collaborative learning
RACEV - Conference about collaborative learning in virtual environments
"Conference about collaborative learning in virtual environments" is a initiative developed by the thematic network for collaborative learning in virtual environments (RACEV) where 8 institutions take part: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), Universidad de Sevilla (US), Universidad de Valladolid (UVA) and Universitat de València (UV). Dr. Montse Guitert is the coordinator of the network, who is the Edul@b research group chief investigator.
RACEV target is to make easier the on-line collaborative learning between students, by analyzing social interaction phenomenon within higher education. Using this knowledge, we try to provide pedagogical strategies to teachers.
During the conference, which will be held in Barcelona on 26 and 27 November 2012, we will be inviting participants to share their experiences and ideas focused in the exploration and study of collaborative on-line learning topic, from three points of view:
Focus 1: Experiences on collaborative tools and platforms
- Tools to encourage collaborative learning in students
- Conceptual proposals and innovative practical experiences in collaborative networking learn.
- Social networks and virtual communities.
Focus 2: Collaborative methodical proccesses
- Pedagogical directions for the collaborative learning through ICT.
- Pedagogical directions to support collaboration and interaction between on-line students.
- E-learning for a collaborative culture.
Focus 3: Collaborative processes evaluation
- Fundamentals and considerations about the collaborative processes evaluation.
- Tools for the collaborative network processes evaluation.
Workshop on Collaborative learning as design activity
The general themes are: interfaces supporting learning and empirical studies of active learners, and the specific theme is Wiki-inspired collaborative learning systems that combine the best ideas of visual models, end-user modifiable interfaces and collaborative inquiry environments.
Interactive learning environments invite a broad spectrum of participation. On one end of are interactive models of complex phenomena. For example in science learning, simulations of natural and artificial (mechanical, electrical, etc.) phenomena can be an effective way to represent complex relationships underlying a scientific law. On the other end, social learning environments stimulate discussion of ideas and clarification of issues by a process of collaborative inquiry, often guided by more knowledgeable people (e.g. teachers, mentors, and parents). Whereas individual learning refers to the difference between what a learner can perform independently compared to what he or she previously could perform only by guidance (“knowledge in the head”), social learning refers to what a group of learners can produce together as well as the process leading up to it (“knowledge in the world”).
Social media have enabled interactive learning environments to more fully reach the “social end” of the spectrum, whereas advances in user interface and interaction techniques for ubiquitous computing and mobile devices have improved access to and manipulation of models of scientific phenomena. It is when users become content producers and not merely consumers of information and the power and control are shifted from designated experts to a broader network of competent practitioners that the learning potential of social media will be fully realized. Thus, we feel that by combining interactive models with social sharing (or applying wiki principles to interactive learning environments) may prove invaluable in designing collaborative learning systems. In other words we aim for multiple perspectives on collaborative learning as a design activity.
Collaborative Learning Outside the Classroom - Presentation at the Future of Education Conference 2012
Rosario Hernández's Presentation at the Future of Education 2012.
Increasing Student Engagement through Collaborative Learning.
Synergic Integration of Formal and Informal E-Learning Environments for Adult Lifelong Learners
Introduction
The diffusing lifelong learning vision, emerging practices with social semantic computing technologies and research findings signal the need for more personal, social and participatory approaches that support learners in becoming active users and co-producers of learning resources, rather in gaining control over the learning process as a whole, and in pursuing personal life goals and needs.
Objective of the Book
This book will present an edited collection of accounts, issues and case studies written essentially by practitioners in adult education who have firsthand experience of attempting to define, develop, implement or evaluate personalised learning technologies in integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners within their practice in a vast range of scenarios. The accounts will describe, from a variety of perspectives, what the practitioner was trying to achieve through the use of such learning spaces and how and why they went about trying to achieve such personalisation exploiting the synergy of the integration of formal and informal eLearning. The accounts will also present reflections on what went well and what authors would do differently as well as providing grounded guidelines. The content will also include institutional and organisational changes and perspectives on the culture and management changes required as a consequence of introducing and implementing environments which are seen as counter institutional.
The book will have three main sections: Technological Issues, Pedagogical Issues and Infrastructural and Cultural Issues. The section on technological issues will present descriptions of the tools and platforms which practitioners are using, outline their strengths and weaknesses and highlight issues that need to be considered when planning to implement integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners. The section on pedagogical issues will present descriptions of the different ways in which practitioners have attempted to use integrated learning technologies and give personal examples which illustrate both the potential and drawbacks that the new learning systems provide as a consequence of integration. The third section will bring sections one and two together by considering the major infrastructural, cultural and organisational issues if integrated formal and informal eLearning environments are going to affect any change in the institutional regime. This third section will effectively bring together the pedagogical issues with the technical issues for consideration on an institutional level. It would be expected that chapters had a balance of theory, practice, methods and case studies.
