SynergyNet RA shortlisted for World Technology Award
Research Associate at Durham University shortlisted for prestigious World Technology Award
– Visionary work in focusing on the challenges of Classrooms of the Future
By Robert Hayes-McCoy
New York, NY – 17th October 2012, the World Technology Network announced today that Dr Emma Mercier, Research Associate at Durham University, has been nominated as a finalist for the prestigious World Technology Award in the Educational Category.
The WTA Awards are presented to recognise those individuals and organisation that have made a visionary contribution to Science and Technology. They are presented by the World Technology Network in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, Technology Review and Science/AAAS.
The 2012 Awards ceremony takes place at the TIME & Life Building at the close of the 2-day World Technology Summit on Tuesday, October 23 2012.
A Research Associate in the SynergyNet Project at Durham University, which is funded jointly by the UK’s Economic and Social Science Research Council and the Engineering and Physics Research Council, Dr Mercier’s project relates to an investigation into the use of Multi-touch tables in classrooms.
Dr Mercier has spent many years researching the design of classroom environments, considering how technology can be used to augment, support extend or alter the interactions between groups of students, and between students and teacher, in such a way as to change how learning occurs.
She describes her current work at Durham University as very much focusing on the interaction between the 4-T’s: teachers, teams, tasks and technology.
Emerging technologies have the potential to become part of complex ecologies in classrooms, incorporating the technology that students use at home with those that are available to them in schools.
Through experimentation with emerging technologies, Mercier’s aim is on building an understanding of how best to design for the interaction of students, teachers and technology which will facilitate the development of classrooms that will engage children in lessons that prepare them for the future.
Speaking to this reporter she explains that in a world of fast changing and evolving technologies, ever increasing access to education using smarter, faster and new ways of connecting, interacting and communicating between just about every different group in society, it’s not unusual to walk into a classroom today and find that nothing has changed.
So many of today’s students are still learning the same content, in the same ways and using the same tools as they always have. What technology that is available generally remains in the computer labs and it used to replicate traditional learning activities and experiences rather than spearheading change in the educational process.
But technology itself can never bring about change, it’s the way that we interact with it that Dr Mercier is investigating with a view to creating new ways to teach and meet the requirements of the classrooms of the future.
“I am pleased that my research work has reached the final stages of the 2012 World Technology Awards process” says Mercier, “and I’ll be delighted if it wins a World Technology Award.
It’s a project that I am deeply committed to and it is wonderful to see that it has captured the attention and acclaim of such an esteemed organisation as the World Technology Network.’
Classroom Data Collection
The SynergyNet team are in the midst of a classroom study – with two teachers with their classes each in the lab for 2 days each.
Here’s a few photos of what’s been going on.
Orchestrating the Multi-touch Classroom
In June, we conducted the first pilot study using the Kinect to run the SynergyNet classroom. The teacher bravely tried all three tools – the screen, iPad and Kinect – with a strong preference for the Kinect, despite a few issues. Check back in the next few months for further developments with this technology!
Using a Kinect to run the classroom!
SynergyNet at ICLS
Dr Emma Mercier will be at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences in Sydney in July, presenting on our recent work:
Mercier, E., McNaughton, J., Higgins, S. & Burd, E. (2012) Orchestrating Learning in the Multi-touch Classroom: Developing Appropriate Tools. In M. Evans (chair) Interactive Surfaces and Spaces: A Learning Sciences Agenda. van Aalst, J., Thompson, K., Jacobson, M. J., & Reimann, P. (Eds.) The Future of Learning: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2012) – Volume 2, Short Papers, Symposia, and Abstracts.
Mercier, E., Higgins, S., Burd, E. & Joyce-Gibbons, A. (2012) Multi-Touch Technology to Support Multiple Levels of Collaborative Learning in the Classroom. In van Aalst, J., Thompson, K., Jacobson, M. J., & Reimann, P. (Eds.) The Future of Learning: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2012) – Volume 2, Short Papers, Symposia, and Abstracts.
SynergyNet at AERA
Dr. Emma Mercier from the SynergyNet team will be in Vancouver, presenting our recent work:
Higgins, S., Mercier, E.M. & Burd, E. (2012, April) Collaborative Learning in a Multi-touch Classroom. In E. Mercier (chair) A Framework to Understand the Impact of Technology on Collaborative Learning. Symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada.
Mercier, E.M. & Higgins, S. (2012, April) The Impact of Classroom Configuration on Collaborative Learning. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada.
New SynergyNet Repository
To help make the naming convention of the SynergyNet project and software clearer we’ve moved SynergyNet to a new Google code repository:
http://synergynet.googlecode.com/
The previously used repository, synergyspace, is being kept open for students working on SynergyNet related projects to have a repository to back their work up to. The previous version of SynergyNet will be kept on the old repository but if you wish to get the latest updates you will need to checkout the appropriate projects from the SynergyNet repository.
Also included in the new repository are downloads of compiled versions of SynergyNet. These compiled versions come in the form of a series of jar files which are archived with the appropriate script files and instructions for running them. This should allow for most users to try out SynergyNet without needing to check out the source code.
If you’re interested in developing with SynergyNet read this article.
SynergyNet 3 Update
The process for developing with SynergyNet 3 has been drastically simplified making it easier for developers to build new projects using the framework. This video highlights the most recent features added to SynergyNet 3 which developers can make use of. More information on these new features can be found in this article.
If you’re interested in developing with any other version of SynergyNet (or SynergyView) read this article.
SynergyView made available
The video analysis tool developed as part of the SynergyNet project, called SynergyView, has been made available.
Downloads of the tool and instructions for its use can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/synergyview/
An example of SynergyView in use
If you’re interested in developing with SynergyView read this article.
SynergyNet and SynergyView Presentation
Steve Higgins and Emma Mercier gave an impromptu presentation on the SynergyNet project and SynergyView Analysis software during a recent Oxford e-Research meeting about multi-touch technology. A description of the analysis tool is in the third part of the video.
New Publication
The SynergyNet team’s paper that compares groups using mulit-touch tables and groups using traditional materials is now available on-line.
Higgins, S., Mercier, E., Burd, L. & Joyce-Gibbons A. (2012). Multi-touch tables and classroom collaboration British Journal of Educational Technology, 43 (6), 1041–1054. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01259.x
Abstract:
The development of multi-touch tables, an emerging technology for classroom learning, offers valuable opportunities to explore how its features can be designed to support effective collaboration in schools. In this study, small groups of 10- to 11-year-old children undertook a history task where they had to connect various pieces of information about a mining accident to reach a consensus about who had been responsible. Their interaction using traditional resources was compared with their interaction when using a multi-touch table. Analysis suggests that the design and capabilities of the multi-touch technology offers some key features that supported the collaboration and interaction of the participants, particularly in the early stages of the task. Some of these features appear to provide new opportunities for collaboration and interaction, which were different from the interactions observed in the paper-based groups. These features of the multi-touch surface therefore appear to support effective interaction between the pupils.
