Latin American countries have an urgent need to share, to unite efforts and to grow together in
all aspects, but especially to raise the educational level of their people. Hence the need to keep
an active conversation in the Latin American context for the construction of a common, broad
and multifaceted vision that would favor making effective use of ICT in education, bridging the
technological development that characterizes the contemporary world with the richness of our
explorations and insights about technology for education.

From this need, the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) organized in 2006 in
Guayaquil, Ecuador, the 1st. Latin American Conference on Learning Objects, from which the
Latin American Community of Learning Objects (LACLO) was born. From there, the conference
has been organized annually in different countries of the region (Santiago, Chile in 2007,
Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2008, Mérida , Mexico in 2009, São Paulo, Brazil in 2010,
Montevideo, Uruguay in 2011 and again in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2012). The theme of the
event has been expanding beyond the technology of learning objects, covering the entire
spectrum of information and communication technologies to support and improve teaching and
learning, which has led to a discussion within Community on the need and desirability of
adopting a new name and renamed the Latin American Conference on Learning Objects and
Technologies.

This year the conference will be in Chile where the Universidad Austral de Chile coordinates the
work of the 8th Latin American Conference on Learning Objects and Technologies (LACLO
2013) to be held from the 21th to 25th of October in the beautiful city of Valdivia, Chile. The
event aims to contribute to the creation of spaces that encourage greater communication
between the educational and technological fields and will focus on two main aspects: first, the
recovery of educational research experiences that allow a better understanding of usage and
impact of technology in the educational practice. Second, to know the real problems of
education in the region in order to build our own and effective technological solutions.

Relevant topics (but not exclusive:

Educational Research and Technology

● Experiences of using educational technologies.
● Virtual communities of learning and practice.
● Educational impact of technologies.
● Issues in the field of integration of technology in education.

Educational Problems and Technology Development
● Educational needs and technological solutions.
● Pedagogical theories, educational models and technology development.
● New students and teachers: roles, relationships between education and technology.
● Collaborative learning with technology

Learning Objects and Open Educational Resources
● Strategies for the development of open content.
● Management, use and evaluation of educational content.

Learning Object Repositories
● Federation and integrated search.
● Integration with virtual environments (LMS).
● Integration with authoring tools.

Web 2.0 in Education
● Using non-dedicated environments for education (Wikis, blogs, etc).
● Use of social networks.
● Student generated materials.
● Personalized Learning Environments (PLE).

Technologies, medias and learning modalities
● Mobile and ubiquitous education.
● Use of mobile devices for teaching and learning.
● Ubiquitous learning.
● t-learning (Educational television).
● Learning Objects for TV (High Definition).
● Effective use of television in education.

Games and Virtual and Augmented Reality
● Educational games.
● Virtual, augmented, diminished and mixed reality.
● Multi-user 3D virtual environments.

Personalized Learning
● Recommender systems in TEL.
● (Semi-)automatic creation of courses and lessons.
● Cognitive and intelligent tutoring.
● Tools for supporting self regulated learning.

Adaptability and Accessibility
● Generation of contents in distinct languages.
● Content adaptation versus educational level.
● Student model and educational adaptation.
● Technology for inclusive education.
● Assistive technologies for special needs.

M-Learning
● Interactive learning and mobile devices.
● Voting systems (such as clickers), etc.
● Mobile phones (through text SMS notices) for distance education
● Learning outdoors, museums, galleries, etc.
● Lifelong learning (dictionaries, language learning, etc.)

Papers in Portuguese:
● RBIE - Revista Brasileira de Informática na Educação. (http://www.br-ie.org/rbie). ISSN
1414-5685.

Papers in Spanish and Portuguese:
● IEEE-RITA - Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologías del Aprendizaje.
(http://rita.det.uvigo.es/). ISSN: 1932-8540.

