Call for Papers

Deadline for submissions: 29 February 2016 (deadline has been extended by request)

We invite you to submit your work to SaITE 2016 (the 2016 IFIP TC3 Joint Conference). This is a conference open to all interested parties, aiming at:

Bringing together researchers, policy makers, educational management, teachers and other educational practitioners to consider and explore the theme of the conference;
Enabling research, policy and practice findings to be shared and discussed;
Drawing together a variety of contributions to meet the needs of the different audiences;
Producing publications that provide contemporary perspectives from which to develop further;
Stimulating discussion and thinking in this field.

Themes of the conference

Submissions should cover one or more of the five key themes within the main topic of the conference ‘Stakeholders and information technology in education’:

Linking formal and informal education;
Researching transformation of applications of technologies in educational contexts;
Exploring implications of computer science education;
Preparing a new generation of computer professionals;
Strategic use and professional development in policy and management.

Types of Submission

SaITE 2016 welcomes the following types of submissions:

Full papers

A full paper is a standard academic research paper of, at most, 10 pages including references.

Short papers

A short paper can be up to 5 pages long including references and is an academic paper, a position paper, a case study, a policy paper or a national perspective.

Symposia

A symposium is a collection of related papers on a central theme of the conference. Proposals for symposia outline the theme, the participants, and include a one-page abstract of each paper. At a stated time, symposium papers can be submitted as long or short papers, but to be involved in the conference there is no requirement to do this.

Posters, system presentations and workshops

Ongoing research, projects, and hard- and software developments on selected research activities on the conference theme may be presented and discussed during the conference. Participants should submit a short description (maximum 2 pages) of the exhibit.

Learner and teacher presentations

A submission of a presentation by students and their teachers, demonstrating uses, learning activities and learning outcomes using ICT are encouraged. A presentation submission should be 1 page in length. Such sessions will allow sharing with all stakeholder communities attending. As the conference will focus on themes and topics that are pertinent to school managers, local managers, teachers and advisers, attendance at selected sessions from across all themes will be organised where possible. These sessions will be particularly useful for practitioners involved in project-based activities. Teachers and other educational practitioners could be enabled to attend virtually.

National direction sessions

One or more national direction sessions, each focusing on a country, can be led by a national representative. With two (or even perhaps more) of these sessions in the conference, comparisons and hot topics can be considered and discussed. A national direction session should aim to run for a maximum of one to one and a half hours:

With a national overview from a national representative, up to 5 pages in length.
A policy, practice or research element aligning to the interests of a working group, perhaps on compulsory education, or vocational education, up to 5 pages in length.
A second policy, practice or research element aligning to the interests of another working group, perhaps on research or educational management, up to 5 pages in length.

Submission

The conference website will provide up-to-date details about submission. Please note that all submissions must adhere to the formatting style stated both on the conference website, and on the conference management system.

Reviewing

Proposals will be reviewed by International Programme Committee members and reviewers according to the form of submission. Submissions for presentation will be selected on the basis of the quality of the submission, relevance and potential contribution to the field, and its potential to benefit others. The diversity of submissions will be considered, to enable a balanced programme to be of value to all participants. All submitted papers and forms of contribution will be double-blind peer-reviewed. The review process will identify three possible categories of outcomes:

Submissions are accepted or require revision or are rejected for presentation at the conference, and for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
Submissions are accepted or require revision for acceptance in a post-conference book.

Submissions could be accepted or require revision for acceptance in a special issue of Education and Information Technologies, an international journal.

Publication

Full or short papers accepted for presentation, together with symposia abstracts, posters, system presentations and workshop abstracts, learner and teacher presentations, and national direction session papers will be published prior to the conference (in conference proceedings with ISBN).

A selected collection of full, short and symposia papers will be published as a post-conference book; abstracts of these papers will be included in the online conference proceedings publication. Where reviewers indicate a contribution can be presented and published in the post-conference book, then the author(s) will have the opportunity to revise the paper post-conference.

A range of high quality papers may be selected for inclusion in a specific edition of a journal (Education and Information Technologies). In this case the author can decide whether the paper will go into the post-conference book (as it stands) and into the special edition (as an amended article), or only into the special issue (as it stands). Any paper included in the post-conference book and in a special issue of the journal will require either extensions or revisions for the special issue (with a different title, and at least 30% different material). The guest editor for this special issue will be identified as and when appropriate.

Financial Support

IFIP TC3 is keen to involve participants from countries worldwide, especially from developing countries. Those coming from a developing country who would like to be involved by presenting a paper, but who do not have funds to cover travel costs, should make early contact (by the end of February 2016) to explore possible sponsorship.

Participants who wish to explore this option are strongly advised to find out at an early stage whether a VISA is required for their travel for academic purposes, and how to apply for this in time to both travel and attend the conference. If invitation letters are required, this must be indicated when a participant registers, and will only be issued after this registration is complete.