Van Zyl Izak (Researcher)
Izak holds an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. In early 2009, he became involved in a research project that assessed the adoption of ICT within schools across the globe. The research was also conducted in Limpopo and supplied him with unique perceptions of technology use (or non-use!) in resource-limited settings. His experiences here certainly boded well for a PhD undertaking in the field of ICT and its integration within (developing) schools.
Later in 2009, Izak became involved in a similar venture, assessing the possible impacts of ICT in the South African home-based healthcare environment. Again, he was exposed to the very real prospects of introducing technology to deprived communities. This research was the ultimate motivating factor behind applying for a PhD in the field. He joined NewMinE as a research assistant in 2010 and works on the MELISSA project – Measuring E-Learning Impact in primary Schools in South African disadvantaged areas – as a facilitator.
Izak’s research interests include: the anthropology of technology, digital culture, social and cultural entrepreneurship, technology in rural healthcare, and elearning.
Contact Izak at:
Tel: +41(0)586664674
Mail: vanzyli@usi.ch
Skype: izak.van.zyl1
MELISSA (SER)
Project owner: Isabella Rega
Project staff: Francesca Fanni, Stefano Tardini, Izak Van Zyl
Period: November 2008 to October 2011
Funding agency: SER
Project blog: http://projectmelissa.blogspot.com/
MELISSA (Measuring E-Learning Impact in primary Schools in South African disadvantaged areas) joint research project will study the impact of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) training on primary school teachers in the Western Cape province. The study focuses on their perception of being
- more computer literate
- better teachers
- more capable of influencing their context
- more aware of the Knowledge Society dynamics.
Under the MELISSA project 120 primary school teachers based in disadvantaged schools will be trained to understand ICTs, and how to incorporate ICTs in their teaching in wise and sustainable manner. MELISSA research is designed as an experiment involving both an experimental group as well as a control group. Both groups will be assessed through questionnaires and interviews, in order to measure their Computer Self-Efficacy, Teacher , Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control and Social Meaning of ICTs.
Online courses for Brazilian primary school teachers (Mandate)
Project owner: Isabella Rega
Project staff: Lorenzo Cantoni
Period: September 2004 to June 2006
Partners: Novacaritas and Centro de Estudio e Assesoria Pedagogica
In the context of the educational policy of the Brazilian governemnt, the Centro de Estudio e Assesoria Pedagogica (CEAP) develops curricula for primary school teachers needing a higher education certificate. NewMinE Lab will develop two online courses within the CEAP curriculum: a course on ICTs for Educational Contexts and a course of Communication Theories. The two courses will be implemented in Moodle, an open source LMS. The NewMinE Lab will lead the first edition of the two courses, supporting the CEAP staff to manage further editions.
Rega Isabella (Dr.)
Isabella Rega holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences with a thesis on the role of tele-centers in socio-economic development. She also completed an executive master in Intercultural Communication from the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).
Within the NewMinE Lab at the USI, Isabella is currently involved as project manager in two projects dealing with the introduction of ICT in teacher training for disadvantaged teachers in the state of Bahia (Brazil), and in the region of Cape Town (South Africa). These projects are funded by the Swiss National Research Fund, the Swiss Department of Cooperation and Development and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research.
Isabella worked in some tele-centres, as researcher and instructor, in Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea and South Africa, and collaborated as online teacher for a distance university in Colombia. Furthermore, she has founded seed (LINK: www.seedlearn.org), a non profit organization promoting the development of a culture of educational technologies for international development and non profit sector.
She is also member of IPID, The International Network for PG Students in ICT4D and the ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Contact Isabella at
Tel. +41 (0)58 666 4674
Mail: isabella.rega@lu.unisi.ch
Skype: isakof
LEGO Real Time Web (Mandate)
Project owner: Lorenzo Cantoni
Project staff: -
Period: October 2007 … and still in progress
Funding agency: Private funding and internal funding
Website: http://www.seriousplay.com/ (this is the official LSP web site)
The LEGO Serious Play methodology is a structured approach to consultancy and project planning the uses LEGO bricks.
This project, in collaboration with Trivioquadrivio (the Italian LEGO SP representative, based in Milano), aims at developing a new application for the collaborative requirement analysis and initial design of web applications. Potentially, the same methodology can be expanded to the design of online learning applications.
