News
From KeyToNature
ITALY: A new application of KeyToNature for i-Phones: the flora of the Val Rosandra (Trieste, NE Italy) - (March,10th, 2010)
Starting from today it is possible to download for free from iTunes a new application for i-Phone: the illustrated flora of the Val Rosandra Natural Reserve (Trieste, NE Italy) http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/guida-interattiva-alle-piante/id360476579?mt=8
ROMANIA: K2N progress meeting reflected by local press (Cluj, 23 Feb 2010)
The K2N progress meeting and the workshop organised with the local teachers of biology at Hotel Belvedere, Cluj, Romania, has been presented by the press. Read the report for the online version of the local newspaper "Adevarul". Listen the interview of Prof. Mircea Giurgiu, local organizer, to Radio Cluj.
ROMANIA: New key on "Birds from Delta of Danube" (Cluj, 28 Jan 2010)
UTCN and the teacher from High School of Informatics "Tiberiu Popoviciu" have collaborated for the production of the identification key "Birds from Delta of Danube". The layout was proposed to be similar as for the K2N Open Key Player in order to keep an uniformity in design. UTCN has ellaborated a new application that converts the xls key presented by the teacher into an xml structure which is easily customizable, adaptable and scalable to other types of identification keys. The key is currently under development (Feb 2010). See here a demo for the alfa version of the key (in Romanian)....
ROMANIA: Now ready in Romanian "Key to Garden and Village Birds of Europe" (Cluj, 12 Jan 2010)
The English version of "Key to Garden and Village Birds" has been translated in Romanian. Additional information: birds of Europe and available CD produced by ETI Bioinformatics. The key is also available in Spanish and Slovenian. This key had an important demonstration impact at the workshops organised in Cluj, because of inclusion of combination of sounds, images and text descriptions. For Romanian customization, full support has been obtained from the author: Tomi Trilar. Access the tool (in Romanian)....
ESTONIA: The Flora of Estonia on the iPhone (January,1st, 2010)
Thanks to cooperation between KeyToNature, the University of Tartu, the Estonian University for Life Sciences and Divulgando srl we have now the first application for iPhone and iPod Touch that allows the identification of trees and shrubs of Estonia. The application allows you to: 1) Identify more than 140 trees and shrubs present in Estonia; 2) See the explanatory files and access the photo gallery; 3) Search by keywords; 4) Post the identified species in Facebook; 5) Take pictures and add field notes to your guide; 6) Send via email multimedia content (pictures and notes) stored in the device (iPod Touch and iPhone). The application - which is now available on the App Store - was developed in Estonian,as a prototype to be extended soon to the whole flora of the country, which is already available on-line (http://dbiodbs.units.it/carso/chiavi_pub21?sc=367), and to other guides in other languages. More info is here: http://guide.divulgando.eu/eestieflora and here you can view an interview of Andres Saag at the Estonian National television (in Estonian): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3X477i6Y4Q
SPAIN: Now ready in Spanish: "Key to Common Garden and Village Birds of Europe (with sounds!)"
All of us have heard the song of birds. However, only a few of us are able to recognise a bird from its song. Developed by KeyToNature at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, adapted for Spain, this wiki-key has a special feature: it is based on bird's sounds.
Clave de Aves Comunes de Jardines y Areas Rurales de España
ROMANIA: Identification key for gymnospermae - in Romanian (Cluj, 10 Dec 2009)
After the local training workshop with biology teachers in Cluj (Nov 2009), professors Felicia Boar ( Vocational Training College on Environment Protection) and Adelhaiad Kerekes (Cluj Inspectorate for Education) have designed a tool for the identification of different species of gymospermae from the school's park. This tool is entirely HTML-based. Other K2N tools on this topic: Spanish version for identification of gymonspermae, based on JKey Editor. Technical implementation realised by UTCN. Access the tool (in Romanian)..., See the training plan (in Romanian)....
ROMANIA: Printable keys available (Cluj-Napoca, 8 Dec 2009)
With the support of University of Trieste (P.L.Nimis and S.Martellos), the on-line key to woody plants of the Dendrological Parc of Bistrita is now available in a printable format. This key can be used in the field by schools which do not have PDAs or pocket PCs. Currently (8 Dec 2009), there are many available printable keys produced by KeyToNature, e.g: Romanian, Slovenian and Italian.
