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Research at TECFA

Mediated Educational Communication

Theoretical Frame and Thematics

• Introduction
  • De l'étude des médias ...
  • .... à la sémiopragmatique de la communication médiatisée
  • L'intégration des "nouveaux médias
• Thèmes de recherches
  • L'analyse de dispositifs multimédias didactiques, socio-éducatifs ou ludo-éducatifs
  • Les notions de convergence et de registres de représentation sémiotique
  • La nature de représentations sémiotiques
  • Formation à distance et communication médiatisée
  • Conception et évaluation des systèmes et des politiques des formation à distance
• Indications bibliographiques

Educational Communication Theory

SIGMA (1995-1995)

The SIGMA Project aims to give a survey of the curricula in Communication Sciences offered in the Swiss Universities. The main idea is to help the students compare the courses provided. This project prepares the SOCRATES and LEONARDO European programs. The Swiss Report includes swiss and european recommandations. A postscript copy is available here. In September 1995 an European Conference took place in Sienna. The Swiss report of the Sienna Conference The future of Communication Sciences in Europe has been published and is available on demand. The participants decided to make a proposal to the SOCRATES Programme in order to set up a thematic network. A working group was set up to prepare a proposal. Unfortunately, the proposal was refused.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

PROJET POSCHIAVO (1997-2000)

Like its partner subprojects (Lugano & Neuchatel), subproject B will use the Poschiavo Project as a unique and rich opportunity for observational and experimental research. The subproject focuses on the issue of educational communication mediated by technology. It proposes a communicational and semio-pragmatic approach to the study of two particular forms of mediated communication which tend to feature strongly in technology-based distance education programmes: the electronic publication of educational materials (Line 1) and email interaction among the different participants (Line 2). Its principal aims are: to contribute to a better understanding of electronic media in educational applications, particularly in regard to their two communicational dimensions: semiotic and pragmatic; to identify and trial strategies for optimising use of such media in open and flexible learning; and to monitor computer mediated communication and interactions.
 (fiche technique)

Semiotics in Educational Technology Products

MACHINA CARNIS (1994)

"Machina Carnis" is an educational software tool on electro-cardiology and cardio-vascular regulation. It is currently tested with physiology classes in the Faculte de Medecine of the Universtiy of Geneva. It is 100MB application running under Windows 3.1 including 16 hypermedias, 12 simulation models, 3 interactive animations, auto-evaluation tools etc. The package also a 37 minute movie with synthetic images which will we plan to distribute in digital format in the future. The whole includes thus several multimedia features, such as images, sound, interactive animations and digital video. It should also represent a interessting testcase for highspeed WANs (add something on the ATM project).

Contact: Daniel Peraya

Distance Education

Mandat "Soutien pédagogique et évaluation"(2001-2003)

Ce mandat est attribué à l'équipe Tecfa par le Campus Virtuel Suisse avec l'objectif principal " d’améliorer la qualité des projets en cours, de capitaliser l’expérience pédagogique des projets impliqués dans le CVS et d’établir les bases d’un cadre d’évaluation de l’ensemble des projets " (p.1 du mandat). Toutes les informations relatives à ce mandat, au travail réalisé sont disponibles à l'adresse : http://tecfa.unige.ch/proj/cvs.

Contact: Daniel Peraya, Jacques Viens & Nathalie Deschryver

Swissling (2000-2003)

SWISSLING is a joint project with the major objective to develop an introductory course in linguistics targeted to university beginners in human sciences (linguistics; communication sciences; literature and languages). The project's goals comprise the following issues: (1) Common use of distributed resources, improving the educational program of individual universities. (2) Better presentation of complex material by using multimedia strategies. Dynamic educational display of know-how and know-that training materials using multimedia tools. (3) Promoting co-operative learning. (4) Providing facilities for studying independently from both time and location; enabling self-paced individual and interactive learning and evaluation. (5) Co-ordination of the teaching of Linguistics in the three main language areas of Switzerland. The plateform used to develop the course is Web-CT.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

Uticef sur Acol@d (2000-2003)

The project consisted, one year ago, in elaborating a diploma in new technologies and educational sciences. From september 2001 onwards, the diploma is a DESS (Postgraduate Specialized Diploma) named UTICEF : Utilisation des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication dans l’Enseignement et la Formation. Each partner has designed a certain number of courses and assures part of the tutoring for these contents.The diploma is delivered on a 100% distance basis except for one presential week at the very beginning dedicated to introduce students to the plateform used for the delivery of courses (Acol@d). The public this diploma addresses are teachers or professionals involved in a training process whose task is to introduce new technologies in their institution. It is for instance possible for students who obtained the diploma to act as tutor within the diploma.

