INTRODUCTION

The CoPLand project runs at KTH/NADA in the CID and IPLab research centra. The project started in October 2003 and lasts for three years. It is financed by VINNOVA and project co-participants are Swedish National Agency for School Improvement and Metamatrix.

The principal theme of the project is technology support for knowledge sharing. The first step in our research work is to look at knowledge dissemination in naturally-occuring work settings. The second step is to provide or suggest technology support for the knowledge dissemination with the help of our informants. We are especially interested in work that occurs in a variety of places, over different durations, with various kinds of technology support (we call these nomadic aspects of work).

CoP stands for Community of Practice, an influential approach to understand "learning in doing" by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. Our main approach to understand work and knowledge dissemination is based on being present at the workplace and following the work as it unfolds (ethnographically-inspired). In designing technology, we are inclined towards design, evaluation and reflection together with the users (cooperative/participatory design). Together with the users, we plan to come up with both technology and methodology for knowledge sharign in the community. One of our goals is that the designed and implemented methodology and technology work for a long time after we leave the setting (sustainability).

(see also the project description in Swedish)

TARGET GROUPS

Our focus group is teachers. The importance of knowledge sharing and nomadic aspects are immediately apparent features of teachers' work. We have chosen to work with teachers from schools in the Stockholm arhipelago, teachers of native languages, and teachers of Swedish abroad.

The archipelago group: The archipelago school in Värmdö consists of five smaller schools in five different islands. There are regular boat traffic from the main land to each of the islands, which is more frequent during the summers. There are only regular boat traffic between three of the five islands. Within the project we have visited three out of five islands during the spring 2004, all 15 teachers have participated in a workshop in September 2004, all teachers have answered a questionnaire about the use of their recently introduced intranet.

The native languages group: Children with at least one parent born in another country have the opportunity to get extra education within that language. There are teachers specialised within a number of different languages that are employed to teach children in their mother tongue language. Within the project we have observed and interviewed four teachers in the Spanish group, we have visited Språkcentrum who employs the teachers, we have visited the Swedish National Agencey for School Improvement who hosts an intranet, Tema Modersmål, for this group of teachers available from the Swedish Schoolnet.

The Swedish abroad group: A person teaching Swedish in a foreign University can either be directly employed by the University or be employed by the Swedish Institute. There are approximately 300 persons teaching Swedish in other countries. Within the project we have visited and interviewed three teachers, 20 teachers have replied to a questionnair distributed in the spring 2004, 24 teachers have participated in a workshop in July 2004, we have observed and interviewed personnel at the Swedish Institute, we have developed a prototype that will be released in November 2004.

PUBLICATIONS

Bogdan, Cristian & Sandor, Ovidiu (2004) Hand in Hand: Sustainability of System and Community Practice in Knowledge Support workshop paper presented at CSCW in Chicago, fall 2004

Groth, Kristina (2004) CoPLand, presented as a poster at Ontologier i arbete, Electrum, Kista

Sandor, Ovidiu & Bogdan, Cristian (2003), A Translucent Approach to Presence and Availability, workshop paper presented at CHI in Vienna, fall 2003

Bogdan, Cristian & Severinson-Eklundh, Kerstin (2003) Fingerprint: Supporting Social Awareness in a Translucent Sensor-Mediated Cue-Based Environment, short paper presented at CHI in Vienna, fall 2003

poster, presented at Cid open house, fall 2003

CoPLand - project description (in Swedish)

SEMINARS

Groth, Kristina & Lannerö, Pär (2004) IRM som stöd för kunskapsutbyte i organisationer, presented at Sesam seminar at FMV

Groth, Kristina (2004) CoPLand - a project presentation, presented at Ontologier i arbete, Electrum, Kista