PUBLISHED! Student Conference Reports from SISAC Conference

JASAL is very happy to announce the publication of the Student Conference Reports from the Student Involvement in Self-Access Centers Conference, held in Nagoya in February 2013.

You can download your copy here:

SISAC Conference Reports

There are 5 reports from students who attended and presented at the conference, along with some contributions from the editor, Vick Ssali, and the organisers. Please feel free to share the Reports with any interested parties.

JASAL and the conference organisers Umida Ashurova & Robert Croker, and editor Vick Ssali, would like to thank all the students for all their hard work in writing their papers.

We hope to be able to announce another student conference soon!

Call for Papers: SISAC Conference Proceedings

Thank you to everyone who participated in and made the recent Student Involvement in Self Access Centers Conference in Nagoya an astounding success! It was great to see so many students talking passionately about their SACs and exchanging ideas about how to make them even better. We hope to be able to hold similar events in the future. Thanks once again to Risa and her team of students at Sugiyama Jogakuen University for a superb job in organising it all!

In order to spread the word even further and keep the conversation going about student involvement in SACs, we’d like to announce a Call for Papers for a Conference Proceedings.

SiSAC Call for Papers

This conference proceedings will be read by people who couldn’t attend the actual conference, so it’s a great opportunity to share your ideas and suggestions with people all over Japan who are interested in SACs and Learning Centres. We also hope to help authors publish their papers in respected academic journals.

Teachers/advisors/managers: please encourage your students to submit a paper for this volume!

The editors would like to suggest the 3 following kinds of paper for submission:

  1.  a summary of your presentation content
  2.  a conference report, giving details of the different presentations that you saw with some of your reflections
  3.  a reflective report on your experiences at the conference – what you learned and how you would like to change and improve your SAC based on the ideas you got from the conference.

Papers should be around 750 words. The deadline is 6th May, 2013. Please send your submissions to studentconference2013ATgmail.com.

All submissions will be reviewed by the editors before publication.

We look forward to reading your submissions.

Call for Presentations: JASAL Forum at JALT 2013

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
for the JASAL Forum at JALT2013, Kobe (October 25-28, 2013)

Self-access and the lifelong voyage of learning
Self-access learning can be a lifelong endeavour, starting at any age, and continuing far beyond graduation from an institution. This process is easily likened to a voyage, with learners going in different directions and progressing at different speeds depending on a variety of environmental factors. The self-access centre can be seen as a port, with learners coming to refuel with ideas, restock with learning materials, share stories of their adventures, and possibly chart out a new direction for the future. Feel free to interpret this year’s JALT theme in any way that is relevant to you and your context.

 We invite submissions on areas including, but not limited to:

  • SAC layout
  • Managing and administrating SACs
  • Materials
  • Learning program design
  • Integrating self-access with curriculum
  • Learner involvement in self-access
  • Self-access learning communities
  • Learning advising/counseling
  • Assessment of self-access learning
  • Evaluating SACs
  • Research design
  • Interaction and collaboration with colleagues and administrators

Continuing on the success of last year’s event, this year’s forum will consist of short presentations followed by a poster session and open forum discussion.

Proposals should include the following:

  • Title
  • Format (poster or presentation)
  • Name(s) of presenter(s) and affiliation(s)
  • JALT membership number of all presenters, (if applicable)
  • 150-200 word abstract
  • 75-word summary which clearly states your topic
  • Equipment you will require

Please submit your proposal to jasalorgATgmail.com by Sun, April 14, 2013. Please note that while the JALT deadline for submissions is April 21, we need time to put together our proposal. If for some reason your presentation cannot be included in the JASAL Forum, we will notify you so you can submit your proposal to the JALT conference as an individual paper before the April 21 deadline.

Please understand that depending on the number and nature of proposals we receive, we may have to ask you to change from a presentation to a poster or vice versa.

For more information on the JALT 2013 conference, please visit: http://jalt.org/conference

Registration for the Student Conference now open!

Happy New Year from the JASAL committee!

The Student Involvement in Self Access Centres Conference is now coming up very soon (1st & 2nd Feb) (more details here). We have around 10 different student presentations for participants to enjoy, and hope that many JASAL members can come to learn from and support students working hard in Self Access Centres around Japan.

If you are planning to attend the conference, please register by completing this 

Conference Registration Form

and sending it to studentconference2013ATgmail.com ASAP. We will also accept onsite registration, but it would help our planning greatly if you could indicate your interest for the different events we will be holding in advance. Registration is free for all students, but, as we are a non-profit conference with very limited funding, we ask for a suggested donation of ¥2000 from professionals attending the conference, to help us cover transportation, food and accommodation costs for student participants who otherwise would not be able to attend.

If you would like to use the onsite accommodation at Nanzan Kenshu Centre, please make sure you return the form by 24th January (sorry about the short notice). Please understand that, due to a limited supply, we cannot promise to be able to meet all requests.

Hope to see many of you in Nagoya in a few weeks!

Student Involvement Conference Update

Season’s Greetings from JASAL! I’m sure there have been many parties held in Centres over the last few weeks, and that we’re all looking forward to a well-earned break.

The nights are drawing in, which means that it’s almost time for Father Christmas to visit, and more importantly, that the Student Involvement in SACs Conference is getting closer. We are happy to announce that there will events over 3 days (1st -3rd Feb), with the main event, the student presentations, taking place on Sat 2nd Feb. See the conference page for more details.

The deadline for proposals from students (max. 200 words) is January 10th. Please have your students email their proposals to studentconference2013@gmail.com, where they will be read and selected by the conference committee, made up of Sugiyama Jogakuen University students.

You can now view information about the conference schedule, access and accommodation details on the conference page here

If you are intending to bring/send students to either attend or present at this conference, but have not yet submitted a proposal or confirmed your interest, please contact the conference organisers at the email address above, especially if you would like to use the accommodation provided at the Centre, as it is quite limited. If the demand is high, it may be necessary to find alternative accommodation.

Gook luck with all your SAC related endeavours in 2013 – JASAL will be here to support you!

Announcement: Student Conference In February 2013

JASAL is proud to support the first ever student conference for Student Involvement in Self Access Centers in Japan, organised by students and staff at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya, in association with Nanzan University and JASAL. It will take place in February in Nagoya, and is targetted primarily at students, (although teachers, learning advisors and managers are also encouraged to attend and support their students at the event). For more details, click here.

We hope to see many JASAL members there, supporting their students as they present and share their ideas!SISAC Conference Flyer

Join us at JASAL Forum at JALT 2012!

JASAL will host the anuual JASAL Forum titled “Making a difference through Self Access” at JALT 2012 Hamamatsu. We will have 3 presentations, 4 poster presentations, and discussion time. 

Please come and join us!

For details, please click here or go to the “Conferences” tab on this website.

Date: Saturday, 13th October
Time: 3:50pm – 5:20pm
Room: 21