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Project Director
Richard Noss
Activity Leaders
Paul Davey
Jan Derry
Diana Laurillard
Niall Winters
Project Details
4†years from 1 January 2004.
Funder
Supported by the IST priority of the 6th EU Framework Programme for RTD
Keywords
Technology-enhanced learning, Europe, eLearning
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Kaleidoscope
The Kaleidoscope project, a European Network of Excellence (www.noe-kaleidoscope.org), is funded Ä9.2 million by the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme. It comprises over 1000 researchers at more than 90 research labs, institutions and private businesses spanning 25 countries across Europe, as well as Canada. Its goal has been to shape the scientific evolution of technology enhanced learning
The London Knowledge Lab has played a key role in making this complex and ambitious project a success. Some contributions from staff at the Lab:
Setting up the project and co-directorship
Professor Richard Noss, Co-director of the London Knowledge Lab, was also co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence. Up until December 2005 Professor Noss was also deputy director of the project.
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Scientific Vision task force
Professor Diana Laurillard led a task force to develop a scientific vision statement for the Kaleidoscope network, which was published in March 2007. The Vision represents the perspectives and views of some of Europe's most notable researchers in Technology Enhanced Learning.
Version 2.0 of the Vision will be discussed at the 2007 Kaleidoscope Symposium which takes place in Berlin, November (more details can be found here: http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/group/symposium/)
Version 1.0 of the Vision can be downloaded, as a pdf, from TeLearn ñ the worldís first international Open Archive for Technology Enhanced Learning: http://telearn.noe-kaleidoscope.org/
Project team activities
The Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence has funded a broad range of international multi-disciplinary TEL research activities, with a notable proportion of these being led by London Knowledge Lab researchers:
Philosophy of Technology Enhanced Learning (Kaleidoscope Special Interest Group)
Led by London Knowledge Lab researcher Dr Jan Derry this activity focuses on the conceptual frameworks and concepts utilised in the understanding of and development of technology enhanced learning. The activity has demonstrated how PTEL is a productive and contemporary research activity in the European Union and the European Research Area.
Learning patterns for the design and deployment of mathematical games (Kaleidoscope Jointly Executed Integrated Research Programme)
LKLís Professor Dave Pratt, Dr Niall Winters and Yishay Mor all made a significant contribution to this activity. The sometimes abstract nature of mathematics makes it continuously challenging for students to engage in mathematical thinking. One solution has been to use computer games. This project explored what happens when teachers and developer expertise come together and how to adequately support it.
Major outputs of the project included:
- Over 100 design patterns to support game design and deployment in classrooms;
- A methodology for distilling design patterns from experience;
- Five international workshops, attracting participants from across the academic and industrial sectors and
- A suite of online collaboration tools which have been used across the Kaleidoscope Network.
The impact of Technology Enhanced Learning on roles and practices in Higher Education (Jointly Executed Integrated Research Programme)
The objectives of this activity, led by LKLís Dr Martin Oliver, were to explore the impact of new forms of technology on roles and practices within higher education. A specific area of interest within this was how best to support staff through the changes that occur when technology enhanced learning is introduced. Some conclusions resulting from the activity include:
- The need for a more sophisticated understanding of change in international policy about the implementation of TEL, recognising the personal and political nature of such changes;
- The contrast between the expectations associated with technology (hype about its "potential") and the experience many people have of using it, which may lead to disillusionment;
- That early adoption is frequently studied, whilst mainstream use is poorly understood and need more explicit research attention.
Learning and technology at work (Special Interest Group)
Led by LKL Co-director Professor Richard Noss and coordinated by LKL researcher Neek Alyani, the focus of this activity was to explore how:
- the practices of learning in workplaces, and the knowledge required for work, are being transformed by information and communication technologies
- new models of learning and innovation and new conceptual tools to support work-based learning and e-learning in a range of different contexts
In 2004, the LKL organized and hosted an event ëLearning and technology at workí. Papers presented at this event have recently appeared in a special learning at the workplace edition of the respected ëMind, culture and activityí journal (ref: Kent, P., Hoyles, C., Noss, R., Guile, D., & Bakker, A. (Eds.) (2007).
Mind, Culture, and Activity volume 14, issues 1-2: Special issue on ìLearning and Technology at Workî; papers from an International Seminar on Learning and Technology at Work held at the Institute of Education, London, March 2004.)
Planning and implementation of a multi-national dissemination activity
The size of Kaleidoscope - with its 90+ institutions and 1000+ researchers - has meant that undertaking marketing communications activities that make an impact with the right key stakeholders in the right places has presented a unique challenge.
The responsibility for the the projectís dissemination activities have been down to Dissemination Leader Paul Davey with the invaluable support of Allison Walker, Kevin Walker and Diana Laurillard, Richard Noss, Megan Craig, and Lizzie Andrew, all at the LKL. Working with a team of marketing communications professionals in Belgium (Sally Reynolds, ATiT) and Germany (Beate Kleessen, Astrid Mendoza and Christian Auchter, ICWE), and through a process of consultation, analysis, strategy and consequent division of implementation activities across the team, the Kaleidoscope dissemination activities continue to demonstrate the value, impact, excellence and synergies that have arisen as a result of the work of researchers across the network.
Project website: http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org
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