CoLDex Partners

	University of Duisburg, Germany Collide Research Group Persons The University of Duisburg (Gerhard-Mercator-Universität) has about 15000 students in areas including humanities, science, engineering and higher teacher education. The computer science branch of the mathematics department runs two study programs: higher teacher education in computer science (M.Sc. equivalent) and an interdisciplinary B.Sc./M.Sc. programme in "Applied Media and Communication Science". The computer science institute has strong links to schools and other local and regional educational institutions. E.g., the classroom environment of the ESE project NIMIS (Esprit 29301) has been co-sponsored by the City Council of Duisburg as the institution responsible for school budgets and equipment. There is also a continuous engagement of our computer science colleagues in teacher training on the regional level (Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf). These links can be easily activated in the project proposed here. There is a number of local schools on different levels of the school system interested in co-operating with the envisaged project. The COLLIDE ("Collaborative Learning in Intelligent Distributed Environments") group within the computer science institute aims at developing distributed, intelligently supported environments for collaborative learning. It has been engaged in European projects on distributed classroom technology for both virtual and presence scenarios. Recently, COLLIDE initiated a new project on developing innovative classroom technology for pre-school children and school beginners in the framework of a European programme on "Experimental School Environments". The specialties of NIMIS are characterised by combining a computer-integrated classroom environment ("roomware") with new interaction techniques (pen-based input, speech output) and intelligent analysis and support. Additionally, COLLIDE participates in a recently started European IST project on "Distributed Virtual Laboratories" (DiViLab), in which it is responsible for the areas of conceptual modelling (task analysis, task ontologies) and creativity tools for modelling and interactive documentation in scientific experimentation and discovery.
	Universidad de Chile Universidad de Chile Persons
	University of Växjö, Sweden University of Växjö / Projects Persons The Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies (CeLeKT) is a multidisciplinary research center at the School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering, Växjö University in Sweden. One of the main goals of CeLeKT is to initiate and support research projects in different settings (schools, corporations and university) in order to foster interest, understanding and effective use of new learning and knowledge technologies.
	Universität des Saarlandes Visualization Research Group Persons University of Saarland is one of Germany's leading universities in computer science. In addition to the computer science department, the Max-Planck-Institute for Computer Science and the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) are on campus and are known of the high quality of their work. The visualization research group lead by Dr. Stephan Diehl has developed learning software, visualization technologies and distributed 3D internet applications.
	Fundacion Universidad Empresa LTCS Group Persons The Spanish Open University (UNED for short) began its activities in October 1972 with the aim of making higher education accessible to anyone with the necessary aptitude and interest, regardless of formal qualifications. The UNED is an independent government-financed institution with its own board, administration and academic staff, and examination system. There are study centres associated with the university providing access to resources such as library or multimedia material, advice and counseling, as well as tuition and facilities for practical work. All certificates and qualifications obtained from the UNED have the same legal and academic status as those obtained from traditional higher education institutions. In essence, it is the UNED's teaching methodology that distinguishes it from the mainstream of Spanish higher education. The key to this methodology being the guided autonomous use made of printed and audiovisual teaching material, the tutorials given, and the ever-increasing use of the so called new technologies of information and communication. The UNED is proving to be an enormous success: with 160.000 registered students in the year 2000, it is one of the largest universities in Spain, with 58 study centres there, and 9 abroad (Bonn, Brussels, Caracas, Geneva, London, Paris and Rosario, Mexico D.R and Sao Paulo), and has a strong commitment towards the Latin American countries. The recently formed Computer Science Department (LSI: Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos) is currently involved in teaching computer science in two centers: (1) Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (Industrial Engineering) and (2) Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática. In addition to educational activities the department carries out extensive research and development work in 5 areas of specialization. The LTCS Group consists of 9 researchers developing projects which apply learning and collaborative technologies to the support of human activity in distance learning scenarios. The research is based upon knowledge-based authoring, collaborative modelling in educational contexts and Educational Modelling Languages.
	Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Persons The Universidad Politécnica de Madrid turned 25 years in 1996, although most of its centers are more than centennial because they were founded on centuries XVIII and XIX. Each one of them maintained its independent life until being grouped in the UPM. It is not exaggerated to affirm that a great part of the history of the Spanish technology during more than a century and a half has been written by the Schools of Architecture and Engineering since they were during very many years practically the only and in some cases exclusively the unique ones, and most of the great figures of teaching and investigation in Spain passed through the respective Centers like students or professors. Nowadays, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is the largest Technical University in Spain. It has over 2,000 professors and around 48,000 students. The UPM is divided into various Escuelas, independent centers that covers a wide variety of studies, including naval engineering, computer science, industrial engineering, telecommunications, architecture, aeronautics, and many more. More information can be obtained through its web page at www.upm.es .
	Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Investigação e Desenvolvimento, Lisboa, Portugal INESC-ID Persons
	Universita Catolica del Norte Universita Catolica del Norte Persons
	Xperiment Huset Xperiment Huset Persons Xperiment Huset is an interactive science center in the south of Sweden in the city of Växjö. The goal of Xperiment Huset is to stimulate the interest of young people and the general public in science and technology. Xperiment Huset is an adventure for all the family with more than 80 exciting, playful experiments with sound, light, illusions. etc. All exhibits are pieces of handicraft, made by our skilled personnel. We make exhibits for our own exhibition, as well as exhibits for Science centers in Sweden and other countries. You can visit the spacehip "Vintergatan" (the Milky Way) from the TV-series in Sweden. Other activitites at Xperiment Huset comprise : teacher training courses, science demonstrations, magic shows, planetarium, LEGO Robotics, lectures and more. Did you know that you can make the largest soap bubble in the world at Xperiment Huset? You will find us in Växjö愀 old engineshed within walkingdistance from the citycentre.