PORTUGAL: Teaching and Learning 2009:"Excellence and Quality: Timeless Challenges in Education"(Oporto, 7-9 December 2009)
The conference covered all areas around Education from teaching to learning perspectives. It was held in Oporto, Portugal, from 7th to 9th December. Stefano Martellos (Project Dryades), presented in an oral session the new Open Key Editor, recently produced in a joint effort by ETI Bioinformatics and Project Dryades.
ROMANIA: Call for EU project collaboration with Romanian schools (Cluj, 3 Dec 2009)
The "Cluj Inspectorate for Education", under the initiative of inspector for biology, calls the associated schools of K2N partners to collaborate, to share the K2N experiences and to propose new European projects starting from K2N tools. Read the Call for Collaboration for more details.
ROMANIA: K2N Workshop with the teachers (Cluj-Napoca, 18 November 2009)
The K2N partner "Technical University of Cluj-Napoca" and the "Local Inspectorate for Education" have organised a K2N workhop for the teachers of biology at the "Constantin Brancusi School". The aim was to update the teachers with the new identification key developments in K2N (JKey, Open Key Editor), to demonstrate the usage of the new keys (street trees, garden birds) and how to use the search tools available in K2N. New interested teachers have been enrolled in specific K2N actions for the schools and a programme of activities has been agreed.
See the workshop agenda, the list of participants and the agreed programme of activities. (in Romanian)
FRANCE: Results of K2N project have been presented at TDWG2009 Annual Conference (Montpellier, 10 November 2009)
Among 300 participants at the TDWG 2009 Annual Conference "e-Knowledge about biodiversity and agriculture", the K2N project has been represented by 3 participants: Dr. Gregor Hagedorn, Prof. Mircea Giurgiu and Ing. Stephan Opitz. They have participated with two paper presentations: "IBIS-ID, an Adobe FLEX based identification tool for SDD-encoded multi-access keys" (presented by Mircea Giurgiu, Proceedings of TDWG2009, pag.90) and "The jKey wiki key player and builder" (presented by Gregor Hagedorn, Proceedings of TDWG2009, pag.79)).
ITALY: First National Meeting of KeyToNature (Brescia, September, 9th, 2009)
The first National meeting of KeyToNature, held in Brescia on September 9th was a big success, with c. 150 persons attending. The event was introduced by the hosting institution, the Natural History Museum of Brescia, by the Municipality of Brescia and by two Associate Members of KeyToNature,the Italian Lichen Society and the Federation of Italian Scientific Museums. A general presentation of KeyToNature by the Coordinator of KeyToNature prof. Pier Luigi Nimis was followed by the illustration of activities in schools and universities by Proff. Elena Tuzzi, Prof. Maria Bellavite and Prof. Eva Barreno (University of Valencia, another Associate Member of KeyToNature). All partecipants received the multimedial box of KeyToNature, containing keys and e-learning modules on lichens and vascular plants. The interest of the partecipants was very high, resulting in several proposals of collaboration for the development of new projects.
UNITED KINGDOM: KeyToNature and OPAL: a project on lichens as indicators of air quality (September, 7th, 2009)
The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL), an Associate Member of KeyToNature, is launching a project for schools, centered on lichens as indicators of air quality (http://www.opalexplorenature.org/?q=AirSurvey). KeyToNature has collaborated to the project with the production of an interactive key to common epiphytic lichens of England (http://dbiodbs.units.it/carso/chiavi_pub21?sc=351) prepared in collaboration between the Natural History Museum of London and the University of Trieste. The key also includes pictures and drawings from the University of Tartu (Estonia). A e-learning tutorial on lichens was also associated to the key: this is an abridged version of 4 e-learning modules developed in Italian by two further Associate Members of KeyToNature, the CIRDA-Lab of the University of Turin and the Italian Lichen Society (translation and adaptation to the UK situation by Pat Wolseley - NHML). Altogether, the contribution of KeyToNature to the OPAL project has involved 3 partners and 3 Associate Members.
