Call for Papers on Open Source Software Education

  /IEEE Education Society /
CALL FOR PAPERS--//IEEE Transactions on Education//
Special Issue: Open-Source Software

Submission Deadline: 15 December 2006
The Transactions seeks original manuscripts for a Special Issue on 
"Open-Source Software for Engineering Education: Pedagogical Strategies 
Beyond Tools" scheduled to appear in the November 2007 issue.

Free- and Open-Source Software (FOSS) has received growing attention in 
recent years from various perspectives. The thriving numbers behind 
open-source software (OSS) adoption and contribution have captured the 
attention of engineering education researchers that, in the past years, 
have been trying to decipher the phenomenon of OSS, its relation to 
already-conducted research, and its implications for new research 
opportunities that effect classroom instruction.

The current OSS landscape presents a very interesting picture. Although 
the idea behind OSS date back to the 1960's and the Unix era in the 
1980's, the official term of OSS was coined in 1998. Since then, the OSS 
movement has evolved at a very fast pace. Prime examples of successful 
OSS projects include operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, 
NetBSD), Web browsers (Firefox, Konqueror), graphical environments (KDE, 
Gnome), productivity applications (OpenOffice), programming languages 
and infrastructure (Apache, MySQL), and development tools (GNU 
toolchain, Eclipse). These widely-accepted OSS endeavors demonstrate 
that a wide range of OSS applications are available and present a viable 
and robust alternative to proprietary software solutions.

A great number of applications of free and open software for education 
are evident. Worldwide initiatives, such as Sakai, and a great number of 
the so-called Open-Learning Management Systems challenge Engineering 
Education.

The objective of the special issue is to communicate and disseminate 
recent research and success stories that demonstrate the power of 
open-source software to improve traditional engineering education and 
e-learning approaches. The purpose of the special issue is to 
demonstrate state-of-the art approaches of Open-Source Software systems 
that have had successful application in the classroom and to show how 
new, advanced, pedagogical models and teaching strategies can expand the 
learning frontiers in engineering education.

Consequently, manuscripts are sought that touch on these aspects and 
extend technical and domain knowledge in the classroom. This special 
issue is intended to initiate a dialog between the pedagogical, human, 
and technical views of the field that effect the engineering education 
environment. Novel pedagogical approaches and sound technological FOSS 
solutions will be expected.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following 
classroom experiences.

    * Use of Free- and Open-Source Software for Learning Management Systems
    * Use of FOSS for Learning Objects and Learning Design Approaches
    * Pedagogical Strategies for the Deployment of FOSS Tools
    * Case Studies Utilized
    * Open-Learning Management Systems
    * Communities of Learners in Engineering Courses through Seployment
      of FOSS Tools
    * Collaborative/Constructive Content Authoring for Engineering Courses

Authors wishing to contribute to this special issue MUST refer to the 
Transactions' Web site at www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es/ToE-manuscript.html 
<http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es/ToE-manuscript.html> for information 
relative to the issues that must be addressed in manuscript preparation. 
Note that submitted manuscripts MUST contain a balance of technical 
content and pedagogical content to be considered and MUST include 
meaningful, statistically-sound, student assessment/evaluation data that 
provides information relative to the strengths and weaknesses of the 
curriculum content in satisfying the pedagogical issues being addressed. 
Note that the absence of meaningful, statistically-sound supporting data 
will be grounds for publication rejection.

Manuscripts must be submitted electronically to the Transactions' 
Manuscript Central web site at te-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com 
<http://te-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com> no later than 15 December 2006, 
with "Special Issue" being selected as "Manuscript Type" in the 
corresponding menu.

For further information contact the Special Issue Editors for this issue:

            *Miltiadis Lytras*
            University of Patras
            Patras, Greece
            [email protected]

            *Walt Scacchi*
            University of California, Irvine
            Irvine, California
            [email protected]

Special Issue Schedule:

    * *Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 December 2006 *
    * Notification of Review Evaluation: 16 March 2007
    * Author Revision Due: 16 April 2007
    * Notification of Acceptance if Major Revision Required: 1 June 2007
    * Accepted Manuscripts Due for Editorial Review: 30 June 2007
    * Manuscript Packet Information Sent to Author: 16 July 2007
    * Manuscript Packet Due from Author to Editor: 17 August 2007
    * Tentative Publication Date: November 2007.

_______________________________________________
Community mailing list
[email protected]
http://opensource.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/community

begin:vcard
fn:Walt Scacchi
n:Scacchi;Walt
org:University of California, Irvine;Institute for Software Research
adr:(Room 110 for package delivery);;Bldg 304, MS-3455;Irvine;CA;92697-3455;USA
email;internet:[email protected]
tel;work:+1-949-824-4130
tel;fax:+1-949-824-1715
url:http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi
version:2.1
end:vcard