This is a general message that the Learning in Higher Education (LIHE) site is open for submission of abstracts for the book tentatively titled – TRANSFORMING UNIVERSITY TEACHING INTO LEARNING VIA SIMULATIONS AND GAMES – to be published in conjunction with the International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education (LIHE)

The call for contributions is at
http://lihe.wordpress.com/future-events/lihe11-australia/symposium-call/

You are invited to submit your abstracts for the conference process and publication. The schedule leading to the publication date is set out below and details on what to include in your proposal are on the web site. The publishers are keen to make this a strong volume in the LIHE series and your contribution will be valued.

Please email me with any questions. As the book will be published almost immediately after the conference acceptance will lead to publication as a book chapter – since the submission process works to support and develop the authors to ensure the book is the best possible of its kind.

Regards

Dr Elyssebeth Leigh

SYMPOSIUM CALL

Contribute to the writing of the international anthology “TRANSFORMING UNIVERSITY TEACHING INTO LEARNING VIA SIMULATIONS AND GAMES” to be published by Libri Publishing.
Join fellow authors for an inspiring and productive symposium in Sydney, Australia. Here all authors meet from November 27-December 1, 2011 to review, edit and finalise their chapters for the anthology.

ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY

This anthology reports on the experiences, successes, and student learning gained from the use of simulations and games in higher education.

We seek chapters which address the kinds of questions set out in Table 1 [at url above] and provide insights about teaching practices that have improved students learning outcomes by including simulations or games for learning.

Three aspects of the use of simulations and games for learning set the scene for this anthology

1. How simulations and games function as learning tools
2. The way simulations and games alter the power ratios in teaching and learning relationships
3. Mindsets for educators facilitating learning through simulations and games.

The first will address ways in which knowledge is accumulating about how simulations and games work as learning tools and strategies. While there has been much written such understanding is not widely known or applied in contexts where educators are learning their craft. Authors of papers addressing this aspect of the topic will share their knowledge about their use of simulations and games for transforming ‘knowing about’ into ‘knowing how’ and ‘being able to’.

The second factor concerns the extent to which simulations and games alter power relationships in teaching/learning situations. Students learn more by taking possession of the power of directing their own learning, and teachers learn about how to work collaboratively with students. Such shifts affect perspectives on what is important and has priority and produce innovative learning environments for all.

The third factor concerns emerging understanding about differences between ‘facilitating’ and ‘teaching’. Each involves uniquely different mindsets about roles and relationships in the learning space. Addressing this factor could involve exploration of personal learning journeys from ‘teacher’ to ‘facilitator’ within an academic context. It could also explore how such a change challenges current thinking, and practices and understanding of content knowledge and how to share this awareness with students.

Together these three concepts provide a backdrop for an anthology of articles from educators who have been able to navigate through the problems encountered when ‘new ideas’ challenge ‘taken for granted’ norms around educational practices. Such educators will have learned to adapt and develop simulations and games to a variety of professional disciplines, and are able to share stories of journeys through language acquisition, skill development and understanding about the organic nature of such learning.

We do not enforce one particular theory, methodology or philosophy of science. We encourage cross-disciplinary discussions, theoretical pieces, eclectic pieces, case studies, and best practice examples and contributions from different types of postgraduate programmes.

We instigate this anthology because we intend to help academics focus on the processes they initiate in their learning /teaching spaces. At present most curricula documents in higher education institutions focus on ‘teaching’ as the central element and locate learning as an outcome rather than a lifelong process. The dominant paradigm seems to be that students learn when teachers transfer knowledge to them, whilst students are expected to function more independently in postgraduate education. However there is not a wide range of supporting literature to assist academics, in either undergraduate or postgraduate courses, to amend their practices to include the kind of engaging and learner-focused activities created through sue of simulations and games.

With this anthology we wish to present an alternative route as we move from a discipline-based view to a learning-based view on higher education. In that respect the anthology aims to include views from a variety of disciplines and programme formats. We welcome novel and divergent views on practices in tertiary education. We argue that such an anthology can facilitate our understanding of university students’ learning processes and provide ways to enable teachers work with their students as they self-develop transferable competencies.

EDITORS

The anthology is edited by Dr. Professor Claus Nygaard, CBS Learning Lab, Copenhagen Business School; Dr. Elyssebeth Leigh, University of Technology Sydney; Dr. Nigel Courtney, Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School, City University London & Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

1. Submit on or before April 4, 2011 your CHAPTER PROPOSAL for this international anthology. We ask you to explicitly format your chapter proposal according to the LIHE 2011 – STYLESHEET on the web site. Your chapter proposal will be double blind reviewed and we will notify you by May 2, 2011 about the status of your chapter proposal.
2. All authors of ACCEPTED chapter proposals are asked to submit a FULL CHAPTER no later than August 8, 2011. All full chapters will be double blind reviewed. You will be notified by September 5, 2011 if your chapter will be included in the anthology.
3. AUTHORS of ACCEPTED CHAPTERS are asked to register for the Symposium no later than October 17, 2011. This is a VERY important deadline, as we have pre-booked all rooms of the conference venue and have to confirm the bookings.
4. FULL CHAPTERS will be circulated to all REGISTERED AUTHORS. Reading and review groups are formed based on the themes addressed in the full chapters. When we meet for the symposium all authors get individual feedback from the editors, and from their review group. This feedback helps the authors finalise their chapters for inclusion in the anthology.

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