Included in this post is a Call for Papers announcement, some information about EdConference.net, and an explanation of my blogging absence.

Call for Papers

EdConference.net is a quick-turn-around site that accepts scholarly works in the fields of education, health/nursing, and business, especially material that would be of interest to persons in leadership positions in these fields.  Although originally conceived as an ongoing conference site, EdConference.net has developed into more of an ongoing online journal, with new submissions added as reviewers recommend publication of the material.

EdConference.net was founded by a group of postsecondary online and traditional educators (including me) who thought that, in the fast-paced world of the internet and instantaneous mobile communications, waiting six to twelve months before research is published in a journal or presented at a conference puts the timeliness of the information at risk.  The group wanted to develop a site that allows for short peer reviewing periods and quick publication of reviewer-recommended work, resulting in submission-to-publication cycles of two to four weeks.

Although originally intended for postsecondary educators, EdConference.net encourages and welcomes submissions from graduate students and professionals in health/nursing, business, and K-12 education.  Submissions from teacher-researchers and nurse-practitioners are especially welcome.

Submissions should be in the form of written papers [academic book review, focused review of the literature on a topic within a field, theoretical work (fully developed or in progress), empirical research] or short media presentations of scholarly works that are accompanied by a paper expanding on the presentation.  All submissions should represent the author’s original work, be written in English using American Psychology Association (APA) format, and accompanied by a submission form that includes an agreement to peer-review up to 2 submissions by others.  Forms and more detailed information are provided on the site.

Submit now and get in on the ground floor!  Visit EdConference.net right now!

New Plans for the EdConference.net Site

Although the founders have all presented at conferences and/or published in journals, none of us anticipated all the work involved in setting up either a conference or journal site.  At present, because of the newness of the organization and limited resources for professional web services, the site looks rough and requires neither membership nor a login for accessing the content.  It is a work in progress.  The plan is to reformat the site under the Open Journal System (OJS), which operates under Creative Commons licensing.

We are even in the process of applying for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number), which is like the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) that you find on all books, but for serial publications, whether printed, online, or in some other electronic media format, such as CD or DVD.  The ISSN officially marks a site as a serial/periodical publication site.  (Interestingly, blog sites are not issued ISSNs, in case you wanted to register your blog.)

Where was I?

Back in October, I posted an announcement for a new online professional and academic conference site called EdConference.net.  Shortly after that post, I underwent hand surgery on my dominant hand, which prevented me from typing for six weeks.  In fact, I was limited in what I was able to do since late August, when the injury occurred.  When my After my hand came out of the cast, typing was still not an option until I reached “readiness” in hand therapy sessions.  I learned a lot about myself and the limitations that are imposed by a useless dominant hand.  And I learned a lot about training the non-dominant hand for things like writing, typing, manipulating a mouse, and other dominant-hand activities that I had taken for granted all my life.  That explains why I have not been posting for the past several months.  What I learned from the experience will be the topics of future posts.  For now, it is good to get back to blogging on topics of interest to education and educators.

 #educ_dr

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