D1.1.2(update 2)
Dissemination & Use Plan update 2:
End of year 2
1. Continuous market assessment
There are two areas where competition exists. First, in terms of student modelling, the
obvious market competitor is SQUEAK, developed by Alan Kay and his collaborators. We
have entered into discussion with at least one SQUEAK developer (at MIT), and it is clear
that while the over-arching objectives are similar, the style of interaction, the nature of the
modelling language, and the pedagogical approach, are interestingly different. Nevertheless,
given that SQUEAK is a development of a system that is 25 years old, we cannot pretend that
WebLabs has yet reached a similar degree of maturity.
In terms of the Web Reports, an obvious competitor, is Marleen Scardamalia’s collaborative
web system, known as ‘knowledge forum’. This Canadian initiative has shared ideas with
ourselves, and we have had two meetings with Scardamalia herself. One clear point of
difference is on our emphasis on the modelling process, an approach which differs from
theirs, which focuses more explicitly on the scientific ideas themselves.
In both these respects, we are keeping the situation under review. Professor Noss has been
invited to a symposium at MIT where the latest developments in student modelling languages
– and in particular Kay’s work on SQUEAK - will be reviewed in the light of recent
developments. Unfortunately Professor Noss is unable to attend but Professor Papert, who is
organising the symposium is engaged in one-to-one discussion with him on this question. We
hope that the fruits of this discussion will feed into the final year of the WebLabs project.
2. Dissemination of technical and scientific results
We continue to disseminate through the usual channels of seminars, conferences, papers etc.
In addition, we have held several collaborative meetings, the two most important of which are
specified in section 1 above. Elsewhere in the six monthly reports, we itemize our meetings
and our presentations. Links to published papers are on the WebLabs website.
This year, our website has ‘come of age’. It contains a very full account of the project aims,
the participants, the different knowledge domains and an extensive password protected
members area, in which the web reporting takes place. This last element has excited
considerable attention from educational stake-holders, and we have reason to believe that this
will be one of the lasting outcomes of the project on which future learning initiatives will be
built. We are in the process of writing reports and papers on this issue.
Dissemination and use plan update2
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Please see below statistics documenting the usage of the WebLabs site from September 2003
to August 2004.
Summary by Month
Month
Aug 2004
Jul 2004
Jun 2004
May 2004
Apr 2004
Mar 2004
Feb 2004
Jan 2004
Dec 2003
Nov 2003
Oct 2003
Sep 2003
Daily Avg
Hits
Files
Pages
Monthly Totals
Visits
Sites
KBytes
Visits
Pages
Files
Hits
377
301
174
53
606
205609
1064
3481
6020
7557
385
307
175
54
794
561495
1677
5430
9524
11956
413
341
177
58
872
318068
1757
5328
10246
12391
509
413
171
75
1929
420559
2345
5326
12810
15793
498
357
175
86
2027
299953
2597
5267
10737
14956
454
359
165
80
1965
336648
2492
5118
11159
14080
599
464
155
45
987
494977
1262
4360
13003
16783
453
375
104
34
334
441197
828
2504
9015
10886
404
323
186
42
458
521310
1260
5603
9713
12142
416
331
141
34
481
151441
1035
4230
9934
12483
799
626
267
44
499
295754
1389
8294
19431
24770
1056
863
202
39
442
793501
1192
6076
25891
31698
4840512
18898
61017
147483
185495
Totals
Dissemination and use plan update2
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Conferences attended and Papers published by partners in Months 13-24 (as recorded
in the Progress Reports Months 13-24)
Conferences attended:
E. Sendova & Y. Mor: ToonTalking About Mathematics, In I. Derzhanski, H. Dimitrova, S.
Grozdev, E. Sendova (Eds) History and Education in Mathematics and Informatics,
Attracting Talent to Science, Proceedings of the International Congress MASSEE 2003,
September 15-21, 2003, Borovets, Bulgaria p. 36-44, Macibu Gramata, Riga, LV, ISBN
9984-725-88-X
Portuguese partners: Challenges 2003: III International Conference about Comunication and
Information Technologies on Education, 17 - 19 September 2003, Centro de Competências
Nónio Sec. XXI da Universidade do Minho Braga, Portugal. Poster: O Projecto WebLabs:
New Representational Infrastructures for E-learning - Cultivando Comunidades de Prática
com a Publicação de Web-Reports. Paper: Cultivating Communities of Practice Within
Project WebLabs
Portuguese partners: Profmat 2003: XIX Nacional Meeting of Maths Teachers, 19 - 21
November 2003, Santarém, Portugal. APM - Associação de Professores de Matemática.
