Good Morning,
The PLE Conference has a record of providing stimulating discussion of personal learning based on innovative approaches to conference organisation and a range of papers which embody research in progress at the leading edge of pedagogy.
This year, while the quality of submitted paper proposals are excellent, and many will go on to be published in journals which partner with the conference; the quantity of papers submitted would not support a full, rounded conference programme.
Therefore the organising group have decided that we will defer the 2015 conference to 2016. However the submitted papers will all be fully reviewed, with a view to journal publication and the paper submissions are now open until 30th June to allow for further submissions. We will direct those papers to the partner journals for publication in the coming year, providing mentoring and support for young researchers to help them on the path to publication.
In the interim, we plan to discuss both the conference themes and how we structure a programme, exploring new concepts to continue to deliver an event that is radical in both content, structure and style. Our aim is to restructure the conference for the next years in two ways.
First we wish to increase the richness of the conversations at the conference, with different activities, to stay at the forefront of innovative conference experiences
Second while the concept of the PLE is a little faded now, the notion of personal learning remains as valuable as ever. We aim to shift the emphasis from just Personal Learning Environments to the wider field of Personal Learning, which includes topics as diverse as analytics, the quantified self, MOOCs and new learning theories. We intend to engage with the ongoing digital transformation in learning, and with lifelong personal learning, among other topics.
We welcome suggestions and ideas, and your participation in this process, which we believe will help us to recover the spirit of this conference.
If you have already made travel arrangements to be in Galway during the originally scheduled PLE time, please contact Leigh Graves Wolf (gravesle [at] msu [dot] edu). The Master of Arts in Educational Technology program via Michigan State University will be happening at NUI Galway during that time and all PLE members are welcome to visit and to attend the free 1/2 day conference on July 16th that was originally scheduled to take place in conjunction with PLE2015.
(http://goo.gl/r9NHc5) There is an unconference scheduled during this event and you are more than welcome to present during that time.
Thank you for your contributions, both now and we hope in the future.