elearning_label_learning_and_society
Network of web-site for audiovisual coproduction
The web site will be:
- A meeting point to talk about video, images, cinema and new media
- A view point on European youth creativity which gathers and promotes talented young people through show-cases and databases
The web site will be managed by an international editorial office, constituted by young people - coming from the three European cities - which are focused on the site’s specific contents, but who are not yet working professionally in the field. The young journalists’ work will be to update the web-magazines contents, but also to create new audio-visual materials which will be put on-line and projected during various international meetings.
Project activities
The project will be developed through the following steps:
1. In each participating city a group of 10 young people (age 18 to 29) will be selected among video and web amateurs
2. In each participating city a 30 hours training workshop will be organised. Inside the workshop there will be classes regarding the site management as well as a technical workshop regarding audiovisuals
3. Planning and realisation of a European web site for audiovisual coproduction which will include a section for each participating city to manage and update. In this way, each city will be able to test its territorial juvenile production in audiovisuals and at the same time will be able to produce audiovisual materials such as documentary films, short fiction films, social advertising, so to work out some fundamental guide lines regarding Europe’s social and cultural development.
4. Short exchange programmes (one week) among the youths taking part in the editorial offices of the partner cities. The exchange which will be aimed at merging different experiences and finally co-produce audiovisual material to be put on the web.
5. Final presentation of the European Web Site of audio-visual productions. The most significant audiovisual material produced by the youths of the three editorial offices will be publicly presented and projected. A press conference and a discussion forum will also be organised to develop the themes raised during the project life.
Main objectives:
- Give young people a place where they can express their ideas, publicise and compare their video production, cultivate a passion and approach a profession.
- Stimulate a creative yet socially significant use of the new technologies. To create a European Web Site around video, images, cinema and current events, is to underline the importance of the media and the strength of images in the contemporary society. The objective is to develop the youths’ communication’s ability helping young people to focus their work on socially significant themes.
- Develop the themes of intercultural and multicultural life in the European cities exploiting video’s and new media’s potentialities. To diffuse these themes through the work of young people is to give a responsibility our citizens of the future, to educate them to new ‘languages’ in order to support the process of democratisation of today’s and tomorrow’s society.
- Stimulate a debate, an exchange and considerations around crucial themes regarding the European cities, while diffusing new methods and media contents which will be able to focus on specific problems and propose possible solutions.
Target group
Basic target are young people, whose interest and involvement in public life is of growing importance. More and more, the younger generation feels the need to find a common meeting ground where they can express their ideas and enthusiasms, but they also need to be stimulated and helped into the world of work, through a less theoretical, more practical approach.
Sustainable Environment for the Evaluation of Quality in E-Learning
In order to define a cohesive, inclusive and robust approach to the Quality in the implementation and use of e-learning systems and processes, the SEEQUEL project aims to take the required step to establish a European “eLearning Quality” Forum, that will address the following issues:
- Quality assessment, evaluation and conformance practice;
- Cases of “good practice” and design guidelines;
- Quality assurance frameworks (with criteria and standards).
The main activity of the project will be an inclusive and comprehensive analysis of the case for the development of a sustainable environment (eLearning Quality Forum + Laboratory) for e-Learning standards conformance and quality assurance. The environment will be based on the outcomes of a consensus-building exercise that will draw upon the various approaches to quality definition and quality assurance practice currently used by a broad range of stakeholders in education and training in the public and private sectors. In fact, in order to get to a comprehensive quality framework, all the different “cultures of quality” of the different users groups (industry, academia, professional development, students, etc.) will be invited to contribute to the Forum not only in terms of technical solutions, but also as far as the different quality concepts, principles, habits and visions are concerned.
The project outputs will take the form of:
- Reports (review reports, a Report on Quality in eLearning in Europe, policy as well as research recommendations);
- The eLearning Quality Forum and the Quality Certification Laboratory, as sustainable infrastructures and operational schemes, in order to (a) facilitate long-term discussion, exchange of ideas, experiences and “good practice” and knowledge consolidation (with Seminars, Workshops and Conferences) – as a policy support mechanism at the European level - and (b) to prescribe a highly reliable and value-added environment offering a consistent approach for the testing and certification of “Quality Assurance Frameworks”, addressing the practical requirements for the effective development of learning technologies and learning services.
- Guidelines (Hand-outs) for e-learning practitioners (members of educational communities; researchers; industry and policy makers);
- Two validation workshops involving the project consortium and a final dissemination conference, the e-learning Quality Conference presenting the project results to the broader industrial and research community.
