Selected Papers from the Kaleidoscope Convergence Workshop
To foster synergy between research on collaborative, mobile and inquiry learning and between different scientific and methodological perspectives (namely, educational design, psychology and computer science) and to strengthen the cohesion of the community, the Kaleidoscope network has decided to organise a âConvergence Workshopâ in conjunction with the 2006 Contractors' General Assembly in Amsterdam, Dec. 4-6.
The two fields of collaborative and inquiry learning have bee
Mind games, reasoning skills, and the primary school curriculum
This paper reports on a pilot research project aimed at helping to develop some strategic and reasoning abilities in primary school pupils by engaging them in educational itineraries based on the use of a number of computer mind games. The paper briefly describes the project's aims and organization, the kind of games used and the working methodology adopted. It then focuses on some of the cognitive abilities activated by the games. Finally, some pedagogical considerations derived from the study
Il ruolo delle nuove tecnologie per superare le difficoltà di apprendimento in aritmetica
Nell’articolo si fa riferimento a varie sperimentazioni che abbiamo realizzato per studiare il ruolo che le tecnologie dell’infromazione e della comunicazione possono svolgere nel superamento delle difficoltà che emergono nell’apprendimento in campo aritmetico e nella soluzione di problemi aritmetici. L’approccio che abbiamo seguito ha come riferimento la teoria della “distributed cognition”, secondo cui la conoscenza è sempre contestualizzata, distribuita negli strumenti, nelle at
Multimedia and the learner's experience of narrative
This paper reports on research findings which show that the narrative structure of multimedia programs, or sometimes the lack of it, affects learners' comprehension, often adversely [1,2].
It also reports on initial findings from our current research which aims to develop a theoretical understanding of the forms and functions of narrative in interactive media, based on empirical
research, and capable of informing instructional design.
Literature Review in Citizenship, Technology and Learning
Taking on both how ICT can be used to support citizenship education and how citizenship education needs to reflect changes in technology use in the workplace and day to day life, this publication summarises both theoretical and empirical research evidence in the field. It examines possible roles for ICT in engendering discussion, as a source of information, as a means of producing materials, and for enabling whole school activities on citizenship.,A NESTA Futurelab Research report - report 3
Autoregolazione dell'apprendimento e tecnologie didattiche
This paper introduces the concept of Self-Regulated Learning and analyses the possible support granted by Educational Technology for its practice and development.
Geometry: dynamic intuition and theory
Geometry is a school subject, but also and primarily geometry is a mathematical domain. As mathematical educators we are interested in geometry from both perspectives, as well as we are interested in the relationship between them. First of all, geometry is a formalized theory, within the broader frame of mathematical theories. Actually, geometry pervades (permeates) a large part of mathematics, even some of its very recent developments, influencing and affecting both their origin and their evolu
Towards Short Term Content Adaptation
Recent works in the E-Learning field tend to focus on the learner, leaving the representation and treatment of contents in the background. One of the principal actors that contribute on this focus shift is the adoption of adaptive techniques that profile learners and adjust the contents according to the inferred profiles.
In contrast with most adaptive approaches, this work introduces a short-term adaptive strategy whose aim is to capture the instantaneous interests of users. The proposed model
Ontology based user modeling for personalization of grid learning services
The paper shows how semantic grid learning services will support a user-centered, personalized, contextualized and experiential based approach for ubiquitous learning. In order to allow personalized learning processes, we need to study and define methodologies for representing, through adequate knowledge structures, such as ontologies, both the area (the learning context) and the learner.
In this paper we will focus on the role of personalized ontologies for a new generation of intelligent serv
A Conceptual Framework for Conversations and Services
In this article a conceptual framework is developed that specifies the terms and their relationships that will be used for specifying conversational processes in ELeGI. The first part consists of a glossary of terms, each with an informal, textual description.
These descriptions are the basis for more formal definitions as to be further specified in a machine readable and re-usable ontology. This ontology, represented in OWL is still under development.
