News

Celebrating one year of ERUM project: As we are one year into the project, we decided it is about time to look back at the milestones and what has been achieved despite the current COVID-19 crisis and give a summary of what is yet to come in the forthcoming months. Have a look at our first Newsletter!  

The European Commission is currently working to implement a comprehensive set of actions to tackle the spread and impact of online mis- and disinformation in Europe. These initiatives have particularly increased in the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to massive disinformation campaigns. This raises the broader question of disinformation and misinformation in the field of science. Public understanding of scientific key issues is indeed often limited and misinformation or even deliberate disinformation about the latter increasingly proliferate. What leads the public to believe false information? In this framework, we are organising an online conference that will take place on the 14th of December 2020 from 10am to 4:30pm. This event will bring together media professionals, academics and representatives from the EU institutions and will include exchanges and discussions on how universities and media professionals can learn from each other to increase the quality of information. Furthermore, the popularisation of scientific Read more…

There are a lot of amazing women working in the field of STEM. To acknowledge their career and achievements, FeSTEM is preparing an annual list of “FeSTEM Women: Next Door Mentors”. The call for nominations is now open. This is your chance to nominate someone you respect and admire! Do you know great women in STEM who should be included in our list? Is there someone with a fascinating career, which can inspire other female researchers? Let us know via https://forms.gle/1duAmtcGoSH8Lzvt6, tag us in your social media accounts and use hashtags #festemwomen, #nextdoormentor, #erasmus, #festemchallenge, #womeninstem, #festem. The following female researchers in STEM are eligible for nomination: Ph.D. student, postdoc, young professional, faculty member, entrepreneur. Feel free to submit as many names as you wish! (if you’d like to nominate multiple women, you will have to submit one form per nomination). Self-nominations are also welcomed! The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2021. We will announce the Read more…

On October 7th, the ERUM consortium met for the third time, but, due to the current public health crisis, the meeting was held on Zoom. It was chaired by Judith, Alessandra and Johanna from the University of Vienna.  During this productive day, the project partners discussed about already achieved milestones and about next important steps of the project. Internal management and dissemination strategies were addressed and the consortium discussed the progress of IO2 (guidelines for evidence-based communication), which is led by the University of Vienna and will be finalised by the end of 2020. Furthermore, Vytautas Magnus University presented the final draft of the survey to the partners and discussed a few points in order to finalise the survey which will be disseminated by the end of October. In preparation of the next IO the partner from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki informed the partners about the expected outputs and timeline Read more…

From the 15-17 October 2020 the #ErasmusDays initiative will be taking place across Europe and beyond, to celebrate the Erasmus+ programme. Cyprus Interaction Lab actively participates in the #erasmusdays and provides a sneak preview of the work produced in our Erasmus project #festem and #openlang.  FeSTEM The  Festem Erasmus+ project (https://festemproject.eu/) is celebrating the Erasmus Days 15-17 October 2020 with a number of events co-organised by all the consortium members!! Join us for a Social Cafè on the topic “Technology for Everyone” with @festemeuproject on October 15th, 2020, at 15:50 CET. Find out more: https://www.facebook.com/cesie.ngo/posts/10164259327355557 Openlang The #OPENLangNETWORK Erasmus+ project (https://www.openlangnet.eu/) is celebrating the Erasmus Days 15-17 October 2020 with a number of events co-organised by all the consortium members!! University of Macedonia (GR) (Coordinator)Cyprus University of Technology (CY)Open University (UK)PIXEL (IT) Join our OPENLang Network WEBINAR on October 16th, 2020 at 13:00CET-14:00 CET. Register here: shorturl.at/cirC8 Join our OPENLang Network platform here: https://openlang-network.kmi.open.ac.uk/ Take our survey on “Mapping Read more…

We are looking for a competent candidate to work on our newly funded project via CYENS and an amazing consortium of partners. Attractive salary based on skills and experience. Skills desired: Business/Innovation, Learning Innovation Hubs, Educational Technology & Design, Strong Digital Skills Details:3 years projects starting 01/01/2020 This Knowledge Alliance project builds on the idea that education is an unpredictable industry. If one is launching a startup in the Educational Technology (EdTech) niche, s/he needs to be prepared for the specific challenges that will face while attempting to enter into this market. At the same time the EdTech industry has exploded on a massive extent; the competition is huge and to stand out one must be unique in multiple ways. The ENTER project is at the forefront of this challenge, by improving the quality of entrepreneurship education around EdTech, bringing together academic and industrial partners with entrepreneurial experience and with expertise in Read more…