Bookworm goes online
Doing research and writing articles on their own promotes the ability to form and hold their own opinion, which is an another important ability for this target group. In addition, working with information and communication tools, the women acquire further key qualifications that increase their chances of employment.
The project covers six parts that complement each other:
-Conceptualisation (choice of suitable software for creation of online-magazines, definition of target group, procedure of pilot phases, criteria of evaluation, co-ordination of participating partner institutions)
-Training of partners concerning the software, evaluation
-Qualification of test group for setting up, running and management of the online magazine
-Pilot tests with the target group in the partner institutions, evaluation and inclusion of feedback, ideas for topics etc.
- Integration of the target group:
-Acquisition of the participants in co-operation with institutions like women’s representative offices, co-ordination offices for working with women etc.
- Introduction of the participants, adding of contributions and completion of the existing test newspaper
-Exchange of experience and content with the partner institutions
-Comparison of the online-magazines of the European partners
-Translation of selected contributions
- Putting the bilingual magazine consisting of a regional and an international part online
- Distribution and dissemination: listing in search engines, advertising in print media etc. in order to make the product accessible to a high number of women. Continuation of the online-magazine after the duration of the project, preferably in co-operation with various organisations for women.
The following objectives are reached by the regional, national and international co-operation of the participants:
-Building up of media literacy
-Critical view on new media
-Forming of own opinions and self-confidence
-Establishment and support of regional, national and international networks
-Promotion of social skills (ability to work in a team, rhetoric, skills in writing etc.)
The project is scheduled for a duration of 12 months. Result is a bilingual, intercultural vivid product from women for women, that shows their needs and concerns and complies with them.
The co-operation of women from different social structures and cultures in the online magazine creates a platform for vital, multifaceted discussion rich in contrast, in which the changing social and political requirements and topics are covered.
EM@C-ONLINE – European Medi@Culture online
Together with the traditional mass media, the new media (information and communication technologies) are having a decisive impact on today's world. Culture, everyday life and society are being increasingly influenced and shaped by the media. Children and youth need knowledge and competence to be able to deal with the media properly, confidently and creatively, to participate and shape this media world, and to orient themselves in this world. Active media competence, the ability to communicate using all old and new media, to analyze and evaluate, but also to produce information in word, image and sound as basic elements of media culture in their context are required.
In the European context, in view of the increasing globalization, this can not be a purely national task. The opportunities and forms of communication of this new world must be recognized, thematised and methodically implemented in the school.
EuropeanMedi@Culture online accepts this challenge and provides two platforms for schoolchildren, students, teachers, parents and other interested persons: an information platform and a project platform. The information platform contains Help options and information relevant to media and pedagogical issues. The online project platform provides the opportunity to communicate and cooperate on the Internet.
EuropeanMedi@Culture Online consists of several modules which are the basis and tool of subsequent school media projects in terms of active, critical media competence:
- Information database for media pedagogical and technically relevant themes: Background information on media use, media technology, types of media, instructions on media production (multimedia) and publication
- Interaction platform: Moderated forums on media themes for project schools, teachers, parents
- Production platform for online projects: using an editing system, project schools create their own international projects with their European partner classes, and have access to the media pedagogical and technical knowhow of the information database. The platform also incorporates forums which provide the opportunity to communicate both to the interested public (moderated forum with access to the outside world) and to the project partners (internal forum, not externally accessible.
Project sequence
Creation of a multilingual database, starting with existing information from the partner countries (D, F, SF, AT). Here, an important component of the information from media projects and initiatives of the partner countries will flow directly into the information pool. A selection of the most important information is offered in German, English and French. Parallel to the creation of the information database, European partner schools (AT, D, F,SF) of different school types and levels agree joint project ideas, which are carried out internationally and with media cooperation.
EuropeanMedi@Culture online provides the schools with secure and competent know-how, ensures project communication with appropriate communications services integrated in the platform, and provides a joint online production and publication environment. These publications, with a detailed description of the necessary methods, tools and results, serve as a stimulus, example and support for all European educational establishments.
Bios and Environment Transnational Networks
Activities of the network will comprise development of a 'virtual training centre' of environmental expertise & innovative approaches in the environmental sector; development of training modules to be used in preparation of the target group in the acquisition of new skills (thus preparing them for access to the labour market) and dissemination of outcomes, practices & products across the initial partnership network of ten European countries.
