A computer program for the learning of algebra: description and first experiment
We present APLUSIX, a computer system that helps students to learn algebra, available at http://aplusix.imag.fr. APLUSIX contains an advanced 2D editor of algebraic expressions that allows students to make the calculations (s)he wants, like in a paper-pencil context. The system verifies the student's calculations, by calculating the equivalence between two consecutives expressions, and shows the result to the student. It provides information concerning the progress of the resolution. Furthermore
Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children's Services
This document is the Department for Education and Skill's first cross-sector e-learning strategy. The strategy focuses on what the technology can do for informing and advising citizens, for supporting children and learners of all ages in their encounters with the system, and for transforming the experience of learning. To make this happen, it identifieds six priorities, to provide:
• An integrated online information service for all citizens
• Integrated online personal support for children
Usability and Pedagogical Design: are Language Learning Websites Special?
This paper explores the usability of e-learning websites, with particular reference to foreign language learning. Notions and concepts of usability are analyzed, and a definition of ‘pedagogical usability’ is proposed. The key issue is whether there are aspects of pedagogical usability that are discipline-specific. The paper examines the way in which language learning and teaching, in particular Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), has approached usability as an area worthy of consi
An Advisory QoS Service for GRID Based Learning Environments
This paper argues that the assumption of end-to-end QoS provision for use in Grid based applications is unsafe. We present an architecture which provides an adaptive QoS service for GRID applications which are prepared to adapt rather than assume the best and then suffer the worst.
This is particularly relevant to Internet based GRIDs. An example application from the field of collaborative learning environments is given, featuring adaptive QoS for Real Time Protocol (RTP) based audio and visual
A modelling challenge : untangling learner knowledge
For now about three decades, systematic research on students learning of science and mathematics has evidenced a great variety of the possible understanding for a given notion, as well as an important sensitivity of these understandings to contexts. Students' knowing appears as a tangle of local conceptions of which we have a very partial and unorganised picture. We present here the outlines of the modelling tool we have developed, and of its framework, in order to give account of learners' know
Is There a Policy for Networked Learning?
Networked learning is part of an emergent networked society. As such networked learning forms part of a wider debate concerning the nature of social processes, power and culture and their relationships with technology. The literature surrounding networked learning still reflects a technological determinist view. This paper takes issue with this view of the relationship between technology and social forms. The context of higher education has been changing alongside the introduction of new technol
Understanding and analysing activity and learning in virtual communities
The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary framework
to observe, analyse and evaluate both activity and learning in virtual
communities. So various types of virtual communities will be studied by
examining their relationship to socialisation and learning. After a
presentation of the main ideas of Wenger’s social learning theory, the
principal components of the social context of the emergence and evolution
of virtual communities will be described. It will show how taking this
context
A process oriented approach for Modelling On line Learning Environments
In this paper we describe the modelling approach used in an on going project bringing together partners from the academic world and from a company. The two main features of this approach are the following. Firstly, it starts from the production model recommended by ISO for modelling any production activity in industry and then it refines and specialises this general cycle to on-line learning production. Secondly, it takes a reverse engineering perspective as it starts from an existing set of sof
Tópicos sobre programação de computadores como método educativo no jardim-de-infância
Temos vindo a explorar a possibilidade de utilizar a programação de computadores no jardim-de-infância, no âmbito da metodologia construcionista desenvolvida por Seymour Papert. Para o efeito, recorremos à linguagem ToonTalk, que permite a realização de programação de computadores sob a forma de animação, dispensando a leitura e a escrita. Este artigo dá conta das estratégias que utilizámos e das constatações que efectuámos por observação e experimentação.
Home School Knowledge Exchange: activities and conceptualisations
In this paper, we wish to do two things. The first is to give an account of research undertaken on the Home School Knowledge Exchange project. The second is to examine some conceptualisations relevant to this area in the light of our experiences on the project.
The project
Children live and learn in two very different worlds - those of home and school. These worlds are often kept separate from each other. The project has been working to bridge this divide by bringing together parents, teachers
Lessons for learning: research lesson study, innovation, transfer and metapedagogy - a design experi
During the past 12 months my project has been developing an approach to research lesson study with a number of networks of schools in England.
The project has been piloting a design for research lesson study and developing practices in a number of school settings – both secondary and primary, and in a range of curriculum areas. It has explored a number of forms including cross school ‘networked’ forms and cross phase and cross subject approaches.
Sequences of Research Lessons (studies) h
Intensive case studies for practice across the foundation stage
This paper will provide an introductory overview of the EPPE methodology and findings and focus upon the particular effects of specific teaching and learning practices in pre-schools.
Where settings view educational and social development as complementary and equal in importance, children make better all round progress. Freely chosen play activities often provided the best opportunities for adults to extend children’s thinking, but it seems that a balance between child-initiated play and the
What is it like for you?: surveying the learning experiences of disabled students in four HE institu
This paper explores phase one of a four-year study of the learning experiences and outcomes for disabled students. The project employs a longitudinal design with a mixed-methods approach. The main aim is to develop an in-depth understanding of the learning experiences and learning outcomes for a small cohort of students with different impairments in four discipline areas in four different higher education institutions. In particular the study aims to uncover barriers to learning and good pract
Learning to perform: instrumentalists and instrumental teachers - starting out
Learning to Perform began in February 2004, and runs for four years. At its heart lies a 3-year longitudinal study (Strand 1) of aspiring performers (and composers) studying on a BMus course at the Royal College of Music in London (RCM); through tracking one group of students (Cohort 2004) from the June prior to their entry to their 4-year course, and a second group of students (Cohort 2002) from the beginning of their third year, we aim to build up an overall picture of ‘learning to performâ
According to the promises: the subculture of school science, teachers' pedagogic identity and the ch
This paper reports findings from the Economic and Social Research Council-funded InterActive Education Project, in which teachers, researchers and teacher educators have worked together to develop, perform, and evaluate secondary school science department-based ‘Subject Design Initiatives’. Drawing on notions from sociocultural theory, we have focused on ‘cultural tools’ as material and symbolic mediators of learning. In the Subject Design Initiatives teachers are seen as central to lear
Social capital and productivity: how might training affect a company’s social capital? Does the li
When workers receive training, especially within the workplace, the expectation is that their skills will be increased. Higher levels of skills can be expected to translate into higher levels of efficiency or productivity. This is something that we are currently attempting to measure.
However, the impact of training is unlikely to be confined to its influence on skill levels. Indeed, if we were to concentrate solely on skills this would imply a narrow and inadequate conceptualisation of how org
Project Newsletter No 1
Progress report showing the profile of learners participating in the project and some of the information we are gathering.,16,19
Interim Report - Early Career Learning: Nursing Sector
This report describes some of the data obtained from newly qualified nurses about their
learning and development in their first posts. It covers the first two years of a four-year
project and includes data from the nurses’ preceptors/mentors and managers. The main
themes have been selected from these data in order to facilitate the next ‘action’ phase of
the research. This forms part of a project that also involves engineers and accountants in
their first posts and reports are also being p
A servant of two masters: designing research to advance knowledge and practice.
This paper describes aspects of the design and implementation of 'Learning How to Learn - in classrooms, schools and networks', a major development and research project within the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme.,114,120,126,132,130
The design of the ESRC-TLRP 'Learning How to Learn' project
This paper, by Mary James, David Pedder, Paul Black, Dylan Wiliam and Robert McCormick, describes the design of a major development and research project within the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme. It outlines the project's aims to enhance teaching and learning in schools through innovative practice at classroom and school level, and through networking. It describes the assumptions and principles on which the design of the study was based and how the overall plan for the research ev
