Digital Skills for Education & Culture Workshop
Digital skills workshop for education and culture
The sixth edition of the international workshop dedicated to 100% digital skills in culture, education and more, took place online on Friday, December 3, 2021, and brought over 35 international speakers, among which both researcher and Professors, and also student and students - which presented practical examples of the use and integration of digital elements, augmented and virtual reality applications and artificial intelligence in university and pre-university education, with case studies at European level.
Over 1,500 participants were present online, ethe income being addressed to all actors in the field of creative industries, the cultural one, artists, students, professors from the academic and pre-university environment, bringing to the forefront projects Europeans of impact into the improving the quality of education university and pre-university, but also projects addressed to the actors from cultural sector and of mprivate edition.
Workshop international online Digital skills for education and culture was organized by the ID / IFR and e-Learning Center - Politehnica University of Timisoara, in collaboration with the Association IEEE Romania and EDEN Europe, This year's edition focuses on concepts such as digital skills, digital culture, virtual and augmented reality, experimental media, blockchain, (Digital Competences, Digital Culture, Blockchain, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Experimental Media) and included case studies on the impact of the digital environment on culture and education over the past year.
The presentations were given by speakers from countries such as: Romania, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Great Britain, USA, Belgium, Greece. The event took place online and was broadcast live, simultaneously on the Zoom platforms, Facebook and YouTube.
For the first time at this year's edition, the Romanian participants had the option to listen presentations in English dubbed in Romanian with the help of a live interpreter, provided by the UPT ID / IFR and e-Learning Center.
Also for the first time, for an extra interactivity with participants, each speaker sent a question related to the topic presented to the participants, who were able to answer live during the presentations, and at the end of each presentation, their answers will be discussed and interpreted by the presenters.
The event was opened by prof.univ. dr. Radu Vasiu, President of the UPT Senate and director of the Multimedia Center. Dr. Diana Andone, the director of the UPT e-Learning Center took the floor, presenting the vision for development Digital skills for education and culture, through the initiatives and projects carried out by the Polytechnic University of Timișoara among teachers, students and UPT collaborators.
Anna Krassa - Education Adviser at Moodle Academy and DigCompEdu, Greece, with MFL Mary Cooch - Education Manager at Moodle Academy, UK, presented the international certification programs offered by Moodle Academy, but also DigCompEdu.
The European project Erasmus + MODE-IT and competencies for open university education developed in it were presented by Dr. Diana Andone, following that in the continuation of the event, Dr. Riina Vuorikari (Seville, Spain) from the European Commission to present updates on digital skills in the field of digital skills for European citizens, in the framework of EU DigComp 2.2.
Șl. Dr. Eng. Andrei Ternauciuc, Polytechnic University of Timișoara together with Dr. PJ Wall, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland further presented the progress made during the first stage of project implementation ACADIGIA - Training for Educational Technologies in Technical Universities.
About the role of international associations in developing skills for the artificial intelligence era and, in particular, the role IEEE spoke Dr. Clara Neppel, Senior Director, European Business Operations, IEEE Technology Center - Vienna, Austria.
The TalkTech project and the achievements that resulted from the 12-year collaboration between Romanian and American students, but also the digital tools that allowed these collaborations and their efficiency were presented by Dr. Mark Frydenberg, Director CIS Learning and Technology Sandbox, Bentley University, USA and Dr. Diana Andone - Polytechnic University of Timisoara.
Assoc. dr. Andreea Paul, President of INACO - Initiative for Competitiveness, Faculty of International Economic Relations, ASE, Romania, then presented the initiatives for arranging SmartLab laboratories in Romanian schools, emphasizing the role SmartLab in Education - from ON-line to OM-line.
How the Norwegians used it virtual reality in education during the pandemic and what were the activities with impact among the students were the subjects of the presentation of Prof. dr. Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland, leader of the IMTEL research group and lab, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
Drd. ing. Victor Holotescu, Polytechnic University of Timisoara, together with prof.dr.ing. Carmen Holotescu, Ioan Slavici University, Timișoara and Prof. Dr. Eng. Radu Vasiu, Politehnica University of Timisoara presented the initiatives in Romania for the integration of Blockchain in education: The EBSI4RO project.
