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December, 2007
Content:
- Creative Commons is turning five years – Birthday Party
2007 in Berlin
- Understanding of visual learning
- Mnemotechniques – new research and initiatives in Poland
- We are the winners of Record of Guinness!
1. Creative Commons is turning five years –
Birthday Party 2007 in Berlin
Creative Commons is turning five years – the CC Community worldwide is
invitet to join the party.
Program, Berlin, December 14th
Join for an evening of CC-inspired art, presentations, music, technology,
and more!
[Free Entry]
21:11
- Welcome and Introductions
- Talks by international CC Project Leads and Experts
- Round table discussion with Berlin artists, musician, techies,
podcasters, educators, and activists using CC.
- short CC-film screenings
23:33
- creativecommons.de Domain-Name Ceremony: blog.de <http://www.blog.de/>
and CC Germany
- German license 3.0 enters the public discussion
- HUGE CC Birthday Cake
23:55
- Berlin-inspired visualizations by VJ Oigovisiones
- CC-licensed DJ sets Pulsar Records <http://www.pulsar-records.de/> :
Teamore <http://www.pulsar-records.de/?artist/1> , Jerando <http://www.pulsar-records.de/?artists/225>
,
Location
c-base : Rungestraße 20; Berlin Mitte
Organizers
See more details under
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Birthday_Party_2007_Berlin
2. Understanding of visual learning
Better understanding of visual learning is one of the
main priorities of the EU project Socrates Grundtvig 1 visuaLearning.
From the studies conducted in 5 partner countries (Germany, Poland,
Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands) a general picture emerges showing the
current situation in partner countries in relation to the issue of
‘visual literacy’ and also how this term is understood. John Debes, one
of the most important figures in the history of International Visual
Literacy Association (IVLA) as one of first offered (1969b, 27) the
following definition of the term:
“Visual Literacy refers to a group of
vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same
time having and integrating other sensory experiences.
The development of these competencies is fundamental to
normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate
person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects,
symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment.
Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to
communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these
competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of
visual communication.”
However, there are many more definitions of the term. In
fact, each “visual expert” has produced his/her own! Understandably, the
coexistence of so many disciplines that lie at the foundation of the
concept of Visual Literacy, thus causing and at the same time
emphasizing the eclectic nature of it, is the major obstacle towards an
unanimously agreed definition of the term. In all partner countries
(Germany, Poland, Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands) there was no found
just one clear definition of visual learning.
There are many different disciplines working on the
topic, so the interpretation and understanding of it depends on
individual scientific background. However, the experts found a common
sense for this process and basically, any educational process that
involves images, no matter the way they are presented is considered to
be a visual learning technique. The most common understanding of visual
learning are as follows:
-
The visualization is a method that uses the
natural skills to create various images in human thoughts. It is
a kind of a memory exercise and a work based on images
concerning the past, current and future situations – it serves a
better processing of these images, making new interpretations
and reconstructing past experiences.
-
The visualization is a technique of better
remembering and creating the association systems: a technique of
fixing memory „hooks” which allow to remember numbers,
quantities, relations, greater narrations, etc.
-
The Visualization can be seen as a style of
learning based on visual channel of perceiving information and
on visual representative system, with reference to processing
and getting out the contents.
3. Mnemotechniques – new research and initiatives in Poland
The branch of Language Academy Open School in Bielsko - Biała (Poland)
carries out a pilotage programme aimed at shortening time required to learn a
foreign language. The idea of the project implemented by Open School is to
include mnemotechniques training into the programme of traditional language
course. Methodologists will compare results of the students who participated in
the project with results and progress of these people who studied with the use
of traditional methods. If the project will be successful that would be a
positive signal for all of those who wish to learn a foreign language,
especially for adult people (above 40 years old) who, according to results from
research conducted by CBOS (Public Opinion Research Centre) in November 2006,
have more problems with learning new vocabulary. Results from the conducted
research can be interesting and used not only in Polish schools but also in
other countries.
If it appears that the students who know techniques of speed-remembering and
use visual support achieve better results than the students who study with
traditional methods, this scientifically proved knowledge will help to convince
more teachers and methodologists to introduce these methods into a regular class
schedule.
4. We are the winners of Record of Guinness!
On the 27th of October 2007 at 2 p.m. the group of 22 students and a lecturer
from Tychy (Poland) established a new record in the longest English lesson
learned, that is 75 hours! They carried out a material of a one-year course in 3
days and nights. The previous record was hold by Indian students who set it in
2005 (73 hours 37 minutes).
The idea of that great challenge was to encourage young people to learn of
foreign languages. The longest lesson concerned basically English grammar (!)
Before the lesson has started some students were afraid of boredom and
tiredness. Fortunately, the lesson was very interesting and the only one problem
was not to fall asleep.
What is important concerning the visuaLearning project – many visual
techniques were used in order to keep the lesson engaging: puns, drawing, story
telling, mind mapping, films, presentations, relaxing music.
It seems that visual methods not only improve teaching and learning processes
but also are helpful in beating Guinness World Records…
(Information based on the material placed at
www.openschool.pll
Part 1 compiled by Dirk Stüber, DIE, Germany
Parts 2-4 compiled by Małgorzata Kacprzak, ITeE – PIB, Poland
Contacts::
Project-coordinator:
Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (DIE)
German Institute for Adult Education (DIE)
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 38 53113 Bonn
Germany
T (+) 49 228 3294-306
F (+) 49 228 3294-399
Contact person: Monika Tröster
Website: www.die-bonn.de/visual
Partner:
FiaTest Bucharest
FiaTest Group
Str. Transilvaniei 24
Sector 1 Bucharest
Romania
T (+) 40 21 312-1347
F (+) 40 21 312-2106
Contact person: Simona Gitu
Website: www.fiatest.ro
Instytut Technologii Eksploatacji
Państwowy Instytut Badawczy (ITeE-PIB)
Institute for Sustainable Technologies
National Research Institute
ul. Pulaskiego 6/10
26-600 Radom
Poland
T (+) 48 48 3644-241 ext: -205
F (+) 48 48 3644-760, 36447-65
Contact person: Malgorzata Kacprzak
Website: www.itee.radom.pl
National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA)
76 Lower Gardiner Street
Dublin 1
Ireland
T (+) 353 1 8099-191
F (+) 353 1 8555-475
Contact person: Fergus Dolan
Website: www.nala.ie
www.literacytools.ie (adult literacy
learning and tuition website)
Atrium
Research & Innovation Ltd
The Reflexion Foundation
Hofdwarsweg 12
6161 DD Geleen
The Netherlands
T (+) 31 46 4106-374
F (+) 31 46 4106-375
Contact person: Joost Thissen
Website: http://www.atriumbv.nl
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