CALL FOR PAPERS IS2000 Special Session on Virtual Universities and Distance Education Submission Deadline: July 15, 2000 in the context of 2000 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SOCIETY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW CHALLENGES (IS2000) http://is2000.u-aizu.ac.jp The University of Aizu Aizu-Wakamatsu City, Fukushima, Japan November 5-8, 2000 In Cooperation with Information Processing Society of Japan Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers IEEE Japan Council IEEE Education Society Japan Chapter ------------------------------------------------------------- Towards an Innovative Educational System for the 21st Century ------------------------------------------------------------- THEME AND SCOPE Advanced technologies like the Internet could provide new opportunities and great potentials for education. In the recent years, there have been lots of research projects on virtual universities and distance education, which have been established with advanced information and network technologies and highly expected to be an innovative educational system for the 21st century. This special session serves as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers from academia and industry to discuss and exchange ideas and opinions on the research, development and applications on all topics related to virtual universities and distance education from various aspects and points of view. Topics of interest include, but not limited to: Concepts and models Architectures Pedagogical issues Distance learning/education Constructivist perspectives Online/Virtual community Web-based support system Copresence and awareness Communication and groupware tools Softeware agent User interface design Human-computer interaction Computer mediated communication CSCW/CSCL environment Distributed learning environment Interactive learning environment Courseware development Authoring tools Multimedia contents design Educational information resources Teaching/learning strategies PAPER SUBMISSION Papers must be written in English. Please send a four-page extended abstract and your choice of a full length complete manuscript of upto 5000 words to the address below. Qun Jin School of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu City, 965-8580 JAPAN Email: jinqun@u-aizu.ac.jp Phone: +81-242-372642 Fax: +81-242-372750 Each paper should have a cover page, on a separate sheet, which includes the title, author(s) and affiliation(s), a half-page abstract, and a list of keywords (up to six). Although printed copies are acceptable, electronic submission in PostScript/PDF/MS-Word format is encouraged. Please also send the cover page in text form by email to the above address. Additional details on camera-ready manuscript submission guidelines will be posted at http://is2000.u-aizu.ac.jp/ and accompany with the Notification of Acceptance. All papers will be reviewed by up to three referees for technical merit and content. Papers accepted for presentation will appear in the conference proceedings, which will be available to delegates at the conference site. Papers presented at the conference will be selected and edited by the conference organizers and published in book form by an international publisher after the conference. Best papers and best student papers (a student should be the principal author and presenter of the submitted paper) will be selected based on both the quality of the written paper and its presentation. IMPORTANT DATES Paper Submission Due July 15, 2000 Notification of Acceptance August 15, 2000 Final Manuscript and Early Registration Due September 15, 2000 SPECIAL SESSION ORGANIZERS Jingde Cheng Saitama University (cheng@ics.saitama-u.ac.jp) Zixue Cheng The University of Aizu (z-cheng@u-aizu.ac.jp) Qun Jin The University of Aizu (jinqun@u-aizu.ac.jp) FOR UPDATED INFORMATION Web Site: http://is2000.u-aizu.ac.jp REGISTRATION FEE Registration fee covers a copy of the conference proceedings, the welcome reception (on Nov. 5), and the banquet (on Nov. 7). - Early registration fee before September 15, 2000, 30000JPY (5000JPY for students) - Late or on-site registration fee, 35000JPY (20000JPY for students) LOCATION The University of Aizu is in the scenic vicinity of the Bandai-Asahi National Park, and is located in Aizu-Wakamatsu City, the historical capital of the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, famous for Tsurugajo Castle, museums, spa and skiing resorts and sake (Japanese rice wine). It is about two and a half hours from Tokyo by train. ACCOMMODATION Western Style Hotel, which rates from about 6500JPY (single) to 13000JPY (twin) per night and Japanese Style Hotel (Ryokan) with Hot Spring, which rates from 10000JPY (two persons/one Japanese style room, with breakfast) to 17000JPY (two persons/one room, with breakfast and dinner) per night will be reserved.