Knowledge and learning

  • CyberViolence

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    A project against violence in the network

    The main problem that will be addressed by the project is the lack of knowledge and awareness on cyberbullying. For young people, the problem is the lack of awareness of Internet threats, lack of expertise, and how to respond to cyberbullying. Among young workers and teachers, the problem is the lack of tools and methodologies to work on this issue, education and prevention. Among the parents there is a lack of awareness of the problem and the inability to recognize the first signs that indicate being subject to cyberbullying.

    The project is aimed at:

    • Young people – the main group of our activities. Young people are more vulnerable to being victims of cyberbullying, for their sensitivity and inexperience in social life
    • Teachers, youth workers – their role is to educate and prevent this negative phenomenon and need new tools to know how to intervene
    • Parents – if children are bullied, they should be the first to recognize the symptoms but often lack basic knowledge on the subject.

     

    The main objectives of the project:

    • Improve the quality and relevance of education through the development of new and innovative approaches (new scenario workshops for young people, theme comics, competitions, interactive games, assessment of effectiveness and implementation and support for dissemination of results)
    • Development of a program to prevent cyberbullying, creation and delivery of manuals and other resources for teachers,
    • Increasing the awareness of the dangers of the web, the mental and emotional aspects of cyberbullying,
    • The introduction, development and promotion of innovative methods and tools in the field of education to support schools and teachers interested in participating in our program,
    • Promote cross-border cooperation in education and prevention through mutual learning from partners.

    The project will be implemented by 4 organizations in 4 countries and it has a transnational character, because the Internet has no boundaries is cyberbullism an international problem and needs to be resolved internationally.

    The project manager is the Institute for New Technologies (Poland). The partners are:

    Crystal Clear Soft (Greece)
    DIRECT Association (Romania)
    CSP – ICT Innovation in S.C.A.R.L. (Italy).

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    CyberViolence Project No. 2016-3-PL01-KA205-035361 is implemented under the Erasmus program of the European Union (Action 2 Innovation Cooperation and Exchange of Good Practices, Strategic Partnerships).

    The duration of the project is 24 months, during the period from April 2017 to March 2019 year.

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  • Teaching in Diversity

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    Respect for and tolerance to diversity are fundamental European values. Nevertheless, the recent economic and financial crisis reinforced significantly the negative attitudes towards the „others” that the increased mobility evoked after the EU Enlargement. Nowadays, the flow of refugees has fueled into the existing hostility towards people with different cultural background. Diversity has become a challenge that people face and deal with on a daily basis.

    Acknowledging that the educational institutions are a place where diversities meet and interact on a daily basis and that they are the first pillar of the societal integration and acculturation, the project Teach-D will address the topic of Diversity Management at school, focusing on the teachers as key actors in the process of transfer of knowledge, values, skills and competences. In contrast to the numerous initiatives providing the teachers will skills and competences of ‘how to teach diversity’, the current project will focus on one significant gap, identified in the teachers’ training:

    ¨ WHY TO TEACH diversity,

    ¨ HOW TO TEACH in diversity and

    ¨ HOW TO MANAGE diversity.

    Project goals and activities

    The project envisions five types of activities to reach the set goals:

    • Teachers’ empowerment through:
      • Development of solid knowledge and understanding of diversity management (training packages, handbooks, methodology)
      • Enabling the knowledge-based transfer and development of civic competences from teachers to their students (testing and monitoring)
      • Raising awareness about diversity management mechanisms and development of new skills and approaches to diversity (dissemination activities)
    • Supporting the early societal integration at school level through recruiting educational staff aware of and knowledgeable about culture-sensitive learning, mechanisms for mitigating intercultural conflicts, facilitating intercultural communication
    • Establishment of an international educators’ network for real time self-support in addressing diversity challenges and of a mobile application for facilitating the network’s interaction
    • Development of a training module and open educational resources in diversity management for teachers and
    •  Adapting the developed training package for online training in diversity management for teachers.

    Target groups

    • Teachers and educators from all levels of preschool and school education
    • Teachers and educators working with refugees and migrants
    • School management and support staff
    • Public officials responsible for school management and policy making at the level of primary and secondary education

     

    Partners

    Among the project partners there are research institutions, a school with pedagogical profile, associations of educators and other organizations promoting new technologies and media in education from eight different countries:

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    The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

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  • ResponSEAble. Protecting the Ocean

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    Supporting the development of cost-effective ocean literacy in Europe

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    ResponSeable aims at supporting the emergence of an effective and dynamic European ocean knowledge system that contributes to raising awareness on everybody’s (individual and collective, direct and indirect) responsibility and interest in a healthy and sustainable ocean.

