We cordially invite PhD students and early-career researchers who are interested to be introduced and work together with experts in the field. We target audience that has background in informatics, education, psychology, sociology, design, but we also welcome participants from other related disciplines. The summer school aims to encourage participants to adopt a creative stance in the design and adoption of educational technologies.

The summer school provides a learning environment where participants get opportunities to: develop their research skills; increase their knowledge base; collaborate with others in their own and complementary research areas; have access to experts in the field; discuss their own work; and get the opportunity to publish the outcome of their upcoming research in a special issue of an established journal.

The program includes lectures from a broad range of domains that contribute to advancing the field of Open and Usable Learning. The program also includes practical and methodological workshops and opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop their personal research. Students will have opportunities to present and discuss their doctoral work.

The goal of SOUL is to enhance learning using new technologies. Different subfields of Usable Learning include: Video lectures, E-books and tablets, Tangibles, Interactive Tabletop and Whiteboard Surfaces, Serious video-games, Informal learning in Museums, Open Source Software.
The cost is 300 euro (Meals, Coffee Breaks, Social Events, Bag), or 450 including accommodation (7 nights in shared room).

Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI Extended Abstract Format. A “student talk” session will provide the opportunity to students’ who want to get feedback on their research work by established academics. Student talks will have 20 min. slot that is roughly 15 min. to present and 5 min. for questions. Students’ of selected high quality papers will be invited to submit an extended version for a special issue of high quality Journals.

Registration to the event is open here.

We are proud to announce that leading researchers in the field will lecture in the summer school:

• Carmelo Ardito, University of Bari, Italy
• Nikolaos Avouris, University of Patras, Greece
• Stefan Göbel, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
• Eva Hornecker, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
• Monica Landoni, University of Lugano, Switzerland
• Max Mühlhäuser, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

More information regarding the speakers is here (http://soul.di.ionio.gr/speakers)

If you wish to participate then please note the following procedure and important dates:
1. Make an application of interest (Deadline: March 1st, 2012)
2. Notification of acceptance by March 15th, 2012
3. Submit your position paper and pay the registration fee (Deadline: April 15th, 2012)
4. Register as an observer (Deadline: May 15th, 2012)
5. Participate in the summer school July 8-14, 2012
6. Write-up your results and submit a journal paper (Deadline: September 15th, 2012)

Website: http://soul.di.ionio.gr/
Contact: Konstantinos Chorianopoulos and Michail Giannakos: mgiannak@ionio.gr

The Free State of Bavaria invites applications for its one-year scholarship program for students from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe for the academic year 2012/13 via BAYHOST.

The Bavarian ministry for science, research and art will sponsor scholarships for the academic year 2012/13. Graduates from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and the Ukraine are eligible to apply. The scholarships are meant to finance doctoral or postgraduate studies at Bavarian universities. One year scholarships can be extended twice for up to 3 years.

Further information as well as the online-application form can be found on the BAYHOST website:  www.bayhost.de

The application deadline for first time applications is the 15th of February 2012 (date of receipt!). Should you have further questions or comments, you can contact us any time via info@bayhost.de

Marian Mure and Katrin Döppe

BAYHOST scholarship programs