This is my scientific map. I have 11 contacts until now, related to my Phd (eLearning design+communication). Some of these are Universities and some others companies. Below the map I have put the number of the contact and its relationship with Journals or Conferences. I hope that I will complete it soon..

EC-TEL '08

Last week I took part in the EC-TEL08. Here is a brief report of what I learnt.

WORKSHOP on Story-Telling and Educational Gaming (STEG'08) >>>
what (I realized) is a workshop? a group of people working in the same field of interest who present and discuss together their ongoing works/efforts --> it's like a consortium of ideas whose mottos are: sharing, collaboration, personal involvement!
something about communities: a community rises around an object of interest and then grows like a cobweb --> workshops are key-events for communities: members meet each other spreading and strengthening the cobweb;
personal comment: - research communities work exactly as other communites ("the ballet school c. of my town" or "the c. of mushrooms seekers") --> one can apply the same informal strategies to join a c. of reasearch and find his own way!
- I wasn't part of any of the c. involved in the W. and I didn't know anyone: people looked at me with curiosity and a bit of suspect!
discussed topic in STEG'08: balance between: (story)telling and interactivity, gaming and learning, physical effort and reasoning; modding; formal ad informal learning through games --> proceedings

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM >>>
what's the good: it's like a general proof of the dissertation defence: you explain your research work in front of experts (to whom you have previously sent a summaryzing paper) and you have to defend it! You receive constructive criticisms and suggetions, and it's a useful way to identify the dark nodes, thanks to non-experts questions (other ph.d. students).
other useful aspects: looking at collgues' works and wondering about methodology, related issues, problems, attitudes
research topics of EC-TEL d.c.: tools and models to help teachers in learning scenarios design, intelligent agents programming (for simulations in crisis situations), new technologies in education and school curricula, adaptive personalized learning environments (indicators).
personal comment: to be repeated at Red-Ink!


CONFERENCE
Three adjectives to describe the EC-TEL community:
- growing: it draws close different research fields which need each other to reach their goals --> from the division to the re-union of knowledge; it's a european "window" to know and to let yourself know
- appealing: it concerns the "rethinking of the education in the knowledge society"!!; it allows to be propositive and proactive because it's an open community
- active: it gathers many worthy studies and interesting projects.
pre-conference tipp: have a mission! e.g. people to get in touch, key-topics to direct your attention to/to inquire, an already started project or study --> it could seem a trivial tipp but it actually wasn't that kind for me! --> the "have a go at it!" or "go and explore" attitude (without having some clear objectives) demands a lot of effort but doesn't garantuee worthy outcomes!

KEYNOTES (that I listened to) >>>
a) Kristina Höök: "Mind, mouse and body: designing engaging technologies" --> challenges in designing digital products for physical, emotional and bodily involvement;
b) Manu Kapur: "Productive failure" --> well structured problems vs ill-structured problems and the process of learning from one's failure.

FORTHCOMING RELATED EVENTS: - International Conference on Web-based Learning (ICWL) 2009, 19-21 August, Aachen, Germany

- 23rd ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education 2009, 7-10 June, Maastricht, the Netherlands

- "TEN Compentence" Winter School, 1-6 February 2009, Innsbruck, Austria

My triangular (in-progress) map

The domain I'd like to researh in lays on the cross of two fields: computer-supported-learning and argumentation. Here below is illustrated the process from which arised my (starting) research question.

To try to answer to the r.q. I need to identify every element of the following triangular model.

Contents: logics, argumentation, computer supported learning tools

People: - P. A. Kirschner and S .J. Buckingham Shum (tools for c-s learning analysis and visualization)
- G. Conole (sociological aspects in the use of c-s lerning tools + CompendiumLD project)
- F. van Eeemeren and E. Rigotti (argumentation theory, particularly Pragma-Dialectic and fallacies)

communities: - ISSA (International Society for the Study of Argumentation)
- human-centered technology research fields, particularly: CSAV (Computer Supported Argument Visualization), CSCW, CMC, CSCL

conferences: - from June 29 to July 2, 2010, the 7th Conference on Argumentation
- EC-TEL 2009
- Ed-Media 2009/E-Learn 2009

books: -Kirshner, Visualizing argumentation: Software tools for collaborative and educational sense-making
- Andriessen, Arguing to Learn: Confronting Cognitions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments
- Toulmin, The uses of argument
- Engelbart, Augmenting human intellect: a conceptual framework
- some texts of classical logic

website: -
www.visualizingargumentation.info/
Methods: - State of the art of argument-visualization tools and a lot of study!!

My strange map (s)

The first map is a world overview.

The second one shows my links in Europe.
The third one shows my links in America.
The fourth map is about my only link in Asia...

Unfortunately, no links in Africa or Oceanian! (not yet!!!)

Briefly, about my interests...

The focus of my thesis is the adoption process and his influence on dropout phenomenon.

My study object is the introduction of a technological innovation in a learning culture.

My methodology will be -probably- ethographic-oriented; surely I will use qualitative methods.

I used an existing map -drawn in 1689- on wich I pointed my interesting points...

a very initial map of research

This is a map of

• domains
• people
• conferences

related to my research in the field of OLM [Open Learner Model]

A map of visual practices in collaborative 3D environments

And here is my research field map around the blending of collaboration, visual practices and 3D virtual environments. Naturally, it is subject to constant revision.
These maps were created with Freemind, a simple (but also quite limiting) tool to create mind maps.

a map of game-based learning

Here my current view of game-based learning.

Not complete, but I think there is an idea of the main topics in the field + relevant people (at least for me!).

Inspiring lectures

Here is a great resource for inspiring lectures and ideas - including learning, society and technology, but also politics and science.

http://www.ted.com/

TED includes for example a presentation by Will Wright (the creator of The Sims and Spore) and one by Isabel Allende...

Stanford come to Open CourseWare

Following the path of MIT and the OER movement, Stanford decided to put its courses in Engineering online.
as red-inklings, this is a good case both at the institutional/organizational level (including learning cultures!) and at the technological level.

http://see.stanford.edu

Nasa elearning

i think that's worth checking out - from Elliot Masie's newsletter

e-Learning from NASA: The Space Agency is making available a free Web-based educational product to learners of all ages across the country. NASA eClips consists of more than 55 short, 5-10 minute video segments, which are available on-demand via the Internet. NASA eClips features many of the agency's missions and engages learners in the excitement of science and engineering.
Check it out at: http://www.nasa.gov/education/nasaeclips

Phun 4 L3arning

A nice Swedish tool, for a constructivist (and destructivist ;-) learning approach



Visit it at phunland

Debriefing

... wrapping it all together.

When we mean hard work...

... we mean it for real!

Tesserete animoto /1

That's a team! Thanks Emanuele!

welcome!

This is the official blog of the red-ink doctoral school!
See www.red-ink.ch