Media Cognition and Learning Research Group

Tuesday May 21st, 2019

Combating Misinformation Through Media Literacy Conference

The Media Learning and Cognition Research Group is pleased to announce the “Combating Misinformation Through Media Literacy” Conference, which aims to raise awareness…

The Media Learning and Cognition Research Group is pleased to announce the “Combating Misinformation Through Media Literacy” Conference, which aims to raise awareness on the role of thinking about the media critically, as well as to provide tools that enable critical thinking about the online media we use. The Conference will feature panel discussions with distinguished speakers that will be open to the public, interactive activities for students, and training workshops for teachers, journalists, youth (ages 18 – 24), and policymakers.

The event is co-organized by the Cyprus University of Technology, the European-funded project Co-Ιnform, the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus, supported by Press and Information Office.

The Conference will take place at the premises of the Cyprus University of Technology on Friday and Saturday, June 7 & 8. Participation is free of charge but registration will be open until May 31.

Workshops will be organized for elementary school students, youth (ages 18-24), school teachers, journalists, fact-checkers, and policymakers. Spaces are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and pre-registration is required. Participation is free of charge. The students and teachers’ workshops will be conducted in Greek; workshops for journalists and policymakers, as well as panel discussions, will be conducted in English.

More information about the event can be found on the conference website http://medialiteracy.cut.ac.cy/.

Wednesday April 3rd, 2019

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MCL publication: The Impact of Materiality on the Design of Mobile, Augmented Reality Learning Environments in Non-formal, Outdoors Settings

The work of MCL Director, Eleni Kyza, and former MCL member, Yiannis Georgiou, has been recently published by Springer in the book “Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Learning and Teaching with Technologies”, edited by Teresa Cerratto Pargman and Isa Jahnke.

The chapter is titled “The Impact of Materiality on the Design of Mobile, Augmented Reality Learning Environments in Non-formal, Outdoors Settings”. In this chapter the authors discuss the socio-material aspects of effective learning with mobile Augmented Reality technologies in non-formal and outdoor learning conditions and emphasize that, as the field is still new, there is a need to consider optimal designs to enable and facilitate student learning.

The full citation of the chapter is:

Kyza, E. A., & Georgiou, Y. (2019). The Impact of Materiality on the Design of Mobile, Augmented Reality Learning Environments in Non-formal, Outdoors Settings. In T.C. Pargman & I. Jahnke (Eds) Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Learning and Teaching with Technologies (pp. 183-197). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-10764-2

The book explores the complexities of interacting with digital technologies in the everyday flow of practices in schools, museums, and the home. This effort first begun at the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning conference (CSCL) workshops, “Changing Teaching and Learning Practices in Schools with Tablet-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Nordic, European and International Views” and the workshop “Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Tablet-mediated Collaborative Learning and Teaching”.

You can find the full content of the chapter and the book online.

Update 02/11/2020: Read an insightful review of the book “Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Learning and Teaching with Technologies” by Ylva Lindberg

Friday March 22nd, 2019

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Internet of Things workshop at the 4th National Conference “Chemistry in Education”

The Media, Cognition, and Learning (MCL) Research Group successfully carried out the workshop entitled “Internet of Things – Atmospheric Air” during the 4th National Conference “Chemistry in Education” which took place on Saturday, March 16th, 2019, at the University of Cyprus, Nicosia.

The workshop was attended by secondary school chemistry teachers, who had the opportunity to learn about the learning module “Applications of the Internet of Things in Education: The Relationship of pollutants with the quality of the air”. The driving question of this learning module has students engaging in IOT-related, inquiry learning activities using mobile devices. The workshop leaders shared their experiences from the pilot implementations of the module with 35 high school students. The learning module was collaboratively developed by members of the MCL group and the IoT Lab both at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies. The learning module represents an innovative effort to introduce IOT technologies into science teaching, and chemistry education in particular.

If you are interested in implementing the learning module “Internet of Things – Atmospheric Air” in your class, you can have access the learning materials by contact us!