Papers in English:
● Program: Electronic library and information systems (JCR 0.283).
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0033-0337. ISSN: 0033-0337
● International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies.
(http://www.inderscience.com/ijmso). Online ISSN: 1744-263X.
● Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects (IJELLO). (http://ijello.org).
Online ISSN 1552-2237

Important Dates:

Scientific / Technical Articles

● Deadline for full and short papers and workshops: 1 July, 2013
● Author Notification: 2 August, 2013
● Camera-Ready version: 19 August, 2013
● Early Registration (author registration): 16 September, 2013
● Main Conference: 21 - 25 October, 2013

Learning Object Competition
● Deadline for submitting Learning Objects: July, 2013
● Notification to Finalists: 29 July, 2013
● Winner Ceremony: 25 October, 2013

Doctoral Consortium
- Submission deadline: July 1
- Notice of acceptance and instructions for submission: August 5
- Camera-ready: August 19
- Distribution of papers to critical peers: September 9
- Deadline for submission of questions: September 30
- Workshop: October 22

Format and Submission

General
● Articles should be submitted in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
● The format for the articles is available in the website, in the section Authors’ Guide
● This conference will use an online system that allows participants to submit their papers
via the Web.
● All contributions must have a minimum abstract of 200 words in English.

Full Scientific Articles
● The full scientific articles should be between 8 to 12 pages.
● Present research results, theoretical discussions, positioning, systematization of
experiences, new developments, among others.
● Will be reviewed by at least 2 experts in the field.
● Will be presented individually at the conference

Short Scientific Articles
● The short papers should be between 4 to 6 pages.
● Present work in progress, but innovative ideas put into practice, proposals, among
others.
● Will be presented in interactive group sessions.

Tutorials and Workshops
● Those interested in offering a tutorial should send a brief description of it containing the
following information: objectives, methodology, duration, resources required and the
maximum number of students.
● Those interested in organizing a workshop should send a brief description contains the
following information: objectives, duration, possible interested in submitting articles to
the workshop and the expected number of participants.
● Submissions should follow the available templates and not exceed 10 pages.

Learning Object Competition
● The authors must send the learning object, including a text file (free format) with basic
information: authors, subject, audience and technical requirements (as appropriate).
● The learning objects will be reviewed by a panel of experts
● The finalists will present their learning objects at the conference
● The objects will be published in LA FLOR repository

Consorsium Doctoral
- The doctoral consortium is an instance that allows attendees to share and discuss ongoing
work of doctoral and master thesis in the field of Advanced Learning Technologies.
- The Doctoral Consortium is aimed at students who are pursuing their first or second year
of doctoral or master research in the area of Advanced Learning Technologies. The topics
of the works must agree those of the conference.
- A 4-page extended abstract in English following the format of the conference

Organizing Institutions:
- Latin American Community of Learning Objects. http://www.laclo.org
- Universidad Austral de Chile. http://www.uach.cl

Supporting Institutions:
● Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, México (http://www.uaa.mx)
● Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador (http://www.espol.edu.ec)
● Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela (http://www.ucv.ve)
● Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil (http://www.cruzeirodosul.edu.br)
● University of Guadalajara, Mexico (http://www.udg.mx)
● Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda, Venezuela
(http://www.unefm.edu.ve)
● Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Brazil (http://www.mackenzie.br)
● Universidad de la República, Uruguay (http://www.universidad.edu.uy)
● Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, Venezuela (http://www.ucla.edu.ve)
● Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil (http://www.ufpel.edu.br

General Coordinator
- Prof. Luis A. Alvarez-González
lalvarez@inf.uach.cl

Local Coordinator
- Sandra Bucarey Arriagada, UACh - Chile
sbucarey@uach.cl

Program Chairs
- Dr. Cristian Cechinel, Universidade Federal de Pelotas - Brazil
contato@cristiancechinel.pro.br
- Dra. Claudia Deco, Universidad Nacional de Rosario - Argentina
decodeco@fceia.unr.edu.ar
- Dr. Xavier Ochoa, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral
xavier@cti.espol.edu.ec

Dissemination Chairs
- Dr. Rafael Morales, UdG - México
rmorales@udgvirtual.udg.mx
- Dr. Ismar Frango, Mackenzie/Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil
ismarfrango@gmail.com

Workshop Chairs
- Prof. Erick Araya Araya
Universidad Austral, Chile
earaya10@gmail.com
- Dr. Jaime Muñoz Arteaga y
Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, México
- jmauaa@gmail.com
Dr. Francisco J. Alvarez Rodriguez
Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, México
- fjalvar.uaa@gmail.com

Tutorial Chairs
- Antonio Silva Sprock, UCV - Venezuela
antonio.silva@ciens.ucv.ve
- Luisa Casadei, UCLA - Venezuela
luisacasadei@ucla.edu.ve

Learning Object Competition Chairs
- Virginia Rodés, UdeLaR - Uruguay
virginia.rodes@cse.edu.uy
- Yosly Hernández Bieliukas, UCV - Venezuela
yosly.hernandez@ciens.ucv.v