Wishing all our readers a happy new year filled with good health, good times and prosperity for 2012! This year is shaping up to be a busy one with new enhancements to the repository and community portal soon to be ready to roll out, Learning Innovation Community Supported (LInCS) 2012 projects underway, Local learning innovation projects in development around the country, guest speakers being scheduled, a date set for the NDLR Fest, a new Call for Proposals for an NDLR Symposium soon to be circulated not to mention the anticipation of the creation of a National Academy for teaching and learning in Ireland.

The NDLR Fest 2012 is scheduled to take place in Croke Park on the 2nd of May. The annual showcase event is an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful digital development work being undertaken in higher education by the academic community. This years Fest will showcase both the national collaborative projects, some cross-sectoral national projects and the many local projects funded by the NDLR. More details on the Fest programme will follow soon!

The Learning without Frontiers Conference and Festival took place in London on the 25th and 26th of January. Some of the NDLR team went along to the Festival to see what innovation is happening in the world of e-learning. There was a great line up of speakers including Noam Chomsky, Stephen Heppell, Lord Puttnam and Sir Ken Robinson and recordings of these speakers are available from the LWF website.

The NDLR also had representation at the TIES 2012 Conference in Barcelona where Yvonne Diggins and Aisling Dundon gave presentations on " Implicit ICT Initiatives - an insight into a cohort of ICT Leaders in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland" and "The NDLR - fostering the use, development and exchange of open educational resources in Ireland" respectively.

SMARTlab has been selected by two major Irish government agencies (Enterprise Ireland and the IDA) to play a major role in the development of the new Irish Learning Technology Centre. The objective of the LTC is to greatly enhance the competitive advantage of the Irish learning technology industry by partnering with leading research groups in Ireland.
The selected partners are:
• The Knowledge and Data Engineering Group in Trinity College Dublin
• CLARITY sensor studios and the SMARTlab Research Institute at University College Dublin
• DERI at the National University of Ireland, Galway
• TSSG at Waterford Institute of Technology
To read more click here

The Irish Learning Technology Association is delighted to announce that National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) will host EdTech2012 from May 31st to June 1st 2012.

We are delighted at the opportunity for EdTech to be held at NUIM, which promises to be a wonderful venue. The local NUIM team will be in the very capable hands of Claire McAvinia. The theme for 2012 is Digital Literacies (and eComptencies) and the keynotes will be Martin Oliver and Leslie Gourley (London Knowledge Lab, University of London), Martha Rotter , Co-founder and publisher of IDEA Magazine, Manager of OpenCoffee and tech/innovation/publishing blogger and Larry Regan, Director of Faculty Development at the World Campus , Penn State University

ILTA and DCU sponsor an annual award: The Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning in memory of Jennifer Burke, a well known and highly regarded friend and colleague, who the Irish Learning Technology Community lost in June 2007. The award recognises and rewards innovative practice in Irish Teaching and Learning, and in particular aims to reflect and remember Jenn's vibrancy, creativity, energy and passion for learning.
ILTA / DCU are now inviting nominations for the 2012 Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Nominations to be submitted by 27th February 2012.

Dr Maria Hinfelaar, President of Limerick IT, is new Chair of Institutes of Technology Ireland. Dr Maria Hinfelaar, President of Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT), is the new Chairperson of Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI) for 2012. A native of the Netherlands, she has been at the head of LIT since 2004. Dr Hinfelaar studied at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Leicester University in the UK and was conferred with a PhD by Maastricht University in 2004.
Commenting on her priorities as IOTI Chair, Dr Hinfelaar said: "It is now a year since the Strategy for Higher Education was published and it is essential that more clarity of direction and vision for the sector is provided. The criteria for designation as Technological Universities should be published at the earliest date so Institutes can plan their futures with certainty. There will be no progress without certainty.

EDIN Call for Contributions for Emerging Issues III

The Educational Developers in Ireland Network has issued a call for contributions to Emerging Issues III. EDIN are looking for contributions from members and other colleagues in Irish higher education institutions who may be interested in participating. Successful contributors will have the opportunity to avail of a 2 day research and writing seminar in May where most of the writing will be undertaken in a supported environment.

In 2013, EDIN will is seeking to publish Emerging Issues III; for Emerging Issues III EDIN has adopted the working title From Capacity Building to Sustainability. Though there has been significant capacity building over the past 10 years in terms of support for teaching and learning in the sector, few of us could have predicted the utterly changed landscape with which we are faced in higher education today. The current situation in higher education, and more widely in the country, means that sustainability will be a key concern for the future. We believe that this publication, both in terms of process and product, will help to contribute to the discussion around teaching and learning in higher education and academic practice more generally in Ireland.

Full information will be available in a dedicated page on the EDIN website.

The DHO is pleased to announce a series of three new workshops providing digital humanities scholars with critical technical skills and hands-on experience. The Digital Humanities Tech Skills (http://dho.ie/digitalskills) series combine short lectures offering subject matter overview with hands-on exercises. The half-day workshops provide an informal forum to rapidly gain knowledge and appreciate application of the skills to real-world research challenges.