    World Ocean covers more than 72% of the planet surface. But as citizens, local authorities, economic sectors and civil society, what do we know about the oceans, the state of their ecosystems or the services they deliver to society? Do we (individually and collectively) know enough for us to act responsibly, so the pressures on marine ecosystems are reduced and opportunities offered by the oceans duly seized?

    Objectives:

    • To contribute to the sharing of knowledge on the human-ocean relationships
    • To support the development of cost-effective initiatives and strategies on ocean literacy in Europe
    • To raise the awareness of specific target groups on their role and responsibility to achieving the sustainable development of the oceans

    Overall, contributing to changes in behavior of key stakeholders, so pressures on marine ecosystems are reduced and opportunities, offered by the ocean, duly sized.

     

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    Funding:  European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 652643

    Participants: A consortium of 15 partners and 3 transatlantic contributors, coordinated by ACTeon.

    Further information: http://www.responseable.eu

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  • Jam Today – Learning to change learning

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    The European Game Jam Learning Hub, JamToday, is a thematic network cofunded with the CIP Programme. It aims to establish a central networking hub for the sustainable implementation and uptake of the next generation of educational games across Europe.

    Game-based learning is becoming more and more popular, with many “serious games” now being developed. But not enough attention is given to how to implement these games in learning environments and how to make sure there are significant learning outcomes.

    The objective of the JamToday network  is to use the principles of applied game design to create useful and meaningful games, but also to explicate and design the context (such as the classroom or curriculum) in which game can be most effectively implemented and used.

    In particular the project will organize a series of game jams. Game Jams have been organized for several years around the world and are perceived as a powerful instrument to stimulate innovation in the creation, development and deployment of educational games.  Game Jams are events similar to hackathons focused on game development. Typically organised for 48 hours and simultaneously conducted in various locations throughout the world, Game Jams offer the possibility to develop an idea into an innovative solution.

    Game Jams have been instrumental in stimulating innovation in the creation, implementation and deployment of educational games. Jamtoday will support this by creating toolkits and providing support for events across Europe, at local, regional and national levels. And given the emerging focus on new learning environments, Jamtoday will also support the move towards games as contextual interventions and foster awareness-raising and innovation between the games and learning sectors with the intention of demonstrating real-life impact.
    In this sense, the task of the project is to help turn learning professionals into educational designers with the help of game design  knowledge and practice. Equally, we can help to turn learners into game-based thinkers and from only being technology users to becoming ICT practitioners with a corresponding abilility to express themselves in videogames as a medium.
    Each year, JamToday will provide opportunities to collaborate at local, regional, national and European levels by establishing a series of game jam around different themes: first of all improving ICT skills , such  as learning coding skill or creating games. Other topic of the game jams orgnaized will be about adopting healthier lifestyles (such as healthy eating or changing antisocial behavior) an supporting learning of mathematics (such

    The aim is to provide a bridge between different sectors to guarantee the successful uptake of the next generation of educational games across Europe. The project will provide the necessary structure, guidace, tools and support to get involved.

