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There are a lot of amazing women working in the field of STEM. To acknowledge their career and achievements, FeSTEM is preparing an annual list of “FeSTEM Women: Next Door Mentors”. The call for nominations is now open. This is your chance to nominate someone you respect and admire! Do you know great women in STEM who should be included in our list? Is there someone with a fascinating career, which can inspire other female researchers? Let us know via https://forms.gle/1duAmtcGoSH8Lzvt6, tag us in your social media accounts and use hashtags #festemwomen, #nextdoormentor, #erasmus, #festemchallenge, #womeninstem, #festem. The following female researchers in STEM are eligible for nomination: Ph.D. student, postdoc, young professional, faculty member, entrepreneur. Feel free to submit as many names as you wish! (if you’d like to nominate multiple women, you will have to submit one form per nomination). Self-nominations are also welcomed! The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2021. We will announce the …

On October 7th, the ERUM consortium met for the third time, but, due to the current public health crisis, the meeting was held on Zoom. It was chaired by Judith, Alessandra and Johanna from the University of Vienna.  During this productive day, the project partners discussed about already achieved milestones and about next important steps of the project. Internal management and dissemination strategies were addressed and the consortium discussed the progress of IO2 (guidelines for evidence-based communication), which is led by the University of Vienna and will be finalised by the end of 2020. Furthermore, Vytautas Magnus University presented the final draft of the survey to the partners and discussed a few points in order to finalise the survey which will be disseminated by the end of October. In preparation of the next IO the partner from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki informed the partners about the expected outputs and timeline …

From the 15-17 October 2020 the #ErasmusDays initiative will be taking place across Europe and beyond, to celebrate the Erasmus+ programme. Cyprus Interaction Lab actively participates in the #erasmusdays and provides a sneak preview of the work produced in our Erasmus project #festem and #openlang.  FeSTEM The  Festem Erasmus+ project (https://festemproject.eu/) is celebrating the Erasmus Days 15-17 October 2020 with a number of events co-organised by all the consortium members!! Join us for a Social Cafè on the topic “Technology for Everyone” with @festemeuproject on October 15th, 2020, at 15:50 CET. Find out more: https://www.facebook.com/cesie.ngo/posts/10164259327355557 Openlang The #OPENLangNETWORK Erasmus+ project (https://www.openlangnet.eu/) is celebrating the Erasmus Days 15-17 October 2020 with a number of events co-organised by all the consortium members!! University of Macedonia (GR) (Coordinator)Cyprus University of Technology (CY)Open University (UK)PIXEL (IT) Join our OPENLang Network WEBINAR on October 16th, 2020 at 13:00CET-14:00 CET. Register here: shorturl.at/cirC8 Join our OPENLang Network platform here: https://openlang-network.kmi.open.ac.uk/ Take our survey on “Mapping …

We are looking for a competent candidate to work on our newly funded project via CYENS and an amazing consortium of partners. Attractive salary based on skills and experience. Skills desired: Business/Innovation, Learning Innovation Hubs, Educational Technology & Design, Strong Digital Skills Details:3 years projects starting 01/01/2020 This Knowledge Alliance project builds on the idea that education is an unpredictable industry. If one is launching a startup in the Educational Technology (EdTech) niche, s/he needs to be prepared for the specific challenges that will face while attempting to enter into this market. At the same time the EdTech industry has exploded on a massive extent; the competition is huge and to stand out one must be unique in multiple ways. The ENTER project is at the forefront of this challenge, by improving the quality of entrepreneurship education around EdTech, bringing together academic and industrial partners with entrepreneurial experience and with expertise in …

As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K‐12 schools and nonformal makerspaces, students have more opportunities to generate unique, personalized projects and artifacts, such as computer programs, robots, DIY electronics and to develop new competencies and skills. Digital making technologies if coupled with proper learning methodologies such as suggested by Constructivism (Piaget, 1974) and Constructionism (Papert & Harel, 1991) can provide learning experiences that promote young people’s creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving skills, the essential skills necessary in the workplace of the 21st century (21st C Skills). However, assessment of these higher order skills is not easy, particularly within these open-ended environments where students create unique solution paths to problems, interact with peers, and act in both the physical and digital worlds. Currently, digital technologies offer novel methods and solutions to assess the 21st century skills and offer insights to learners’ efforts and achievements that become available for …

