collaborative learning
Fernstudierende: Sollten wir zur Überwindung von Hindernissen im Berufs- und Alltagsleben Technologie oder Pädagogik einsetzen?
Anhand der Geschichten von drei Studierenden eines Magister-Fernstudiengangs der Gesundheitswissenschaften gelangt dieser Beitrag zu Ergebnissen, die den Schluss nahelegen, dass sowohl die Technologie als auch die Pädagogie wichtige und voneinander abhängige Komponenten von Fernlehreprogrammen sind. Wir belegen, dass die Rolle von Online-Tutoren über den üblichen Umfang der Lehre hinausgeht: Sie sind oft gezwungen, seelsorgerische Funktionen zu übernehmen, die besser von einem Berater oder einem Fachmann aus einer anderen Branche übernommen würden.
SKILL2E: Online-Reflexion zur Steigerung der interkulturellen Kompetenz
Zweck des SKILL2E-Projekts ist es, Studierende, die internationale Praktika absolvieren, mit interkulturellen Kompetenzen auszustatten. Das Modell schlägt einen Doppelschleifen-Lernzyklus vor, in dem ein gemeinsames Online-Tagebuch mit Leitfragen zur Reflexion genutzt wird. Erste Ergebnisse zeigen, wie dieser kollaborative Ansatz zur Entwicklung interkultureller Kompetenzen führt.
Die Verbreitung von OER: die neue Rolle des „Öffentlichen offenen Wissenschaftlers“
Offene Bildungsressourcen (OER) und neuerdings auch offene Bildungspraktiken (OEP) werden als Mittel für eine zunehmende Offenheit der Hochschulbildung in breitem Umfang gefördert. Bisher ist eine solche Offenheit jedoch durch die typischerweise angebotsorientierte Bereitstellung von OER und die Grenzen der Hochschulbildung eingeschränkt worden. Auf der Suche nach Wegen zur bedarfsorientierteren Ausrichtung der OEP haben wir eine neue „Öffentlicher offener Wissenschaftler“-Rolle (Public-Facing Open Scholar) konzeptualisiert, bei der Akademiker mit Online-Communities arbeiten, um OER ausfindig zu machen und zu entwickeln, die deren Bedürfnissen entsprechen.
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Um die Möglichkeiten für diese Rolle auszuloten, haben wir uns auf den Freiwilligensektor konzentriert, von dem wir dachten, er könne von einer solchen Zusammenarbeit besonders profitieren. Wir prüften vier repräsentative Communities auf Anzeichen für autodidaktische Prozesse (und somit das Potenzial für die Mitwirkung von Akademikern) und möglicherweise vorhandene Lerndimensionen und fanden heraus, dass es tatsächlich Möglichkeiten für eine „Öffentlicher offener Wissenschaftler“-Rolle gibt. Aufgrund dieses Ergebnisses entwickelten wir detaillierte Leitlinien für die Ausübung dieser Rolle, die das Potenzial besitzt, die positive Wirkung der vorhandenen OER wesentlich zu verstärken, indem sie die Institutionen dazu anregt, neue OER anzubieten, die den Bedürfnissen der Menschen außerhalb der Hochschulbildung entsprechen.
Listening to young children
The project is aimed at professionalising the work with children, based on an innovative approach, the concept of "Listening to young children". The project seeks to create expertise transfer from Greece, in order to develop country - specific frameworks for Poland, Cyprus and Bulgaria, - for conceptualising "Listening to young children".
The project also aims to develop a network of intervention at national level, connecting through an online platform, professionals from different areas and regions and allowing the implementation of “Listening to young children”.
The trans-national nature of the project is ensured by the transfer of expertise from Greece, but also by the exchange of good practices and results among the professionals implementing the project.
The “Listening to young children” project is pursuing:
• transfer and adaptation of innovative learning solutions for vocational training in the educational sector and
• design and testing of a European course for teachers and trainers developing key competences in the field, as well as providing quality services on a local, national and global level.
As planned, the tangible outcomes of this project are the following:
a multilingual, on-line course delivered by e-learning and training toolkits suitable for further integrations, reuse and commercialisation after this first delivery and diffusion of innovative, on-line and in-house solutions for European vocational training.
Teachers learn communication with young children via Internet
E-learning platform developed in order to train communication skills of professionals working with children aged 0-6!
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.
A Taste Of Maths, best eTwinning project 2012
Creative Emotional Reasoning Computational Tools Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning Processes
The C2Learn project aims to introduce an innovative digital gaming and social networking environment incorporating diverse tools, the use of which can foster co-creativity in learning processes in the context of both formal and informal educational settings.