As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K‐12 schools and nonformal makerspaces, students have more opportunities to generate unique, personalized projects and artifacts, such as computer programs, robots, DIY electronics and to develop new competencies and skills. Digital making technologies if coupled with proper learning methodologies such as suggested by Constructivism (Piaget, 1974) and Constructionism (Papert & Harel, 1991) can provide learning experiences that promote young people’s creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving skills, the essential skills necessary in the workplace of the 21st century (21st C Skills). However, assessment of these higher order skills is not easy, particularly within these open-ended environments where students create unique solution paths to problems, interact with peers, and act in both the physical and digital worlds. Currently, digital technologies offer novel methods and solutions to assess the 21st century skills and offer insights to learners’ efforts and achievements that become available for Read more…

Jointly held under one management and one registration with HCI International 2021 http://2021.hci.international/lct Chairs Panayiotis Zaphiris (panayiotis.zaphiris@cut.ac.cy) Andri Ioannou (andri.i.ioannou@cut.ac.cy) 24-29 July 2021, Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington DC, USA The LCT conference, affiliated to HCI International conference, addresses theoretical foundations, design and implementation, as well as effectiveness and impact issues related to interactive technologies for learning and collaboration, including design methodologies, developments, and tools, theoretical models, instructional design, as well as technology adoption and use in formal and informal educational contexts. Submit your proposals! Please email andri@www.cyprusinteractionlab.com if you would like to organize a parallel session for LCT-HCII. HCII 2021: LCT Conference leaflet here

Στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος ReCOVer20 το οποίο επιχορηγείται από τον Οργανισμό Νεολαίας Κύπρου, πραγματοποιήθηκε η δράση «Δημιουργία ταινιών μικρού μήκους (animation videos) με παιδιά δημοτικού για τον διαμοιρασμό θετικών εμπειριών που απορρέουν από την περίοδο της καραντίνας».  Συντονίστρια της δράσης ήταν η κ. Νικολέττα Παντέλα, ερευνήτρια στο Cyprus Interaction Lab. Η δράση περιλάμβανε τρία βιωματικά εργαστήρια με παιδιά δημοτικού 9-12 ετών. Το πρώτο βιωματικό εργαστήριο αποσκοπούσε στην έκφραση των αρχικών συναισθημάτων των παιδιών για την περίοδο της καραντίνας. Στο δεύτερο βιωματικό εργαστήριο τα παιδιά εισήχθησαν στο εκπαιδευτικό λογισμικό Powtoon Pro με στόχο την εξοικείωσή τους αναφορικά με τις διάφορες λειτουργίες του. Κατά τη διάρκεια του τρίτου και τελευταίου βιωματικού εργαστηρίου τα παιδιά κλήθηκαν να δημιουργήσουν ταινίες μικρού μήκους (animation video) σε ομάδες, αξιοποιώντας το εκπαιδευτικό λογισμικό Powtoon Pro, προβάλλοντας τις θετικές εμπειρίες, ενδεχομένως καινούριες γνώσεις που έμαθαν ή νέες δεξιότητες και αντιλήψεις που ανέπτυξαν κατά τη διάρκεια της καραντίνας. Στην Read more…

Dr. Andri Ioannou is the Guest Editor for the upcoming Special Issue: Shifting to digital: Informing the rapid development, deployment and future of teaching and learning, in Educational Technology Research & Development.  This Special Issue is unique in that it will focus on multiple perspectives where respondent authors write about the implications of scholarship on addressing current challenges related to an increased focus of digital learning. The multiple perspectives include but are not limited to research, theory, design, practice (teaching or training), policy, culture and international angles.  Several ETR&D published manuscripts have been identified that have implications for online learning. We would like you to consider one of the manuscripts (listed below), select a perspective, and write a focused response to describe what works with going digital dealing the following constraints: Need to have useful ideas for flexible learning, online learning, learning disruption Disruption with limited resources, situation where you Read more…