Target Audience
The potential audience of this book will be academics, teachers, tutors, trainers, administrators, resource managers, learning technologists and researchers involved in or within the field of eLearning development, implementation and delivery.
This book will be of particular value to learning technology practitioners in adult education who wish to inform their own practice. It will present pros and cons of the value of using integrated formal and informal eLearning environments within tertiary education and enable practitioners to make informed decisions about how they might change or expand on their own practice within this area.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Adult education and…
- lifelong learners’ characteristics and learning profiles
- models for the detection of adult lifelong learners’ learning styles
- scaffolded self-regulated and personalised learning
- empowering adult lifelong learners
Integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners and…
- implications and challenges of the concept of PLE
- implications and challenges of the shift from LMS to PLE
- integration models
- affordances, implications and challenges of their technological architectures
- learning standards, metadata and interoperability of web-based educational systems
- learners’ profiles sharing and portable personal profiles
- adaptive mechanisms for implicit personalisation of learning
- Social Semantic Web tools for personalisation, trustworthiness and assessment on the collection of resources
- web services for knowledge representation, retrieval, creation
- mobile and ubiquitous learning
- synchronous learning
- virtual worlds
- augmented reality and environmental markers or sensors
- evaluation
- assessment
- organizational and institutional issues
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before September 30, 2012, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified byOctober 15, 2012 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by January 31, 2013. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Submissions website: http://www.elearningplace.it/call-for-chapters/ (pleaseregister to submit your chapter proposal and upload Word documents only).
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This book is anticipated to be released in 2013.
Empowering learners and teachers for a digital world
International conference to close ReAct - re-activating teachers and learners , a transnational European project within the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, KA3 (ICT) which brings together a group of european projects to discuss experiences and results centred around the main axes of the work done in the reAct project. These are creativity and autonomy as facilitators of intrinsic motivation, and the challenges involved in integrating new approaches in traditional curricular contexts, which most innovative projects face.
reAct project International Conference 2012
The reAct project final conference, which brings this two year project to a close, will bring together a group of projects to discuss experiences and results centred around the main axes of the work done in the project. These are creativity and autonomy as facilitators of intrinsic motivation, and the challenges involved in integrating new approaches in traditional curricular contexts, which most innovative projects face. The conference will be a forum for these projects to share their perceptions around these axes and derive some conclusions.
The reAct Project - International Conference:
“Empowering teachers and learners for a digital world”
will be held in Valencia (Spain) on October 10, 2012.
ReAct, re-activating teachers and learners, is a transnational European project within the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, KA3 (ICT). The project duration is from 01/01/2011 to 31/12/2012. The project website is at http://www.reactproject.eu
The percentage of youth who do not complete compulsory education is a significant social problem in Europe and one of the main challenges of professionals in training is promoting the intrinsic motivation of students. There is a huge disconnect between educational programs and what students expect to learn or see as relevant to their lives.
The goal of reAct is to develop a methodology based on enhancing the autonomy, creativity and collaboration of students and teachers through ICT tools including web 2.0, with a view to facilitating the development of learner motivation, and to explore how to integrate this innovation into existing educational programs.
The reAct project final conference, which brings this two year project to a close, will bring together a group of projects to discuss experiences and results centred around the main axes of the work done in the project. These are creativity and autonomy as facilitators of intrinsic motivation, and the challenges involved in integrating new approaches in traditional curricular contexts, which most innovative projects face. The conference will be a forum for these projects to share their perceptions around these axes and derive some conclusions.
The structure of the reAct International Conference includes two keynote speeches. The first of these by Wim Veen (University of Delft, NL) will focus on innovation in the classroom, the other will be by Lieve van den Brand (European Commission, responsible for educational policy design)will look at educational innovation from a policy perspective. These will be followed by three round tables on creativity, autonomy, and innovation. Finally a brief presentation of the conclusions of the discussions will be made.
The conference is to be webstreamed and the videos will be available later on in the project website http://www.reactproject.eu/conference_en/online-conference/
The International Student and the Challenges of Lifelong Learning
Although few people would oppose the view that lifelong learning is intended to be a positive experience, it should be borne in mind that an ageing student body might require the development of additional tools and skills for the online educator.
In this short paper we present two cases of challenges faced by international learners who brought with them into the learning environment some issues that were the product, not only of the age of the learner in question, but also of the geographical environment in which they studied. The names of the learners have been changed.
eLearning and Social Networking in Mentoring Processes to Support Active Ageing
Mentoring is a human resources development process often used to induct, introduce and guide staff into places of employment.
Training people on the job or using elderly people as mentors can be organised to address aspects like skill shortage in organisations, recruiting and retaining personal with the necessary knowledge and active involvement of older people. In this paper we present some aspects of mentoring, particularly the ICT support of such process and give examples.