NEtwork for Teaching Information Society

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E-portfolio for the NETIS students (University of West Hungary)

August 9, 2008 by · No Comments · teaching

In the last semester (2007/2008 II) too few students entered to my course “Introduction to information society”. This course has not started because of this. But I have got enough students (15) to the elective course “information processing”. I have decided to do a compromise and to adapt the NETIS module “E-learning” for this course.

A core task in the NETIS courses is the creation of a knowledge map of one’s own. To this I have written the following in one of my articles:

“Participants in networked learning needs information about the knowledge structure of each other. The problems are: In which way can we document and share the knowledge in the learning network? What kind of knowledge do we have? In which way can we register and document the prior learning experiment, the tacit knowledge? A possible solution can be the using of knowledge maps and e-portfolios as tools for knowledge sharing. The learning goals in form of sophisticated competence portfolios are helpful tools to manage the self organised learning process. The participants can check the competences on their own and steer the learning due to this self evaluation. To reach the given learning goals the course provided creative tasks and projects.”

So I have put the task of forming an own ePortfolio for the students in the course “information processing”. We have collected and structured the following informations in this ePortfolio:

  • CV
  • Knowledge map
  • My teaching materials
  • Studying blog
  • My task solutions
  • Favourite links
  • Hobby
  • Family

We have used the WIKI function of model for the ePortfolio.

We used the template of the EUROPASS CV to create a knowledge map:

  1. Desired emloyment/Occupational field
  2. Work experiences
  3. Education and training
  4. Languages
  5. Personal skills and competences
  6. Additional information and annexes

(See: http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/home/vernav/europasss+documents/europass+cv/navigate.action)

It was a difficult task to define the tacit knowledge of the students. You have not been able to identify the not structured experiences of life of your own as „knowledge”. They have not been able to respect the informally knowledge, acquired in the familiy, in the work, in the peer groups, as knowledge.

What can we do? I have tried out a new method. The students have told her success stories. We have asked the question: Which competences do you have needed for this activity, for this performance? So we have been able to discover many social competences. So we have been able to identify the ICT competences also as knowledge. Beautiful, structured e-portfolios slowly arose.

What has this had to do with eLearning or with the information society? Firstly, we have collected information about us ourselves. We have reflected the character of this information. The inclusion of the knowledge of other students was only in such a way possible if we could form an exact picture about the knowledge of the concerned student.

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Design for All Workshop

July 1, 2008 by · No Comments · first, NETIS, reserach paper

The NETIS project was fortunate to get an opportunity to make a presentation in a session entitled Accessible e-Learning at the recent EDeAN (European Design for All e-Accessibility Network) workshop ‘Utilising best practice in ICT Design for All Teaching’. Our talk Where is the level playing field? addressed a concern that Inclusion designers may focus their efforts exclusively on the design of the user interface, but for e-learning, it is also important to design accessibility into the learning experience per se. This can be done through sensitive instructional design and also by taking alternative learning styles into consideration. Other presenters addressed the e-training needs of Learner Supporters and several accessibility aspects of the design of virtual learning environments (VLEs).

NETIS teaching finished in Estonia, spring 2008

June 25, 2008 by · No Comments · information society, NETIS, tarmo, teaching

NETIS teaching, with the focus on eGovernance, has finised in Estonia. It was attended by 21 graduate students.

The intensive course took place from April 21 until April 30 at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tallinn University of Technology. The course was co-ordinated by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Drechsler and Tarmo Kalvet, and assisted by Margit Suurna. Guest lecturers included Ülle Madise (expert Internet-based voting), Tarvi Martens (expert on eSecurity and cyberwars), Rain Rannu (expert on m-Government), Ain Aaviksoo (eHealth). Margit Suurna taught a class on eLearning.

The topics covered included information society theories, Estonian information society and eGovernance related developments, eGovernance and especially its role in public administration system and public administration reform, ICT and business environment, critique of information society and eGovernance theories, Internet-based voting, eSecurity and cyberwars, eHealth, eLearning and mGovernment. Althogether 7 classes took place running 2-3 calendar hours each. For most of the lectures students were expected to read 4-5 key articles on the topic. NETIS materials did prove useful and they were used extensively.

The general feedback has been positive and preparations for teaching a similar class in Spring 2009 and going on. Due to the intest of international students studying at TUT, it might take place fully in English (in the current course only some lectures were in English).

English edition of Course Book on CD/DVD of Hungarian PC World

May 30, 2008 by · No Comments · Course book, NETIS, PC World, Robert

I have just realised that the Hungarian PC World “published” the English edition of NETIS Course Book on its CD/DVD in May. I have sent them the book after a conference where I was in a section moderated by the editor of PC World, hence I have realised that I forgot to send them the English edition when it was ready some months ago. So I have sent them the chapters and the whole book in one PDF. No answer. I was a bit disappointed, but then yesterday evening I started to thumb the paper and found this:

NETIS_English_PCWorld08may

Finally, the Hungarian PC World published the English edition of our Course Book in May issue. Great.

