Project Leader
Manolis Mavrikis

Project Staff
Richard Noss
Eirini Geraniou
Ken Kahn

Project Coordinator Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Project Details
Funded by the EC 7th Framework ICT Theme July 2010 - July 2013

Project Website metafora-project

Keywords
CSCL   microworlds

A visual language for social orchestration of educational activities

Project Aims

Launched in July 2010, by the end of its 3-year duration the Metafora R&D project will result in the creation of a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) system to enable 12 to 16-years-old students to learn science and mathematics in an effective and enjoyable way.

The students will, first and foremost, learn to learn together, collaboratively addressing a series of assignments - the "challenge" - posed by the teacher involving a relatively complex problem. Working in groups of 3 to 6 students during a period of 2 to 3 weeks, the students will plan, organize and tackle the challenge by themselves.

The Metafora System will offer a Planning Tool in which the students will use avisual language so as to plan their course of action, allocate roles and assign tasks to their peers in order to address the given challenge. To discuss their ideas and findings as they enact the created Plan, the students will also have at their disposal an Argumentation and Discussion Workspace. A set of Microworlds will allow them to explore notions related to science and mathematics engage in meaning making processes.

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LKL in Metafora

Among other domain tools, Metafora offers a web-version of the eXpresser microworld from the MiGen project. We are designing appropriate activities and enhancing the microworld with collaborative features and the ability to share ‘referable objects'.

An Artificial Intelligence system tracks students' action as they use the Metafora System and produce useful information and feedback for both students and teachers. LKL is contributing in domain knowledge representation, data collection and analysis to inform the design and evaluation of the analytic components of the system.

Selected publications

Dragon, T., McLaren, B.M., Mavrikis, M., & Geraniou, E. (2011). Scaffolding collaborative learning opportunities: Integrating microworld use and argumentation. In: A. Paramythis, L. Lau, S. Demetriadis, M. Tzagarakis, & S. Kleanthous (Eds.) Proceedings of the International Workshop on Adaptive Support for Team Collaboration (ASTC-2011), held in conjunction with the International Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (UMAP2011), (pp. 27-35). CEUR Workshop Proceedings, ISSN 1613-0073 (download pdf file)

More publications available here.