This project is in collaboration with webatelier.net.
Bridges for Peace (Mandate)
Project owner: Isabella Rega
Project staff: Silvia De Ascaniis, Chrysi Rapanta, Emanuele Rapetti, Stefano Tardini
Period: Summer 2008
Funding agency: Associazione di Terra Santa – ATS
Website: http://www.pontiperlapace.it
An educational project promoting twinnings between schools in order to enable Italian students and students of the Holy Land to meet and become friends.
Elab is in charge of developing and maintaining the eLearning platform and NewMine Lab is in charge of training the teachers involved in the project.
BET K-12 (FNS)
Project owner: Isabella Rega
Project staff: Francesca Fanni, Stefano Tardini
Period: October 2005 to March 2009
Funding agency: SDC + SNF
Website: http://www.betk12.net/
BET K-12 (Brazilian elearning Teacher training in k-12) is a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation under the Joint Research Partnership Program. The project partners are the School of Communication Sciences of the University of Lugano (Switzerland) and the School of Education of the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil).
The project aims at studying the impact of eLearning in Primary School Teacher Training in Brazil, assessing its possible applications and advantages, as well as success conditions and shortcomings.
The project involves three main areas:
- The issue of access to ICTs: this involves technical, economic, sociological and psychological factors influencing persons’ opportunities to use the technologies;
- The issue of quality: the conditions under which it is possible to implement an effective and efficient eLearning program for primary Teachers in disadvantaged Brazilian areas;
- The issue of impact: the readiness of Brazilian primary teachers to use eLearning in their training, and their adoption patterns.
The project is structured in two main phases:
- Phase A aims at mapping different models of teacher training programs involving ICTs in Brazil and at understanding the quality of these programs; this is done in order to seek and suggest innovative eLearning models, which can allow effective and efficient learning practices.
- Phase B focuses on a particular case study: eLearning courses for primary school teacher training offered by CEAP – Centro de Estudos e Assessoria Pedagogica -, an institution placed in Salvador de Bahia and dealing with teachers working in “community schools”, i.e. schools promoted and sustained by poor communities. This phase wants to understand how primary school teachers in a disadvantaged Brazilian area react to their first eLearning experience.
Primary schools & ICT (Mandate)
Project owner: Chiara Bramani
Project staff: Luca Mazzola
Period: School year 2008/2009
Funding agency: Lugano School District
Primary School & ICT is a project involving the schools of the Istituto scolastico comunale of Lugano. In the year 2007-2008 15 teachers have been involved in the project. Supported by NewMinElab, 3 projects have been developed:
- blog for the communication between students and their parents during the school trip;
- web radio, a collection of podcast;
- mobile phone treasure hunt.
Some blogs from last year experiences:
http://nantescuolaverde.blogspot.com/
http://quartaruvigliana.blogspot.com/
http://mascengo2008.blogspot.com/
Webradio site:
http://webradioselugano.blogspot.com/
E-treasure site:
http://www.etreasure.ch/site/
Fanni Francesca (PhD student)
Francesca got her degree in Science of the Communication and holds a Master in Communication and Education at the University of Lugano in 2007.
Born in Magenta (Italy) in 1982, she has been living in Lugano since 2001. She is working at the NewMinE Lab as proposal writer and as research collaborator.
She is enrolled in a PhD program studing the impact of ICTs in teacher training in South Africa
Francesca is working on ICT Impact, Teacher Training, Self-Efficacy, ICT4D
Contact Francesca at
Tel.: +41 (0)58 666 46 74
Mail: francesca.fanni@lu.unisi.ch
Skype: brasilianFra
Bramani Chiara (Researcher)
Born in 1979, Chiara Bramani got her degree in Science of the Communication in 2003 with the specialization in business and institutional communication at the Università della Svizzera italiana of Lugano, Switzerland.
In the field of educational technology she worked at the Politecnico di Milano for 5 years, engaged in the organization and management of different projects regarding e-learning and intercultural communication.
Chiara is working on Primary Schools and ICT and on the PREDIL life-long learning EU project.
Contact Chiara at
Tel.: +41 (0)58 666 46 09
Mobile (personal): 076.2277333
mail: chiara.bramani@lu.unisi.ch
skype: ninjadaasso
