Workshop on the Use of BlackBerry Devices in Computing Education
Monday, October 17, 2011, San Francisco
Co-located with the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Conference October 18 - 20 http://www.blackberrydevcon.com

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~qmahmoud/bdce2011.html

Overview
The proliferation of smartphones and tablets, and their application stores should encourage CS/IT/Engineering departments to integrate mobile application development into their curricula as almost every career path encompasses some aspects of mobile devices and mobility.

The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for faculty to present and share their experiences in introducing and teaching mobile application development or other aspects of mobile computing into their courses. It should also be of interest to faculty who have not yet embarked on introducing this paradigm into their classed and want to learn what insights have been gained from colleagues.

Participants and attendees will enjoy a range of talks from other faculty members and leaders from the mobile industry. They'll also learn about the resources and tools (including the BlackBerry Academic Program) available to them to help integrate mobile application development into the curricula.

Topics of interest include, but they are not limited to:

- Experience reports on teaching mobile application development
- Best practices on teaching mobile application development
- Experience with CMER's Academic Kit
- Experience with RIM.s BlackBerry Academic Program
- Ways to integrate mobile app development in the curricula
- Teaching computing concepts using smartphones
- Teaching computer programming through mobile application development
- Tablet computers (e.g. BlackBerry PlayBook) in education
- Mobile devices in software engineering, operating systems, database, security, and other core courses
- Mobile learning applications of BlackBerry Smartphones and PlayBook
- Tools and techniques for teaching mobile application development
- Outreach activities

Submission and Publication Information

Authors are invited to submit papers (2 - 5 pages). Accepted papers will be published online, but we're also exploring publications in the ACM Digital Library and hence we suggest that you please format your submission using the ACM Template (http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/pubform.doc). Authors of selected papers will also be invited (after the workshop) to submit extended papers for publication in a special issue of a journal.


All submissions must be made online at https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=bdce2011. Note: If you don't already have an easychair account, sign up for one...it is free and it only takes 2 minutes. Once you login, create a new submission and fill out the necessary information. Please make sure you upload your MS Word (.doc) or PDF file of your paper.


Important Dates:
Paper submission: August 23, 2011?Notification: September 14, 2011?Camera-ready papers: September 29, 2011?Workshop: October 17, 2011

Registration:
Faculty presenting or attending this workshop will receive a special registration fee of $399 that includes access to all sessions and activities of the BlackBerry Developer Conference. To register, please go to: http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/academic.

Organizers:
Workshop Co-Chairs:
Qusay Mahmoud, Centre for Mobile Education and Research, University of Guelph (Canada)
Dave Dietz, Research In Motion, Canada

Program Committee:
Ralph Deters, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Maureen Doyle, Northern Kentucky University, USA
Dominic Duggan, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA
Jicheng Fu, University of Central Oklahoma, USA
Gerald C. Gannod, Miami University, Ohio, USA
Ashraf Khalil, Abu Dhabi University, UAE
Kyle D. Lutes, Purdue University, USA
Wathiq Mansoor, American University of Dubai, UAE
Joseph Sant, Sheridan College Institute of Technology, Canada
Christelle Scharff, Pace University, USA

If you have any questions, please email: Qmahmoud(at)uoguelph.ca