The Digital Hedge School: Collaborative, intergenerational science education
This presentation reports on the initial stages of a project that is developing an online community to support collaborative learning among active retirement groups in the community and local schools. The presentation describes the design concept for the project, that of a digital hedge school, and discusses other projects that have looked at online science inquiry and Web-based intergenerational learning. The presentation describes the project's initial design-based research and technology exploration, which will engage learners in using blogs to co-construct, share and refine collaborative Lego designs that represent important contemporary issues in science. Learners will subsequently implement their collaborative, intergenerational designs using Lego Mindstorms (NXT) technology
<p><strong>Tony Hall</strong> is a lecturer in educational technology in the Department of Education, National University of Ireland, Galway. He previously worked as a teacher (Physical Education, English and ICT) and school ICT administrator, before completing a PhD in computer science in 2004 at the University of Limerick. Current research projects include Design-Based Medical Training; FÁL: collaborative, inter-generational science education; the Programme for University-Industry Interface; and Digital Education Information System (DEIS). Tony was formerly a research fellow in Learning Sciences at the Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham and a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting researcher at the Center for Informal Learning and Schools, the Exploratorium, San Francisco</p>