[Announcements] Sakai Newsletter April 30, 2009

[Margaret Wagner]

Sakai Newsletter


April 30, 2009

1.  Update: The 10th Sakai Conference in Boston

2.  Sakai Fellows Nomination Deadline:  May 4

3.  Welcome Google Summer of Code Students

4.  Library-Sakai 3 Integration Discussion and Web Meetings

5.  rSmart Welcomes Seton Hall University

6.  Teaching with Sakai Pre-Conference Workshop

7.  Recent Email Group Discussions

8.  Events


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1. Update: The 10th Sakai Conference in Boston

The deadline for proposal submission has passed and the committee is now beginning the process of reviewing and scheduling all of the proposals.

Remember that the deadline for reduced registration and discounted hotel reservations is June 5.  Links to both can be found on the conference website: https://educonference.com/sakai/boston/index.php

If you need a letter of invitation from the Sakai Foundation for visa purposes, please contact Mary Miles (mmiles@...) as early as possible.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference in July!

Mary Miles
mmiles@...


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2. Sakai Fellows Nomination Deadline:  May 4

This is a quick reminder that the nomination period for Sakai Fellowships closes soon. Please make sure to return the nomination forms for your nominees by this coming Monday, 4 May 2009.  You can read the original announcement, below.

Thanks!
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Announcing the Sakai Fellows Program for 2009

The nominations for the Sakai Fellows Program for 2009 are now open. The nomination form is available here:http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/cS0.  As in the past, you can nominate others or self-nominate. Please return completed forms to me, knoop@..., by Monday, 4 May 2009.

The purpose of the Sakai Foundation Fellows Program is to acknowledge, celebrate and reward the contributions of important Sakai volunteer contributors. The Sakai Fellows program seeks to foster community leadership and contribution through recognizing and supporting active contributors. Contributors bring varied expertise to the community, including architecture, and the design and development of technology, best practices in teaching, learning, research and collaboration, and coordination of community functions. The purpose of the Sakai Foundation Fellows Program is to enable outstanding Sakai volunteer contributors and/or evangelists to continue and extend their involvement in Sakai by providing material resources to support their work. The Sakai Fellows program will recognize such contributions and support the efforts of the Fellows through a modest stipend. The contributions of the Fellows will be showcased across the boundaries of the current work/discussion group structures of Sakai, offering a way for the entire community to be introduced to areas of the project that they may not follow closely, and providing a view to the public of the peer leaders' endeavors within the Sakai community.

Highlights of the Sakai Fellows Program:

- Sakai Fellows are not permitted to reapply in the year after they serve.  (Sakai 2008 Fellows are ineligible for this year's competition. However, Sakai 2006/2007 Fellows are eligible.)

- There will be a total of 6 Sakai Fellow awards this year.

- Terms will be 1 year and the stipend will be $2500; conference registration fees will also be waived.

- The terms will start with the summer conference and go through the next summer's conference.

- Nominations are due by Monday, 4 May 2009.

You can read more about the Sakai Fellows Program, including reports from past recipients on their activities, here:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/cS0

Also, thanks to those who have agreed to serve on the Sakai 2009 Fellow Selection Committee:

Clay Fenlason
David Haines
Peter Knoop
Michael Korcuska
Seth Theriault
Anthony Whyte
Beth Kirschner
Stephen Marquard
Randy Newbrough

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Peter Knoop
Sakai Project Coordinator
knoop@...


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3. Welcome Google Summer of Code Students

Congratulations to the following students, who have all been accepted to Google Summer of Code for Sakai.

Shashank Agrawal  (in-line editor for Sakai3; lead mentor Amyas Phillips at the University of Cambridge)

Andre Leger  (OpenSyllabus; lead mentor Claude Coulombe at Université de Montréal)

Yuri Vishnevsky  (Annotations system for Sakai3; lead mentor Oszkar Nagy at the University of Cambridge)

Also, many thanks to Ricardo Fleck, who despite not being selected for GSOC, has offered to work for Sakai on Workflow systems for Sakai3 during the summer. Ricardo is studying in Brazil and has experience in user interface design, and we will mentor him as if he were a GSOC student.


Thanks also to all our volunteer mentors (Oszkar Nagy, Amyas Phillips, Nicolaas Matthijs, and Claude Coulombe). You can find out more about GSOC here: http://socghop.appspot.com and if you have any queries about Sakai's participation, email Laura James (GSOC admin for Sakai) at laura@...

Laura James
laura@...


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4. Library-Sakai 3 Integration Discussion and Web Meetings

Thank you to all who participated in the discussion of library integration with Sakai 3 on March 17.  We'd like to propose the following dates prior to the July conference to continue discussing Library-Sakai 3 integration. We'll use the Sakai 001 or 002 conference bridge and will send connection information and an agenda prior to the meeting.

Thursday, May 28, 11am - 12:30pm EDT (GMT-4)

Tuesday, June 23, 11am - 12:30pm EDT (GMT-4)

Rather than create any new Sakai groups for discussion of library integration, we recommend that discussion take place on the sakai-user group.  If you need to join this group, information is available at:http://www.sakaiproject.org/portal/site/sakai-community/page/2dfab376-90af-4bc2-83bd-8743f80423dd

A confluence page has been created to support discussion of Library-Sakai 3 integration at:http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/SLIB/Sakai+3+and+Library+Integration  This page will continue to evolve as the discussion expands.

Please send feedback regarding the use of the sakai-user group, meeting schedule, and confluence page to Jon Dunn or Susan Hollar.

Thanks,

Jon Dunn
jwd@...

Susan Hollar
shollar@...


