KALEIDOSCOPE - Concepts and methods for exploring the future of learning with digital technologies
- Project type: Network of Excellence
- Start date: 1 January 2004
- Duration: 48 months
- EU funding: € 9.350.000
- Number of partners: 91
- Project co-ordinator: FIST, S.A. - France Innovation Scientifique et Transfert, Paris (FR)
- Contact: Mr. Joseph de Macedo
- Scientific project manager: Dr. Nicolas Balacheff, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble (FR)
KALEIDOSCOPE was funded as a Network of Excellence for establishing a coherent and strong European Research Area in the technology-enhanced learning domain. It adopted a multidisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective and contributed to shaping the scientific evolution of technology enhanced learning.
The network succeeded in integrating the leading research teams in the field and has created a community of more than 1 000 researchers, covering a large range of expertise from educational, social, cognitive and computational sciences. Among the project's activities were sharing of knowledge and tools, developing agreed vocabularies, a common theoretical framework and methodologies and identifying important research issues. Other issues were training of researchers, and exploring innovation and commercialisation of research.
The project was organised around a set of integrating actions such as 'Jointly Executed Integrating Research Projects', and the creation of 'European Research Teams' and 'Special Interest Groups'. The 'Shared Virtual Laboratory' helped members to share, exchange and re-use software, standards and techniques, and thus also promoted technical interoperability between learning environments and tools. One aim of the network was to link research to the commercial technology-enhanced learning market. An activity named 'Gateway' built pathways between the different stakeholders in this emerging marketplace. KALEIDOSCOPE also offered advanced training activities, through the 'Virtual Doctoral School' which gave students access to top researchers and other students all over Europe, exposing them to a wide range of knowledge.
The Users' Group was created as the network's main link with the world of educational practice. Its objective was to develop more effective ways of detecting users' needs and expectations, and to enhance dialogue and mutual understanding between research and the 'real world'. Key interests were the learners' attitudes, motivation, behaviour, values and context - all factors that deeply affect how people use technology and interact with others to learn collaboratively.