BULGARIA: The Faculty of Biology of the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" became a K2N Associate Member (28. 08. 2009)
With a letter by professor Pier Luigi Nimis - the K2N project coordinator, the Management of the Faculty of Biology of the Sofia University have been officially informed about the K2N Consortium approval of the Faculty's Associate Membership application. One can learn more about the profile and the associate membership roles of the faculty at the Bulgarian section of the Associate Membership page.
ITALY: Mobile-Packager now available - (Sestri Levante, August 22nd, 2009)
Mobile Packager is a tool for improving key quality.
It can be used in mobility ensuring the correctness of location.
Typical scenario is a school-trip in which students shot photos with their mobile phones and teachers select the best photos for updating Dryades keys (through key-editor).
This is the user manual showing the application from user point of view and focusing on the importance of metadata.
The Installation Kit is available on VE-Forum and you can install it on your mobile phone and on your server (if you have any)
Try yourself!
Screenshot
Bikam opened a special Shared Space for K2N-related presentations at SlideShare.net. The purpose of the space is to freely and publicly share K2N-related presentations and other documents (mainly in Bulgarian) that can be of use for the K2N-audience in Bulgaria - mainly to teachers, but also to students and all other interested parties.
For this purpose a special SlideShare user account was created, named "KeyToNatureBulgaria". In addition to the shared presentations, the account gives other basic information about the K2N project and the role of Bikam Ltd. as a partner in it.
The first 5 shared presentations in Bulgarian are part of the training materials from the Dissemination and training course-seminar "K2N e-Keys and e-Learning for Biodiversity education" (2-3 April, 2009, Sofia).
The web-location of the Bulgarian K2N Shared Space is: http://www.slideshare.net/KeyToNatureBulgaria
Please come, see, read, and download!
BULGARIA: 317 K2N feedback questionnaires (Usability and Teachers’) in total have been filled-in from May to July 2009 (31. 07. 2009)
Until the end of July 2009, 24 testing events have been conducted by 13 organisations in Bulgaria, of which:
- One Primary school (grades 1-8)
- Four General comprehensive schools (grades 1-12, Primary and Secondary level of education)
- Three Gymnasia (grades 8-12/13) of which one Professional, and two - for Specialised general education – Languages, Math, and Science
- One In-Service Teacher Training University Department (the users being teachers average age 40)
- Three Biology / Science University Faculties (the users being undergraduate students)
As a result:
- 282 Usability Questionnaires have been filled-in (258 by pupils/students, and 24 by test-administering teachers)
- 24 Short Teacher Questionnaires, and 11 Full Teacher Questionnaires have been answered by test-administering teachers
THE NETHERLANDS: KeyToNature at Systematics 2009 - (Leiden, The Netherlands, 11-14 August 2009)
At the the meeting of the Systematics Association - the Federation of European Biological Systematic Societies - held in Leiden (11-14th, August 2009), KeyToNature showed up with three speakers: 1) Gregor Hagedorn talked on community-driven keys in the WikiMedia environment, 2) Pier Luigi Nimis lectured on adapting interactive identification tools to user's needs, 3) Peter Schalk gave a general presentation on KeyToNature at the project’s half term. The talks stimulated the interest of several people-projects-organisations potentially interested to collaborate with KeyToNature. This was also the occasion for an informal meeting with Régine Vignes-Lebbe (EDIT), devoted to the organisation of a joint meeting (EDIT + KeyToNature), centered on identification tools, to be held in Paris in september 2010.
More info about the event is here: www.biosyst.eu.
BULGARIA: The Faculty of Natural Sciences of the "Konstantin Preslavsky" University of Shumen became a K2N Associate Member (03. 07. 2009)
With a letter by professor Pier Luigi Nimis - the K2N project coordinator, the Management of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the "Konstantin Preslavsky" University of Shumen have been officially informed about the K2N Consortium approval of the Faculty's Associate Membership application. One can learn more about the profile and the associate membership roles of the faculty at the Bulgarian section of the Associate Membership page.
ITALY: KeyToNature Technology Transfer Day (Trieste, 11 June 2009)
Reliable tools for the identification of organisms are important in the economic-social field, such as in health care (pathogens), food industry, agriculture (pests), fisheries. forestry, conservation, etc.
