ERCIM News No. 137 Special Theme "Extended Reality (XR)"

 Dear ERCIM News reader,

A new ERCIM News issue (Number 137) is online with a special Extended Reality (XR). This special theme on XR highlights the innovative ways researchers are addressing complex challenges and transforming our interaction with information and the world through immersive experiences and advanced data analytics.

You can access the issue at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Ioannis Chatzigiannakis (Sapienza University of Rome and CNIT), Holger Graf (Fraunhofer IGD), Manos Kamarianakis (University of Crete), and Aris Lalos (ISI).

Thank you for reading ERCIM News!

Please share this issue with anyone who might find it interesting. You can also support us on Twitter (@ercim_news) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ercim). Let's keep the conversation going and share the latest updates together!

Next issue:

No. 138, July 2024
Special Theme: "Sustainable Cities". Submissions are welcome! See call for contributions.

Announcements in this issue:

• Call for Proposals: Dagstuhl Seminars and Perspectives Workshops - Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik is accepting proposals for scientific seminars/workshops in all areas of computer science.
• ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme - Postdoctoral fellowships available at leading European research institutions. Simple application procedure. Next application deadline: 30 September 2024.
• Call for Papers: Forum Beyond Compliance 2024: Research Ethics in the Digital Age
• 43rd SAFECOMP 2024 and 19th DECSoS Workshop - Florence, Italy, 17-20 September 2024
• Call for Papers: Edge AI Meets Swarm Intelligence - Dubrovnik, Croatia, 18 September 2024

ERCIM News is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. With the printed and online edition, ERCIM News reaches more than 10000 readers.
All issues published to date are available online.

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About ERCIM

ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase cooperation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.

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The Farthest - run

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

In 1976 a lower sixth student new to the grammar school competes in the annual cross country. The previous victor had won every year. Listening to his friends, another win was a given. Not in 1976. The new student never won at Secondary School, but he was on the team. Out most dinner times, training from Ashton around Garswood. The day after, the  form teacher said something in the vein of  -"Oh there'll be  presentations!" The student listened and still listens. There never was a presentation, not a whisper; but the journey, the run - continues... and the student is grateful for that ...

Book: LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

Announcing the release of:

LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

Edited by:
Sue Gregory, University of New England, Australia,
Mark J.W. Lee, Charles Sturt University, Australia,
Barney Dalgarno, Charles Sturt University, Australia, and
Belinda Tynan, The Open University, UK

With a Foreword by Chris Dede, Harvard University, USA

Part of the "Issues in Distance Education" series
(Series Editor: Terry Anderson, Athabasca University, Canada)

Published by Athabasca University Press as an open-access publication—
Free PDF download available at: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120254
Also available for purchase in Paperback and ePub formats

*** Description ***

Three-dimensional (3D) immersive virtual worlds have been touted as being capable of facilitating highly interactive, engaging, multimodal learning experiences. Much of the evidence gathered to support these claims has been anecdotal but the potential that these environments hold to solve traditional problems in online and technology-mediated education—primarily learner isolation and student disengagement—has resulted in considerable investments in virtual world platforms like Second Life, OpenSimulator, and Open Wonderland by both professors and institutions. To justify this ongoing and sustained investment, institutions and proponents of simulated learning environments must assemble a robust body of evidence that illustrates the most effective use of this powerful learning tool.

In this authoritative collection, a team of international experts outline the emerging trends and developments in the use of 3D virtual worlds for teaching and learning. They explore aspects of learner interaction with virtual worlds, such as user wayfinding in Second Life, communication modes and perceived presence, and accessibility issues for elderly or disabled learners. They also examine advanced technologies that hold potential for the enhancement of learner immersion and discuss best practices in the design and implementation of virtual world-based learning interventions and tasks. By evaluating and documenting different methods, approaches, and strategies, the contributors to Learning in Virtual Worlds offer important information and insight to both scholars and practitioners in the field.

*** For More Information ***

A flyer containing further details about the book, including a copy of the Table of Contents, is attached. The full text of the entire book and of individual chapters can be downloaded for free in PDF format at http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120254 . The PDF and ePub versions can also be purchased from this site.
_______________________________________________
My source:

open-education mailing list [closed?]

Some reading: e-learning, learning design, learning designs and visibility

We refer to this as the issue of 'manifestation'. A learning design that is represented in a relatively complete and explicit manner is said to be highly manifest; conversely, a fragmented or impenetrable design is said to be opaque. p.56.