More information available about the:

• UTICEF diploma
• plateform Acol@d
• project in general

Contact: Daniel Peraya

DRLOCH (2000-2003)

DRLOCH is a scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland.
The main objective of the project is building an educational software system assisting the researchers, professors and students in the educational interactivity for learning the History and Theology of Romanian Orthodox Church.
The main activities occasioned by the project are spit in six tasks :
- a survey of main IT tools used by theology faculties in Europe and Central East Europe,
- an analysis of existing methods for teaching, learning, training for theology in Romania,
- designing a distance learning system for the Theology Faculty of University of Iasi,
- pilot application of the system for the Romanian Orthodox Church History (ROCH) discipline,
- demonstrators of the pilot application in English, French, German, and Italian,
- evaluation, exploitation and dissemination via virtual environment and books of research results to be included in the educational process for the theological learning.

More information :
• DLROCH - Task 1 : survey on distance learning for humanities (pdf)
• DRLOCH - Tâche 2 : étude du contexte académique du projet (pdf)

Contact: Daniel Peraya

Recre@sup Project (2000-2001)

The main goal of the project is to lead a research about the terms for the introduction of ICT in Higher Educations institutions. It's also about the building of an exchange tool between the partners and the creation of an epxerts network (from resources Centers essentially) on the use of ICT for teaching and learning in Higher Education. Recre@sup is so a location for research, exchange, access to resources and an network.
Access to the project description.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

LEARN-NETT, Learning Network for Teachers and Trainers (1998-2000; après, fonctionnement sur fonds propres)

Lear-nett est un projet européen destiné à la formation des enseignants et des étudiants en science de l'éducation dans leur but de leur donner les moyens d'utiliser les nouvelles technologies dans leurs enseignements. cette formation se fera à travers l'élaboration d'un projet commun (en groupe d'étudiant appartenant à des universités différentes et devant donc collaborer à distance) consistant à imaginer une activité ou un support aidant les jeunes (et les moins jeunes !) à utiliser le multimédia pour apprendre, s'informer ou communiquer.

Contacts: Daniel Peraya or Nathalie Deschryver.

EUN-Schoolnet PROJECT (1998-2000)

The purpose of the EUN-Schoolnet Project is to create a school network, a multi-media platform, and a standard for communication within Europe. By combining both content and pedagogy, the European project promotes a collaborative framework in which national school authorities, universities, and industries can work together to insure communication and information technologies within European schools. Due to its logic and teaching policy that is open to new frontiers of information technologies and communication, Switzerland's participation in the EUN Project is essential. The Swiss partnership includes :

OFES (Federal Office of Education and Science)
CTIE (Center for Technology of Information and Teaching)
CPTIC (Center of Pedagogy for Communication and Informational Technology)
TECFA (Technologies and Learning)
Furthermore, TECFA's participation in the EUN-Schoolnet PROJECT consists of research and work involved in two different projects.

The Virtual Workspace Environment (VWE)---- The EUN-Schoolnet Project focuses on creating a Virtual Workspace Enviromnent (VWE) for teacher development and innovative schools. More specifically, the Virtual Workspace Environment will provide tools that will be used for basic communication and collaboration within various educational situations. These tools will be designed and developed to fit the needs of special education situations for teachers who wish to conduct on-line learning situations. The second phase of the project will consist of implementing and testing these tools within different schools to verify the usability of the VWE. TECFA's contribution to the project consists of a full participation, both technical and pedagogical, in the general structure and functionality of the Virutual Workspace Environment.

The Virtual Library----The model for the project consists of developing an on-line school library which will offer a shared space within which each individual school can be involved. These schools are not only regarded as users who accesses information, but also as active agents who contribute to a knowledge base, increasing its stock and is part of a process which encourages participation and co-operation amongst schools. The contribution of TECFA will relate to two aspects. The first aspect relies on technical command directed towards programming 3D - vrml, while the second focuses on the nature of teaching which is directed towards the experimentation and the evaluation of the 3D multi-user collaborative environment.

Progressive updates and information concerning the project's work at TECFA can be found here.
For more information on the EUN-Schoolnet project visit the European Web site .