Thursday March 7th, 2019

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Co-inform: Fighting misinformation New research grant at the CUT

Although the phenomenon of misinformation is not new, it has taken on major political and social dimensions due to the role of online social media and the impact of the Internet on the dissemination of information. The Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology, as the first academic department of its kind in Cyprus, contributes to the effort to explore ways of addressing misinformation by participating as a partner in the “Co-creating Misinformation Resilient Societies” (grant agreement 770302) funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.

Co-inform, which received a grant of more than 4 million euros for three years (2018-2021), brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and experts in computer science, behavioural science, and social sciences, in an effort to fight misinformation through the development of digital tools for identifying fake news, understanding and predicting which misinformation content is likely to be spread across online platforms, and contributing to the decrease of misinformation and formulation of misconceptions. These tools will be piloted in three of the participating countries and the results will be publicly disseminated.

The consortium involves the following partners:

Stockholm University (Coordinators), Sweden
Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Open University UK, United Kingdom
University of Koblenz, Germany
FactCheckNI, Ireland
Expert System Iberia, Spain
International Hellenic University, Greece
International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Austria
Scytl, Spain

The Department of Communication and Internet Studies leads the evaluation work package of the Co-inform project, and participates in all of the work packages. The local team consists of Associate Professor Eleni A. Kyza, Assistant Professor Evangelos Karapanos, Assistant Professor Dionysis Panos, and PhD students Andria Agesilaou, Christiana Varda, Loukas Konstantinou, Melina Karageorgiou and Markos Souropetsis.

Find out more about the Co-inform project by visiting the official website or the social network sites:

Monday February 25th, 2019

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Co-inform

Co-inform is an EU-funded project in which the Department of Communication and Internet Studies of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) is involved. Co-inform is a collaboration between universities and SMEs in seven European countries (Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden, UK) aiming to empower citizens, journalists and policy makers through co-created socio-technical solutions, to increase resilience to misinformation and fake news by generating more informed behaviors and policies.

Co-inform brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and experts in computer science, behavioural science, and sociology in an effort to fight misinformation through the development of digital tools for identifying fake news, understanding and predicting which misinformation content is likely to be spread across online platforms, and contributing to the decrease of misinformation and formulation of misconceptions. These tools will be piloted in three of the participating countries.

The consortium involves the following partners:

Stockholm University, Cyprus University of Technology, Open University UK, University of Koblenz, FactCheckNI, Expert System Iberia, International Hellenic University, International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, and Scytl.

Find out more about the Co-inform project on the official website.

Focus: Co-create tools with citizens, journalists and policy-makers to foster critical thinking and digital literacy to fight misinformation for a better-informed society

Funding: European-funded project

Status: Completed

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Saturday February 23rd, 2019

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IoT for Education

The project named “IoT for Education: Air Quality matters” (IoT4ED) is part of a larger Horizon 2020 funded program aiming to enhance physical environments with IoT platforms and applications, thus contributing to the development of of smart and connected environments (i.e. smart city, smart campus, intelligent transportation, etc).

The MCL Research group in collaboration with the Internet of Things Lab (IoTLab) have developed an IoT-based mobile application for secondary school students, aimed to promote environmental awareness about air pollution and an understanding of how the “Internet of Things” works. The mobile application co-designed with students and tested in secondary schools in Limassol (to evaluate the usability and impact of the app). The mobile app communicates with the platforms and databases which collect data from other cities in the EU and also displays environmental data from Limassol.

The CUT team which worked on IoT4ED consists of Dr. Lambros Lambrinos, Dr. Eleni A. Kyza, Andria Agesilaou, Loucas Constantinou, and Markos Souropetsis from the Department of Communication and Internet Studies at CUT.

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Focus: Development of an IoT-based mobile application for secondary school students, aimed to promote environmental awareness about air pollution

Funding: European-funded project

Status: Completed

Tuesday January 29th, 2019

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MCL participation in the recent Special Issue of the School Science Review

The Media, Cognition, and Learning (MCL) Research Group participated in the recent Special Issue (Issue 371) of the School Science Review (SSR) under the theme of “Science with and for society”. The SSR Special Issue focused on the notion of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The Special Issue was co-edited by the Journal Editor Geoff Auty and the PARRISE consortium members Ralph Levinson, Ruth Amos, Marie-Christine Knippels (PARRISE coordinator), and Eleni Kyza. The MCL Research Group contribution was titled “Antibiotics in livestock: introducing in-service teachers to the nature of contemporary socio-scientific controversies” and was co-authored by Eleni Kyza, Yiannis Georgiou, Andreas Hadjichambis and Andria Agesilaou.