In developing this project, we are innovating methodologically by introducing two new non-linear thinking processes, as fundamental heuristic devices in assisting the user to generate new types of candidate solutions. These innovations are based on most recent results of cognitive science research, which have marked a breakthrough in our understanding of the roots of reasoning and its relation to emotion and representation: Diagrammatic Reasoning and Emotional Reasoning.
We shall also implement these non-linear thinking methodologies in game environments, especially for school age users, in order to enhance the motivational component and to enrich the manner and opportunities of engagement with these activities. In so doing, we shall be guided by an acclaimed educational theory on how to use digital gaming and social networking technology to promote creative thinking in children and the young.
The C2Learn environment will be an open-world "sandbox'' (non-linear) virtual space enabling learners to freely explore ideas, concepts, and the 'shared' knowledge available on the semantic web and the virtual communities in which they participate. In this open-world sandbox, creativity is contextually defined as open-ended, and has no pre-sets or barriers. So too will be the virtual game environment housing nonrestrictive opportunities for learners to engage in creative problem-finding and creative problem solving. These new computational tools - rather than setting a series of preset problems and challenges based on players' previous actions in the virtual game environment - will afford and generate potential playful experiences surrounding creative problem solving and non-linear thinking tasks.
Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School
The Go-Lab project will open up remote science laboratories, their data archives, and virtual models (“online labs”) for large-scale use in education. Go-Lab enables science inquiry-based learning that promotes acquisition of deep conceptual domain knowledge and inquiry skills and directs students to careers in science.
For students (10 to 18-years old), Go-lab offers the opportunity to perform personalized scientific experiments with online labs in pedagogically structured and scaffolded learning spaces that are extended with social communication facilities.
For teachers, Go-Lab offers pedagogical “plug, share, and play” through a Web-based interface and a community framework to disseminate best practices and find mutual support. A modular approach and inquiry classroom scenarios promote a seamless incorporation of online labs into the classroom.
For lab-owners, Go-Lab provides open interfacing solutions to easily plug in their online labs, construct their virtual didactic counterparts, and share them in the Go-Lab federation of online labs. Go-Lab will thus promote their scientific activities.
The project starts with a set of online labs from worldwide renowned research organisations (e.g., CERN, ESA) and then from selected universities and, based on initial in-depth pilots, will gradually improve and expand its series of online labs and associated inquiry learning opportunities with the increasing contribution of teacher and lab-owner communities. More advanced and later versions will be evaluated and validated in large scale pilots. The Go-Lab project throughout Europe will expand the resources for teaching science in schools and provide more challenging, authentic and higher-order learning experiences for students. Its sustainability will come from the opportunity for the larger science education community to add new online labs. An open and Web-based community will capitalize on the ‘collective intelligence’ of students, teachers, and scientists.
Learning through Fairy Tales: A collaborative Storytelling Model
The webinar gives an insight into a collaborative Storytelling Model and the claim - namely that stories and in more particular fairy tales are a motivating and open minded way to learn together with others through social exchange. For that reason the webinar contains not only a presentation of the model and some theoretical aspects but also the opportunity for participants to interact and to participate actively in collaborative learning with fairy tales.
Once upon a time... this sentence brings us right into the magic wonderland of fairy tales where everything is possible, where dreams come true and where our hope, our engagement and our involvement are rewarded with a happy ending. Human beings love fairy tales, and adults are not an exception! Fairy tales are about each of us and our individual experiences and knowledge, our fears, wishes and dreams. Cinderella - that are we! - because we all know the feeling of being unjustly treated by others...
Since fairy tales give us the opportunity to become part of the story itself, the question arises why we do not use fairy tales in order to learn with others - by exchanging ideas, knowledge and experiences within a constructive and motivating learning environment.
Date: Thursday, November 29, 2012
Time: 11h00 - 12h00
Place: online with SWITCHinteract Web Conferencing
You can have more information and register here:
RACEV - Red temática sobre Aprendizaje Colaborativo en Entornos Virtuales
El objetivo de la Red de Aprendizaje Colaborativo en Entornos Virtuales es facilitar el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea entre estudiantes a través del análisis de los fenómenos de interacción social (colaborativa o cooperativa) a fin de proporcionar estrategias pedagógicas a los docentes. RACEV focaliza, por tanto, en los procesos de aprendizaje más allá del contexto en el cual se desarrolla o las herramientas tecnológicas empleadas.