Yet - and here we move on to the issue of representational forms - in order to be apprehended, a design must show not only the components of a learning experience (e.g. resources, activities and instructions) but also the relationships between them: sequential, conditional, thematic etc. Conversely, it must also represent the absence of relationships between the elements so that learners do not make incorrect inferences about them. p.57.

However, further analysis suggests that VLEs might indeed have an impact on pedagogy, but that it might be an unconscious one emerging from the phenomenon of 'design blindness', or the unconscious restriction of e-learning to the scope of one's tool. p.60.

VLEs [virtual learning environments] start as pedagogically neutral ... p.62.

Masterman, L. & Vogel, M. (2007). Practices and processes of design for learning. In Beetham. H. & Sharpe, R. (Eds.), Rethinking Pedagogy for the Digital Age (pp. 52-63). London: Routledge.

A survey: Nurse Lecturers undergraduate students, e-learning, e-portfolios, innovation in reflective skills [Now closed]

Many thanks to the lecturers who have responded so far - a great help and very informative.

H5P February release note (Drupal, TEL)

Here is an update on what H5P can offer. My interest lies in the Drupal module and this update includes news of:

experience API (from the Tin Can project)

Now you may store more and more data about what your user is doing with the H5Ps you create. How many attempts did she use? What scores did she get? How much time did she spend? All of this is available now, and more statements will be added - when did she stop the video? What did she answer when? What slides has she seen?

H5P triggers javascript events every time a xAPI statement is generated. ...

You may also use the xAPI to adapt to what the user does in the H5P. For instance you may display more content on a completed event with full score. H5P uses xAPI internally for the adaptivity, in the question set and in the presentation content types.

H5P February 2015 release note

Additional link:
IMS: Formative Assessments Gone Digital, by Ken Zimmerman
http://info.iu13.org/ims/formative_assessments_gone_digital

simplicity - complexity and Content Types

Without activating any content related modules Drupal 8 beta 4 is pretty stark. That's not a criticism. There are just two content types listed: article and basic page as per the screen dump below. The fact is Drupal is providing an easel and that's exactly what you need even before we get to the palette and canvas. As for other content types, there is a Book, Comment and Forum in core as additional options a checkbox away. There are many other contributed content types that could be added depending on your purpose.

Drupal 8 add content: Article and Basic Page

That's the challenge; using existing resources, stretching them as far as possible. In a book like Drupal for Education and E-Learning you can see even without dedicated learning resources, even with generic content types it is possible to create complex learning environments. Add this to experience of  distance learning - e-learning in the raw - that includes library access, databases, reading, discussion, peer review ... (and for our cohort another residential) and there's plenty to learn from.

In reality content is brittle, usually you can't just stretch it. Imagination and control in the form of flow and rules can work wonders. What is glued together - can be broken apart. It's educational chemistry: learning.

Reuse when possible. Be, active-reactive: responsive.

Is this a desktop I see before me, or is it a smartphone? 

So the screen image above is quite an invitation. I'm sure I've posted about his before: what else should be listed?

Book: Teaching Crowds - Learning and Social Media

This book is available as an open access pdf. Here is an extract from chapter 2 on Social Learning Theories.

Holistic approaches to learning are agnostic as to method. Drawing from connectivist and older models, they valorize diversity and the socially distributed cognition afforded by the read-write Web and other publishing models, accepting that every learning experience is unique, and every learner’s needs are different. Connectivist approaches, for all their extensive reliance on networks of people engaging socially, are at heart focused on the individual—specifically, the individual’s learning. Holistic models embrace the fact that it is sometimes more important that a group learns, rather than an individual, especially in collectivist cultures (Potgieter et al., 2006). Holistic models recognize that, sometimes, guidance is what is most needed, that people can learn without direct engagement with others and, even that transmittive instructionist models of teaching have a place. p.61.

In the next post I will explain the emphasis placed in the quote.


Jon Dron and Terry Anderson (2014) Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Media, AU Press.

My source:
ITFORUM mailing list 
http://listserv.lt.unt.edu/mailman/listinfo/

Stanford offers new open access MOOC - Open Knowledge: Changing the Global Course of Learning

Open source, open science, open data, open access, open education, open learning -- This fall Stanford faculty and librarians are working with international partners to offer the innovative free (no-cost) course Open Knowledge: Changing the Global Course of Learning on [updated] http://online.stanford.edu.