    info@jamtoday.eu

    Partners: Stichting Hogeschool Voor De Kunsten Utrecht Hkk – Utrecth Netherlands, Stichting Dutch Game Garden Dgg – Utrecth Netherlands,  MFG MEDIEN-UND FILMGESELLSCHAFT BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG – Stutgard  Germany,  European Network of Living Labs ENoLL  – Brussels Belgium,  CLICKS AND LINKS LTD CL, Manchester United Kingdom,  CSP – INNOVAZIONE NELLE ICT Turin, Italy, FH JOANNEUM GESELLSCHAFT M.B.H. FHJ – Graz Austria , Zürcher Hochschule Der Künste ZHDK – Zurich Switzerland,  ASOCIACION CENTRO EUROPEO DE EMPRESAS E INNOVACION DEL PRINCIPADO DE ATURIAS CEEI  – Spain, CONSERVATOIRE NATIONAL DES ARTS ET METIERS CNAM – Paris France, THE GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY GCU – Glasgow United Kingdom, FONDAZIONE POLITECNICO DI MILANO – Milan  Italy ,  U. College of New Technologies ENT-  Barcelona, Spain, GEMEENTE UTRECH  – City of Utrech Netherlands, UNIVERSITAET LINZ JKU –  Linz Austria,  ARC CONSULTING EOOD ARCC  – Sofia Bulgaria,  VANDEJONG BV VDJ  – Amsterdam Netherlands, AGE PLATFORM EUROPE AISBL AGE –  Brussels Belgium, MATHEMA SRL – Florence  Italy, Macromedia GmbH MHMK – Munich Germany, KATHOLIEKE HOGESCHOOL LIMBURG VZW –  Hasselt, Belgium, FUNDACIÓ PRIVADA PEL FOMENT DE LA SOCIETAT DEL CONEIXEMENT CITILAB – Barcelona Spain, ATIT BVBA  –  Leuven Belgium,  STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL –  Stockport United Kingdom,  EUROKLEIS Spa – Rome Italy

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  • MEDEA2020 – Media and Learning: Exploiting European Know- How

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    The MEDEA2020 project responds to a growing pressure to provide more relevant and attractive learning opportunities to citizens through the use of ICT in general and media in particular, and addresses a problem whereby there are an increasing number of ‘pockets’ of expertise, however accessing these is not always easy. Therefore it will exploit existing know-how and experience in the use of media in education and training in Europe.

    The partnership will build on the experience of the MEDEA Awards competition, which has emerged as a unique forum where excellent examples of media-based learning resources are rewarded and highlighted with the aim of promoting good practice and on the MEDEA project, which has enhanced the European nature of these awards and extended their impact to a wider European community.

    Outcomes include an expanded network of partners in all European countries exchanging information and expertise, five hands-on workshops in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Poland and France which will be summarised on video and published online. The project will set up an online community of practice and an online searchable resource base of relevant materials. The project will also include awards to recognize European Collaboration and special topics in 2011 and 2012, two annual European high-profile conferences on the general topic of Media and Learning and the establishment of the MEDEA Association ensuring the ongoing viability of the MEDEA community.

    See the project website www.medea2020.eu.

     

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  • Touch&Play Framework

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    Platform featuring a set of software applications developed for multitouch surfaces and other natural interfaces, initially designed for people with autism (Touch4Autism), but generally helps facilitate learning, communication and personal skills.
    The platform is based on a client-server architecture with a centralised database. All the applications that use the platform (and can be developed ad hoc for multitouch surfaces, the web, tablets or smartphones etc. and integrated at a later date) can access the central database and store results, keeping a record of the exercises carried out and improvements in user performance.

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  • Personal guide

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    Personal Guide is a customised and customisable guide which enables the user to create tourist and cultural routes in indoor and outdoor settings. Georeferenced points of interest – POI – and related contents (text, images, video) can be included on a map. In outdoor settings the system uses GPS. Administrator side, it has a web environment which users can use to upload, manage and georeference the POI and related contents, and an Android app to enable the user to access these contents. End users can also customise their own virtual guides, adding their own contents to each POI. The additional contents uploaded can be private or, with the authorisation of the system administrator, made public and visible to other users. The result is an enhanced, customised virtual guide.

    Download Personal Guide information sheet.

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  • EMMA – European Multi Mooc Aggregator

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    EMMA-European Multi Mooc Aggregator is a pilot action co-funded within the European Programme CIP.

    EMMA’s goal is to pilot a number of trusted elements to put in place a unique platform to support ICT-based innovation in higher education and training approaches, thus scaling up existing trials and translation solutions. Validation and evaluation processes will also be tested during the pilot.

    EMMA aims to showcase excellence in innovative teaching methodologies and learning approaches through the large-scale piloting of MOOCs, providing a system for the delivery of free, open, online courses from diverse European universities with the goal of preserving Europe’s rich cultural, educational and linguistic heritage and promoting cross-cultural and multi-lingual learning. MOOCs are a recent development, rapidly becoming a significant trend in higher education. The open nature of MOOCs provides opportunities for expanding access to higher education and creating a space for experimentation with online teaching and learning. This exploration of new approaches for higher education provision has generated significant interest from governments, institutions and others. Building on existing and proven technology, EMMA will provide an opportunity, even for smaller institutions, to share high-quality content.

