Pre Conference Workshops - Publishing in Educational Technology

Objectives

On completion of the workshop, participants should be able to:

  • Contrast the nature, value and worth of various publication types including conference papers, journal articles, book chapters, online self-published material and so on;
  • Discuss the various publication ranking mechanisms now in use including impact factors and tiered journal lists;
  • Explain the nature of the peer review process;
  • Describe the review criteria, submission process and review process used by a number of journals and conferences;
  • Make sense of feedback given by referees;
  • List the key dos and don’ts in academic writing;
  • Describe the characteristics of high and low quality educational technology papers;
  • Contrast the accepted methodologies and publication styles in educational technology with those in other fields;
  • Choose an appropriate journal or conference in which to publish a piece of work;
  • Describe the characteristics of and types of material accepted by some of the key educational technology conferences and journals; and
  • Discuss some of the alternative approaches to preparing work for publication in educational technology.

Intended audience

This ASCILITE sponsored workshop is intended for academics or research higher degree students intending to publish papers in educational technology journals or conferences. There are two distinct types of participants for this workshop:
New researchers, including PhD or Masters students and new academics; and
Experienced discipline based academics new to educational technology research.

Facilitators

Dr Barney Dalgarno

Barney is an Associate Professor in Education at Charles Sturt University and a member of the ASCILITE Executive. He has been researching in the field of educational technology for the past 12 years, and has published extensively in the area. His innovations in the use of technologies for teaching have been recognised nationally through an ASCILITE Award for Exemplary use of ICT in Tertiary Education and through a Carrick citation. Stemming from his background in Computer Science and his PhD in Education he has developed a reputation for having a deep knowledge of both educational theory and computer technologies, along with associated research methods. He currently supervises six higher degree research students.

Dr Gregor Kennedy

Gregor is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Biomedical Multimedia Unit, an educational technology research and development unit within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Dr Kennedy has been researching in the education and educational technology field for more than 10 years. He has been awarded ten learning and teaching grants which have facilitated the development and application of educational technologies to enhance students’ learning processes and outcomes. He has a PhD in Psychology and has published widely in the areas of educational design, evaluation of educational technology, and students’ use of technology in educational settings. He has supervised nine Honours students and currently supervises four higher degree research students.

Details of activities

Using a combination of short presentations and small group activities, the workshop will work through the following topics:

  • Academic publication types and ranking mechanisms
  • The peer review process including case studies of review criteria and submission and review processes for journals and conferences;
  • Academic writing  in general and educational technology publications in particular;
  • Methodologies and publication styles in educational technology;
  • The research and publication process in educational technology ; and
  • Examples of conferences and journals in educational technology and their relative status and quality.

Participants will then work on a larger exercise requiring them to use a specific set of refereeing criteria to review a paper that has previously been submitted for publication. After completing the exercise they will be provided with the actual reviewers’ comments on the submitted paper, allowing them to see clear similarities and differences in perspectives.

In the final session of the workshop research ideas brought along by participant will be discussed to provide feedback on ways in which they can best be brought to publication.

Previous Presentations

This workshop was presented at the ASCILITE conference in Singapore in 2007 and very positive feedback was received from participants.