CSCL 2017 Philadelphia: June 18-22, 2017
Conference Theme: Making a Difference: Prioritizing Equity and Access in CSCL
We welcome you all to CSCL 2017, the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. The conference is a major international event, organized biennially by the International Society of the Learning Sciences, which gathers together people involved in all aspects of the field of technology-based collaborative learning, including research, education, training and technology.
The conference theme is motivated by recent statistics from Silicon Valley companies in the USA, in Europe, and Asia that present a troubling picture about the lack of diversity in the technology workforce. CSCL 2017 aims to challenge these trends with a conference focused on prioritizing keynote speakers, workshops and papers that champion research and tools focused on equity and access relative to CSCL. Hosted by a diverse leadership team in the Learning Sciences, CSCL 2017 will prioritize CSCL work that discusses ways to broaden the CSCL pipeline, promotes and/or celebrates “out-of the-box” thinking or that brings a wide range of viewpoints or voices to CSCL topics or tools. The conference will be organized around the three strands of research and practice.
Strand 1: Equity and Access Enabled Through Life wide Learning and/or CSCL in Informal Learning Environments. This theme focuses on tools and research studies that emphasize access to CSCL environments or learning through informal tools or learning settings, including workplace learning. This strand is related to the larger theme of equity and access with and through CSCL resources, as it emphasizes work that studies CSCL tools and learning contexts across a wide range of parameters.
Strand 2: Access and Equity in High Quality Knowledge. This theme focuses on how CSCL pedagogies, theories, technologies and assessments can make 21st century practices, real world problem solving, complex thinking skills, and sophisticated topics widely accessible to learners from different backgrounds – for example, increasing participation of women in STEM fields, or motivating more students to pursue higher education.
Strand 3: Equity and Access through Culturally Responsive Pedagogies. This theme emphasizes tools or work that are designed to build on or work with culturally responsive teaching/resources/learning to improve the learning and academic achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. This theme also looks at work that examines how computers enable building networks to increase social, human, and political capital.