This ontology, specifies the building sto
An innovative teaching and learning environment for school mathematics
The paper presents the main characteristics, the background reference, and educational aims of an innovative teaching and learning environment designed and implemented for promoting arithmetic problems solving skills in children of compulsory school.
The project is partially funded by the European Community Research and Development Project ITALES "Innovative Teaching and Learning Environments for Schools" (IST 2000-23356).
The research addresses a sector (that of arithmetic problem solving) whi
Peer Conversations for e-Learning in the Grid
We take the view of 'learning as a conversational process', and argue that this can be extended to include the notions of peer-group interactions among students, tutors, and even artificial agents.
This in turn lends itself to an approach to distributed conversation which builds upon modern Instant Messaging tools, and extends such tools to include what we call enhanced presence: a way of monitoring the availability of (and interacting with) fellow students and tutors at a distance.
We describ
Designing Assessment Tools in a Service Oriented Architecture
Assessment is an important component of formal learning, and Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) is a well established component of most online learning. However, technical issues such as interoperability and security, and pedagogic reservations as to its effectiveness still remain barriers to the uptake of CAA.
In this paper we examine a number of current assessment projects, predominantly emanating from the UK, to consider how a service oriented architecture can facilitate the implementation o
The use case specification of actions in the goal oriented knowledge based learning environment
The proposed goal oriented knowledge acquisition and assessment are based on the flexible educational model and allows to implement an adaptive control of the enhanced learning process according to the requirements of student's knowledge level, his state of cognition and subject learning history.
The enhanced learner knowledge model specifies how the cognition state of the user will be achieved step by step. The use case actions definition is a starting point of the specification that depends o
Towards On-Line Services Based on a Holistic Analysis of Human Activities
Very often computer scientists view computerization of services in terms of the logistics of human-machine interaction, including establishing a contract, accessing records, and of course designing an interface. But this analysis often moves too quickly to tactical details, failing to frame the entire service in human terms, and not recognizing the mutual learning required to define and relate goals, constraints, and the personalized value of available services. In particular, on-line services t
The Model of Collaborative Learning GRID to activate interactivity for Knowledge Building
The purpose of this study is to support the learning activity in the Internet learning space. In this paper, we examine the GRID technology as the knowledge management for supporting "collaborative learning" / " collaboration in learning" (CL).
RAPSODY-EX (REX) is a distributed learning support environment organized as a learning infrastructure. REX can effectively carry out to support collaborative activities in asynchronous/ synchronous learning mode.
The mixed distributed learning environme
Prise en compte du contexte algébrique dans la modélisation des connaissances d’un élève. Le c
Nous nous intéressons à la modélisation des connaissances des élèves dans le domaine de l’algèbre. Notre travail utilise les traces des actions des élèves recueillies dans l’environnement informatique Aplusix. Pour capturer une connaissance, il est essentiel de
tenir compte de la persistance et de la stabilité d’une action que ce soit dans la durée ou
dans la situation. Cependant, deux actions peuvent paraître, de prime abord, contradictoires. Associées au contexte dans lequel
Structuring and merging Distributed Content
A flexible approach for structuring and merging distributed learning object is presented. At the basis of this approach there is a formal representation of a learning object, called attribute structure.
Attribute structures are labeled directed graphs representing structured information on the learning objects. When two or more learning objects are merged, the corresponding attribute structures are unified, and the unified structure is attached to the resulting learning object.
Movement and interaction in semantic GRIDs: dynamic service generation for Agents in the MIC* deploy
We present in this position paper the foundations of the MIC* model and deployment environment as they have emerged in the last years, relate them to current evolutions on semantic GRID dynamic service generation, as reflected by OGSA/I and, more recently, by WSRF, and propose an integrated view with the previously proposed STROBE model for communicating agents leading to a quite simple yet very promising architecture that may
include Human agents in the loop, uninspectable as most artificial ag
Virtual Reality for Learning: Sharing Experiences rather than Resources
Virtual Reality is becoming a major candidate for embodying immersive learning environments. Whereas in the two preceding decades learning has been conceptualized as situations where students are guided rather than elicited to undertake actions, it is now the right time to explore the other side or the continuum.