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XXVI. International Colloquium, Brno, Czech Republic, 22. May 2008

May 29, 2008 by · No Comments · NETIS

Testovanie poznatkov o informačnej spoločnosti v prostredí Moodle

Knowledge Testing about Information Society in LMS Moodle


The NETIS project was introduced at the XXVI. International Colloquium conference in Brno. The authors of the contributions wanted to represent temporary results of NETIS project, how was used the e-learning system in education in Slovakia, how much important is to prepare university students for lifelong learning. This preparation must be oriented not only to the new information and communication technologies but also to the knowledge in the professional field. It is important to know and be familiar with possibilities and methods of lifelong education.

link for confernece abstracts, click here!

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Halkidiki News

May 13, 2008 by · No Comments · NETIS, reserach paper, teaching

Here’s what I reported about Halkidiki for the Middlesex University newsletter:

“The sixth international conference on Networked Learning (NLC08) was held on the Halkidiki peninsula in Greece, May 5-6 2008. The conference was split into several active and busy tracks and there were keynote speakers from Cyprus, Spain and the UK. The NETIS project team took part in a rather unusual seminar format where four linked papers are presented in succession. Since all our papers were presented by team members, we were probably a bit more coherent than some of the other more heterogeneous collections of presenters. It was well received although a grand multi—media presentation going on in the next-door conference room did deplete our audience somewhat!
Soon all the papers will be available for download on our website ”

Networked Learning Conference – experiences from Halkidiki

May 9, 2008 by · No Comments · NETIS, Robert

NETIS partners have participated at 6th International Conference on Networked Learning (NLC08) in Halkidiki, Greece. The conference had app. 150 participants with many papers presented, lasted for 2 days, and situated in a beautiful beach Hotel.

Halkidiki - view from my room

NETIS organized an independent panel with 4 papers and 4 presenters, all concentrated on NETIS activities at the second day of NLC08 (6 May). After the short introduction by me, Chris was speaking about the teaching experiences, then Istvan on Moodle and e-learning dilemmas, finally Kerstin summarized the event with a speak on multicultural differences. The panel was merged with another symposium, entitled Democratising Online Education through Innovative Methods and Tools: the case of Living Labs.

NETIS Symposium at NLC08

The whole conference was an interesting experience, we learned a lot about the recent research and teaching trends in networked learning and got familiar with many projects and concepts. The place was wonderful – you can see more pictures here.

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Create your own Moodle based information society course

May 3, 2008 by · No Comments · Course book, information society, Robert, teaching

Since yesterday the English chapters of NETIS Moodle are available for anybody to import and implement in an independent Moodle. So, NETIS course book on information society is “free of use” in Moodle version. We only ask the downloaders to contact and inform us where and how can they succeed to implement an own version from NETIS.
The site administrators of original NETIS Moodle prepared ZIP files from the content. Each chapter forms a ZIP and contains the text of the given chapter in English, tests, glossary, questionnaires and so on. The ZIPs are available at an independent site as well but we also put them under the official project site.

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Entrepreneurship Competition: NETIS Course Book Winning Price

May 1, 2008 by · No Comments · Hungarian, NETIS, partners, Robert, teaching

In December 2007 the Entrepreneurship Office at ATEI of Thessaloniki, Greece, organised a two day entrepreneurship competition at the Money Show venue that takes place annually in Thessaloniki. In total more than two hundred students took part in the competition and created five virtual enterprises. After two days of working the students presented their innovative ideas, business and marketing plans. A Jury assessed the proposals and the winner team (21 team members) was promised among other prices a copy of the NETIS Course Book. All the participating students were also transported to Athens by bus for a weekend by expenses of the ATEI Thessalonikis, to take part in the Money Show of Athens, where the winning team was announced. A third event, a dinner at the Noesis Restaurant at the Planitarium in Thessaloniki was arranged in April 2008, where also the prices were given to the winning team members.

School Class from Limnos visiting Greek Netis-course

May 1, 2008 by · No Comments · Course book, Kerstin, teaching


In beginning of April 2008, a whole school class of the technical college «Epal Myrinas» from the Greek island Limnos visited the department of Informatics of ATEI of Thessaloniki. During their visit they attended a class in Informatics and the Society, which uses the NETIS e-learning platform.

In the photo Kerstin Siakas, the Greek NETIS partner and lecturer of the course hands over the NETIS Course book to the teacher of the students from Limnos, Katerina Arkoudi-Bafea, who also is a former student of the department of Informatics at ATEI of Thessaloniki. In the background the students follow a presentation of a course assignment.