On June, 11th, 2009 the University of Trieste, together with T&B e Associati Srl and Enterprise Europe Network has organized the first KeyToNature Technology Transfer Day, held at the AREA Science Park near Trieste.
The event was centered on the emerging areas of Biodiversity Informatics and Bioinformatics (molecular biology), focusing on the new, powerful tools for the identification of animals, plants and fungi, based on widely different, but converging technologies. Several new tools were presented, to be exploited as innovative Decision Support Systems in areas of economic importance.
The event mobilized a critical mass of participants, with c. 66 people, ranging from biotech, life science and environmental SMEs to RTD performers and health professionals. It also hosted a visiting group of students from the University of Food Sciences (Parma), a unique academic institution founded by Slow Food with the support of the Regions Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. For them, an extra-lecture by Prof. Giorgio Graziosi (Dept. of Life Sciences, Univ. Trieste) was organised on the spot upon request, centered on coffee fingerprint and on the distinction between the Arabica and Robusta coffee cultivars.
More info is here: download the talks of our speakers>>
SPAIN: The first guide of KeyToNature in Catalan (12 June 2009)
The first guide of KeyToNature written in Catalan has been produced in collaboration with the Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid, the Xarxa Telematica Educativa de Catalunya (XTEC) and the University of Trieste. It is a guide to selected woody plants, to be used as educational material for schools and can be consulted on-line here [[1]]
BULGARIA: Presentation at the national workshop "Forms, methods, and tools for developing crearivity through education" (30-31 May, Varna)
K2N project presentation, developed by Pencho Mihnev, has been delivered by Mr. Alexander Angelov - director of "Centre for Creativity Traininig" (CCT) - a "Friends of K2N" organisation, at a national workshop with teachers, principals and stakeholders, organised by CCT in Varna, Bulgaria on 30-31 May, 2009. The event involved c.a. 50 teachers, principals and educational stakeholders from the regions of Varna, Dobrich, Shumen, Burgas, and Silistra.
ROMANIA: KeyToNature National Seminar - (Bistrita, 28 May 2009)
The Romanian K2N National Seminar has been organised by Technical University of Cluj-Napoca at National College "Liviu Rebreanu" in Bistrita with the support of local county inspectorate for education and local NGOs involved in biodiversity protection. The title of the seminar was "Using the new ICT tools for teaching and identification of organisms". The main idea was to gather teachers from secondary and high schools together with pupils in order to demonstrate the best practice examples in using the identification keys produced in the frame of Key To Nature project for Romania and to share related pedagogical experiences.
ITALY: KeyToNature presented at TICEMED - (Milano, 28-29 May 2009)
Dr. Alessandro Mazzetti presented KeyToNature at TICEMED 2009 - 6° International Conference, UBIQUITOUS LEARNING, Università di Milano-Bicocca, 28/29 May 2009 [site].
The "Mobile Packager" application has been presented during two round tables "Market trends and institutional problems" and "e-learning Centers: products, solutions and experiences". Several KeyToNature flyers has been distributed at the exhibition
SPAIN: KeyToNature at IMS Learning Impact Conference - (Barcelona, 11-14 May 2009)
Dr. Fabrizio Cardinali (ELIG chair and Giunti Labs CEO) presented Giunti Labs projects at Learning Impact 2009, IMS Global Learning Consortium's annual conference [site].
Several KeyToNature flyers has been distribuited at the exhibition [Giunti Labs event].
GERMANY: BHL-EUROPE Kick-off Meeting (Berlin, 10 to 15 May 2009)
Dr. Gregor Hagedorn (JKI) participated at Kick-off Meeting of the Biodiversity Heritage Library for Europe (BHL Europe), representing K2N. The Meeting took place at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
The meeting was held successfully and resulted in new collaboration scenarios with BHL itself, but also with STERNA and Europeana. Sterna provides interesting semantic web technology, in which Key to Nature would like to participate with it WP4. The Key to Nature - BHL Europe use cases were received well by BHL (US) and BHL Europe. Both plan to start specific projects to support these and similar resource-use scenarios.
