Forwarding:-
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Please forward this release to any educational lists you're on that
have a computer focus, and any computer lists you're on that have an
educational focus. And anyone who wants a learning holiday in sunny
Perth, Western Australia during the Northern Hemisphere's winter. (-:
THE CONFERENCE
educationaLinux 2003, the Education mini-conference attached to the
Australian Linux Conference 2003, is now seeking papers and presenters
for two days of intense learning and networking in the leadup to the
LCA2003 proper.
LCA2003 promises to be a doorbuster conference, a hard act to follow
(which is why we're running before it) and we've obtained permission
to piggyback an Education mini-conference on it - in parallel with a
Debian mini-conference - in the two days leading up to it.
Rolling through into the main conference gives educators involved with
Linux that little bit of extra time with an educational focus, an
extra reason for attending LCA2003. An educational prefix to the main
conference turns up fresh material to hammer out in the workshops.
THE PAPERS
Even before this CFP went out, we've had some interesting papers waved
at us. The presentations will include reports from Australian
implementors fresh from a new rollout in the field.
We're looking to cover two main areas: Linux as seen from an
educational perspective (Monday 27 January), and education as seen
from a Linux perspective (Tuesday 28 January), with some overlap.
The former means presentations on opportunities, problems and
experiences with Linux from the educator's seat, be it school IT
staff, teachers or consultants. We're looking for educational
applications for Linux and what needs to be done to make them better,
features to build on and misfeatures to repair, both theory and testimony.
The latter means presentations on setting up and altering Linux to
meet the special needs of academia, such as the ability to migrate
user contexts between grades, ways of tuning for or dissipating load
spikes from start-of-lesson stampedes, plans and experience with
various network arrangements, adaptations for special-needs input
devices, unobtrusive security hardening; go wild with your special
project or experience!
THE LOCATION
The LCA2003 conference is being competently kitted out for an
optimised, immersive networking experience; just the right balance
between the convenience of everything-laid-on and the interest and
satisfaction of roll-your-own. By penguinistas, for penguinistas.
The University of Western Australia is about the closest thing Oz has
to real historical buildings; these ancient, hallowed halls are
equipped with wireless LAN, wired sound and other modern facilities to
make your visit a highly productive one. Accomodation is close to
hand, the city centre only a few kilometers further away and `geek'
attractions like the UCC, home of one of the first Coke machines on
the Internet and many other digital treasures,
are right on campus.
Perth itself has a wonderfully mild climate, is big enough to offer
practically any facility, and small enough to still be friendly.
Western Australia is packed with interesting things to see (from
unique natural grandeur through impressive industry to world-class
fishing and world-famous wineries) so an extended holiday stay is a
definite option.
The main Conference ends on Australia Day. On the Sunday night you'll
get to see some of the biggest, most impressive fireworks ever to be
launched in Australia.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW
1. Register for LCA2003, even if you have no paper to present.
2. Notify educationaLinux that you're planning to attend.
3. If you have a paper, submit a precis and a brief bio to
educationaLinux.
4. Arrange your schedule and finances so you can roll up on the day.
THE LINKS
http://plug.linux.org.au/~leonb/lca2003/papers.html Presenters'
instructions
http://plug.linux.org.au/~leonb/lca2003/ educationaLinux home
http://linux.conf.au/ LCA2003 entry
http://conf.linux.org.au/register.html Conference
registrations
http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/mmmgroup/e-gall.html The Spanish
Linkquisition