Call for Papers
We are pleased to invite you to the Creative Science Foundation workshop entitled ‘Creative Science: Exploring the Future of Education’ on the 28th-29th November 2013 which will be hosted by the Department of Education & Professional Studies at King’s College London, overlooking the Thames in the heart of London, the UK’s premiere city. The workshop is organized in conjunction with the 3rd European Immersive Education (iED) Summit which, this year, has the theme “Immersive Education: what does the future hold?”.
‘Creative Science London‘ will explore the use of science fiction as a means to motivate and direct research into new technologies for education (with special emphasis on immersive reality technologies, as that is the core focus of the host conference). Creative-Science works by generating science fiction stories (or other artistic expression such as animation, drawings, poetry etc) grounded in current science and education practice that are written for the explicit purpose of acting as prototypes for people to explore a wide variety of educational futures. These ‘prototypes’ can be created by scientists, teachers and other education professionals to stretch their work or by, for example, writers, school children and members of the public to influence the future of education (an example of a SFP aimed at Immersive Education can be found here). The outcomes of these interactions are then be fed back, to shape the research and outputs. In this way science fiction prototypes act as a way of involving the widest section of the population in determining the education research agenda, thereby making investment, more effective. In this way fictional prototypes provide a powerful interdisciplinary tool to enhance the traditional practices of educational technology. The goals of the workshop are to act as a catalyst of this new approach by acting as a forum where researchers from differing disciplines (notably education and science & engineering) can come together to explore how to develop this area.
Workshop Structure
The workshop will consist of a series of presentations which can take any number of forms such as using a PowerPoint to present the Science Fiction Prototype SFP (eg presenting short extracts from the story with commentary on the implications for education research and science), videos, animations, illustrations (drawings) or even other activities (previously a group acted out part of a sciences-fiction scenario).
Publication
All papers will be published in online proceedings with a confirmed ISBN number/reference. For presenters we are looking for short imaginative fictional stories (prototypes) of 10-12 pages (for full SFPs) or 4-6 pages (for short SFPs or non-story format) and, for both cases, a presentation of 20 minutes which would act as motivation (or discussion) or how education or science research might be directed. For more information on this and past events (with examples, look at www.creative-science.org. For a specific example on the use of science-fiction prototyping for immersive education, see “Tales from a Pod“. The workshop papers should adhere to the IOS guidelines (http://www.iospress.nl/authco/instruction_crc.html) and have the following sections (for other types of creative work, please contact the organisers):
- An Introduction: about half a page
- Discussion: a description of the area of education your paper addresses. This might be what you teach, methods you use or your research (including, if relevant, references to your publications). – 1 to 2 pages.
- Fictional story: this should that illustrate your vision of the future of education, setting it in some future context. For people presenting in the main iED tracks this would probably be a story about the future use of immersive education technology. This story should stretch your ideas beyond the ‘here & now’. 9-10 pages. An example of such a story (based on immersive education) can be found at: http://dces.essex.ac.uk/Research/iieg/papers/TalesFromAPod%28Paper%29.pdf
- Conclusion. This is an overall comment (reflection) on your effort to use your fictional prototype as a means to motivate future technology research or product design. It should draw out the consequences of your SF-Prototype to the future of educations (this is one of the main message conveyed in your paper). This should take up no more than half to one page.
- References. These should be included at the end of the paper.
Work in progress may be also presented by means of posters. The poster submission should consist of a paper of maximum 2 pages.
More information and examples of science-fiction prototypes and past conferences can be found on the workshop web pages at: http://www.creative-science.org (click on the activities menus and look at CS’10 and CS’11).
Paper Guidelines & Submission Instructions
The Programme Committee will review all papers through a non-blind review process. The format of the papers (and poster descriptions) should follow the IOS guidelines and be submitted via the iED’13 website (note: please be careful to submit your papers to the correct stream and annotate the paper as being for the Creative Science workshop, so they are reviewed and manged by the appropriate people).
Note: at least one author for each accepted paper must register and present the paper at the summit.
Important Dates
- SFP (paper) submission: 26th July 2013
- Notification of acceptance: 27th September 2013
- Final SFP (paper) submission: 25th October 2013
- Summit: 28th-29th November 2013
Costs
Registration for this event should be done through the iED’13 registration page, where the definitive costs are given. While we hope attendees of ‘Creative Science London‘ may also want to register for the main conference, for those that don’t, we have negotiated the following special prices for those people attending the ‘Creative Science London‘ workshop only (note: these are for guidance only, please check. the iED’13 registration page):
- Before 30th September 2013: £90 (student), £175 (non-student)
- Before 28th November 2013: £110 (student), £200 (non-student)
- At event: £130 (student), £225 (non-student)
Costs include morning/afternoon refreshments, lunch, proceedings and evening social event (food and entertainment)
Invited Speaker
Brian David Johnson
Futurist & Principal Engineer – Interactions and Experience Research
Intel Labs, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
The future is Brian David Johnson’s business. As a futurist at Intel Corporation, his charter is to develop an actionable 10 -15 year vision for the future of technology. His work is called “future casting”—using ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Along with reinventing TV, Johnson has been pioneering development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and using science fiction as a design tool. He speaks and writes extensively about future technologies in articles and scientific papers as well as science fiction short stories and novels (Science Fiction Prototyping: Designing the Future with Science Fiction; Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment Computing and the Devices we Love; Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and A Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into the Future of Technology; Fake Plastic Love; Nebulous Mechanisms: The Dr. Simon Egerton Stories; the forthcoming Wizards and Robots comic book). He has directed two feature films and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.
Organisers (alphabetical listing)
Victor Callaghan (Essex University)
Jeannette Chin (Anglia Ruskin University
Christine Cynn (Freelance Documentary Producer),
Simon Egerton (Monash University)
Michael Gardner (Essex University)
Gary Graham (Leeds University)
Anita Greenhill (Manchester University)
Brian David Johnson (Intel Research Labs)
Christina Oberg (Exeter University)
Anasol Pena-Rios (Essex University)
Minjuan Wang (San Diego State University)
Mary Webb (Kings College London)
Hsuan-Yi WU (National Taiwan University)
Ping Zheng (Canterbury Christ Church University)
The Parent Event Website may be visited at:
http://europe.immersiveeducation.org/events/ied-europe-summit-2013
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