ITALY: A new section of the Forum Natura Mediterraneo dedicated to schools (May, 2009)
The Forum Natura Mediterraneo, Associate Member of KeyToNature for Italy, has just created a new section dedicated to schools. This will permit teachers and pupils to use the Forum not only for assistance in identification, but also to exchange experiences, projects and ideas. The new Forum is here [[2]]
BULGARIA: Ten Bulgarian Schools and training centres have become “Friends of K2N” until the end of April 2009
Ten Bulgarian Schools and training centres have become “Friends of K2N” until the end of April 2009, with a promise to conduct tests and real use of the interactive “Key of 371 trees and shrubs in Bulgaria” and to report the user and teacher experience with the key. See the list and short info about the Bulgarian “Friends of K2N” organisations.
SLOVENIA: KeyToNature national seminar (Ljubljana, 18 April 2009)
The KeyToNature national seminar was held on April 18th, 2009, in the Biological Centre in Ljubljana with 33 participants from primary and secondary schools and other educational institutions from all over Slovenia. The KeyToNature project, e-tools and some cases of good practice of use interactive keys at class in Slovenia and Italy were introduced in the first part of the seminar. The second part of the seminar was focused on a practical introduction of available interactive keys (mostly Trees and Shrubs of Slovenia and other Dryades keys in Slovenian) with fieldwork. We also asked teachers to give us feedback about their experiences with KeyToNature e-tools by filling in questionnaires and writing articles for Pedagogical handbook. More >>
BULGARIA: Dissemination and training course-seminar "K2N e-Keys and e-Learning for Biodiversity education" (2-3 April, 2009)
A two-days course-seminar "K2N e-Keys and e-Learning for Biodiversity education" has been organised and conducted jointly by BIKAM Ltd. and the Department of Information and In-Service Teacher Training, Sofia University on 2nd and 3rd of April 2009 in Sofia. Sixteen participants attended the seminar - Biology Teachers (Primary and Secondary school all around the country), and Teacher Trainers in Biology from the Department Information and In-Service Teacher Training. During the course-seminar the K2N project and its 1st year achievements have been presented, practical work with the new Key of 371 trees and shrubs in Bulgaria has been carried out, "live" Key-demonstrations have been conducted with the participants, and a half-day training session on how to use Moodle e-learning platform has been conducted.
- See and download 5 presentations from the seminar (in Bulgarian) at the dedicated K2N Bulgaria SlideShare.net Space
- See and download The Announcement and the programme of the course-seminar (in Bulgarian)
ITALY: A new KeyToNature guide to calcareous algae of the Mediterranean Sea (April, 2009)
This interactive guide to Mediterranean Corallinaceae (In Italian and English) was produced by a research team of the University of Trieste. It can be consulted here [[3]]
BULGARIA: The first two Associate members from Bulgaria have been approved (London, 17 March 2009)
The Associate membership applications of the first two Bulgarian organisations have been approved by the K2N consortium at the 4th K2N project meeting in London, 16-19 March 2009. The two organisations are:
- The Department of Information and In-Service Training of Teachers, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"
- The Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia
One can learn more about the profile and the associate membership roles of these organisations at the Bulgarian section of the Associate Membership page.
SLOVENIA: KeyToNature presented at Press Conference in Triglav National Park in Bled (March, 2009)
Presentation of research work in Triglav National Park with press conference included also presentation of KeyToNature project. The Triglav National Park (TNP) is the only Slovenian national park and the Triglav National Park Public Institution would be an Associate member of KeyToNature project. The PPT presentation and the leaflets were used as dissemination materials.
SPAIN: A new KeyToNature guide to plants, for a school near Madrid (March, 2009)
Launched: Interactive key for the “Environmental Centre Villaviciosa de Odón”. The intense collaboration between KeyToNature and this environmental centre, placed on a forest near Madrid, has produced this guide, to be used at the Centre, with schools. http://dbiodbs.units.it/carso/chiavi_pub21?sc=311
BULGARIA: KeyToNature: An interactive key of 371 wild and cultivated trees and shrubs of Bulgaria - in Bulgarian - is now on-line. (March, 2009).