    EMMA will provide a framework and infrastructure, while participating institutions will remain autonomous in their choice of design, methodology and tools. EMMA will operate in two main modes; as an aggregator and hosting system of courses produced by European universities; and as a system that enables learners to construct their own courses using units from MOOCs as building blocks. The EMMA Consortium aims at a multi-lingual, multi-cultural approach to learning by offering inbuilt translation and transcription services for courses hosted on the platform. The pilot will operate in 2 steps, first by making available a significant number of existing courses from project partners and/or MOOCs providers and then by bringing on board a second tier of universities keen to experiment with MOOCs.

    Pilots will run in 7 countries with a total of 16 MOOCs and will involve at least 60.000 users. Courses will be offered in the language of each country, in English, and the pilot will trial an embryo form of multi-lingual translation by offering courses in Italian and Spanish as well. Advances in learning analytics will feature in the analysis and evaluation work and a series of innovative approaches will be trialed to make the piloted service sustainable in the medium to long term

    Partners:

    Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Atos Spain Sa – Bezons , Ipsos Srl – Paris, Fundacio per A La Universitat Oberta De Catalunya -Barcelona, Open Universiteit Nederland -Heerlen, Universidade Aberta – Lisboa, University of Leicester -Leicester, Universitè de Bourgogne – Dijon, Tallinn University- Tallin, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia -Valencia, Csp – Innovazione nelle Ict – Torino, Atit -Leuven

     

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  • Telescuola

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    The Telescuola project has been promoted by the ICT Laboratory of the Piemonte Region – Innovation Department, which has launched, over the years, several initiatives to support the services accessibility for disabled people.

    The ongoing project was born from the technological competences gained in the adapting of the internal workstations to the needs of physically impaired people and thanks to the cooperation with CSP. The main idea was to test some ICT based distance learning services, addressed to cases where serious disabling health conditions threaten to create social exclusion problems to pupils in a very sensitive period of their childhood.
    For this purpose, an exemplar case of a little child affected by SMA (i.e. Spinal Muscular Atrophy) has been selected within the regional territory to be involved in a first experimentation.
    After a first phase of analysis of needs, the main activities have been directed to allow the subject to participate to the scheduled didactical activities in the classroom and also at home, with the collaboration of the support teacher, when health conditions would keep her from being at school.

    In particular, besides the realization of a radio broadband connection between schools and the child’s house, thanks to the involvement of her family and relevant local organizations from the educational and the health sector, additional technological devices and tools (videocameras, Digital Whiteboard, VOIP and chat services) have been developed and customized to help the child to effectively participate in the classroom life. The main challenge has been to provide an interactive communication channel, in order to allow not only the visualization, but also her active involvement in the educational and recreational activities, guaranteeing a “personal” contact with her classmates.
    Finally, the Telescuola project intends to design and propose a methodology and a model of action to be replicated and extended within other contexts and addressed to different emerging needs. Following the Piemonte Region living lab approach, the project has involved the whole stakeholders chain, in order to raise awareness on the regional territory and in its institutions about the disability theme, while acting also as a valuable support for the inclusion to the families.

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  • SMARD – European Support Framework on networked Media R&D for SMEs

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    The EU-Project SMARD  has been designed to fill the existing gap within the exploitation chain between successful Networked Media Research and the commercialisation by SMEs.
    The vision is to put advanced digital media technologies in the focus of future markets for SMEs from the creative industries and beyond. Therefore the project tackles two core questions: on the one hand the degree of the responsiveness of FP7 projects to SME needs and requirements and on the other hand on the needs of R&D at the stage for successful market introduction.
    The project aims to identify fields of action and to develop hands on processes and service packages for Networked Media R&D commercialization.
    A Survey with at least 400 SMEs from all over Europe on needs of SMEs in the Creative Industries regarding Networked Media R&D and an analysis of FP7 projects reading their responsiveness to SME needs and requirements will be conducted. The project will deliver approaches for practitioners in the field of technology transfer, summarized in a guideline. Recommendations towards a future European support framework for Networked Media R&D will reflect valuable lessons from the SMARD project.
    SMARD puts a particular focus on ensuring sustainability and European impact of the project through targeted involvement of regional and international stakeholders throughout the project duration.

    See details and and download deliverables at the SMARD website.

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