Research group ReVisE Research Group

The acronym ReVisE stands for Representations and Visualisations as support for development of Education and practice.

In the support and development of competence and practice, the use and design of representational artefacts and visualisations are key. Emergent technologies such as IoT (internet of things), AI (artificial intelligence), VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality), and technologies to come, hold promises to support competence development and educational practice.

Still, the potential values of such technologies need to be carefully studied and evaluated in real-world contexts and situations. That is, in contexts and situations where these are to be used to provide added value to the practice in question. In such a context, the use of different methodological approaches and tools are used, where design-oriented methods with participation of relevant practitioners and stakeholders are key.

A special quality of emergent technologies in relation to educational practice, is the possibilities these offer to generate different kinds of representations and visualisations. In a school context, this can be in the form of visualisations of teachers’ movements and patterns of movements, registered via IoT technologies. It can also be pupils’ eye movements, registered via headsets, to be used in teacher self-reflection, individually or collaboratively (for example auscultation). Visualisations of an activity support critical reflection and self-awareness, and in consequence a developed understanding of the activity as it happened, in-situ.

In our work, research and practice go hand in hand. ReVisE strives to involve undergraduate and master’s theses in the activities of the research group. 1–2 open seminars are organised each term. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the managers of the research group.

Collaborations

Over the years we have collaborated with schools and municipalities from all over Sweden, from Skellefteå in the north, to Malmö in the south. We collaborate with tech companies like Atea and Tobii, and also with researchers at other institutions, universities and government agencies (for example The Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI). Additionally, the group collaborates with schools and school authorities in Stockholm as well as in Helsingborg.

Internationally, our research group collaborates with colleagues at Kyoritsu Women’s University and other Japanese universities. Our collaboration project is called Development of a Reflection Support Tool for Early Childhood Education Students and Teachers Using ICT-Based Movement Analysis.

Members of the Japanese project include:
Toshio Obara (Project Leader) – Professor, Faculty of Child Studies, Kyoritsu Women’s University
Kimihiro Miura – Professor, Sendai Shirayuri Women’s College
Taketoshi Iguchi – Assistant Professor, Japan Women’s University
Akira Tsunekawa – Assistant Professor, Nippon Sport Science University