Contacts: Daniel Peraya

Socrates' Mailbox PROJECT (1996-1998)

The Socrates' Mailbox Project is focused on users' implicit learning procedures with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the classroom. A European Observatory Project, it pertains to global Open and distance learning issues. It is planned for a two year period, and began in September 1996. The inquiry will concentrate on learning with ICTs and will stress on interpersonal communication skills, group dynamics, inter-cultural communication, integration strategies, etc. It will also seek to bring some enlightment in the domain of developing teachers' new comptences and skills within a ITC empowered classroom. Project findings will be regularily disseminated through a WEB site in order to enhance collaborative inter-institutional co-operation.

Contacts: Pierre Dunand Filliol or Raymond Morel.

FETICHE PROJECT (1996-1997)

The FETICHE Project analyses the present situation about the impact of new information and communication technologies (NICT) - such as telematics, multimedia, Internet... - in the field of Teachers' Continuing Education and Training in a number of European Countries. The inquiry will focus on actual practice in the different participating institutions. It will then broaden its scope and include state of the art reflection on teacher's training in the participating institutions. Finally, it will be complemented by a systematic enquiry into current practice, ideas and views on the role of new technologies in traning teachers/educators in the different countries involved. Two fields will be especially investigated: team work and co-operative learning using NTICs and computer mediated communication. Outcomes will take the form of a series of guidelines for future teachers' training endeavors that include NICTs and will propose pilot experiments to test the validity of these recommendations.

Contacts: Pierre Dunand Filliol or Raymond Morel.

FAD 2 (1996)

This project aims to update a overview (written in 1991) of the state of the art of the OFDL scene through all Swiss Univerisities. It describes both soft- and hardware uses, analyses pedagogical projects and focuses on human ressources. An brief presentation of the repport is available here.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

COMP'ACT : EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN EUROPE (1995)

This project aims to study particulary the changes in competences brought about, for the different training actors, by the development of information and communication technologies (ICT), at both individual (trainers and learners) and collective (training services and organisations) levels.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

TEL*LINGUA (1996-1997)

The objective of this project is to have an inventory of available electronic and digital resource (Internet servers) to be able to make them available to the users of a G7 Pilot server. The data gathered must be usable for tans-cultural language learning. An inclusive range of servers have been analysed:

• language learning and training servers in Switzerland and in a number of G7 and/or European Union countries;
• servers with data on connected fields and subject matters, provided they are usable;
• servers used by language teachers to instruct pupils both on lexical and syntactic issues as well as on broad cultural questions - through whatever means they feel adequate;
• servers used by students to learn about a subject matter and the language in which this subject is described.
  
  Contacts: Pierre Dunand Filliolor Raymond Morel
  
  

OCDE Project (1994)

The aim of this project has been to draw up a picture of current in-house use of learning technologies in adult professional learning in compagnies and administrations in Switzerland. The Swiss Report Switzerland -- Learning technologies in companies, written by A. McCluskey has been presented at the OCDE/NCAL (National Center on Adult Literacy) Conference held in Philadelphia (USA), in February 1996. The study has been commissioned by the OFES, Federal Office for Education and Science.

Contact: Peraya Daniel

HUMANITIES I&II (1995, 1996)

The HUMANITIES Project - in its second phase - aims to develop and consolidate a structure for virtual mobility through European Universities. Three academic domains are concernend by this project: Litterature, Law, and Communication Sciences in which TECFA is involved. The project will make use of available technology, such as ISDN, satellite, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). Information on the project and its newsgroups are available here.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

TRIBUNE (1993-1994)

TRIBUNE is a so-called horizontal project giving a comprehensive view of R&D in the European DELTA Community. It's main production is the TRIBUNE Collection, a series of booklets of which one has proven indispensable: Who's Who in DELTA.

Contact: Pierre Dunand Filliol or Daniel Peraya

JITOL (1991-1994)

The JITOL project concerns "Just in Time Open Learning". Jitol is based on the essential assumption that collaborative learning is the best way to access professionnals know-how and that it provides an infrastructure for communities of professionnals to discuss, document and enhance their working practices and the knowledge bound up in them. Through the creation of a transient virtual community bound by a strong motivation to analyse focused themes, it bonds and mixes both experts and learners around an electronic conferencing device.

Contact: Daniel Peraya

TEMPUS (1990-1993)

The mediatization of teaching contents in the context of distance learning is in the forefront of the contribution of TECFA to the TEMPUS-Project "Distance Study Centre Budapest". TEMPUS (the acronym for Trans-European Mobility Scheme for University Studies) forms part of the overall programme of European Community aid for the economic restructuring of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Its main goals are to support the development of higher education systems and to encourage joint activities and exchanges.

Contact: Daniel Peraya