A research project coordinated by the Cyprus University of Technology partnering with the University of Cyprus and Harvard University examined the potential of augmented reality in achieving sustainable urban governance. The project Sustainable Urban Governance through Augmented Reality (SUGAR – sugar.cyprusinteractionlab.com) has been successfully completed, responding to the key question: whether innovative technologies, and in particular augmented reality can help planning authorities that are looking for more efficient ways to involve the citizens in the decision-making process as well as citizens who want to have a say in the development of their urban environment. Researchers from the three universities studied best practices and focused on activities and methods for public participation in the decision-making process culminating in a planning participation framework and an application created exclusively for the research project with a case study offered by the Municipality of Aglantzia in the capital of Cyprus. The research team having concluded Read more…

Διεξάγουμε έρευνα για την λειτουργία εικονικής αναζήτησης (visual search) και με χρήση εργαλείων eye tracking (κάμερες καταγραφής οφθαλμικών κινήσεων) αναλύεται η ανταπόκριση του χρήστη σε αναζήτηση εικονικού τύπου πληροφορίας σε εικόνες. Έχει αναπτυχθεί μια πρωτότυπη ψηφιακή εφαρμογή η οποία θα χρησιμοποιήσει  ζεύγη εικόνων με έργα τέχνης προκειμένου μελετηθεί πώς ένας χρήστης παρατηρεί δύο συσχετιζόμενες εικόνες στην προσπάθειά του να ανακαλύψει τις συσχετίσεις. Κάμερες καταγραφής οφθαλμικών κινήσεων (eye tracker) πάνω στον υπολογιστή παρακολουθούν τις εστιάσεις των χρηστών της εφαρμογής με συχνότητα μερικά millisecond και  καταγράφουν με λεπτομέρεια πώς λειτουργεί η διαδικασία της οπτικής αντίληψης (visual perception).   Προκειμένου να συγκεντρωθεί το πληροφοριακό υλικό που θα δώσει πειστικές απαντήσεις στα ερωτήματα της μελέτης, διεξάγεται έρευνα με συμμετοχή χρηστών από το  Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών και το Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου. Έχει ετοιμαστεί ένα doodle με time-slots για να πάρουμε users από την Λεμεσό. 27/7 Δευτέρα: 10:00 – 19:00 28/7 Τρίτη: 10:00 – 13:00 29/7 Τετάρτη 10:00 – 13:00 30/7 Πέμπτη: 10:00 – 13:00 και 17:00 με Read more…

Second partner meeting of the FeSTEM project once again united the partners from Cyprus University of Technology / Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου and ARIS from Cyprus, Ic Geoss from Slovenia, Magenta Consultoría Projects from Spain, CESIE from Italy and University of Macedonia from Greece – this time online. The participants have discussed the progress of the project so far, milestones achieved, and agreed upon the future steps. We thank everyone for the participation and hope that our next meeting will be in person!

Despite the great challenges that Covid-19 brought, this milestone of our ERUM Project has now been achieved thanks to the great dedication and intensive cooperation of all project partners. We are all the more pleased to be able to announce the publication of a general report and five case studies on the subject of mis – and disinformation which deal with controversial topics such as the 5G Network, the outbreak of Covid-19, climate change and reporting on migration and refugees. In the individual case studies, at least 30 newspaper articles (from national as well as international periodicals) were examined with regard to mis- and disinformation, which all lead to different results. For example, while in the case study about 5G, about a third of the selected articles misrepresented the subject by disinforming (intentionally spreading misleading information), the number was significantly less for the reports concerning coronavirus and climate change skepticism. Read more…