Beyond this there will be the development of the network (and centre) and the compilation of relevant materials and methodologies. The network, and as such, the virtual training centre, will adapt and make use of existing materials and methodologies, as were developed through previously funded projects under COMETT, PETRA, SOCRATES and other European Programmes.
A range of additional e-learning courses will then be developed for the Environment sector, these are expected to support existing learning materials and a dedicated internet site introduced to operate as a platform for the Worldwide Training Centre for the Environment.
Finally, much attention will be paid towards the sustainability of the network beyond the lifetime of the project, thus, the partnership will consider commercialisation (i.e. charged access or usage) of a number of learning materials and e-learning courses to assure the long-term viability of the network.
The New European Design for All e-Accessibility Network
Have you noticed all the little ”e”s that have started to show up everywhere? It’s as though someone has been sprinkling them out over a multitude of EU related projects. eEurope seems to have created what might be called a “buzz-abbreviation” instead of a “buzzword”.
Aside from e-Learning there are nine other official little “e”s. One of them is e-Accessibility.
A key action point in the eAccessibility Action Plan was to “ensure the establishment and networking of national centres of excellence in design-for-all and create recommendations for a European curriculum for designers and engineers”, preferably by the end of 2002. EDeAN was created as the result of that action point.
EDeAN, generally pronounced “e-deen”, stands for the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network. As you may have noticed the EDeAN logo turned its little “e” into an adapted “at” symbol and put it in the middle of its name to signal its digital intentions. As with many of the other little “e”s, EDeAN intends to do its part to help narrow the digital divide while promoting Design for All principles and guidelines.
EDeAN currently consists of fifteen European National Contact Centres (NCCs) and one hundred member organisations. More member organisations are encouraged to join so that the network can continue to grow. Each NCC is expected to establish and maintain a national Design for All eAccessibility network, which will contribute to and cooperate with EDeAN at the European level. Finland is the first country to actually establish a national network, FIN-DeAN, which was successfully launched in September.
The EDeAN secretariat, currently run by the Danish National Contact Centre, opened in Denmark in July 2002, in conjunction with the start of the Danish EU Presidency. Eventually, responsibility for the secretariat is intended to rotate between interested NCCs.
An official EDeAN Kick Off Conference took place in Aalborg, Denmark for NCCs on November 28th and November 29th of 2002. EDeAN will be working closely with related thematic network projects D4ALLnet and IDCnet as well as other coming networks of excellence. EDeAN members are already working on Design for All curricula recommendations along with the IDCnet, as well as establishing Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and a Design for All Resource Centre via D4ALLnet.
Like the little “e”s, Design for All has many different uses and definitions. In EDeAN’s case, Design for All has a three-part definition:
· Design of technology, products and services, which are demonstrably suitable for a majority of the potential users without any modifications.
· Design of products, which are easily adapted to different users (i.e. user interfaces which can be customised or personalised).
· Design of products, which have standardised interfaces, capable of being accessed by specialised user interaction devices.
According to the report, IST in the Sixth Framework Programme of Research and Technological Development, “…eAccessibility stands for the access which new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can provide to people – both access to the real world and to the growing Information Society world. eAccessibility also implies a need for new technologies and systems themselves to be accessible – especially to users with functional impairments, older people and others who may be in danger of being left behind by the rapid advances of technology in all areas of society. eAccessibility, in addition, refers to the need of developing specific technologies which will compensate or restore impaired functions, thus facilitating an active participation and integration in society for persons with disabilities".
In December 2002, a resolution called “Delivering eAccessibility”, based on a report of the same name, was presented for approval at a meeting of the Council of the European Union concluding the Danish EU Presidency. That resolution encourage member states to devote more attention to the area of eAccessibility and eInclusion in the coming months.
Approval of the Delivering eAccessibility resolution, as well as the creation of the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network (EDeAN), will hopefully give the work being done in the area both added visibility and a good push in the right direction. The timing should be right since 2003 has been designated as the European Year of People with Disabilities (EYPD2003).
Let’s hope that, in the future, accessibility will become an obvious and well-integrated element of digital design for the Information Society. At that point, perhaps we won’t need to rely on support initiatives and can give the little “e” a well-deserved rest.
e-mail: c.toscan@hmi.dk
or the EDeAN website
Providing Innovative Service Models and Assessment
The project will examine fundamental and critical issues and developments, including those which cross between service fields, and put these in the context of socio-economic and technical developments, long-term visions and scenarios, an understanding of how these services are likely to change, an the challenges and opportunities this presents.
