Official Website
Registration
Registration is now open and most of the important detail is in the second circular . Lex Chalmers spent five days in Tunis in April, and has provided some
comments below that might be helpful.
Language is not a great problem; I managed with
very limited French as most people had a reasonable level of English (apart from the
marche central and medina). Personal safety is not a problem; we moved around
extensively on foot and on the TGM (railway). Taxis are cheap, but we were bullied
about fares more than once, despite what was on the meter.
Registration is not cheap, with the early-bird at 650 Euro. The venue is impressive, and it
seems from the documentation that our hosts will be providing a high level of support
and activities for registrants; Le Kram is a very, very big facility.
Accommodation is an issue; my April 2007 preference was for a downtown hotel, and the
Abu Nawas was excellent and not expensive, but it is not on offer in August 2008. The
prices quoted are much more than we paid. If you are inclined to work through the
dozens of internet re-sellers, you may be able to pick up a package (European out and
back) flight and hotel for the same price that you will end up paying through the
Congress site. My August 2008 preference would be for the hotels removed from the city
(sadly), as the three star hotels are accurately rated - some of the rooms we saw were
stale and unappealing. On the other hand the Garmmarth and La Marsa hotels were
spacious, close to Le Kram, light, modern and on the beach front - check their web sites.
The Organisers offer minibuses and the TGM is not far away.
More on field trips later, but look to walk as much of Carthage as possible, and don't miss
the Bardo. I suppose the Medina is a must as well, especially if this is something you have
not experienced before. I recommend the mint tea everywhere.
IGU Tunis programme: papers
As at Brisbane, we will combine INLT papers with those from the Commission on
Geographic Education, in joint sessions. On the day it is four fifteen minute oral
presentations followed by 20 minutes of discussion. Abstracts must go to the Scientific
Committee.
INLT participants should specify presentation in the TC04.12 option. The Congress
organisers are being asked for blocks of thematic topics in geographical education as
follows:
(a) priority for two back to back sessions on Wednesday and Thursday mornings (ie
8:00-9:30am and 9:30-11:00). This will allow sixteen papers in four sessions in
total.
(b) three sessions on Friday morning (ie 8:00-9:30am, 9:30-11:00am and 11:00am
until 12:30). This will allow twelve papers in three sessions.
(c) three sessions on Tuesday afternoon (ie 14:00-15:30, 15:30-17:00 and 17:00 until
18:30). This will also allow twelve papers in three sessions.
While we could have themes for as many as ten sessions, we may have some themes that
occupy two sessions.
The Commission on Geographical Education started to think about themes in July this
year, with the following:
- Geographical education and cultural dialogues
- Learning beyond the classroom in Geography
- Communications technologies in geographical education
- Best practice in geographical education
- Geography and “sense of place”
- Teacher education; principles and practice
- Curricula for effective geographical education
- Education for Sustainable development
These need to be integrated with themes from the INLT. If you wish to nominate any
additional themes, please contact us.
The Commission has started to talk about a paper based (refereed) proceedings based on
the sort of template used at our Lucerne meeting (up to 3000 words). There have also
been discussions about thematic issues in at least three different journals, with papers
picked for extension to 5000 words.
IGU Tunis programme: workshop
At the last two Congresses, in Glasgow and Brisbane, the INLT has run two day workshops
over the weekend following. In Brisbane, there was strong support for some sort of
meeting in Tunis, not least to take advantage of a rather different sort of location to
extend the reach of the INLT. An international swap shop was recommended.
After some discussion, we propose to run this as an evening event during the Congress.
This will save on the costs of extra accommodation, and also free delegates to participate in post-Congress fieldtrips.
In order for this to work well, it would be good if
INLT members stay in hotels that are reasonably accessible to each other. Lex’s
suggestion of hotels in Garmmarth and La Marsa would enable us to hold the swapshop in
one of those.
A swapshop is a forum for formalised exchange of ideas on teaching and learning practice
amongst colleagues. The focus for the event will be active learning (broadly defined as
anything other than lecturing). Participants will receive a template to prepare a short
write-up for their activity prior to the event. They will share their activity and receive
feedback from the group. The goal is to provide a forum for sharing best practices in a
collegial, low-pressure setting. We would envisage this lasting for an evening, with food
and refreshments provided.
The book Engaging Students in Active Learning: Case Studies
in Geography, Environment and Related disciplines, (Mick Healy and Jane Roberts, eds.)
was the product of a swapshop at the University of Gloucestershire. Eric Fournier is
coordinating this event: please give him an indication of interest, by email:
ejfourni@samford.edu
Further details will be made available in future INLT newsletters; in the meantime please
contact Eric Fournier with ideas. |
