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LEVERAGE News No 5, February 1999

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Conference report

Philippa Wright, Head of Information Services at the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research in London Philippa Wright, Head of Information Services at the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research in London, gives a brief account of the LEVERAGE symposium on Collaborative learning and working over networks.

To mark the completion of the 3rd international trials of the LEVERAGE system and the end of a successful and challenging project, the LEVERAGE consortium invited colleagues from the technical, pedagogical, industrial and academic communities to join them at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) from 10-11 December 1998 for a symposium on Collaborative learning and working over networks.

The event was hosted by the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación (ETSI). The school's Director Jesús Sánchez Miñana told participants in his welcoming address that ETSI has been training telecommunications engineers since the end of the 19th century, making it the oldest institution of its kind in Spain with the largest Research and Development programme in the field.

The symposium included: plenary sessions with expert speakers; workshops; an exhibition; hands-on demonstrations of the LEVERAGE system with live links to Institut National des Télécommunications in Evry; presentations of related projects and research via videoconference from Chile and Peru as well as a sherry reception and plenty of opportunity for informal exchanges of ideas and opinions.

The opening and closing plenary sessions outlined the opportunities and challenges of Collaborative learning and working over networks. Christoph Zähner from the University of Cambridge opened the symposium with a paper on 'The design of network-based distributed learning systems'. He presented how these new ways of collaborating (eliminating many of the hurdles of distance and time) are perfectly suited to a task-based, communicative approach where 'learning is about sharing and developing information with another person or group of people' rather than the transfer of knowledge from one expert to one (or many) novices. He showed how these technology-enhanced developments in pedagogy challenge the status quo in terms of social structures and administration, setting up semi-permanent social entities often independent of established infrastructures. This in turn calls for new institutions, structures, and skilled professionals to provide and manage the necessary information and systems. His paper sparked discussion on the nature of 'canonical knowledge', the responsibility of existing institutions associated with learning such as libraries as well as the changing role of teachers and students.

In the concluding plenary presentation Juan Quemada, a senior lecturer from the telematics department of UPM took up the challenge of 'Looking towards the future'. He started from the premise that, increasingly, high speed networks make it easier for us to move information than to move people. He predicted that our learning and working environments will continue the trend to 'subsitute person-driven activities with information-driven activities'. He highlighted how the use of groupware, the Internet and the automation of work flow processes have already had a big impact on organisations and even our everyday lives. His research in the field and experience over many years, including heading the ISABEL project (http://isabel.dit.upm.es) which handled the distributed videoconferencing and interactive sessions worldwide during Expo '98, has convinced Juan Quemada that the main challenge for those involved with Collaborative learning and working over networks is real-time interactive collaboration. This in turn raises two major issues to be resolved: the provision of more suitable networks; and more user-friendly service platforms.

On behalf of the LEVERAGE consortium I would like to thank all those who took part in the symposium helping make it a stimulating and enjoyable event, especially our hosts the Telecommunications Department (DIT) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Pictured: Philippa Wright of CILT (left), Encarna Pastor, professor at UPM (centre) and Carlos Pires from the European Commission (right)

Summaries of papers from the 1st LEVERAGE Conference.

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Last updated 1st June 1999
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