PRISMA's work will assist Key Action I RTD projects, service providers, policy makers and other stakeholders in exploiting present and future trends. PRISMA will develop into a commercially sustainable set f tools and services covering methods and best practice guidance, scenario and modelling techniques, metrics and evaluation criteria, and socio-economic benchmarking techniques for assessing impacts.
Objectives:
1. mapping overall trends and changes affecting citizen services over a 10 year time horizon
2. identifying current best practice in the provision of citizen services and relevant cross-cutting themes
3. elaborating long-term visions over 10 years for the provision of citizen services and in relation to selected themes
4. conducting foresight and scenario-building exercises looking forward over the next 10 years for these services and themes
5. developing new models of service delivery based upon future-oriented best practice models for these services and themes
6. providing practical tools for policy makers, service providers and other stakeholders
7. disseminating project results widely within Key Action I and the IST Programme and out to stakeholder groups
8. supporting and assisting RTD and other Key Action I projects by providing on-going results and data
Work description:
PRISMA's methodology will be based on mapping major trends and changes affecting citizen services in order to assess current best practice.
This will be used to undertake foresight and scenario-building exercises in the context of long-term visions, and to generate future-oriented best practice models, both for the service fields represented in Key Action I as well as for important cross-cutting themes:
(1) service models: one core model each for health, persons with special needs (including the disabled and the elderly), administrations, environment, transport and tourism;
(2) thematic models which cut across the service models and look at more general and critical themes and issues, e.g. public-private partnerships, self-service provision, sectoral and organisational change, management and competence systems, user-involvement and interfaces, financing and cost-benefits, technology and standards, etc
These will be finally determined during the project to reflect current and changing issues, enabling synergy across all Key Action I services to be developed, something not possible by examining just one or two services.
The methodology used to develop these future-oriented best practice models will not be a traditional linear process but instead a parallel, iterative approach in which the analysis is not sequentially fixed but which allows each factor to play off against other factors on a number of occasions during the research process.
This "spiral" research process, as opposed to the traditional linear one, is both iterative and developmental. In this way, each best practice description and model will be refined using at least five generic iterative factors: socio-economic, legal and regulatory frameworks, cultural environments, user and other stakeholder requirements and interests, IST trends.
On the basis of this work, PRISMA will develop a tool box, data and methods for RTD projects and relevant stakeholders. The work will be underpinned by close collaboration with expert and thematic panels, using selected test beds to feed into the project and assess its results, as well as other European cases. An independent Advisory Panel will monitor overall work and results.
Milestones:
Month 1: Kick-off.
Month 6: Methodology elaborated, themes determined, trends mapped, advisory and expert panels set up, test beds agreed, cases surveyed.
Month 12: Best practice for services and themes analysed.
Month 18: Long-term visions elaborated and foresight and scenario exercises completed.
Month 24: Best practice models developed.
Month 30: Project terminated, final report submitted, tool box completed for use by stakeholders, project disseminated and longer term exploitation of services begins.
The European city as an innovative place of learning
The emphasis is to be on individual learning, group learning and the use of multimedia teaching methods for the training of multilingual workers in the firm / at the workplace.
The project is designed to enhance further training in the field of job-related communication by promoting language skills in the partner countries D, EL, UK and RO. In this connection particular attention will be paid to the urban environment and its natural multiplicity of languages.
The improvement of immigrants' language skills in the vocational context should also promote social integration and equal opportunities.
The final product will consist of CD-ROMs for immigrants, teaching modules for employers and associations in DE, EN, FR, EL and RO, and manuals and models for communal and urban workshops.
Models For European Digital Islands
- share resources in order to be competitive, rather than duplicating efforts;
- be global and manage locally, instead of being local;
- be connected instead of isolated;
- play an active role in the information society, rather than a passive one; be innovative instead of replicate;
- think in terms of quality, sustainability, service and users.
New models and methodologies will be defined and analysed. The final result will be a "planning manual" that will assist European islands to build up their strategy as a road map to successful execution.
