Roskilde University |
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Department of Psychology and Philosophy/Science Studies |
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Project Coordinator
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Project Description 5th Dimension was originally developed b y Professor Michael Cole, University of California, San Diego, as an after-school setting where collaborative learning is organized around computer game playing. The name, 5th Dimension, refers to the four dimensions of space and time, the 5th dimension being the socio-cultural dimension of Meaning. 5th Dimension refers to the meaning of computers as tools in human activity. For an overview, please visit http://129.171.53.1/blantonw/5dClhse/sites/ch5dsites.html. The first 5th Dimension sites were created in 1986. The number of sites has been growing steadily and now there are over 30 sites in the USA and other countries, including Russia, Australia, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. See a list of the 5th Dimension sites worldwide at http://www.ced.appstate.edu/projects/5dClhse/sites/world.html. The 5th Dimension site in Copenhagen is the first one in Denmark. It is closely connected to sites in Ronneby, Sweden and Barcelona, Spain. Purpose The purpose of 5th Dimension is to provide children, teachers, parents, communities, and researchers with an environment of mutual learning and extension of new ideas across generational, disciplinary, and physical boundaries. 5th Dimension Copenhagen is committed to a child centred approach to learning, working on the grounds of different socio-cultural approaches. Activities in 5th Dimension Copenhagen are primarily centred on activities in Activeworlds. Statement The purpose of 5th Dimension Copenhagen is, in conjunction with the overall purpose of 5th Dimension, to provide an environment, which fulfils several purposes at once. One is to provide a ‘person-centred’ learning environment for children as well as adults, professionals as well as non-professionals, and communities as well as individuals. The second is to create a space for interaction across boundaries. The third is to set up a laboratory for innovation in teaching and learning. Researchers and students from the universities of Copenhagen and Roskilde, together with teachers from the Copenhagen school, are the primary initiators in setting up 5th Dimension Copenhagen. Two PhD projects at Copenhagen University and Roskilde University are based upon empirical studies at the 5th Dimension-site. Additionally a PhD project at The University of Southern Denmark, Odense Campus on play and child culture has carried out pilot studies at the site. Moreover, at two master theses will be based on studies performed in 5th Dimension Copenhagen. I Ronneby at two master theses have been based on empirical work with an outset in ‘femtedim’ Furthermore a 3-year EU project under the IST programme is to some extend based on the work done in ‘femtedim’, 5th Dimension Copenhagen/Ronneby 5D Copenhagen opened on September 4, 2000. The first year, 5D Copenhagen has been set up as an after school activity at the community centre of an inner city municipal school in Copenhagen. Between 10 and 15 children ages 8-12 have participated in 5D every Monday afternoon for 1,5 hours. They have been building their own world, called ‘femtedim’. Participation has been voluntary, and not all children have attended all the time. In November 2000, 10 Swedish children entered ‘femtedim’ and started building alongside with the Danish children. The Swedish site is located at a local municipal school in Ronneby, a small, provincial town in southern Sweden. During the course of the school year the children have build a world, which is not realistic but very imaginative. 5th Dimension Copenhagen/Ronneby in Active Worlds During the first year, studies have been carried out which have focussed on narrative structures, activity planning, CSCW, distributed subjectivity, communication patterns, cultural differences between Danish and Swedish Children, as well as several other aspects concerning the use of AW. During the first year, activities in the world ‘femtedim’ have been kept together by the fictitious character “Avafar”, a cyber entity that is dependent on the energy created by activities in ‘femtedim’. A project associate plays Avafar. Avafar was dying when 5th Dimension started. He was almost blind and his once thriving world was barren and empty. The children were given the world to maintain and keep. Avafar turned into a helper and confidante of the children. He helped solving problems and conflicts in AW, as well as translating between Swedish and Danish children. The scope In the fall of 2001, 5D will move into the classroom of the 4th grade, in both Copenhagen and Ronneby. We will collaborate with teachers in Copenhagen and Ronneby over a 7-week period to a create a thematically based, child centred learning environment around a ‘majestic’-inspired game involving AW, web-resources, as well as other digital and analogue media. 5D Copenhagen/Ronneby is part of a 3-year research programme in the IST frame program of the EU “Local Learning Environments in a Global World”. Swedish, Danish, and Spanish partners are working to develop, sustain, and conceptualise the grounds and conditions for 5D sites in Europe. The AW project is an integral part of this work. In the spring of 2001 a 5D site connected to LCHC at the UCSD in San Diego opened its own world, called ‘fifthdim’, and chances are that AW will become increasingly integrated into the activities of many more 5D sites in the future, as it’s features seem to correlate well with the aims and scopes of 5D in general. | ||
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