EUN-Schoolnet Project
Reference Document WP8
ACTIVITY REPORT
SUISSE PARTICIPATION (TEFCA)
IN CONSORTIUM WITH THE EUN-SCHOOLNET PROJECT
(Workpackage 8)
SUMMARY of the OBJECTIVES for WP8
The overall objective of WP8 is to develop a general and adaptable virtual workspace environment (VWE) for use in conjunction with the EUN platform. Meanwhile, the following objectives will be met:
· To create a VWE, containing tools for basic communication and collaboration
· To develop the Kernel, which will be the framework and foundation of the VWE
· To verify and test the VWE in European schools
SUMMMARY of TECFA's CONTRIBUTION FOR WP8
· Description and specification of the pedagogical tools for the VWE
· Evaluation and testing of VWE in the framework of ENIS
current ADVANCEMENTs In THE PROJECT
Due to the fact that the Swiss partnership was late to join the WP8 project, several setbacks occurred. First of all, there were initial difficulties to organize and collaborate with the other partners in the project. At the time, there was not a working model of the VWE, therefore creating a lack of initiative for each partner task.
In the meantime, TECFA invested its time in research issues concerning virtual campuses, Web-integrated environments, and pedagogical tools. Therefore a theoretical framework was developed concerning the issues formally defining a virtual campus. The resulting events occurred:
· A first report, "The Virtual Campus @ TECFA", was written, based on experiences with TECFA's Virtual Campus and its subsequent taxonomy of pedagogical tools.
· An article "TECFA, développer un Campus Virtuel pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissae à distance," was written and published in the Summer '99 issue of the EPFL's Flash Informatique
· A taxonomy of virtual campus tools was defined and was used to analyze other virtual campuses in Switzerland. These four case studies were published in a report entitled, "Rapport d'information sur les mondes virtuels," written for the OFFT (l'office fédéral de la formation professionnelle et de la technique) in September 1999.
· A taxonomy of TECFA's Virtual Campus tools was presented, "TECFA's Virtual Campus: Integrated Tools to Support Pedagogical Paradigms," at the IN-TELE Conference '99:Internet-Based Teaching and Learning in Jena (September).
· The article "TECFA's Virtual Campus: Integrated Tools to Support Pedagogical Paradigms," was written and will be published in Spring 2000 issue of Internet Communications (the IN-TELE Conference Proceedings).
Subsequently, the first workpackage meeting was finally organized by the Swedish WP leader, and took place on November 11, 1999 in Stockholm. This was the first opportunity for all of the workpackage partners to unite to discuss the current status and future of the VWE. The following issues were presented and discussed:
· The technical partners have developed a running version of the VWE (Alpha 1, D8.2). This version is a preliminary model and is a very rough demonstration of the VWE.
· The Kernel version is running. The Kernel is the part of the workspace that handles all interaction and activity within the VWE. It is built up by a number of modules for different tasks and is considered the "core" of the VWE. The Kernel modules can be identified as: an API module, Management module, GUI module, Storage module, Network module, and Metadata module.
· Early versions of some tools (draw tool, form tool, chat tool, molecule viewer, word processing tool, user manager tool) have been implemented only for the demonstrator version (VWE Alpha 1, D8.2).
The judgements and assessments gained from the WP8 meeting only provided an abstract shell as to the potential of the VWE. Furthermore the WP8 meeting directed TECFA to a clear partner task for the second phase, the pedagogical stage, of the VWE project. Here, TECFA's present and future directives are expressed:
· TECFA will describe all of the pedagogical tools for the VWE. This will be in the form of a written report that will fully describe the pedagogical purpose and functionality for each tool in the VWE (listed in the EUN Multimedia call) Each tool will be described as operating independently from the system
· TECFA will use these tools to develop pedagogical scenarios for the VWE. Additionally, TECFA will describe, create, and explain different pedagogical scenarios by combining various independent tools to create integrated learning environments in the form of templates.
· The deadline for these two reports is February 2000, upon the next WP8 meeting.
· With regard to the evaluation of the teaching scenarios in the VWE, the experimentation will be done as of spring 2000. It will be made in coordination with the evaluation of the Virtual Library in WP12. The testing and evaluation will take place in the ENIS.