learning tool interface and features on the development of social presence and identity
• Social presence and individual identity vs. group identity
• Social presence, identity, and context
• Social presence, identity, and social media
• Instructor social presence, identity, and use of media
• Presence, identity, and code switching in education
• Instructor social presence, identity, and power
• Group work, presence, and identity formation
• Presence, identity, and privacy
• Presence, identity, and language use
• Community of inquiry and identity

Those interested should email a 300-500 word proposal outlining the focus of the proposed manuscript to Patrick Lowenthal (patricklowenthal@boisestate.edu) and Vanessa Dennen (vdennen@fsu.edu) by June 13th 2016.

Important Dates
June 13th 2016: Deadline for Proposals
June 18th 2016: Invited authors will be notified
September 16th: Full articles due to guest editors
November 30th: Notifications of acceptance
January 6th: Revised articles due
May 2017: Expected publication

Guest Editors
Patrick Lowenthal, Boise State University, patricklowenthal@boisestate.edu
Vanessa Dennen, Florida State University, vdennen@fsu.edu

More information about the call for proposals here