Call For Proposals

Proposals for presentations for the NMC Symposium for the Future, a special 2-day, live online event to be held October 27-29, 2009, are being solicited through September 14, 2009. 

cc licensed flickr photo shared by marcokalmann

The Call for Proposals has closed. Thanks for your interest!

Symposium Themes

As its name suggests, the Symposium looks toward the future: what might the world look like in five years? Ten? Further out?

Technologies and practices that are just beginning to show promise in an educational or social context may well be commonplace in that time frame. The applicability of technology — whether established or emerging — to the social, environmental, and educational challenges we face today is the central theme of the Symposium. Projects that test the applicability of new ideas, research into new solutions for global problems, and demonstrations of cutting-edge tools are all part of this exploration of the future.

To help prospective proposal writers to frame their ideas about the conference themes, we have invited danah boyd (Microsoft Research and the Berkman Center, Harvard), Gardner Campbell (Baylor University), and Holly Willis (The Institute for Multimedia Literacy, USC), all outstanding thought leaders, to craft a series of outstanding essays from three unique perspectives on the topic. We invite you to read their essays, and post your own thoughts.

Submit a Proposal

Proposals are encouraged on how emerging technologies might be applied to any of the following themes, but this list is not exhaustive and selections will not be limited to these categories:

• Sustainability (physical and natural resources; economic resources; educational resources)
• Renewable energy; clean energy
• Global warming and its impacts
• Ethics in the digital age
• Politics in a globally connected World
• Social issues
  

The NMC Symposium for the Future is intended to be an ongoing conversation, focused the applications of new technologies to global concerns and issues, and how they will shape the future of education.

An outgrowth of the NMC’s Emerging Technologies Initiative — the same initiative that drives the annual series of Horizon Reports — the Symposium will create an opportunity for exploration, a place to visit the future, and a forum for deep discussion of the range of possibilities that are open to educators, learners, and creatives in the digital age. It is designed as a forum for discussion of the real challenges that face our world and our society, and in particular, how emerging technologies might be applied to solve them.

Symposium Venue

The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia, now in its seventh year, is an exploration of online communication tools. Each of the 13 Symposia held to date has taken advantage of the state of the art for online gatherings. The 14th Symposium will be convened in the NMC’s private virtual space, the Hakone Project. This virtual space is supported by the same technology that underlies the virtual world of Second Life™ but is located behind a firewall in a secure and private environment. While the events take place in a virtual world, the Symposium is not about virtual worlds.

The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia is itself an exploration of emerging forms of collaboration and tools.