Objectives:
The MEDIS objectives are multilateral:
- Increase the user potential for bridging space and distance, associated with the new ICTs;
- Provide an advanced picture of the state of the art on telecommunications and telematic infrastructures and services in European islands and less developed regions;
- Facilitate the provision of community services and the use of telematics in different sectors and activities such as health, social inclusion, transport and business;
- Evaluate project results with data available at national level by the European survey of the Information Society;
- Profile alternative network telecom infrastructure and services in the European islands, isolated and less developed areas, with a use-potential of IS applications;
- Support local authorities in shifting public ICT strategies from infrastructure conditioned to service oriented;
- Define and evaluate new models of telecommunications networks and telematic services for European islands and other isolated or geographically dispersed areas.
Work description:
New models and methodologies adapted to specific characteristics and needs of European islands and other isolated areas, as well as less developed European regions will be defined and analysed during the project activities. Participation of regional governments, local administrations and public bodies in the User Group is a key aspect of the project, to warrant that the results reflect the characteristics and needs of their regions, and maximise the benefits for their communities.
The results will be prepared and presented in a format that will allow other isolated regions, geographically dispersed and less developed areas to use them in order to overcome their barriers and define IT development strategies. Socially secluded groups and urban communities may also take advantage from the project results and technological advice.
Project activities will be carried out collaboratively across European islands and less developed regions, in order to provide a European added value, reach a critical mass in terms of resources and users, and establish consensus for sustainable growth and standardisation. In order to meet the needs and expectations of these communities for high quality and affordable services of general interest, networking will be an essential aspect to be taken into account, and the project's activities will be carried out in a framework that promotes collaboration and co-operation, in an organisational and working environment. Their peculiarities, along a growing integration and convergence of information technology and communications, make it necessary to define new service models and to provide the local authorities with a set of instruments, designed as an integral platform, thus enabling them to act as a catalyst for developing telematics in their regions.
The project results and resources (pilot experience) will be set in motion to test the delivery of advanced telematic services, already available or being developed, by other European projects.
Milestones:
- Month 1: Project start-up.
- Month 4: "Dissemination and Use Plan" and elaboration of its accomplishment (month 18).
- Month 7: European Islands and Information Society: Analysis.
- Month 13: European Islands and Information Society: Planning Manual.
- Month 11: ODIN network and forum, providing advanced public services to their citizens.
- Pilot Experience (a common domain to share advanced services and resources): Functional Specification (month 14) and Implementation Report (month 17).
An Information Capture and Processing Environment for Chronic Patients in the Information Society
The information environment will consists of:
· Personal, safe, friendly and reliable home-based health monitoring systems, providing unrestrained non-intrusive connectivity to the patient.
· Information systems in open communication platforms, adapted to the wide heterogeneity of user needs and profiles, oriented to case management, teleconsultation, advising, rehabilitation and patient training.
· Support systems for diagnostic/therapeutic decision making; for clinical guidelines and protocol and for services quality assessment.
The application to other scenarios (acute, terminal patients, elderly, healthy) is emphasised. The chronic care platform proposed will facilitate the outsourcing of services, and thus the growth, of new health-related industries.
Objectives:
· Safe, friendly and reliable personal home-based health monitoring systems, providing unrestrained non-intrusive connectivity to the patient with efficient communication packaging. They will include sensors and intelligent devices for data handling, decision making and patient status assessment.
· Systems adapted to the wide heterogeneity of users needs and profiles, based on available infrastructure, that will allow the access to information for case management, teleconsultation, advising, rehabilitation and patient training programmes.
· Tools and systems, connectable to already available health information systems, to support the daily work of service providers and managers: diagnostic/therapeutic decision making, clinical guidelines and protocols, and quality assessment.
Work description:
The project starts from the evidence that home care is an efficient alternative to conventional institutional care for chronic patients. To improve quality of life and reduce costs, we propose an innovative information environment based on two elements: a chronic care management network (the entry point to any requirement for health resources) and a patient monitoring environment (to capture and process at home all relevant information).
The results will be evaluated in three pilots focused on highly prevalent chronic disorders: cardio-vascular, neurologic and respiratory, the top three causes of mortality by 2020. This chronic care model can be also extended to other scenarios like acute patients or even in a healthy environment, for prevention. The resulting platform will facilitate the outsourcing of HC services, thus will contribute to the growth of health-related new business and industries
Milestones:
Technological results:
· Personal home-based health monitoring system: sensors and devices for data handling, decision making, patient assessment; unrestrained non-intrusive connectivity to the patient;
· Chronic care management network for case management, teleconsultation, rehabilitation and patient training;
· Supporting systems for diagnostic/therapeutic decision making, practice guidelines/protocol and quality assessment.
Other: scientifically validated guides for IS chronic care model.