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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 …

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 …

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 …

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!

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 …

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/

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 …

On May 15th, the ERUM consortium met for the second 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 IO1 (reports on controversial topics represented in media), which is led by the University of Vienna and will be finalised this month. Furthermore, Vytautas Magnus University informed the partners about the progress of IO2, which focuses on guidelines for evidence-based communication. Other than being based on the research conducted in the framework of IO1, this second intellectual output builds on a survey targeted at journalists that will be conducted in the forthcoming months. Lastly, the consortium members continued …

To Cyprus Interaction Lab παρουσίασε το Arduino Webinar for Beginners που θα πραγματοποιήθηκε το Σάββατο 06/06/2020 στις 10:00-11:30 π.μ μέσω της πλατφόρμας Google Meet. Στόχος ήταν η επίδειξη της πλατφόρμας Arduino, δηλαδή μιας απλής πλακέτας ανοικτού κώδικα, η οποία μπορεί να προγραμματιστεί για να χρησιμοποιηθεί σε διαδραστικά έργα. Κρατήστε τη θέση σας ΤΩΡΑ!Δωρεάν συμμετοχή / Περιορισμένος αριθμός θέσεωνΓια δηλώσεις συμμετοχής μέσω Google Formhttps://forms.gle/HQg7zsmPrLUctTnk6 Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες σχετικά με το Webinar επικοινωνήστε με το email :eirinaios@www.cyprusinteractionlab.com

We have developed an interactive AR application for visualising and creative imaginaries for the area of Omirou Street and Fytoriou Street at Aglantzia Municipality allowing the public to influence the decision-making processes by creating their own visual material to discuss and comment on as part of our SUGAR project. More information available at the project page. We thank Harvard University and Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου | University Of Cyprus for a great collaboration. Social Computing Research Center – SCRC Cyprus University of Technology / Τεχνολογικό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου Δήμος Αγλαντζιάς – Aglantzia Municipality Με το ερευνητικό μας έργο SUGAR έχουμε αναπτύξει διαδραστική εφαρμογή για να οπτικοποιήσουμε την υφιστάμενη κατάσταση και προτάσεις για την περιοχή πρόσβασης της οδού Ομήρου στην οδό Φυτωρίου στο Δήμο Αγλαντζιάς επιτρέποντας στο κοινό να αποκτήσει ένα οπτικό μέσο έκφρασης και να προτείνει εναλλακτικές προτάσεις ενημερώνοντας τα κέντρα λήψης αποφάσεων και ενισχύοντας ψηφιακά τις διαδικασίες διαβούλευσης. Περισσότερες πληροφορίες στη σελίδα του έργου μας. Ευχαριστούμε το Harvard University και Πανεπιστήμιο …

Due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), CIL will not host any internships for Summer 2020. A small number of virtual internships will be hosted i.e., the intern completes a project in distance with some online supervision meetings.  A certificate for a successful internship will be awarded by the Director of the Lab. The Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL) offers 3-4 internships per year. We are looking to award 1-2 internships under CIL’s FeSTEM Project (http://festemproject.eu/).The CIL internship program allows undergraduate and graduate students as well as recent graduates to gain research/work experience by getting involved with ongoing activities of the Lab. CIL internships last for a period of 2-6 months and are completed under the supervision of a Lab member. FeSTEM Project internships will be supervised by Dr. Antigoni Parmaxi. CIL internships are unpaid internships. International applicants are encouraged to apply for external funding (e.g., Erasmus Student Mobility for Placements program that enables higher education …