Sakai Community News

2010 Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award

As a Sakai user, you may be developing new ways of teaching and learning. If so, consider submitting an application to the 2010 Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award. Now in its third year, the award honors instructors who have enhanced the educational experience through their use of Sakai.

The award, which rSmart co-sponsors, is open to any instructor--in higher ed or in K12--who is using a Sakai tool. Winning entries will be announced in May, and the award presentation will take place at the 2010 Annual Sakai Conference, being held in Denver, June 15-17. Winners receive a trip to the conference and give a presentation about their teaching practices. The submission deadline is March 15.

Visit OpenEdPractices to learn more about the award and to submit an application. Award entries will be used to seed a collection of innovative practices at this site, which is hosted by rSmart and provides teaching and learning resources for using open/community-source tools.

Second Call for 2010 MISI Survey

If you read last month's Smart Talk newsletter, you know that the Sakai Multi-Institutional-Survey Initiative (MISI) has been seeking participants for its 2010 survey. This year, MISI hopes to expand the number of schools and users in the survey, and it has now put out a second call for participants.

The survey is a great way to get more involved with the Sakai community. MISI gathers information about user experiences from a variety of institutions. This information, in turn, helps the community determine how Sakai is being used--and how it should be developed for the future. For more information about MISI and this year's survey, click here.

EDUCAUSE 2010--Call for Proposals

The annual EDUCAUSE conference always provides many opportunities for learning about new directions in IT for higher education--thanks in large part to the contributions of conference participants.

If you would like to contribute, EDUCAUSE is now seeking presentation proposals for EDUCAUSE 2010, which will be held October 12-15 in Anaheim, California. The deadline for submissions is January 26. For submission guidelines and other information, click here.

New Sakai Foundation Board Members

rSmart would like to congratulate the four new members recently elected to the Sakai Foundation Board of Directors. Reflecting the diversity of the Sakai community itself, they represent a broad spectrum of experience and backgrounds:

• Chuck Severance, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, is a leader in developing IMS tool integration standards.
• Ian Boston, CTO for the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) at the University of Cambridge (UK), is a key architect of Sakai 3.
• Maggie Lynch, Dean of Academic Technology and Distance Education at College of the Redwoods (an rSmart client), has been part of the Sakai Teaching and Learning Group, and she will also be serving as the board's vice-chair.
• Michael Feldstein, Principal Product Manager for Academic Enterprise Solutions at Sakai commercial affiliate Oracle, also serves as a member of the Sakai Product Council.

We look forward to the leadership and vision these new board members will bring, as Sakai moves into the new decade!