Fostering Open Educational practices in cross-cultural contexts

The open content movement is breaking down traditional barriers to learning and resource sharing by promoting free access to Open Educational Resources (OERs) such as digital educational content and technological tools for teaching and learning. OERs have the potential to enable learners to champion their own learning by providing free access to educational content and tools that enable them to create, use and share knowledge. However, the design and uptake of OERs is often hampered by limited understanding of issues relating to the context in which learners access and use OERs. This paper discusses some of the approaches taken to foster open educational practices in learner use of OERs offered by The Open University’s open content initiative, OpenLearn. Drawing on these experiences, we then consider future ideas about supporting open educational practices in cross-cultural contexts, and, in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology, examine potential impact of OERs in Africa

New Media & Youth Identity. Issues and Research Pathways

Media have held a considerable and growing place in the social environment of industrial society in recent decades, transforming the perception that a people have of their place in the world and of their memberships and belonging, creating new paths for social relations, affecting lifestyles, socialization, and communication processes, and the construction of identity itself. The relationship between young people (especially teenagers and adolescents) and new media shows some peculiarities which are worth further reflection to understand the extent and outcomes of these social changes. This article aims to investigate the discourse on youth identity and new media in the social science literature, determining which are the key trends and exploring the more relevant research questions about this theme and the way these topics relate to one another. Titles and abstracts of articles published during the period 2004 \u2013 2013 were selected from the Scopus social sciences database and they were analysed using different content analysis techniques supported by the T-Lab software. The international literature on these topics presents a certain liveliness and heterogeneity in themes and its perspectives on theoretical and empirical research. Nevertheless, it has been possible to identify some key trends, focusing mainly on the idea of active identity construction by new media

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

My boy builds coffins. Future memories of your loved ones

The research is focus on the concept of storytelling associated with product design, trying to investigate new ways of designing and a possible future scenario related to the concept of death. MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS is a gravestone made using a combination of cremation’s ashes and resin. It is composed by a series of holes in which the user can stitch a text, in order to remember the loved one. The stitching need of a particular yarn produced in Switzerland using some parts of human body. Project also provides another version which uses LED lights instead of the yarn. The LEDs - thanks to an inductive coupling - will light when It will be posed in the hole. The gravestone can be placed where you want, as if it would create a little altar staff at home. In this way, there is a real connection between the user and the dearly departed

ImpaCT2: pupils' and teachers' perceptions of ICT in the home, school and community

The Strand 2 report of the ImpaCT 2 research describes the results of applying a range of research methods to explore, how pupils use ICT, in particular out of school and what had been gained from this use. ImpaCT2 was a major longitudinal study (1999-2002) involving 60 schools in England, its aims were to: identify the impact of networked technologies on the school and out-of-school environment; determine whether or not this impact affected the educational attainment of pupils aged 8 - 16 years (at Key Stages 2, 3, and 4); and provide information that would assist in the formation of national, local and school policies on the deployment of ICT

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Towards the construction of an educational model for dual career parenting:the EMPATIA project

The European Union supports innovative transnational cooperation and practices between Member States on relevant issues in the field of sports, including a balanced combination of higher education and sporting careers of talented and elite athletes (dual career). Ten European academic and sport institutions aimed to construct an educational programme for parents supporting the dual career of their elite athletes. The innovative methodological approach to the co-construction of a parent education based on evidence and eminence of the actual needs of parents in relation to the age, sex, sport typology, competition and academic levels of student-athletes is described. Finally, the potentially far-reaching effects of digital technologies on adult learning and the innovative aspects of a multi-lingual and demand-driven dual career parenting education are envisaged.</p

Using activity-oriented design methods (AODM) to investigatemobile learning

The past few years have witnessed significant interest and developments in researching mobile learning, with a lot of important contributions being made towards understanding and defining mobile learning. However, current research efforts are being redirected towards a new agenda to establish appropriate methods for investigating mobile learning, as this book testifies. This chapter contributes to this research effort by articulating how to adapt Activity-Oriented Design Methods (AODM – see Mwanza, 2002) for use in mobile learning research