Call for workshop, panel and tutorial proposals

The ICALT conference has made it a tradition to allow for a variety of forms of interactions between conference participants, beside the traditional paper presentations. Thus, the 12th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies invites proposals by organisers of Workshops and Panels.

Workshops
Workshops aim at targeting new areas related to, but perhaps not included in the main conference, e.g., new emergent areas not yet caught by the main conference, cross-disciplinary research and practice, community forming activities, collaborative project dissemination activities. Research presented at Workshops may be work still in progress, interesting new ideas that would benefit from brainstorming activities, etc. For this reason, Workshops should allow for more discussion time and forms than the main conference. Innovative formats and structures are encouraged, such as demos, on-line activities, videos, etc.

Panels
Panels bring together a number of specialists in the same or complementary area, discussing a relevant topic of today directly or indirectly related to the conference. Strategic discussions of the future developments are encouraged. Interaction with the audience should also be incorporated. The organisers can be part of the panel, or chair it.

Tutorials
Specialists in topics directly or indirectly related to the main conference are invited to give tutorials on these topics, as long as there is an expectation that some part of the audience (e.g., young researchers) would benefit from being taught. Advanced topics are encouraged. Tutorials can also be organised in a variety of forms, beside the classroom-like structure, and should preferably provide some hands-on activities with the public, where possible. Questions and answers should also be integrated in the structure.

Proceedings
Accepted papers in Workshops, Panel and Tutorial descriptions (2 pages) will be published in the IEEE proceedings of ICALT2012, following the Author guidelines

Submission Instructions
Proposals for Workshops and Panels should be around 2 pages long and should be sent to Alexandra I. Cristea, Paloma Diaz, Piercesare Rivoltella, as well as to the ASK-Conference System. Proposals for Tutorials should be submitted to the ASK-Conference System.

Each proposal should contain:
•    The nature of the proposal (Workshop, Panel or Tutorial)
•    The name of the proposed Workshop, Panel or Tutorial
•    The names, affiliations, short bio and contact details (including email) of all organisers. The bio should reflect why you are the right persons to give this Workshop, Panel or Tutorial.
•    A short description of the goals, scope, content and potential outcomes for the Workshop, Panel, Tutorial. The contribution of the proposal to the conference has to be clearly highlighted.
•    A short description of the format and structure of the Workshop, Panel or Tutorial (duration, kind of interaction with the audience, order of activities if more than one, etc.). Please note that the duration and timing of the Workshop, Panel or Tutorial is to be fine-tuned in line with the general ICALT schedule at a later stage (usually around 2 hours).
•    A short description of the target audience for the Workshop, Panel or Tutorial
•    A short description of the relevance of the Workshop, Panel or Tutorial for the ICALT conference

Additionally Workshops' proposals should also specify:
•    the names and affiliations of the Programme Committee, as well as the status of their acceptance to be involved (accepted/pending)
•    description of the review process and tentative dates in the CFP
•    mechanisms that will be used to distribute the CFP
•    list of potential researchers or research groups that might be interested in submitting papers to the workshop
•    A statement about how many papers are expected to be included in the ICALT proceedings. The size of papers will be of up to 2 pages. The review process, including deadline dates should be detailed.

Panels' proposals should also specify:
•    the names affiliations and bios of the participants, as well as the status of their acceptance to be involved (accepted/pending). A statement about how many papers are expected to be included in the ICALT proceedings. The size of papers will be of up to 2 pages. Please note that if papers are to be included in the ICALT proceedings, the paper deadlines as below need to be followed.
•    Please take into account that panels have to be self-funded. No honorary, registration or travel expenses are paid by the conference to the participants or organizers.

Tutorials' proposals should also specify:
•    equipment requirements they may have, as well as what equipment the organisers are bringing with them (please note that requirements may be met depending on the facilities made available by the local organisers)
•    expectations from the audience (background, activities to be performed by the audience, etc.)

Submissions will be judged on topic originality and relevance for the conference, and overall quality of the proposal. The Chairs reserve the right to contact submitters for additional information, where necessary.

Important Dates
December 15, 2011    Deadline for submission of 2-page proposal for Workshops
December 30, 2011        Deadline for submission of 2-page proposal for Panels and Tutorials
December 30, 2011        Notification of acceptance of Workshops' proposals
February 15, 2012    Recommended deadline for submission Workshops' papers
February 15, 2012    Notification of acceptance of Panels' and Tutorials' proposals
March 5, 2012        Recommended date for notification of acceptance of Workshops' papers
March 15, 2012    Authors' Registration Deadline
April 1, 2012        Camera-Ready paper (up to 2 pages) for the Conference Proceedings

Workshops Management
Once the individual workshop is accepted, the individual workshop chair(s)should launch the individual workshop web site to announce the workshop and manage the review process at their convenience. The URL of the workshop has to be notified to the ICALT Workshops Chair(s) no later than January 10th, 2012.

Once the review process has finished, the pre-accepted papers will be sent to ICALT Workshops Chair(s) along with the reviews of each paper in order to get a final acceptation from the Program Chairs. The main criterion for final approval is consistency with the selection criteria of the main conference and no overlap with similar submissions in both the main conference and individual workshops (by the same authors).

Contacts
Alexandra I. Cristea, Paloma Diaz, Piercesare Rivoltella