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5. rSmart Welcomes Seton Hall University

rSmart would like to welcome Seton Hall University to the Sakai Community as one of the more recent rSmart Sakai CLE support customers.  The Seton Hall University Teaching, Learning and Technology Center is excited to be conducting a pilot of Sakai. Because Sakai is an open-source product developed by educators for education, Sakai provides an engaging platform for learning and collaboration that will enhance SHU students' experiences and provide additional teaching tools for SHU faculty.  The expectation of faculty who are participating in this pilot is to explore practical teaching needs that Sakai might address (e.g., using the communication features, collaboration features, etc.), focus on the testing tools, and provide regular feedback about their experiences.

"The experience of using an open source product can be daunting unless you can partner with an organization that can guide you along the path to success," says Paul Fisher, Director, SHU Teaching, Learning and Technology Center. "rSmart has met all of our expectations. Having their support and expertise has had a tremendous impact on our ability to quickly get the software up and running and efficiently get our technologists up to speed on a completely new learning environment."

About Seton Hall -- Seton Hall University is a private Roman Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States.  Seton Hall is made up of nine different schools and colleges with an undergraduate enrollment of about 5,200 students and a graduate enrollment of about 4,500.

Mike Zackrison
VP of Marketing and Strategy
rSmart www.rsmart.com
mike.zackrison@...


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6. Teaching with Sakai Pre-Conference Workshop

Greetings everyone!

A number of folks in the community have started to work on a pre-conference half-day workshop on "teaching with Sakai" that will build on what was done at last year's conference in Paris.  Robin Hill has set up a conference page for the session, which we've titled "Five Minutes of Fame, Shame and to Frame," where you can see what others plan to present and also sign up to participate.  The concept is to have a "round robin" type of session in which a number of people would give very brief presentations that would relate to longer sessions that will be taking place during the regular conference.

The confluence site is:http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/PED/Preconference+2009+Teaching+and+Learning

If you are interested in participating please take a minute to sign up and post your topics.

Josh Baron
Josh.Baron@...


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7. Recent Email Discussion Groups

[Building Sakai] tasklist tool
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--tasklist-tool-td2757327.html#a2757327

[Building Sakai] LDAP and Sakai (map user)  ([Building Sakai] How to modify K1?)
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--LDAP-and-Sakai-(map-user)-td2738457.html#a2750806

[Building Sakai] multiple assignment submission
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--multiple-assignment-submission-td2748072.html#a2748072

[Building Sakai] Breezelink tool for sakai 2.5.3
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Breezelink-tool-for-sakai-2.5.3-td2747942.html#a2747942

[Building Sakai] Blogger tool in Sakai 2.6, the blog posts that are made as public cannot be switched to private after the fact and vice versa.
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Blogger-tool-in-Sakai-2.6%2C-the-blog-posts-that-are-made-as-public-cannot-be-switched-to-private-after-the-fact-and-vice-versa.-td2743028.html#a2743028

[Building Sakai] Assignment XML blob
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--Assignment-XML-blob-td2746754.html#a2746754

[Building Sakai] How to add pre-configured tool to a new tool
http://n2.nabble.com/-Building-Sakai--How-to-add-pre-configured-tool-to-a-new-tool-td2742280.html#a2742280

[Portfolio] Boston Sakai PreConference Workshop: Building a Portfolio for Your Institution Using Sakaihttp://n2.nabble.com/-Portfolio--Boston-Sakai-PreConference-Workshop%3A-Building-a-Portfolio-for-Your-Institution-Using-Sakai-td2748626.html#a2748626

[Portfolio] OSP Help for 2.6
http://n2.nabble.com/-Portfolio--OSP-Help-for-2.6-td2755922.html#a2755922

[Portfolio] Help Needed on Sakai 2.6 Portfolio Documentation
http://n2.nabble.com/-Portfolio--Help-Needed-on-Sakai-2.6-Portfolio-Documentation-td2752886.html#a2752886

[Portfolio] Matrix Portfolio Template --form attachment permissions
http://n2.nabble.com/-Portfolio--Matrix-Portfolio-Template---form-attachment-permissions-td2726537.html#a2726537

[Using Sakai] Drop Box in Sakai - how to add instructions
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Drop-Box-in-Sakai---how-to-adding-instructions-td2726911.html#a2733798

[Using Sakai] Assignment tool submission comments
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Assignment-tool-submission-comments-td2734721.html#a2735093

[Using Sakai] Reals, new roles and permissions.
http://n2.nabble.com/-Using-Sakai--Reals%2C-new-roles-and-permissions.-td2732109.html#a2732109


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8. Events

2nd European Sakai Conference
May (4)-5-6, 2009
Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/CNF/European+Regional+Conference+in+Stockholm+2009

eLearning Africa
May 27- 29, 2009
Le Meridien President
Dakar, Senegal
www.elearning-africa.com.

2009 MoodleMoot San Francisco and 2nd Sloan-C Symposium on Emerging Technology in Online Learning
June 17-19, 2009
Hyatt Regency San Francisco
San Francisco, California
http://moodlemoot.org/course/view.php?id=9
http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/

10th Sakai Conference in Boston
July 8-10, 2009
Cambridge Hyatt
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.sakaiproject.org/portal/site/sakai-news/page/04ed2fa2-77e2-40da-8100-e0a08b9fea15

AuSakai '09
September 17-18, 2009
Charles Sturt University Bathurst Campus
Bathurst NSW, Australia
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/ausakai09/ausakai09.htm

Assessment Institute in Indianapolis
October 25-27, 2009
The Westin Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
http://www.planning.iupui.edu/institute

Online Educa Berlin 2009
December 2-4, 2009
Hotel InterContinental Berlin
Berlin, Germany
http://www.online-educa.com/the-conference





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