Dr. Helen Caldwell, Associate Professor - Education, FHEA, Apple Distinguished Educator, University of Northampton with Dr. Emma Whewell, Lecturer, University of Northampton, UK presented transnational project to train ambassadors of change in school education in Digital education without limits: those who produce change.
How to create and improve art with the help of technology, but also the transdisciplinary artistic experiences that resulted from the concept of Experimental Media and contemporary technology education were presented by FH-Prof. Mag. Markus Wintersberger, Deputy Academic Director of Digital Design, Department of Media and Digital Technologies, University of Applied Sciences in St. Louis. Pölten, Austria.
How European and American museums have adapted their work during the pandemic and what projects have been developed to track and improve their work in the future - were topics addressed by Dr. Chiara Zuanni, assistant professor, Center for Information Modeling, University of Graz, Austria during the presentation Digital skills in museums after the pandemic - projects DigiCulture and ReInHerit.
How can we equip the laboratories of European universities with augmented reality technologies, virtual and haptic at affordable costs and what results would these improvements have among the experiences for students - were the topics of the presentation of Ș.l. Dr. Eng. Silviu Vert, Polytechnic University of Timisoara and Assoc. Prof. Filippo Sanfilippo, Dept. of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Prof. II, OsloMet, Norway who presented the project Augmented Wear Edu - Integrating virtual and augmented reality with wearable technology in engineering education.
Dr. Sanaz Fallahkhair, Senior Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction, University of Brighton, UK, described the initiatives for evaluating portable sports devices as well as the results of these evaluations and the continuation of the workshop, the curriculum and structure of the workshop within project Erasmus + TraCCE were presented by Dr. ing. Vlad Mihăescu, Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania.
How to combine Online and virtual in culture, as well as Jecza Museum and the impact of augmented reality in literature "From Neacșu to AR" were the topics with which Dr. Sorina Jecza, the president of the TRIADE Foundation from Timişoara fascinated the public.
What is the process and the journey to evolve as a digital scientist and what digital skills necessary for teaching and research in a digital world were questions to which Prof. Dr. Ir. Wim Van Petegem, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium replied to those present online.
Are we watching video now or not? What is the importance of video in education? - were the questions answered by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gabriela Grosseck, West University of Timișoara and Prof. Dr. Anca Drăghici, President ErgoWork Romania, professor at the Polytechnic University of Timisoara presented multimedia skills required for university staff.
The founder of the platform VBoard, Marius Mazilu presented one of the most used educational platforms in Romania during the pandemic again Laura Chirilă, student at Carmen Sylva College, Timisoara, Romania spoke about Timisoara High School Fair - Online Edition - 2021.
The project Spotlight Heritage Timișoara and the digital initiatives from 2021 to promote the Fabric neighborhood and the history of Timișoara with the help of the latest technologies were presented by Dr. Diana Andone, director of CeL and Ș.l. Dr. Eng. Silviu Vert - Polytechnic University of Timisoara, together with Marius Cornea, museographer at the National Museum of Banat, Timisoara while students Marius Tataru and Silviu Berzescu from the Polytechnic University of Timișoara showed how the UPT students collaborated with those from Italy and Denmark to develop digital stories and a special experience in discovering the local heritage in AR and VR within the same project.
The same theme of co-creative students was addressed by UPT students, Salomea Strava and Antonica Felicia who talked about web projects developed for the community by UPT students.
The project EUDRES i-Living labs and training for educational entrepreneurs was presented by Dr. ing. Vlad Mihăescu, Ș.l.dr.ing. Răzvan Bogdan and Dr. Alexandru Iovanovici - Timișoara Polytechnic University and at the end of the evening, master students Antonia Nemeș and Andrei Graure they shared their experience as co-creators in the same project.
After a marathon of more than 7 hours of presentations, Dr. Diana Andone together with prof. Radu Vasiu they ended the event by offering the final conclusions to an equally enthusiastic audience, which in turn sent hundreds of messages of congratulations and thanks to the organizers.
Arrived at the sixth edition, the international workshop dedicated to digital skills gathered over 5,000 participants since the first edition in 2016, being organized annually, in November or December. The first four editions took place hybrid and in the UPT Conference Center again starting with the 2020 edition the workshop was transposed into online, opportunity that allowed a record number of participants and presenters from all over the world.
All workshops are integrated, with activities and tests in the free online course platform UniCampus and can be followed by anyone, at the end being awarded a certificate of graduation.
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