Month: January 2008

The COMBLE Project

Mariis2 Comments

Tomorrow I’ll go to Berlin to attend a kick-off seminar in the EU Project: COMmunity of Integrated Blended Learning in Europe (COMBLE). Several of my colleges from E-Learning Lab will join me – and after the meetings Friday we’ll stay in Berlin as tourists for 2 days :-)

This description is a C/P from the original EU proposal:

“COMBLE defines new and innovative models for the use of Blended learning in different educational backgrounds (vocational training, enterprises, universities, public bodies). To use the potentials of Blended learning a European wiki-based community called Methopedia will be established. By contributing to the development of Blended learning COMBLE supports ICT relevant methods that are indispensable for lifelong learning in Europe. Moreover, COMBLE will address to management-level, learners and trainers at the same time.
COMBLE will develop a number of products – an applied reference model of Blended Learning, an expert course for trainers, and a European Blended Learning Driver’s License within the overall frame of the Methopedia. These products support the development of a community for best practices and the use of Blended Learning to be used in all educational contexts. Moreover, the quality of education and training in Europe will be enhanced by improving innovative Blended Learning concepts.
COMBLE supports the successful implementation of Blended learning methods and strategies in the formal learning context of Vocational training, Continued Professional Development and Higher education systems. By working closely with application partners COMBLE develops practical, situated and innovative Blended Learning methods.”

I’m looking forward to learning more from this – my first EU project – and I’m sure the work will produce posts in the future :-)

/Mariis

Metaverse U Conference at Stanford

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Innovation Center Denmark, Palo Alto has invited me to participate in a conference on Metaverses arranged by Stanford Humanities Lab i February.

http://metaverse.stanford.edu/about/about-0

I’ll be spending about a week in Palo Alto and San Francisco, and I’m really looking forward to learning more about metaverses, Stanford University and meeting interesting people.

I’m especially looking forward to hearing Jeremy Bailenson from Virtual Human Interaction Lab. I’ve read some of his papers, and I think the work Bailenson and his collegues do is quite interesting. Even though my focus currently is on SL, I think it’s possible to draw on experiences from other metaverses.

There will be live video streamed from the Stanford website during the conference, and I’ll be writing on my blog from Palo Alto during my stay.

/Mariis

My PhD project

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Identity, Embodiment and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds – a Problem Oriented Project Pedagogy Perspective.

This is a very brief and preliminary description of my PhD project. The overall purpose of the project will be to explore the learning potential in 3D virtual worlds seen from a problem oriented project pedagogical perspective. I’m currently exploring Second Life (SL), where I was born on March 26th 2007 as Mariis Mills. In November/December 2007 I facilitated a course in SL with 22 students from The Danish Master Programme on ICT and Learning (MIL).

My assumption is that especially avatar mediation enhances the experience of embodiment, identity and subjectivity, and thus the commitment and engagement in the learning environment. This of course is regarded as positive and promising, since more traditional 2D virtual learning environments often fail in creating a strong sense of community, among both students and teachers, which I consider essential in any learning situation. The GUI and the ability to create user-generated content also contribute in ensuring student participation and orientation, which are central aspects in Problem Oriented Project Pedagogy (POPP). Many more promising features in 3D virtual worlds as learning environments could be pointed out. Even though I’m quite excited about the potentials, I’m not blind to the constraints – and both pros and cons will be focus points in my approach.

As for the methodological level, I expect to focus on ethnography and dialogue research. I’ll be using courses at MIL, and hopefully at a foreign university, in my research.

Theoretically, I expect to draw on hermeneutics, phenomenology, dialogue design and various positions within CSdCL and networked learning in particular.

But I’ll be much clearer on these matters after my first f2f meeting in February with my PhD supervisors, Professor, PhD Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld (Aalborg University) and Professor, PhD Janni Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School).

Since my PhD is co-funded by MIL, I’ll also be able to draw on the expertise from:

  • Associate Professor, Bo Fibiger (University of Aarhus)
  • Associate Professor, PhD Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen (University of Aarhus)
  • Professor, PhD Birgitte Holm Sørensen (Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus)
  • Associate Professor, PhD, Dr. Phil, Oluf Danielsen (Roskilde University)

The six above mentioned professors constitute the steering committee behind MIL.

Lucky me :-))

/Mariis

Hello world!

Mariis6 Comments

Welcome!

I’m Marianne Riis and on January 1. I started a PhD project at Aalborg University, Denmark. I intend to use this blog to inform and communicate about the project.

The working title of the project is:

“Identity, embodiment and collaboration i 3D Virtual Worlds”

My specific focus will be on using 3D VW’s as a supplement in CSdCL based on a Scandinavian tradition of Problem Oriented Project Pedagogy.

I’m currently exploring Second Life and my avatar is Mariis Mills, which will be my identity .. for now .. on this blog.

/Mariis :-)