STEAM PROJECT CLOSING EVENT
Multiplier event 5th June 2019
This multiplier event of STEAM project organized by Manzalab Group and hosted by Paris School of Business (PSB) was held on Wednesday 5th June 2019. Different kind of participants were interested by the subject of the multimodality: teachers, designers, students, researchers and pedagogical engineers. The event brought them together in a friendly and convivial atmosphere. Experiencing, coffee, lunch and conferences were proposed during the day. At the end, most of them said, “it was worth it”. For those who were unable to attend, this article summarizes the main points of the conference presented by STEAM project partners and invited speakers from all over Europe.
The STEAM project
The Plenary session began with a presentation of the STEAM project. Dr. Petros Lameras from Coventry University (UK) has returned to the meaning of multimodality. It consists of multiple modes to increase meaning making process efficiency. Each mode combines strategy, tool and location for various engagement levels. Petros explained the objective of STEAM: a project built around a serious game. The objective was to train teacher how to provide their students with interaction and contextual learning, multipurpose, fun and engagement. He continued his presentation with the description of the game purpose and mechanics. The in-game outcomes are different ways of designing and delivering multimodality. The game gives feedback to player and a scenario whose complexity is progressive. The core game mechanics offers multimodal cards to combine according to the learning objective.
Petros presented the results of the experimentations conducted during the project. The analysis of teacher feedback leads to the identification of 4 categories of teaching situations in which the serious game can provide support: (1) Learning diversity for increasing engagement and motivation; (2) Developing senses for attaining deeper understanding of the topic; (3) Students into the design of teaching for hands-on learning; (4) Supporting autonomy and self-directing through collaborative project. Depending on each category, some modalities are more interesting than others. For example when one aims engagement, it’s better to design a scenario that fosters debates, discussion in face-to-face, distant or blended learning. Dr. Petros Lameras showed the interest in having all these proposals online on a serious game to train teachers to explore their potential and imagine how they could be implemented with the students.
After introducing multimodality around the STEAM project, it was interesting to visualize it in different use cases.
Multimodal use cases
The use of serious games was described to increase awareness of energy consumption in households. This presentation was given by Dr. Panagiotis Petridis from Aston University (UK). The learning environment promotes sustainability and evolution of individuals’ behaviors. Dashboard are available to get tips, gain points and rewards. The objective was to improve the well-being while controlling energy consumption.
The plenary session went on with the presentation of Dr. Andrea Ceregini from ITD-CNR (Italy). He talked about a game to train teachers how to organize teaching activities. The game requirements were: no time to implement, no technology issues. With those requirements teachers can experiment 3 versions of the game: (1) paper version, (2) digital version, (3) and augmented version. He added that he is willing to integrate new testers to evaluate the game.
Then, we continued with games in basic skills training. The presentation was given by Rasmus Kristiansen from VUC Storstrom (Denmark). He focused on distance collaboration as a necessity. Collaboration and team building for remotely working teams were emphasized by Franziska Böhm from FHD (Germany). Here the video conference simulated face-to-face learning. Some strategies like role-playing, decision making, and team up challenges were helpful.
Lars Oertel and Madeleine Diab from AFBB (Germany) presented the virtual reality (VR) as a tool for enhancing the education of real estate agents in vocational training context. With 3D models for visualization of apartment, the experience is more realistic. The trainers can modify some elements of the environment. This proposition can reduce travelling time and expenses allocated for learning in company.
Minna Hassio and Maja-Terttu Viitala from SEDU (Finland) talked about various types of simulations for education and teaching. For example we had virtual campus/farm and virtual dishwasher in VR mode and collaborative meeting rooms in augmented reality (AR) mode. The objective was to reproduce situations that cannot be created every day like deeper learning experience, gameplay and competition.
Dr. Héger Gabteni from PSB (France) communicated about using VR serious game to teach marketing. She had shown how VR serious game can be used to build collaboration. At the end, Stéphane Adamiak and Dr. Stéphanie Philippe from Manzalab (France) emphasized the use of collaborative VR for education and training with Teemew Academy. This product is meant to be a toolbox for professionals.
As you can see, the multiplier event was rich of multicultural contributions. We saw different modes to educate and train teachers, their students at school and in a company for real estate agent to marketing. The event continued with workshop parallel sessions dedicated to experiencing, one as an escape room, inspired from STEAM game, to add the collaborative aspect of the multimodality. It was proposed by Dr. Danielle Bebey from Manzalab. In the second one the participants were invited to come, test and meet developers of projects like Neurostars to learn neuroanatomy. It was the occasion to test the STEAM serious game, virtual washing line and Teemew academy introduced earlier. The multimodality was therefore exposed and practiced through many facets. It was a day filled with learning opportunities.
