ABOUT THE LEARNING CONFERENCE

Araluen Arts Centre Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1-4 October 1997

This was the fifth Literacy and Education Research Network Conference, held every two years. It's nearly a decade now, and the LERN conferences have gone from strength to strength. The fourth conference, held in Townsville, North Queensland in July 1995, attracted almost 800 delegates from 16 countries, and included over 150 presentations.

LERN conferences are community events, as well as thoughtful and scholarly occasions. They are a time of celebration and affirmation. Once again, this conference was one of these community occasions. Alice Springs, in the Centre of Australia, was the perfect venue for its beautiful desert location, and for the vibrant and diverse communities that give the Red Centre its life. This year the conference was co-hosted by Indigenous colleagues and in conjunction with the Institute for Aboriginal Development in Alice Springs. The continuing dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators was a highlight of the conference, as were the kinds of collaborations required in a pluralist democracy and globalising society.

LERN conferences are also participants' conferences, with everything from plenary presentations by world renowned educators, to small workshop descriptions of practice by teachers and students, to informal 'garden chats' with the keynote speakers, to a continuous program of local community arts events.

Once again, the International Multiliteracies Project team was among those presenting at the LERN conference. This time they addressed practical dimensions of the two 'multis' in teaching and learning: multiculturalism and the multimedia of new information and communications technologies. They discussed how to address Multiliteracies in curriculum and teaching. Also attending and presenting were teachers from several different countries discussing the ways they have used and adapted the Multiliteracies framework.