Jointly held under one management and one registration with HCI International 2021 http://2021.hci.international/lct Chairs Panayiotis Zaphiris (panayiotis.zaphiris@cut.ac.cy) Andri Ioannou (andri.i.ioannou@cut.ac.cy) 24-29 July 2021, Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington DC, USA The LCT conference, affiliated to HCI International conference, addresses theoretical foundations, design and implementation, as well as effectiveness and impact issues related to interactive technologies for learning and collaboration, including design methodologies, developments, and tools, theoretical models, instructional design, as well as technology adoption and use in formal and informal educational contexts. Submit your proposals! Please email andri@www.cyprusinteractionlab.com if you would like to organize a parallel session for LCT-HCII. HCII 2021: LCT Conference leaflet here

Στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος ReCOVer20 το οποίο επιχορηγείται από τον Οργανισμό Νεολαίας Κύπρου, πραγματοποιήθηκε η δράση «Δημιουργία ταινιών μικρού μήκους (animation videos) με παιδιά δημοτικού για τον διαμοιρασμό θετικών εμπειριών που απορρέουν από την περίοδο της καραντίνας».  Συντονίστρια της δράσης ήταν η κ. Νικολέττα Παντέλα, ερευνήτρια στο Cyprus Interaction Lab. Η δράση περιλάμβανε τρία βιωματικά εργαστήρια με παιδιά δημοτικού 9-12 ετών. Το πρώτο βιωματικό εργαστήριο αποσκοπούσε στην έκφραση των αρχικών συναισθημάτων των παιδιών για την περίοδο της καραντίνας. Στο δεύτερο βιωματικό εργαστήριο τα παιδιά εισήχθησαν στο εκπαιδευτικό λογισμικό Powtoon Pro με στόχο την εξοικείωσή τους αναφορικά με τις διάφορες λειτουργίες του. Κατά τη διάρκεια του τρίτου και τελευταίου βιωματικού εργαστηρίου τα παιδιά κλήθηκαν να δημιουργήσουν ταινίες μικρού μήκους (animation video) σε ομάδες, αξιοποιώντας το εκπαιδευτικό λογισμικό Powtoon Pro, προβάλλοντας τις θετικές εμπειρίες, ενδεχομένως καινούριες γνώσεις που έμαθαν ή νέες δεξιότητες και αντιλήψεις που ανέπτυξαν κατά τη διάρκεια της καραντίνας. Στην …

Dr. Andri Ioannou is the Guest Editor for the upcoming Special Issue: Shifting to digital: Informing the rapid development, deployment and future of teaching and learning, in Educational Technology Research & Development.  This Special Issue is unique in that it will focus on multiple perspectives where respondent authors write about the implications of scholarship on addressing current challenges related to an increased focus of digital learning. The multiple perspectives include but are not limited to research, theory, design, practice (teaching or training), policy, culture and international angles.  Several ETR&D published manuscripts have been identified that have implications for online learning. We would like you to consider one of the manuscripts (listed below), select a perspective, and write a focused response to describe what works with going digital dealing the following constraints: Need to have useful ideas for flexible learning, online learning, learning disruption Disruption with limited resources, situation where you …

A research project coordinated by the Cyprus University of Technology partnering with the University of Cyprus and Harvard University examined the potential of augmented reality in achieving sustainable urban governance. The project Sustainable Urban Governance through Augmented Reality (SUGAR – sugar.cyprusinteractionlab.com) has been successfully completed, responding to the key question: whether innovative technologies, and in particular augmented reality can help planning authorities that are looking for more efficient ways to involve the citizens in the decision-making process as well as citizens who want to have a say in the development of their urban environment. Researchers from the three universities studied best practices and focused on activities and methods for public participation in the decision-making process culminating in a planning participation framework and an application created exclusively for the research project with a case study offered by the Municipality of Aglantzia in the capital of Cyprus. The research team having concluded …