Paper: Projecto WebLabs: new representational infrastructures for e-learning
Portuguese partners: XIV SIEM: Seminar of Mathematic Investigation and Education, 17 18 November 2003, Santarém, Portugal. APM - Associação de Professores de Matemática.
Poster: O Projecto WebLabs:New Representational Infrastructures for E-learning - o diálogo
das TIC com a Matemática; Paper: Aprendizagem como participação em Comunidades de
Prática – o exemplo da encriptação no Projecto WebLabs; Paper: Investigando números com
o uso das TIC na Matemática Escolar: o exemplo do uso do Toontalk no Projecto WebLabs.
E. Sendova, G. Gachev, L. Moneva. Illustrating the notion of infinity in an environment for
visual programming, A report in front of the Section: "Education in Mathematics and
Informatics” at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, BAS, Sofia. December, 2003.
Portuguese partners: 3º Simpósio: Mathematic and Sciences Teaching, 8 - 10 January 2004.
Education Department of Faculty of Science University of Lisbon, Portugal. Paper:
Aprendizagem e Desenvolvimento Profissional dos Professores como Participação em
Projectos de Investigação e Desenvolvimento: Reflexão sobre o caso do Projecto WebLabs
J. Tholander: Invited to participate at the Datafest´04 Symposium January 16-19 organised by
Tim Koschmann at the Text, Discourse and Cognition Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
http://litd.psch.uic.edu/assoc/wintertext/ presenting material from the children’s work with
the Ecoliteracy TMs
C. Hoyles, and R. Noss "The weblabs project". CINVESTAV symposium: Mexico, March
2004
M. Papaevripidou, M. Hadjiagapiou & C. P. Constantinou: CASTME International &
CASTME Europe Conference, Cyprus, 15-18 April 2004. Presentation entitled ‘The
development of conceptual understanding, procedural skills and epistemological awareness
Dissemination and use plan update2
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among 13-14 year olds through the use of a computer programming environment in the
context of 1-D collisions’.
R. Noss, C. Hoyles: AERA 2004, San Diego, California, 12-16 April 2004. Various
presentations. AERA is the most prominent international professional organization with the
primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application. Its 20,000
members are educators; administrators; directors of research, testing or evaluation in
federal, state and local agencies; counselors; evaluators; graduate students; and behavioral
scientists. The broad range of disciplines represented by the membership includes
education, psychology, statistics, sociology, history, economics, philosophy, anthropology,
and political science.
At the 2004 conference Professors Noss and Hoyles engaged with the main researchers
involved in Computer Supported Collaborative learning, sharing experiences of building
platforms to support learning at a distance and the main challenges in terms of methodology
and teacher development. Key contacts included Prof. Roy Pea, Stanford University; Dr.
Jeremy Roschelle, IRL Paulo Alto; Ricky Goldman, New Jersey Institute of Technology
and Dr. Marcia Linn, University of Berkeley, California. One outcome of this discussion
was the study visit arranged to Stanford for July and August 2005, to further our
collaboration with IRL and Stanford.
Profs. Hoyles and Noss presented the major discussant session in a symposium chaired by
Professor Uri Wilensky (Northwestern Chicago), entitled 'Networking and complexifying
the science classroom: Students simulating and making sense of complex systems using the
HubNet networked architecture'. This session was originally due to be taken by Seymour
Papert who withdrew some months before the conference. Their presentation, reacting to
the various papers presented, was structured round WebLabs, and was extremely well
received.
K. Kahn: Paper (about ToonTalk, but with brief description of WebLabs) entitled ‘The ChildEngineering of Arithmetic in ToonTalk’. Published in the proceedings of the IDC 2004 June
2004 – see http://www.toontalk.com/Papers/idc04.pdf . Also at IDC 2004 Ken gave a tutorial
that is about 20% WebLabs (and the rest pure ToonTalk).
