Meeting report:Fungal genomics meets social media: Highlights of the 28th fungal genetics conference at asilomar

International audienc

The teacher as action researcher : Using technology to capture pedagogic form

The paper argues that we make best use of learning technologies if we begin with an understanding of educational problems, and use this analysis to target the solutions we should be demanding from technology. The focus is to address the issue from the perspective of teachers and lecturers – the 'teaching community', and to consider how they could become the experimental innovators and reflective practitioners who will use technology well. Teachers could become 'action researchers', collaborating to produce their own development of knowledge about teaching with technology. For this to be possible, they must be able to share that knowledge, and the paper proposes the use of an online learning activity management system (LAMS) as a way of capturing and sharing the pedagogic forms teachers design. An action research approach, like all research, needs a theoretical framework from which to challenge practice, and paper shows how teachers could use the Conversational Framework to design and test an optimally effective learning experience. Examples of 'generic' learning designs illustrate how such approach can help the teaching community rethink their teaching, collectively, and embrace the best of conventional and digital methods. In this way they will be more likely to harness technology to the needs of education, rather than simply search for the problems to which the latest technology is a solution

WINGSForum 2006: Making a Difference in Philanthropy, Conference Report

WINGS Forum 2006, held November 16-18, 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand, attracted 50% more participants than the Sydney event and was accompanied by extensive satellite meetings between two specialised constituencies within the WINGS network: these worked on the promotion, development and support of community foundations and corporate giving. This report consists of the main speeches, workshop presentations, and discussions as well as a taste of the networking and social events. The many individuals and organisations who helped to make WINGSForum 2006 possible are acknowledged at the end of the report

The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies: Finno-Ugric Peoples and Languages in the 21st Century

The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies was one of the biggest conferences in the last years among the Finno-Ugric events. Finno-Ugric People and Languages in the 21st Century dealt mainly with the language and political situation of the Finno-Ugric languages in Russia. Recent researches on descriptive linguistics and new approaches to theoretical and typological issues were also presented at the Congress