Keynote at the PDW for the PDW for eTwinning Ambassadors, Rhodes, Greece

1. Innovation paths
in technology-mediated human networks
Petros KAVASSALIS, UAegean
pkavassalis@atlantis-group.gr

2.  Technology transforms the social and operational environment of the teaching
and learning process
 Tech Trends
 2 Tech Trends, I specifically focus
 Dynamic network-embedded learning
 Computer assisted project-based learning
 The growth of technology-mediated human networks
 … is the driving force!
 Paths of innovation and challenges
What is about this presentation?
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3. Dynamic network-embedded learning
 Openness
 Non-restricted access to knowledge and information
 Collaboration based on knowledge and experience sharing and transparency
 Open education
 Open educational resources
 Access to institutions-based learning
OpenCourseWare and MOOCs
Millions of people from around the globe are massively signing to Coursera, edX,
Udacity etc…
 Disruption in current forms of teaching and learning
 … New forms of digital social-learning environments (think of what happened with the
social networks and the interpersonal communications)
 Flexible, personalized, study patterns and mix-and-match learning programs
 Network embedded learning and education
 Very dynamic configurations…
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4. Computer assisted project-based learning
 Project-based learning also re-modeled
 Today, digital technology supports project communities to
 gather data
 conduct research and product development
 manage and keep record of their work,
 interact with others within and outside of the project community
 share outputs with the external world
 Digital-driven project-based learning will accelerate the use of Digital Teaching
Platforms v2.0, 3.0 etc…
 … Interactive whiteboard bundled with tools of immersive and augmented reality
 Fast industrialization of the process…
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5. Education cannot be the exception
 The increasing use of social media reveals the big power of technology-mediated
social participation
 Leads to significant changes in the way industry, government, healthcare institutions,
banks, media etc. organize and operate
 The technology evolution never stops to transform the existing world
 From the photocopiers...
 … to WWW
 To the “contribution of the many”! (… where eTwinning is)
 Now, we reach the next-next horizon of IT evolution: Efficient by design!
 The possibility to design technology-mediated human networks
 Make social participation more efficient and increase individual engagement,
productivity, and networked community welfare.
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6. Efficient by design! Examples…
 Xerox Park’s Technology-Mediated Social Participation Systems & p2pValue
 Develop interface designs that develop adaptive user experience
 Design mechanisms that lower the barriers of entry in an online community for new and
peripheral members, and promote mobility within the community…
 MIT Connection Science
 Technology-mediated human networks have a huge management potential
“Consuming” social influence avec moderation, they have concluded, does matters
for the good!
If one can influence the flow of ideas between the nodes of a learning network, and
hence fine-tune the network structure, it is possible to increase individual
performance and obtain better overall results!!!
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7. Conclusion I
① Data tell us very important things for the behavior of individuals within online
communities
② Sharing these data may help to design better policies for engagement and
productivity, and improve the performance of learning networks
 eTwinning project has the potential to play big
 … if you systematically work on the measurement and design of the learning capacity of
your community
 I know data collection and exploration is a very demanding job
Do more together! Do more and more cross-border online work!
A major constraint for cross-border collaboration has removed with the deployment
of STORK 2.0 | eIDAS, the pan-european infrastructure for electronic identity
authentication
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8. Conclusion II
① Our education systems are under increasing and radical pressure to reform
existing models and practices
② From this turmoil, new learning models will come out and a shift from learning
hierarchies to learning communities will emerge and eventually prevail…
③ A new wave of breakthrough innovation promoting ultra decentralized systems,
such as for example the Social Linked Data, the Blockchain and other, will create
the next-new opportunities for efficient learning collaboration…
 The challenge now is to learn how to design better ICT-based learning systems by
integrating these innovative design models, with solid and open source code, and
lessons learned from practice!
 The participation of eTwinning in this is highly important…
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