KANSAS

25^th of July 2018

LEAD Summer School in Second Language Acquisition

On the 04^th of July, KANSAS was presented at the poster session of the LEAD Summer School in Second Language Acquisition in Tübingen.  The aim of the research project and the current version of the search tool were discussed with international experts and students from various disciplines (e.g., Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Education, and Psychology).

from left to right: PD Dr. Schröter, Zarah Weiss, Prof. Dr. Meurers

04^th of July 2018

Usability-Study at the University of Cologne

On the 04^th of July, a usability-study took play in the seminar Language Testing in heterogeneous Groups which is conducted by Dr. Christoph Gantefort at the University of Cologne. Initially the project KANSAS as well as the functions of the current prototype of the search engine were presented to the students. Subsequently the seminar participants were invited to test KANSAS on their own by searching for texts fitting to a certain topic and featuring particular linguistic features. Afterwards the students evaluated the search engine with respect to its current usability.

20^th of June 2018

2. Project Meeting KANSAS

On the 20^th of June 2018, the second KANSAS project meeting was held at the DIE. The project cooperators of the DIE, the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Mercator Institute for Literacy and Language Education, University of Cologne discussed the steps of the project already accomplished and concretised upcoming tasks. Mainly, they focused on the discussion and design of the annotation experiment as well as the usability-studies that will be conducted in this project phase.

from left to right: Dr. Jambor-Fahlen, Prof. Dr. Becker-Mrotzek, Prof. Dr. Schrader, Theresa Geppert, Sabrina Galasso,
Zarah Weiss, Prof. Dr. Meurers, Prof. Dr. Wöllstein, PD Dr. Schröter; not on the picture: Waltraud Steinborn and Marco Triulzi

08^th of March 2018

Presentation of KANSAS and Pilot-Usability-Studies at the Zentrum für schulpraktische Lehrerausbildung in Bonn

On the 8^th of March 2018, the current version of the search engine KANSAS was presented to trainee teachers in a seminar on Dealing with multilingual learners conducted by Mrs. Jünger-Krieger at the Zentrum für schulpraktische Lehrerausbildung in Bonn. Moreover, the trainee teachers were provided information on the opportunity to use the search engine and to evaluate its present usability.

26^th of January 2018

Guest Lecture and Pilot-Usability-Studies at the University of Bonn

On the 26^th of January 2018, Theresa Geppert and Hannes Schröter attended the lecture Work area, Concepts und Theories with reference to Teaching German of Prof. Dr. Radvan at the University of Bonn. Hannes Schröter gave a guest lecture on "Digital teaching/ learning Opportunities in the field of adult language learning". Theresa Geppert presented the project KANSAS as well as the current development version of the search engine's prototype. In connection with this lecture, students were given the opportunity to use the search engine KANSAS and evaluate its present usability.

15^th of January 2018

Guest Lecture at the Universität of Duisburg-Essen

As part of the lecture series Education across the Lifespan Hannes Schröter gave a guest lecture on "Digital media in the field of adult language learning" at the University of Duisburg-Essen on the 15^th of January 2018. At the same time, he presented the project KANSAS to the audience.

19^th/20^th of December 2017

First Pilot-Usability-Studies accomplished at the University of Bonn

On the 19^th and 20^th of December 2017, first pilot usability-studies took place in the module ‘German for learners having migration biographies’ conducted by Mrs. Anke Backhaus at the University of Bonn. Thereby, the current prototype of the search engine KANSAS was used and evaluated with respect to its usability for the first time by students.

4^th of December 2017

1. Project Meeting KANSAS

On the 4^th of December 2017, the project cooperators of the DIE, the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Mercator Institute for Literacy and Language Education, University of Cologne met for their first project meeting held at the DIE. In this meeting, the project partners got the opportunity to discuss the current project status as well as upcoming tasks. Moreover, the functioning of the first KANSAS prototype was introduced by the computational linguists of the University of Tübingen.

from left to right: Prof. Dr. Schrader, Dr. Jambor-Fahlen, Theresa Geppert, PD Dr. Schröter, Zarah Weiss, Prof. Dr. Meurers, Prof. Dr. Becker-Mrotzek

21st of November 2017

Website of the search engine KANSAS: www.kansas-suche.de

The first prototype of the search engine KANSAS is now available on the website www.kansas-suche.de.

6^th of November 2017

1. Meeting with the Project Executing Organisation of KANSAS

On the 6^th of November, the first meeting with the Project Executing Organisation was held at the DIE to present the current project status as well as further activities.