The course provides an introduction to the important concept of openness from a variety of perspectives, including library and information studies, education, publishing, economics, politics, and more. Open Knowledge is international and multi-institutional, bringing together instructors and students from Stanford University (USA), Fordham University (USA), University of British Columbia (Canada), Simon Frasier University (Canada), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana), the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (Mexico), and the rest of the world.

Learn more about the concept of "open", develop your digital literacy skills, and connect with peers from around the world.

For more information and to register: ...

Lauren A Maggio, MS (LIS), MA
Lecturer, Department of Medicine
Director of Research and Instruction
Lane Medical Library & Knowledge Management Center
Stanford University Medical Center
300 Pasteur Drive, L109, Stanford, CA 94305-5123

My source: HIFA2015

[Itforum] Unique Technology / Assessment Request

The ITForum featured the following post with ongoing discussion and resources related to TEL - technology enhanced learning:

Hello Michael,

When I read your post my thought was that this was a classic example for an adaptive learning module/set of modules. This was a significant concept in the 1970s/1980s when elearning was peaking.

It seems unfortunate that the proliferation of the LMS has all but reduced the learning environment to subject-matter presentation and quizzes.

The recent proclamation of the eLearning Manifesto (http://elearningmanifesto.org) as well as ideas expressed by OULDI (http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/) and my own ideas of Design Alchemy (Sims, 2014) provide alternative ways of thinking about elearning. These may assist in re-thinking strategies to achieve your goals.

Roderick Sims, PhD

design alchemist

ITFORUM mailing list
http://listserv.lt.unt.edu/mailman/listinfo/
This is a listserv of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. The focus of this list is instructional and educational technology topics ranging from technology integration through cognitive systems thinking and beyond.

Thanks to R Sims and Ack. ITForum. I have added the link to Sims, 2014 above.

The original question concerned - core competencies required for nursing programs....

Drupalcon Prague: sessions, missed ops, leaflets and old contacts - renewed

The structure of Drupalcons provide a range of sources for learning, networking and information. The main sessions are the most obvious source, plus there are many vendors providing and marketing various services from development, hosting to specialist services. Less formal there are the Birds of a Feather BoFs, core conversations. I did not get to any BoFs, it is always difficult when these things run concurrently.

I'll list here some things that stood out from leaflets left on the coffee tables to BoFs that clashed (I've revisited the program). First up is a BoF that points to a useful bundled project:

Creating Graphs and Maps with SearchAPI

BoFs, being informal are quite dynamic so the lesson for me is to check the program for additions and things you may have missed. I missed a BoF on e-learning in Drupal, the Quiz and related modules - H5P that I posted about last May. Gutted for sure, as I can envisage how I could use these tools beyond the old HTML multiple choice form.

The above BoF included a demo of Opigno an LMS - learning management system.

As to companies, the Semantic Web Company offers Drupal services. This lead was a flyer I picked up on the last day and another prompt to revisit Neologism a Drupal project I came across in Drupalcon Szeged, Hungary in 2008 and posted about. The introductory text from the DERI Neologism website reads:

Neologism is a vocabulary publishing platform for the Web of Data, with a focus on ease of use and compatibility with Linked Data principles. Neologism is free and Open Source.
With Neologism, you can create RDF classes and properties, which are needed to publish on the Web of Data. Neologism makes creating and publishing vocabularies easy and fast. It supports the RDFS standard, and a part of OWL.

Among a great many people, I met Alan Burke in Szeged back in '08 and he re-introduced himself this week in Prague. He is now full-time dedicated to Drupal and was pleased to learn that as an 'enthusiast' I am still engaged. I qualified this - with a website still to do; but yes, I'm very much still on-board. I really appreciate Alan's coming over during the break and hearing of his progress and that of his colleagues.

Scalability is a common discussion in software. Scale is an issue for new businesses also. One of the sessions in Prague (several probably) drew attention to the complexity of the 'Drupal stack'. Is it possible for an end-user to fully master it? In our quick chat it became apparent that this was partly why Alan was pleased to learn that I am still climbing the curve. Scalability can be a problem for individuals too, as in making sense of the commercial offerings, whether semantic services or hosting.

There was a BoF on data visualization too - but again I was elsewhere. Dataseed sounds an interesting fusion. I also followed sessions on creating multilingual sites, Drupal 8, Symfony, plus Twig the new templating system for Drupal 8. All in all it was a great event with some sight seeing last Monday. The greatest source though is the community!