The topics being offered:
• Wednesday 1 February - Putting your Project Online: An Introduction to Content Management Systems for Digital Humanities Scholars
• Wednesday 22 February - Getting to Know Your Data Better: An Introduction to Data Visualisation for Analysis in the Digital Humanities
• Tuesday 20 March - Sharing Your Research: An Introduction to Data Visualisation for Presentation in the Digital Humanities
Prior registration is required and spaces are limited.
Registration for the first workshop is now open click here

Registration for subsequent workshops will open approximately two weeks in advance.

Ireland & UK Moodlemoot 2012 will be held in Dublin, Ireland. You are invited you to join members of the Ireland and UK Moodle community for 3 days in Dublin this April 2-4, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Northwood. The conference will enable connecting and sharing between practitioners and administrators from across Ireland and the United Kingdom. The theme for the conference will be "Moving forward with Moodle". The organisers hope to showcase many fine Irish and UK initiatives and projects during the conference on a range of topics including: Learning with Moodle; Academic take up of Moodle; Student engagement; Implementing Moodle.

Check out this resource!

Disappearing digital resources
David White, from the Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL) in the University of Oxford speaks about a recent report commissioned by JISC in the UK. One of the most striking aspects of the JISC funded Open-Educational-Resources Impact study according to David "was the extent to which using digital resources has become embedded in teaching practice". The OER Impact project analysed the link between the value of use and its impact in teaching and learning. There is a full research report and a shorter 'accessible' report available for download from JISC.

To view the video presentation click here

This video is published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) and was accessed via the TALL blog website

NDLR News & Events

Education Studies Association of Ireland Conference 2012
29th – 31st March, UCC, Cork
The conference theme is Educational Research in a time of transformation: insights , influences and impacts.

NDLR Research Award Recipients – AIT
Wednesday 22nd February

NDLR Showcase – WIT
Thursday 23rd Feb

NDLR Showcase – ITT Dublin
Tuesday 20th Feb

Blended Learning Conference 2012
The University of Hertfordshire's Learning and Teaching Institute in partnership with JISC are delighted to announce: The Seventh International Blended Learning Conference "Reflecting on our achievements - What's next for technology-enhanced learning and teaching?"
Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th June 2012
The Fielder Centre, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts., UK.
You are invited to submit proposals/abstracts relating to innovation and institutional enhancement. Suggested themes include:
• Changing and enhancing practices with digital literacies;
• Technology-enhanced assessment and feedback;
• Curriculum design;
• Open educational resources.

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE E-LEARNING 2012 Call for Papers - Lisbon, Portugal, 17 - 20 July 2012
Conference background and goals

The IADIS e-Learning 2012 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within e-Learning. This conference covers both technical as well as the non-technical aspects of e-Learning.

The conference accepts submissions in the following seven main areas: Organisational Strategy and Management Issues; Technological Issues; e-Learning Curriculum Development Issues; Instructional Design Issues; e-Learning Delivery Issues; e-Learning Research Methods and Approaches; e-Skills and Information Literacy for Learning.

Deadline for submissions: 23 January 2012
Part of the IADIS Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (MCCSIS 2012) Lisbon, Portugal, 17 – 23 July 2012

Call for Papers - 3th International Workshop on Interactive Environments and Emergent Technologies for eLearning (IEETeL 2012) that will be held in conjunction with The 11th IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Communications
(IUCC-2012), Liverpool, UK, 25-27 June 2012

Topics of interest
Web 2.0 Applications for Learning
3D Virtual Environments
Semantic Web
Educational MashUps
Immersive technologies in ADL
Networks/Grids for learning
Adaptive and intuitive environments
Personal Learning Environments
Mobile learning environments and applications
Augmented Reality Implementation

2012 Emerging Technologies Conference - Call for Proposals
A conference devoted to the emerging and innovative uses of technology designed to improve teaching and learning online.MERLOT and the Sloan Consortium will partner again for the 5th Annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium – The Call for Papers is now open!

July 25-27, 2012 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

ISSTC 2012 Call for submissions
August 1-2, 2012 at the Cork School of Music and St. John's College in Cork
Submissions are due 30 March 2012. Details of materials needed and submission instructions are provided at the bottom of each call.

Connexions Conference
Rice University, Houston Texas 15-17 Feb

9th ALDinHE annual Conference
Learning Development in a Digital Age: emerging literacies and learning spaces
2-4 April, University of Leeds, UK.
Across the Learning Development community there is significant interest in the implications of an increasingly digital learning environment and its impact on the learning experience. Our 2012 conference is an exciting opportunity to consider how we operate in a digital age.

Cambridge 2012: Innovation and Impact - Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education
Queens College, Cambridge, April 16, 2012 – April 18, 2012
Cambridge 2012 will combine OER12 and the OCW Consortium's Global Conference. The conference theme, Innovation and Impact: Openly collaborating to enhance education, will bring together academics, professionals, students and policy makers interested in advancing the impact of OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources on education globally

The Fourth European Articulate Conference 2012
24 May, 2012, 10am - 4.30pm@ Weetwood Hall, Leeds, UK

Tom Kuhlmann: e-learning guru, inspirational instructional designer, will be sharing with the rest of us his findings in his colourful journey through the world of interactive and engaging e-learning.

ICWSM-12
THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL AAAI CONFERENCE ON WEBLOGS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
4-8 JUNE 2012: TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, IRELAND