Is support really necessary within educational games?
Games can be powerful learning devices because of their interactive and multimedia capabilities, and their abilities to keep students motivated, active, deeply immersed and engaged for sustained periods of time. Yet the extent to which this translates into more effective knowledge and skill acquisition is not clear from the research reported so far. Several researchers have stressed that support tools should be added to game environments to ensure that learning takes place. In this paper we will
An Integrated Approach for Analysing and Assessing the Performance of Virtual Learning Groups
Collaborative distance learning involves a variety of elements and factors that have to be considered and measured in order to analyse and assess group and individual performance more effectively and objectively. This paper presents an approach that integrates qualitative, social network analysis (SNA) and quantitative techniques for evaluating online collaborative learning interactions. Integration of various different data sources, tools and techniques provides a more complete and robust frame
Imagine... a new generation of Logo : programmable pictures
In 2000 we completed the development of a new generation of Logo environments containing a radical combination of the direct manipulation interface and rich interactive programming language. The Imagine environment will be released by Pearson Education, see http://www.logo.com.
Enabling Technologies for future learning scenarios: The Semantic Grid for Human Learning
In this paper, starting from the limitations and constrains of traditional human learning approaches, we outline new suitable approaches to education and training in future knowledge based society. In our vision, learning and teaching are no longer standalone activities but complex, conversational and experiential-based processes implying collaboration, direct experience, mutual trust and shared interests. We identify characteristics of the environments suitable for these processes, and we compa
How To Use GRID Technology for Building Next Generation Learning Environments
Grid technologies promise to improve the way we think about e-learning allow-ing wide-scale learning resources sharing in heterogeneous and geographi-cally distributed environments consenting, in this way, the implementation of distributed learning spaces where different organizations and individuals are able to cooperate in pursuing similar and complementary learning and training objectives. But is the e-learning ready for this evolution? In this paper we try, starting from an existing e-learni
Using Ontological Engineering to Overcome Common AI-ED Problems
This paper discusses long-term prospects of AI-ED research with the aim of giving a clear view of what we need for further promotion of the research from both the AI and ED points of view. An analysis of the current status of AI-ED research is done in the light of intelligence, conceptualization, standardization and theory-awareness. Following this, an ontology-based architecture with appropriate ontologies is proposed. Ontological engineering of IS/ID is next discussed followed by a road map to
Exploring the secondary transfer of gifted and talented pupils
In my research I am endeavouring to investigate the experiences of academically gifted children transferring from primary to secondary school. This involves examining the policy context of the national, regional and local arenas, the ways in which pupils experience this provision within their classrooms, and the influence of their home environment. One cohort of children will be tracked longitudinally from Year 5 into Year 8 in two contrastive areas, Bristol and Cardiff. An ethnographic case
Learning cultures, interventions and transformations: early and emergent findings from the Transform
This project operates in a ‘nested case study’ design and relies on a unique partnership between teachers and researchers. Analysis at the case level is well advanced, whilst that at cross-case level is well under way. A more holistic cross-project analysis, coupled with theoretical development, is the main focus of our work in the remaining year or so.
This paper provides an overview of early and emerging findings, focused on two of the project’s three core aims. In relation to our ai
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
Evidence-based practice in science education: outcomes and implications
The aim of the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Network was to explore the interface between science education researchers and practitioners, particularly teachers, to understand better what might be involved in moving school science education towards forms of practice that are more ‘evidence-based’. The Network undertook four inter-related projects:
Project 1: Exploring the impact on teachers’ practices, and student learning, of providing diagnostic tools informed by
Literacy practices as resources for learning: issues of identity, multimodality and fluidity
The current phase of the project focuses on 32 courses and four students on each of those courses in a range of curriculum areas in four Further Education colleges. Our aim in this phase is to research the interface between the literacy practices which might lead students to success on these courses, and the literacy practices in other domains of their lives.
We will focus on four key aspects of the conceptual framework which underlies the research:
1. The concept of ‘literacy practices’,
Teaching and learning in diverse university settings: analytic frameworks for integrating different
This paper describes progress on the TLRP project on “Enhancing teaching-learning environments in undergraduate courses”. The project is concentrating on differences and similarities that exist in the teaching-learning environments provided in mainly first and final unit course units in four contrasting subject areas and across the different settings provided in departments within those subjects. We have been collaborating with 17 departments across 15 universities and one college. The data
Early career learning at work
Our paper will focus on three general theoretical frameworks developed within our project. Our typology of learning is based on two simple distinctions. The first is between learning processes, such as problem-solving, and learning activities, such as asking questions, which are located within many different types of learning process. The second is between learning that occurs as the by-product of a working process (e.g. working alongside a more experienced colleague), and learning as a separate
What is really learned at university?: The SOMUL Project - conceptualisation and design
The project is attempting to bring together psychological and sociological conceptions of university learning and relate both to conceptions derived from current higher education policy and practice, disciplinary cultures and students. The focus of the empirical part of the project will be on student conceptions of learning but at this stage we are concerned to explore the conceptual relationships between different theoretical approaches to ‘what is learned’.
Within a highly differentiated
Improving the effectiveness of pupil group work: report on first results from the TLRP phase 2 SPRin
The main impetus for the SPRinG (Social Pedagogic Research into Grouping) project was to address the wide gap between the potential of group work to influence learning, motivation and attitudes to learning, and relationships in the classroom, on the one hand, and the limited use of group work in schools, on the other hand. Pupils rarely receive training in group working, and teachers are often unsure of its benefits and place in the curriculum. The SPRinG project was therefore set up to develop,
Combining life history and life-course approaches in researching lifelong learning: some methodologi
Learning Lives is a large-scale longitudinal study into the learning biographies of adult learners, aged 25 and over. The aim of the project is to deepen understanding of the complexities of learning in the life-course whilst identifying, implementing and evaluating strategies for sustained positive impact upon learning opportunities, dispositions and practices and upon the empowerment of adult learners. From a methodological point of view, one of the more challenging dimensions of Learning Live
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 does multimodality mean for English?: creative tensions in teaching new texts and new literacie
The argument for a pedagogy which embraces visual and multimodal representation is well established in academic circles (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; New London Group, 1996; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000) and a plethora of literacies congregate around the ever-expanding subject English as the prime site for innovation and development. This paper will focus on one exploratory case study from the Economic and Social Research Council InterActive Education Project1 to examine how working with multimodal text
Informal learning in the workplace
This paper focuses mainly on theoretical frameworks for understanding and investigating informal learning in the workplace, which have been developed through a series of large and small scale projects. The main conclusions are included but readers are referred to other publications for more detailed accounts of individual projects. Two types of framework are discussed. The first group seek to deconstruct the “key concepts” of informal learning, learning from experience, tacit knowledge, tran
