Thomas Strasser

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Fachdidaktiker, Learning Technology Researcher, Autor, Lehrer. Thomas Strasser, geb. 1979 in Vöcklabruck (OÖ.), studierte Anglistik und Italianistik (Lehramt) an der Universität Wien. Er unterrichtete Englisch, Italienisch, IKT für 1. Klassen und das Fach „E-Learning“ (2. Klasse) an einem Wiener Gymnasium. Weiters Kustos für „moderne Lernformen/E-Learning“, „eLSA-Schulkoordinator“. Seit 2011 unterrichtet Thomas Strasser Englisch an einer Wiener Mittelschule. Thomas Strasser hat langjährige Unterrichtserfahrung im Bereich der Erwachsenenbildung (VHS, bfi, etc.) und ist als Referent für LehrerInnenfortbildungskurse und als dienstzugeteilte Lehrperson für die Betreuung von LehramtsstudentInnen vor allem im Bereich Fachdidaktik/Fachwissenschaften Englisch, Neue Lerntechnologien an der Pädagogischen Hochschule Wien tätig. EPICT Mentor & Beauftragter für die Implementierung des E-Portfolios „Mahara“ im Bereich Schulpraxis HS 1. Semester Englisch.

Er arbeitete für längere Zeit als akademischer Projektassistent für das VOICE Projekt (Vienna Oxford International Corpus of English – English as a lingua franca, Universität Wien, Prof. Seidlhofer), bei dem er sich um technisch-linguistische Fragestellungen kümmerte (Transkription, Datendigitalisierung, etc.). Weiters war Thomas Strasser als didaktischer und medienpädagogischer Berater für den FH Campus Wien tätig. Ständiger Berater für „IOKI-Online-Learning-Platform“ (Polen), laufend Vortragender bei diversen (inter-)nationalen E-Learning/Didaktik Konferenzen und Mitglied diverser Gutachterkomitees für wissenschaftliche Konferenzen im Bereich EFL-Didaktik und Neue Lerntechnologien. Absolviertes Doktoratsstudium (Prof. Tanzmeister, Romanistik Wien), das sich mit MOODLE und Blended Learning im Fremdsprachenunterricht beschäftigte.

Weiters ist Thomas Strasser Autor von wissenschaftlichen Monografien, Artikel und von Lehrwerken für den Englischunterricht.

Auf seinem Lernblog: www.learning-reloaded.com finden sich sämtliche Informationen zum Vortragenden, nützliche Links, die neuesten Web 2.0-Apps, Blogs und Best Practice Beispiele.

Mahara newsletter here.

ePortfolio goes Vienna University of Education - A two-year research project with Mahara (Thomas Strasser & Bence Lukacs)

Since the winter term 2010/11, the Vienna University of Education  has been using Mahara as a development, presentation and reflection portfolio. Due to its pedagogical versatility and user-friendliness, Mahara has become a vital component for students in order to develop various skills relevant for their future profession as teachers proficiently.

In autumn 2011, Thomas Strasser initiated the official research project:

The role of competency-based learning within the context of the ePortfolio software Mahara at practical student teacher courses at Vienna University of Education. Technical steeplechase or methodological perspective?

 The project team consists of various professors and students. An official collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Vienna (www.fh-campuswien.ac.at) was initiated in order to exchange ideas and expertise concerning the use of Mahara on a bilateral level. The two-year research project has the following scientific focal points:

•  General reception of Mahara’s technical components among staff and students.

• Didactical versatility of Mahara
• Development of various competencies, e.g. self-organized learning,  within the context of Mahara
• Development of a dissemination strategy, i.e. presentation of scientific research results, production of manuals, etc., aimed at the secondary and tertiary education levels.

The Vienna University of Education focuses on four components within the context of their research project.

The thematic focal point at the beginning of the project (semester 1) is on the technical implementation procedures with Mahara in practical student teacher courses. The student teachers and their staff will undergo an enquiry about the basic reception regarding the use of Mahara. Seen from a methodological point of view, the project team is designing a questionnaire implying considerations like: general, subjective reception of Mahara’s user-friendliness (i.e. usability) , quality of technical in-house support, etc. After the analysis of the empirical data with the data collected, the project team will publish a practical handbook. This manual will contain hands-on explanations on how to implement/use Mahara in the practical training of student teachers at Vienna University of Education. 

 Chapters will include:

- Definition ePortffolio and Mahara

- Features and applicative areas of Mahara

- Step by step explanation about technical implementation at the University of Education

- Technical FAQs

- Presentation of the Mahara-Tools and how to use them

- Best Practice examples for efficient use of Mahara within the practical training

Didactical versatility will be the main focus in the project’s second year, especially the use of different Mahara-internal tools. The team will research the didactical effectiveness of implemented tools like forums, groups, messaging and file-exchange. The student teachers are encouraged to use the forums and the groups for various subject-specific but also general, pedagogical (self-reflections, self-assessment, etc.) tasks within their practical training.

 Since the technical implementation procedures will have been researched in the first year of the project, its attention in the third and fourth semester will be drawn to the practice-oriented part/usage of e-Portfolio, namely self-organized learning and the development of competences. In this part the research team will deal with curricular components (self-reflection, development, social skills, self-assessment) within the training at the University of Education. Among others, the following research questions will be asked: ‘Are students and staff actively using Mahara in order to develop different competencies?’ Or ‘Are students using Mahara to fully develop their reflective and presentational sujets within their teaching practice?’

 The final part of the project provides a summary of all research findings in an open Mahara instance with public access. The target groups are tertiary Educational Institutions in Austria and all over the world.

In order to put the emphasis on academic work concerning the use of ePortfolios, professors at Vienna University of Education support student teachers to publish bachelor theses on the topic.

Für eine vollständige Auflistung sämtlicher wissenschaftlichen Tätigkeiten (Autorenschaft, Vortragstätigkeit, Forschungsprojekte, etc.) klicke hier.

ECE:Moodle Deluxe!? The Use of the Learning Platform and Web 2.0-tools