Stage 1 (Teacher training) of the EIT Climate-KIC Young Innovators programme was successfully completed on Tuesday 30th of June 2020.  The training sessions were designed and delivered by members of the teams of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and the Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA) with the support of CYENS (Research Centre of Excellence in Cyprus focusing on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies). The team includes: Stelios Yiatros (Project Manager), Andri Ioannou (CUT, CYENS), Nicoletta Pantela (CUT), Elpida Georgiou (CUT), Eleni Loulli (CUT), Aphrodite Magou (CUT), Soulla Karra (CEA) and Andreas Pastides (CEA). A total of 21 secondary education teachers participated in the training. They come from private and the public schools and have various teaching specializations (e.g. Geography, Science, Chemistry, Biology, Design & Technology). Our trained teachers plan to implement the programme with their students during the upcoming September/October (Stage 2 of YI Cyprus). In particular, the first training session took place online on June Read more…

Members of the EdMedia Multidisciplinary Research Group (MRG) and the Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL) participated at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020), held between June 19th and 23rd, 2020 with the following paper presentations:  Ioannou, M, Ioannou, A., Georgiou, Y. & Retalis, S. (In press). Designing and orchestrating the classroom experience for technology-enhanced embodied learning. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020). Nashville, USA. Socratous, C., & Ioannou, A. (In press). Common errors, successful debugging, and engagement during block-based programming using educational robotics in elementary education. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2020). Nashville, USA. The conference this year took a virtual form, due to the COVID pandemic. More information about the ICLS conference 2020 can be found at the official conference website: https://icls2020.org/

Members of the EdMedia Multidisciplinary Research Group (MRG) and the Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL) participated at the 6th International Immersive Learning Research Network conference (iLRN 2020), held between June 21st and 25th, 2020 with the following work-in-progress presentation:  -Georgiou, Y., Tsivitanidou, O., Eckhardt, C. & Ioannou, A. (In press). Work-in-progress: A learning experience design for immersive virtual reality in Physics classrooms. Conference Proceedings of the 6th International Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN 2020). The theme of this year’s conference was Vision 20/20: Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight in XR and Immersive Learning, while due to the COVID pandemic the iLRN conference was held in Virbela Open Campus and AltSpaceVR, taking a fully virtual form. More information about the iLRN conference 2020 can be found at the official conference website: https://immersivelrn.org/ilrn2020/

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to various new ways of perceiving and understanding important public health data. Several exciting new methods for relaying complex information to the public have emerged using a variety of tools and platforms including visualizations (called sims), interactive augmented reality (AR) overlays, and interactive data platforms, among others.    This will be a collection of short articles (1000-3000 words – e.g., Perspectives, Methods, etc.) that highlight creative, new tools and their contributions to our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic.    The editorial team is flexible about the format and content in these articles, but we encourage the inclusion of multimedia elements and links showcasing the sims or platforms. Along with the short manuscript, we ask for an accompanying URL so that readers can access and experience the sim and interactive data platforms.     I also want to highlight that Frontiers’s senior management decided to waive the Read more…

Tο Cyprus Interaction Lab σας προσκαλεί να συμμετάσχετε στο Second 3D Modeling Webinar for Beginners που θα πραγματοποιηθεί τo Σάββατο 27/06/2020 απο τις 10:00-13:00 μ.μ. μέσω της πλατφόρμας Zoom.   Το σεμινάριο αυτό απευθύνεται κυρίως σε φοιτητές αλλά και οποιοδήποτε άλλο άτομο ενδιαφέρεται να ασχοληθεί με το τρισδιάστατο σχεδιασμό. Στόχος μας είναι να γίνει επίδειξη του σχεδιαστικού λογισμικού SolidWorks για τον σχεδιασμό ποικίλων τρισδιάστατων μοντέλων ώστε να βοηθήσει τους χρήστες να αναπτύξουν την ιδέα τους σε κάθε στάδιο σχεδιασμού και ανάπτυξης ενός προϊόντος, από την ιδέα μέχρι και την δημιουργία πρωτότυπων.    ΣημείωσηΔεν είναι απαραίτητο να γίνει εγκατάσταση του λογισμικού για να παρακολουθήσετε το webinar αλλά μπορείτε να δημιουργήσετε λογαριασμό στην ιστοσελίδα https://my.solidworks.com/try-solidworks.   Κρατήστε τη θέση σας ΤΩΡΑ! Δωρεάν συμμετοχή / Περιορισμένος αριθμός θέσεων   Για δηλώσεις συμμετοχής μέσω Google Form https://forms.gle/74EvojvHheh1qhkb6