active learning

PLE 2013 – 4th International Conference on Personal Learning Environments The Personal Learning Environment Conference (The PLE Conference) is an international scientific conference taking place annually, each time in a different city. Following the highly successful events in Barcelona, Southampton, Aveiro and Melbourne, Australia, the 4th International PLE Conference 2013 will be held in Berlin, Germany together with a parallel event in Melbourne, Australia (#PLECONF) from the 10th to the 12th July 2013.

So far Personal Learning Environments have been designed and implemented in formal and informal learning contexts, such as school and higher education, work-based learning and in-company training, and in continuing education. The potential of Personal Learning Environments for crossing the boundaries of traditional learning contexts, connecting diverse communities and infrastructures has not been fully realised. Therefore, the 4th PLE Conference in 2013 aims at taking the discussion on Personal Learning Environments a step forward, providing a new impulse for PLE research and development.

The theme for the conference is learning and diversity in cities of the future. In view of the “Smart City” concept and the key priorities for research and innovation expressed in the EU Horizon 2020 framework, innovative, sustainable and inclusive solutions become crucial not only in terms of future and emerging technologies but first and foremost in terms of (i) human knowledge and skills, (ii) diverse and inclusive communities, as well as (iii) learning and knowledge networks. Hence, new forms of connected, interdisciplinary learning and cross-boundary cooperation are seen to play a critical role in the development of creative solutions and in the intelligent exploitation of networked urban infrastructures. In smart urban spaces, people, organisations and objects become interconnected by means of new technologies and media, forging new patterns of cooperation, production, research and innovation.

More information can be found here.

Teachers face communication problems with their pupils every day. Common understanding that in order to communicate first you need to listen, is easy to say but not that easy to apply. Especially if we want to listen to children that do not speak yet or do not know teacher’s language.

To support pedagogues struggling with this kind of difficulties,  Society for the Development and Creative Occupation of Children (Greece) elaborated the course dealing with listening to children issue. Within the framework of European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, new, on-line version of the course was designed in the partnership with: Comenius Foundation (Poland), Step by Step Program Foundation (Bulgaria), The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (Greece) and ENOROS Consulting Ltd. (Cyprus).

The training is aimed at is professionals working with children  below 6 years old and educational sector trainers. The course consists of following training modules: principles of communication, verbal and non-verbal communication and Mosaic approach. It is available in Bulgarian, Greek, English and Polish language version and delivered with supervision of professional trainers.

Mentioned above Mosaic approach, first introduced by Peter Moss and Alison Clark, constitutes the methodological basis of the traning. It applies indidvidual and group in transforming communication between children and adults into an ongoing conversation about children’s lives  -the spaces they use every day, their interests, their relationships, etc. In this approach, the adult ceases to be the one who has all the answers and starts seeking information from the children. It employs tools such as observation and interview, but also taking by children photos of their favourite places, making maps of  the preschool, children being the tour-guides of the adults etc.  Thanks to this, the information is collected together by children and adults and then analyzed  - conclusions should lead to follow-up actions.

In this approach, children are experts in the field of their experiences – the task of adults is to accompany them in finding the best way to express their feelings or needs.  We have a chance not only to see how the reality is in the children’s eyes, but also to support children’s identity and self esteem – they can learn that the way they see the world is important for other people and that their observations are valuable. It is crucial not only to listen to children, but also show respect to their experiences, emotions and needs. If we take one step further in the dialogue with children and take common decision (for example to change the room arrangement that children suggested), we can support also their feeling of responsibility and self-efficacy.

In order to reflect on these issues and their own practice, teachers can join „Listening to young children” course. Thanks to the design of the platform they do not only stay in touch with the trainer  who leads them through the course, but also can interact with other participants and discuss interesting them problesm on forums. The interactive form of the course answers the need of peer-to-peer learning and enables sharing experiences by teachers living and working far away from each other.

If you would like to find out more about the course and „Listening to young children” methodology, please visit the project website http://www.welisten2y.eu/

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme.

The project will develop a creative learning environment, capitalizing on the notion of visual information mash-ups as catalysts for creative working and learning. Adopting a practice-oriented approach will further the understanding of creativity in different settings and open up new perspectives for ICT support. This perspective will also give rise to new methods for seeding and cultivating creative knowledge practices in workplace and educational settings. To leverage the capabilities of current ICT systems, new interactions techniques will be devised that enable users to stay in control and collaboratively navigate the creative process, handling multiple types of resources. In addition, taking benefit of the "Linked Data" paradigm will provide new possibilities for creative search, the construction of knowledge as well as the reflection of the collaborative process.

The R&D work starts with research into creative knowledge work in industry (at LEGO and EOOS) and education (at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design). Based on the careful analysis of creative practices, we will envision and implement working demonstrators. Formative evaluation combined with a two-round development process will ensure that the IdeaGarden system fits its users' needs while summative evaluation will validate the overall utility of the approach to promote nonlinear, non-standard thinking and problem solving among experts and novices.