The publication presented an experiential learning activity which was developed and enacted at the outset of a Teacher Professional Development programme in the context of the European project PARRISE (Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research & Innovation in Science Education). The was to introduce the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation to teachers and students at the primary and secondary science education levels.

The full citation of the journal publication is as follows:

Kyza, E. A., Georgiou, Y., Hadjichambis, A., & Agesilaou, A. (2018). Antibiotics in livestock: Introducing in-service teachers to the nature of contemporary, socio-scientific controversies. School Science Review, 100(371), 53-58.

The publication can be accessed online here.

Wednesday November 7th, 2018

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MCL participation in the EARLI SIG20 & SIG26 conference

The Media, Cognition, and Learning (MCL) Research Group had a strong presence during the EARLI SIG 20-26 Conference at Jerusalem, held between 9-12 of October 2018. In particular, the conference was attended by Associate Professor Eleni A. Kyza (Coordinator of the MCL research group, Secretary/Treasurer of the EARLI organization), Dr. Yiannis Georgiou (Ph.D. graduate of MCL and JURE coordinator of the EARLI SIG 20), as well as by Mr. Markos Souropetsis and Ms. Andria Agesilaou (doctoral students in MCL).

The coordinator of the MCL research group, Dr. Eleni Kyza, who was invited as a keynote speaker, delivered an inspiring talk entitled “Transforming learning and teaching through inquiry for responsible citizenship”. Her keynote presentation triggered an interesting conversation between the conference participants about citizenship education, the role of learning technologies and designed learning environments, and the contribution of inquiry-based pedagogy to cultivating informed, responsible citizens.

Dr. Yiannis Georgiou gave a paper presentation on how inquiry-based Augmented Reality (AR) field investigations can be enhanced with physical objects, and thus contribute to students’ increased immersion and subsequent learning. This work was a follow-up study, based on his doctoral dissertation findings on immersion in relation students’ learning in AR location-based settings. Finally, Mr. Markos Souropetsis delivered a poster presentation sharing some preliminary findings from his ongoing Ph.D. research. In particular, Markos’ Ph.D. research is focused on the investigation of upper elementary school students’ co-construction of knowledge in non-formal learning contexts, during the collaborative use of an AR learning environment at a cultural heritage site.

For more information about the MCL presentations and research work contact us!

Sunday September 23rd, 2018

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ESERA – Yiannis Georgiou doctoral thesis

Doctoral thesis: “Investigating immersion in relation to science learning in location-based augmented reality settings”

The doctoral thesis of Dr. Yiannis Georgiou has been recently published in the ESERA’s bank of European science education abstracts of doctoral theses. The doctoral thesis is focused on the investigation of immersion in relation to science learning in location-based augmented reality settings, and has been supervised by the Coordinator of the MCL research group, Dr. Eleni A. Kyza.

You can read the abstract of the thesis and find additional information about the doctoral dissertation here.

Friday September 7th, 2018

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Summer club for 5th-9th graders

The MCL Research group participated in the 2018 CUT Summer Club with fun educational activities for 5th-9th graders.

The younger participants (5th & 6th grade) had the opportunity to: (a) practice their coding skills and develop interactive stories with the Scratch program, (b) participate in the evaluation of a mobile AR learning environment (“CompARe”) which supports a collaborative inquiry learning scenario about a unique 6th century wall mosaic, (c) engage in creative writing activities and challenges.

The activities designed by the MCL group during the summer club, aimed to unleash students’ creativity, develop their collaboration skills, and cultivate a team-working spirit, while also being lots and lots of fun.

Another major goal of the MCL activities, in collaboration with the Internet of Things lab at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, was to familiarize students with the most trending educational technologies, like augmented reality and the Internet of Things (IoT). Older students (7th-9th grade) were introduced to the applications of IoT and participated in co-design sessions contributing to the development of an IoT-based mobile application about air quality.