An Interactive key to 371 wild and cultivated trees and shrubs in Bulgaria is now on-line. It is now available for testing at schools and universities. The interactive key is complemented with a software tool, which allows the extraction and production of smaller keys and editing of all keys - the original one, and the newly produced sub-keys. Available for download at the online key page is also a portable version of the key for Pocket PCs and Smart Phones. An off-line, CD-ROM version only, of the dichotomous key is produced as well and available for free use. The interested teachers, schools, and universities throughout the country are kindly invited to test any or all of the key versions and to ask for a free CD with the dichotomous version of the key. Please visit the Bulgarian national portal, where in the "Interactive portal" section you can have a direct access to the online key, and can obtain the statute of "Friends of KeyToNature" (Приятели на "Ключ към природата") in order to obtain a free CD of the key and to gain access to all tools and instruments, produced by the K2N project.
SLOVENIA: KeyToNature: an interactive key to trees and shrubs of Slovenia (in Slovenian) is now on-line (February, 2009)
The interactive guide to trees and shrubs in Slovenia] is now on-line. It includes more than 400 species of wild and cultivated trees, shrubs and woody climbers in Slovenia. The key is now available for testing in schools and universities. Teachers and professors are kindly invited to test the on-line version and to ask for the free CD. More about the key is on Slovenian national portal.
SPAIN: Paper presentation at IADIS Conference on Mobile Learning 2009, (Barcelona, 27 February 2009)
On February 27th, 2009, Licia Calvi presented the paper entitled "Learning Biodiversity through Mobile Identification Keys: Design and Evaluation" by Licia Calvi and Verónica Donoso. The IADIS e-Society 2009 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within the Information Society. This conference covers both the technical as well as the non-technical aspects of the Information Society. Broad areas of interest are eLearning, eSociety and Digital Divide, eBusiness / eCommerce, New Media and E-Society,Digital Services in ESociety, eGovernment / eGovernance, eHealth, Information Systems, and Information Management.
ESTONIA: KeyToNature: an interview in an Estonian national radio broadcast (February, 2009)
On February 22nd 2009, Tiina Randlane gave an interview to the national radio broadcast “Environmental tent” (“Keskkonnatelk”) - Radio Kuku, introducing the project, explaining the benefits of interactive keys and describing joint activities of partners which have been carried out so far. The interview lasted ca 12 minutes. Listen to the broadcast
EUROPE: KeyToNature selected as "Project of the Month" by elearningeuropa.info (February, 2009)
The European Commission's portal elearningeuropa.info has selected KeyToNature as “Project of the Month” in the January issue of its Newsletter (sent out to 27.000 subscribers in 21 languages). See the Newsletter here [[4]]
ROMANIA: KeyToNature: an interactive key to trees and shrubs of Romania - in Romanian - is now on-line (February, 2009)
The on-line interactive guide to selected trees and shrubs in Romania] is now on-line. It includes more than 300 species and is now available for testing in schools. The tool is the first of this type produced in the Romanian language. Teachers from schools are kindly invited to test the on-line version and to ask for the free CD. Please check the Romanian national portal to contact us.
EUROPE: KeyToNature. Launched: web-quiz for learning the main characters of plant leaves (January, 2009)
We are proud to announce that the "eXact-Dryades-Quiz", a web-tool for teaching the main characters of plant leaves through a quiz, is now on-line. The application, originally designed by the University of Trieste, was developed further by Giunti Labs (GLABS) using the commercial LCMS "eXact Packager". It is available through the LMS "Learn eXact Siter/Glove", which manages the enrollment of users, tracing their proficency with the SCORM tracking functionality. Enjoy it here: Exact-Dryades-Quiz
ESTONIA: 3rd Seminar “KeyToNature – keys for whom and to where?" - Estonian Society of Biology Teachers, Tartu, Estonia (January, 2009)
The third KeyToNature seminar for Estonia was held on January 16th, 2009, at the annual seminar of the Estonian Society of Biology Teachers, with c. 30 participants from primary and secondary schools from all over Estonia. The seminar was focused on a practical introduction of locally available interactive keys (e-Flora of Estonia I, Trees and Shrubs; Epiphytic macrolichens of Estonia), and on the teachers’ role in returning feedback to KeyToNature.
See also the list of current Events and the archive of former news items and the archive of past events.
