Context/background Immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality or digital games expand the way humans can interact with computers significantly. These technologies also offer a wide range of possibilities for educational use. However, their uptake in education is so far very limited. Among the reasons for this is in the mono-disciplinary education in fields that would need to collaborate to deliver widely usable immersive educational solutions. Relevant fields comprise: game design, where immersive and interactive solutions are designed and developed; computer Science, where the technological foundations for immersive technologies and for scalable architectures for these are created; and teacher education, where future teachers are educated. Currently, these fields have only little connection to each other. The students in each field are educated separately and do not experience interdisciplinary collaboration. However, truly useful and widely usable immersive educational solutions can only be created by combining educational, technological, and design-oriented perspectives in order to conceptualise and develop good solutions. Objectives ImTech4Ed aims at creating interdisciplinary and international collaboration among students, educators, and researchers from the participating disciplines in order to - Deliver creative and valuable prototypes for immersive educational solutions - Strengthen interdisciplinary thinking and approaches across students from various disciplines - Strengthen interdisciplinary and international cooperation - Evaluate prototypes in real teaching situations at connected schools - Establish a network of connected/interested partners Participants The ImTech4Ed consortium is coordinated by the Cologne Game Lab of TH Köln (CGL) where researchers, educators, and game design students contribute to design aspects of immersive solutions. The International Hellenic University contributes the computer science perspective with students, educators and researchers connected to the Advanced Educational Technologies and Mobile Applications Lab (AETMA). The Open University of Cyprus (OUC) and the European University of Cyprus (EUC) represent two different educational approaches towards teacher education as either distance university (OUC) or campus university (EUC). Both partners contribute students, educators and researchers into the project. Two schools from Greece (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, EA)and Cyprus (The English School, Nicosia, ES) contribute the practical educational perspective to the project and support conceptualisation and evaluation of prototypes through the involvement of teachers and school students. Finally, Humance AG (HUM) contributes to the project’s technical infrastructures (web site, repository, development infrastructure). Activities Five intellectual outputs are delivered by the project: ImTech4Ed Methodological Guidelines (O1), Authorware Tools (O2), ImTech4Ed University student and in-service STEAM Teacher training program (O3), ImTech4Ed Immersive Game Prototypes (O4), ImTech4Ed STEAM Educational Scenarios (O5). These are supported through four learning, teaching, training activities, three of which contribute to the interdisciplinary education of students by organizing interdisciplinary hackathons (C1, C2, C4) and one contributes to educate teachers about the use of immersive educational solutions. Four multiplier events (three national, one international) are organised. Methodology ImTech4Ed builds upon interdisciplinary and international cooperation among different connected higher education institutions to create quick, student-driven, creative hackathons as initiator for immersive educational technologies to be prototyped and further developed in intellectual outputs. O2 and O4 as technological IOs collaborate closely with C1, C2, and C4 to deliver usable prototypes, which can be explored in educational practice. Short development cycles ensure the possibility to quickly react to feedback; the interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that relevant perspectives are considered. Results and impact ImTech4Ed delivers methodological guidelines together with a set of immersive educational prototypes evaluated in educational practice. These are accompanied by supporting authoring tools, a teacher training program and concrete STEAM-oriented educational scenarios. The direct impact of ImTech4Ed is on participating students, pupils, teachers, educators, and researchers in broadening their view and understanding of interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative international work towards the creation of immersive educational technologies. Long-term benefits The long-term benefit goes beyond their mere outputs: interdisciplinary thinking towards the envisioning, design, and creation of immersive educational technologies aims at improving the way these technologies are created and brought into educational practice in a sustainable way.
By implementing the ImTech4Ed project, we aimed to: - Lower the barriers for the use of immersive technologies in education - Raise awareness of the educational potential of immersive technologies - Create interdisciplinary and international collaborations among students, educators, and researchers from participating disciplines. - Deliver innovative and valuable prototypes of immersive educational solutions. - Strengthen interdisciplinary thinking and approaches across students from different fields. - Evaluate the prototypes in real teaching scenarios in partnered schools. - Establish a robust network of connected and interested stakeholders to foster future collaborations and innovation. - The consortium aimed to promote STEAM fields of study, familiarize students in secondary education with STEAM educational scenarios and support their future career choices in STEAM - ImTech4Ed provided support for students towards their future choices, as well as their employability by equipping them with the much needed skills of the 21st century.
We recognized the transformative potential of immersive technologies in reshaping the educational landscape. We observed a significant gap in their uptake in the education sector, due to a lack of interdisciplinary collaboration among relevant fields: game design, computer science, and teacher education. We aimed to bridge this gap by fostering international and interdisciplinary collaborations to harness the strengths of each domain and create innovative educational solutions. addressed needs: Limited Uptake of Immersive Technologies: We aimed to explore the reasons and provide tangible solutions. Lack of Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Fields like game design, computer science, and teacher education operated separately. We wanted to merge mono-disciplinary tracks for holistic solutions. Real-world Application: The need to test prototypes in teaching situations. Networking: Establishing a network of interested partners to ensure long-term viability and adaptability. This project researched an interdiciplinary approach of deliverying STEM/STEAM education and delivering digital era knowledge and innovative practices.