J. Tholander, Y. Fernaeus, J. Holmberg: Poster accepted for ICLS 04, June 22-26, 2004.
“Tangible programming and role play program execution for kids”,
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~icls/
K. Kahn. New Zealand Game Developers Conference, University of Otago, Dunedin, New
Zealand, 26-29 June 2004. Invited talk http://www.nzgdc.org.nz/index.php?mod=schedule
where WebLabs was 1 or 2% of the talk.
M. Papaevripidou, M. Hadjiagapiou and C. P. Constantinou. 1st International Hands on
Science Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 5-9 July 2004. Presented paper entitled ‘The Use of
a Programming Environment to Promote Conceptual Understanding, Modeling Skills and
Epistemological Awareness Among 13th and 14th Year Olds in the Domain of 1-D
Collisions’.
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R. Noss, C. Hoyles, J. F. Matos: ICME 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4-11 July 2004. R.
Noss presented a regular lecture entitled ‘Designing a learnable mathematics’, and a paper on
the role and use of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics which focused on
the WebLabs ‘Guess my robot’ game. He also chaired a round table discussion on these
issues. C. Hoyles presented a regular lecture entitled ‘Reflections and transformations’ and a
paper on learning and cognition in mathematics. J. F. Matos gave a presentation outlining the
WebLabs project.
Professors Hoyles and Noss were visiting Professors at Stanford University over the summer
and engaged in discussions there, in particular with Dr Jeremy Roschelle at SRI, whose work
has intersected considerably with that of WebLabs.
Other presentations/publications:
L. Moneva: "Mathematical modeling in a visual programming environment" Presentation of
the WebLabs project and Toon Talk environment by Liliana Moneva, Weblabs teacher at the
annual teachers seminar in "Academia 21 Century", Plovdiv, 22.09.2003.
Italian partner: 30 and 31 October 2003. WebLabs booth at the Genoa's Science Festival
(featuring Randomness activities). A report on this is published here:
http://www.weblabs.org.uk/wlplone/Members/augusto/my_reports/Report.2003-11-10.4237
This is a large event held in preparation of a more ambitious for next year were we plan to be
present as well with a larger exhibit.
L.Moneva: Demonstration of ToonTalk and WebLabs website and virtual environment at the
quarterly parent-teacher meeting, "Academia 21 Century", Plovdiv, October, 2003.
J. Tholander & Y. Fernaeus: A Presentation at the Environmental Research Day organised by
Center for Trans-Disciplinary Environmental Research see
http://www.ctm.su.se/index.php?group_ID=592 was conducted 6 November 2003.
E. Sendova, G. Gachev, I. Nikolova. Preparation (through Dec 2003 to Jan 2004) of a TV
WebLabs project presentation with focus on elearning. Part of a new TV series on elearning.
To be broadcast on 6 March, 2004.
Portuguese partners: Progress Through Continuity - Meeting for IST Projects in Technology
Enhanced Learning, organisation by Directorate E - Interfaces, Knowledge Content
Technologies, Applications, Information Market, Feb 04, Luxembourg.
K. Kahn: Chapter in ToonTalk – ‘Steps Towards Ideal Computer-Based Learning
Environments’ in The Future of Learning II, Sharing Representations and Flow, in
Collaborative Learning Environments, edited by Mario Tokoro and Luc Steels. IN PRESS
Y. Mor, C. Hoyles, K. Kahn, R. Noss & G. Simpson: Thinking in Process (paper looking at
children’s collaborative work on number domain activities). To be published in Micromath
Journal Summer 2004.
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Nikolova, G. Gachev: Workshop “WebLabs: A virtual elearning environment”, 30 April – 2
May, Gyoletchitza, Bulgaria. Within a series of scientific sessions devoted to the Department
of IT 20-anniversary.
E. Sendova, I. Nikolova: WebLabs: Integrated learning of math, science and informatics. In
Journal of Mathematics and Informatics Education (abstract accepted, the full paper is under
preparation). 2004
R. Noss. University of KREMS, Austria, June 2004. Presented lecture on current research
projects, including WebLabs.
K. Kahn. July 2004, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. 2 talks where
WebLabs was 10 or 20% of what he covered.
