Our Spaces/Co-Spaces (aka "CoCreate")

CoCreat was an EU Lifelong Learning Project aimed at producing new solutions for promoting creative collaboration in terms of new and innovative learning models based on social media and mobile technology.

Creative collaboration is a multidisciplinary process where various problems are explored from novel perspectives and the result of collaboration is not defined beforehand (Sternberg,2006). The main idea is to develop and evaluate collaborative spaces for learners of different ages in order to promote creative collaboration. Collaborative spaces include the following ideas:

1) scripting collaborative learning models (Fisher,2007),
2) developing technology enhanced spaces to support creative collaboration and
3) modelling how learners of different ages collaborate in these spaces.

Five different collaborative spaces were explored: school children and digital storytelling during visits to museums etc, university students in Second Life, university students working internationally to create a e-handbook on technology enhanced learning, high school students and mature learners creating a poetry blog and elderly people learning to use iPads together.


PARTNERS

LEARNING AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH UNIT – UNIVERSITY OF OULU – FINLAND

LINNAEUS UNIVERSITY – VAXJÖ – SWEDEN

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – TRONDHEIM – NORWAY

VALAHIA UNIVERSITY OF TARGOVISTE – ROMANIA

TALLINN UNIVERSITY – ESTONIA

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL – UNITED KINGDOM

UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA – BARCELONA – SPAIN

KYMENLAAKSO UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES – FINLAND

The project results are:

1) models of how creative collaboration can be structured using notions of collaborative learning

2) promotion of creative collaboration with development of collaborative spaces using mobile technology and social media and

3) practical and methodological guidelines to support the design and evaluation of creative collaboration

Main impact will be to provide learners with the abilities to:

1) act in dynamic learning situations,

2) exploit technological solutions to support creative collaboration and

3) solve real-life problems in creative and collaborative ways.

Details are given in the freely downloadable project research report and the e-publication for practitioners, see the project website.