Call for proposals now open for the sixth annual Connected Learning Summit, which will run entirely online from October 26 to 28, 2023.
Submissions open: March 6, 2023
Deadline for submissions: June 23, 2023
Notifications: August 2023
We invite submissions of Research Papers and Showcases that focus on digital technologies for learning, educational and commercial games, innovative tech-infused curricula, and theoretical and/or empirical exploration of digital media and technology for learning. We particularly encourage submissions that are responsive to issues of pressing contemporary concern – AI, a global racial reckoning, mental health and well-being, pandemic-fueled digital transformations, disability and neurodiversity, persistent social inequities, and the climate crisis.
CLS is entirely online. Why? What does that mean?
Growing Our Community Online
CLS emphasizes community and connections. The summit has historically looked for ways to support connections between people, utilizing creative and expressive digital technologies, imaginatively designed conference sessions, and thought-provoking keynotes. In the past two years, CLS shifted entirely online—first because of the urgency of Covid, but now as a way to facilitate worldwide access and connection. After all, if Connected Learning Summit cannot host a quality online conference event, then who can?
Our first online year in 2021 saw the largest number of participants we have ever had for CLS, with a large growth in non-U.S. participants, and a higher proportion of students. Last year, we streamlined the event and introduced formats that improved the online experience. We have decided to continue CLS as an online event for the foreseeable future in order to make CLS as accessible as possible, and grow our community internationally. This decision is also driven by concerns about covid and the climate crisis. In the meanwhile a host of smaller, local CLS affiliated events is springing up around the world for the community to continue to get together in person. We will share more information about these events as they are ready to be announced.
CLS2023 will be entirely online via Whova, which contains features which we believe will make for a quality online event experience.
A Focused Program
Our 2023 program concentrates on three days. The majority of the event will be programmed during “work hours” in North America, but will also include some programming in the morning hours of Asia and Australia (late afternoon hours on the west coast and evening hours on the east coast).
The Main Conference on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 will include keynote and plenary sessions, and workshops and roundtables organized by Connected Learning Alliance (CLA) partners including the Civic Paths Group, Connected Camps, Design Based Implementation Research faculty, Education Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto, Learning Games Network, Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program and Education Arcade, the Technological Innovations for Inclusive Learning and Teaching (tiilt) Lab at Northwestern University, and the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium.
Connect through Meetups and Affinity Groups
The pre-conference program is designed around promoting connections and conversation. Accepted Research Paper and Showcase participants will pre-record a video that will be made available in a public archive before the event. This year, we are inviting submissions in the Showcase track of books, reports, and other major publications in press or published in the past year, in addition to our usual submissions focused on projects.
Participants in Research Paper and Showcase tracks will be invited to participate in social meetups during the pre-conference day on Thursday, October 26, 2023. In other words, the “talking to” is assigned to pre-recorded videos, allowing us to prioritize “talking with” others with complementary affinities based on submissions.
We will be hosting our third annual Rising Scholars meetup on the pre-conference day (October 26, 2023). If you are interested in organizing another meetup of this kind, please gather three people willing to organize the meetup and message contact@connectedlearningsummit.org with your proposal.
Registration
We are offering four registration tiers: $250 for academic and industry participants, $100 for educational practitioners, $50 for students and professionals from middle and low income countries, and $20 for students from middle and low income countries.
About the Connected Learning Summit
CLS first convened in 2018 with the mission to fuel a growing movement of innovators harnessing the power of emerging technology to expand access to participatory, playful, and creative learning. It was launched as a merger between three community events with this shared vision and values: the Digital Media and Learning Conference, the Games+Learning+Society Conference, and Sandbox Summit. With a unique focus on cross-sector connections and progressive and catalytic innovation, the event brings together leading researchers, educators, and developers. The hosting and stewardship of the event has continued to evolve in tandem with the changing conditions of the global pandemic. UC Irvine’s Connected Learning Lab and MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program and Education Arcade were the founding hosts of the event. As we have moved online and become a more international event, we are expanding our roster of partners and hosts.
