Enabling live dialogic and collaborative learning between field and indoor contexts

This paper explores how field and indoor based students can be connected so that their contrasting circumstances and capabilities are used as a basis for learning. We describe the design of the ‘Out There and In Here’ system and activity. Using naturalistic evaluations in the context of higher education earth science, we find evidence that this approach can be beneficial in developing essential skills, by supporting dialogue and collaboration across diverse contexts. This provokes novel forms of reflection and motivation, and could inspire a new generation of learning tools combining mobile and collaborative technologies. We discuss important issues in this design space, such as asymmetrical dependencies and structures for dialogic and collaborative learning

Freedom For Speech : Outdoor Play And Its Potential For Young Children's Conceptual, Linguistic And Communicative Development

This research investigates the opportunities provided in different play contexts, both indoor and outdoor, for three-year-old children to play, talk and listen with peers. The analysis draws on data from an ethnographic study of boys’ and girls’ play in two family centres, two college creches and a nursery class. Observations of naturally occurring informal talk between three-year-olds were documented via note-taking, audio and video recordings and verbatim descriptions of events. One hundred and sixteen recordings of naturally occurring informal talk between three-year-olds were transcribed. Whilst analysing the linguistic strategies of questioning, repetition and appropriation within the children’s discourse it became clear that they were simultaneously learning the language system, learning in an intellectual sense and learning to communicate effectively. The study demonstrates the gendered nature of children’s peer talk as well as illustrating how peers can provide a scaffold and model for children with language delay. Various excerpts show how the transition from solitary/parallel play to collaborative play is discursively managed and expressed. The research results suggest that outdoor play facilities can be particularly beneficial for children’s conceptual, linguistic and communicative development

Prospects for inclusive mobile learning

Mobile learning promises more equitable access to education, especially to those who have suffered exclusion for social or economic reasons. Yet concerns have been raised that mobile technologies also introduce certain problems and barriers. Furthermore, unforeseen technological developments in the mobile marketplace undermine the fragile stability of mobile learning, while it struggles to assert itself as an acceptable innovation within education. This paper examines the concept of inclusive mobile learning for the new generation of mobile learning tools and strategies. It includes a review of some mobile learning projects that are furthering the inclusion agenda and bringing hope to learners who have particular needs. Finally, the paper offers a critical perspective on emerging forms of mobile interaction

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Collaborative art making : finding the presence of peace within adolescents of the Amani community

This case study immersed the researcher in the lives of ten members of the Amani community located in Meru, Kenya for the duration of a month, during which she examined how dialogue and collaborative art making foster understanding of peace. In addition to examining literature on community-based art education, collaboration, dialogue, and developing perspectives of peace, the researcher conducted a collaborative art workshop centered on the theme of peace with nine adolescents. Through dialogue with the adolescents and the founder of the Amani community, Dr. Karambu, several themes relating to peace were generated, along with a “toolbox” with instruments art educators may utilize when facilitating community engagement.Art Educatio

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Cultural Heritage Leading Urban Futures: Actions and Innovations from ROCK Project

The ROCK project sees historic city centres as laboratories to demonstrate how Cultural Heritage can be an engine of regeneration, sustainable development and economic growth. ROCK approach foresees the systemic and flexible application of a series of role-model practices in the testing sites of three Replicator cities, to turn historic city centres afflicted by physical decay, social conflicts and poor life quality into Creative and Sustainable Districts. This book provides an overview of the project, extracting themes, material and final remarks from the Open Knowledge Week “Cultural Heritage Leading Urban Futuresâ€, held on 27-30 October 2020. Over the past three years, ten ROCK cities – Athens, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Liverpool, Lyon, Skopje, Turin, and Vilnius â€“ together with service providers and knowledge brokers have tested and advanced numerous soft and hard tools, collaborative approaches aimed at shaping sustainable, heritage-led urban futures. This book shows their shared results, best practices and lessons learnt from interdisciplinary research, innovative action, dissemination of knowledge and creation of new synergies at European level