Future plans (further plans will be elaborated at our project meeting on 19 September)
M. Papaevripidou, M. Hadjiagapiou & C. P. Constantinou: ECER 2004, Crete Main
Conference, 22–25 September 2004. Presentation entitled ‘The use of a programming based
environment to promote conceptual understanding, modelling skills and epistemological
awareness among 13th and 14th year olds while studying 1-D collision phenomena’.
Y. Mor: CSCL symposium in Kaleidoscope, Lausanne, Switzerland, October 7 - 9, 2004.
Presenting paper entitled ‘Good stories to good maths: pathways from the imaginative to the
paradigmatic’.
3. Exploitation planning
We are highly sensitive to the need to develop a plan which will exploit the findings of the
project. The first step is to carry out an 'Exploitable Materials Audit', which the commercial
partner has agreed to undertake during the first part of the final year. This will focus on
clarifying the following:

What material is there available, and in what forms?

To whom is that material directed (teachers, students etc.)?

What rights are associated with those materials? (where those rights may be a barrier to
exploitation)
This will be begun following the revue meeting in Lisbon – September/October 2004
It will yield a comprehensive matrix of materials that will inform the final exploitation plan.
When the 'Exploitable Materials Audit' has been completed, the commercial partner will
decide exactly what can be done in terms of commercial exploitation. This will be in the form
of a draft proposal and will need to be completed by end January 2005.
Dissemination and use plan update2
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Following discussion and the agreement of the consortium partners this draft plan will be
turned into an 'Editing and Implementation' plan which will likely stretch beyond the life of
the Weblabs Project itself occupying the timeframe – 2005/6
There has never been greater competition for teacher 'mindshare'. Teachers are bombarded
from all sides with materials, and in order to successfully propagate your ideas, they have to
be presented in an 'accessible' and 'professional' form.
The biggest cost is that of effectively marketing your ideas to make people aware of what we
have done. There are many examples of materials that have been produced, but because they
have been packaged ineffectively, they never become used, because most people never
discover that they even exist.
Effective packaging ensures ideas 'copy' themselves more successfully throughout the teacher
community. Logotron is highly specialised and has a track record of success in carrying out
this difficult task. It should minimise 'barriers to transmission' for the powerful educational
ideas that are central to the project.
WebLabs Anticipated Outcomes
When considering the items in the 'Exploitable Materials Audit' we use the following criteria

Is there any potential demand for the material?

Can it be repackaged in an accessible form so teachers and pupils outside the project can
effectively make use of it?
During the planning of the project, the commercial partner presented the following outcomes
as being the likeliest areas for potential exploitation.
-1
Server structure + application layer for the structured support of collaborative enquiry –
suitable for age range 9 – 16
Portable
Reliable
Extensible
Language neutral
-2
Printed teachers supporting documentation for Toontalk. Thanks to the guidance materials
on the website, and the activity sequences that already exist (and are currently being
updated), there is a substantial amount of material that can be used as sources for this aspect
of the exploitation.
Access to structured and explicit Maths and Science TM’s + associated supporting material
for teachers
Dissemination and use plan update2
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-3
Polishing and refining of the core TT 'tool' component resources (behaviours)
Activity Explanations - visual sequences of what to do when beginning an activity
As the project progresses, these initial suggestions still seem to be a valid set of potential
outcomes for exploitation.
There is already a consortium agreement section in the original contract, setting out clearly
the commercial terms under which materials produced by the project can be commercially
exploited.
Data on teacher and student use
The production of WebReports has exploded over the last 6 months. The following data has
already been reported, in the 19-24 progress report, but we reproduce it here in order to
illustrate the take-up of the WebReports system and its upward trajectory during this period.
Topic
Patterns & Sequences
Ecoliteracy
Randomness
Infinity
Collisions
Force & Acceleration
Convergence & Divergence
General
No. of reports
108
7
83
3
24
0
4
265
Breakdown of reports by contents:
Reports by researchers
Reports by children
Reports including images
Reports including applets
Reports including ToonTalk objects
Reports including Excel objects
Reports with comments
Reports with comments by researchers
Reports with comments by children
Reports with comments from other sites
Group reports
Dissemination and use plan update2
277
217
116
11
173
1
149
102
87
31
23
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