Διεξάγουμε έρευνα για την λειτουργία εικονικής αναζήτησης (visual search) και με χρήση εργαλείων eye tracking (κάμερες καταγραφής οφθαλμικών κινήσεων) αναλύεται η ανταπόκριση του χρήστη σε αναζήτηση εικονικού τύπου πληροφορίας σε εικόνες. Έχει αναπτυχθεί μια πρωτότυπη ψηφιακή εφαρμογή η οποία θα χρησιμοποιήσει  ζεύγη εικόνων με έργα τέχνης προκειμένου μελετηθεί πώς ένας χρήστης παρατηρεί δύο συσχετιζόμενες εικόνες στην προσπάθειά του να ανακαλύψει τις συσχετίσεις. Κάμερες καταγραφής οφθαλμικών κινήσεων (eye tracker) πάνω στον υπολογιστή παρακολουθούν τις εστιάσεις των χρηστών της εφαρμογής με συχνότητα μερικά millisecond και  καταγράφουν με λεπτομέρεια πώς λειτουργεί η διαδικασία της οπτικής αντίληψης (visual perception).   Προκειμένου να συγκεντρωθεί το πληροφοριακό υλικό που θα δώσει πειστικές απαντήσεις στα ερωτήματα της μελέτης, διεξάγεται έρευνα με συμμετοχή χρηστών από το  Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών και το Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου. Έχει ετοιμαστεί ένα doodle με time-slots για να πάρουμε users από την Λεμεσό. 27/7 Δευτέρα: 10:00 – 19:00 28/7 Τρίτη: 10:00 – 13:00 29/7 Τετάρτη 10:00 – 13:00 30/7 Πέμπτη: 10:00 – 13:00 και 17:00 με …

Second partner meeting of the FeSTEM project once again united the partners from Cyprus University of Technology / Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου and ARIS from Cyprus, Ic Geoss from Slovenia, Magenta Consultoría Projects from Spain, CESIE from Italy and University of Macedonia from Greece – this time online. The participants have discussed the progress of the project so far, milestones achieved, and agreed upon the future steps. We thank everyone for the participation and hope that our next meeting will be in person!

Stage 1 (Teacher training) of the EIT Climate-KIC Young Innovators programme was successfully completed on Tuesday 30th of June 2020.  The training sessions were designed and delivered by members of the teams of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and the Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA) with the support of CYENS (Research Centre of Excellence in Cyprus focusing on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies). The team includes: Stelios Yiatros (Project Manager), Andri Ioannou (CUT, CYENS), Nicoletta Pantela (CUT), Elpida Georgiou (CUT), Eleni Loulli (CUT), Aphrodite Magou (CUT), Soulla Karra (CEA) and Andreas Pastides (CEA). A total of 21 secondary education teachers participated in the training. They come from private and the public schools and have various teaching specializations (e.g. Geography, Science, Chemistry, Biology, Design & Technology). Our trained teachers plan to implement the programme with their students during the upcoming September/October (Stage 2 of YI Cyprus). In particular, the first training session took place online on June …

Members of the EdMedia Multidisciplinary Research Group (MRG) and the Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL) participated at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020), held between June 19th and 23rd, 2020 with the following paper presentations:  Ioannou, M, Ioannou, A., Georgiou, Y. & Retalis, S. (In press). Designing and orchestrating the classroom experience for technology-enhanced embodied learning. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020). Nashville, USA. Socratous, C., & Ioannou, A. (In press). Common errors, successful debugging, and engagement during block-based programming using educational robotics in elementary education. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020). Nashville, USA. The conference this year took a virtual form, due to the COVID pandemic. More information about the ICLS conference 2020 can be found at the official conference website: https://icls2020.org/