Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Department of Educational Sciences, Netherlands

Euroland in AWedu
Euroland is a research project to create and use an educational Virtual Reality environment that fosters collaborative learning at a distance and enables students from schools apart to work together, collaborate, and communicate. It is assumed that Active Worlds translated into practice collaborative and constructive learning principals by allowing students to design and build virtual objects by themselves collaborating to other kids located at a distance under the adults supervisions. Theoretical background used are:

• the "community of learners" model (Brown & Campione 1994) and in particular the notion of distributed cognition and the constructionism as defined by Papert (1991).
• the communication theory applied to the mediation of computer software (Clark & Brennan, 1991).
• develop specific communication skills based on technology literacy, iconic and written communication;
• overcome, at least partially, differences in culture, gender, and social status, since the communication can be anonymous and users' physical features are not visible;
• improve their motivation as well as their collaborative and metacognitive skills;
• learn in a less traditional setting the content of an original task, designed just for this project.

Contact:
Beatrice Ligorio
b.ligorio@ped.kun.nl
Dott. Francesco Leonetti fleonet@iqsnet.it
http://www.garamond.it/euroland/

San Diego County Office of Education and Imperial County Office of Education, California; Borderlink Project

LinkWrld in AWedu
Funded through a U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, the BorderLink Project is a unique collaboration between the Imperial County Office of Education and the San Diego County Office of Education. The project's goals are to:1) increase the number of students who qualify for college; 2) prepare students to select a university and provide skills to succeed in college; 3) design, implement and disseminate effective professional development to support student learning outcomes;
provide equitable access to technology; and 4) involve parents, partners and community members in effective partnerships. The five-year project will provide Advanced Placement and honors courses to high school students through the Internet and videoconferencing. Support will be provided through counseling services, tutoring, mentoring, and test-taking skills. Students will be offered a training program that prepares them to find employment as network administrators. The entire project is founded on a comprehensive program of professional development that will engage teachers, administrators, counselors, board members, and technical support personnel. All elements of the BorderLink Project will reside in a three-dimensional virtual world to be called LinkWorld that will serve as a reservoir of resources and portal to all project activities.

Contact:
Carol Kerney
ckerney@sdcoe.k12.ca.us
http://www.borderlink.org/

Hogskolen I Bergen Norway - Bergen College

CYBERGEN in AWedu
CyBergen will be a world for the study of virtual learning activities for children in the age of 6 to 15. It will be a platform for experiments about teaching children by the use of virtual tools and to observe how the children use this kind of communication with each other's. Mediesenteret, located in Bergen, Norway creates CyBergen. Mediesenteret is a department at Bergen College where we work in close connection to the teacher-training department. Mediesenteret produce Internet solutions and CD-ROM's and educate students in the use of multimedia tools. In CyBergen our aims are to create building elements and frameworks, for schools in the city of Bergen. Teachers and pupils will then continue to construct the buildings and create different learning activities. So far, we have planned an area for pupils in the age 7 to 15 years and another area for small children, aged 4 to 6. We will also use CyBergen for international projects we are involved in. One of the projects is between two schools in Bergen, two in London and two in Groningen, Netherlands and we will see how children from different countries can use Educational Universe in their communication. There will be some problems with the language, but perhaps the "body language" in Educational Universe activities can compensate this.

Contact:
Henning Klafstad
hkla@hib.no

Wellington College of Education, Distance Teacher Education

KURA in AWedu
Kura is a project based in Aotearoa - New Zealand. The name comes from our indigenous Maori language and it means "school". Kura is being used to: 1) Trial ideas and methods for using 3D worlds for teaching and learning 2) Research and develop a future scenario model for the Internet delivery of distance education to students aged 9-13 years. 3) Work with students in local schools, promoting collaborative projects that use Kura as a unifying communication tool. There are some particular features:

1. Evaluation of the world as a vehicle to promote collaborative projects between students attending school traditionally. Kura will be the main technology, backed up with email, file transfer, downloadable Real Media, Pure Voice Audio attachments, audio conferencing software.
2. Thinking skills Evaluating the possibility that of on-line thinking skills activities will enhance students handling of ideas and information. brainstorming De Bono's six thinking hats Group concept mapping
   
3. Audio communication running with the 3D World Use of multicast audio conferencing Implications: Preservation of modem level bandwidth Students presenting orally and participating in discussions and lessons using several modes of communication- but audio being a major mode of communication.
4. Embedding the New Zealand curriculum, essential skills and processes. Embedding the content but also looking at new ways in which students will interact with it.

Contact:
Bruce Carey
bruce.carey@wce.ac.nz

West Virginia University, College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

TIGERS in AWedu
TIGERS (Teams of Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Engaged to Reinvigorate Students) is a three-year National Science Foundation project that combines the talents of outstanding graduate students in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology as well as teacher-leaders for middle grades in mathematics and science. TIGERS represents a collaborative effort between the Colleges of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Arts and Sciences, Human Resources and Education at WVU. Because the state science (and eventually mathematics) curriculum is organized in an interdisciplinary thematic fashion TIGERS fellows are organized into interdisciplinary "theme teams" that provide mathematics and science teachers in participating schools the most up-to-date content knowledge while expanding their teaching capabilities. Teams of TIGERS fellows will visit the schools, co-plan and co-teach with mathematics and science teachers, and invite the teachers and their students to engage in engineering and science research beyond the normal curriculum. This sustained contact requires a more interactive environment, and this is precisely where Active Worlds comes in. This world would complement the existing virtual high school efforts already a part of the education universe. Margaret Corbit of Cornell University will provide guidance on the construction and maintenance of a TIGERS world, as well as to provide critical input on the operation of the world.

Contact:
Allen C. Cogley
acogley@wvu.edu
Eric J. Pyle
epyle@wvu.edu