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.
Developing a Service Based Architecture in the Mobilearn E-Learning Project
Mobilearn is a project within the 5th Framework Programme of the European Union. Its objective is, to investigate the use of mobile technologies in different learning contexts. In order to achieve this, a service based software architecture is developed.
In the following paper we describe the architectural approach taken within the Mobilearn project and some of the experiences gained. The author is a member of the Mobilearn Project Management Board. His institute maintains the Mobilearn Softwar
Reusability of eLearning Objects in the context of Learning Grids
This paper examines the requirements of eLearning Object Metadata, in order to appropriately support pedagogic and economic goals as well as service oriented architectures like the Grid.
The standard IEEE LOM is being tested against these requirements. In conclusion, it can be said that while current eLearning practices are well supported by the standard, the main insufficiencies concern a) the adequate description of ELOs that are services and not downloadable self-contained programs and b) th
Open Learning Service Scenarios on GRIDs
The position paper focuses on the concepts of Service Elicitation and Evaluation/Exploitation Scenarios (SEES) and, in particular, on experimental protocols for justifying, motivating, implementing and exploiting Learning GRID's services for very large numbers of potential users.
Theoretical Foundations for E-Learning Environments Direct to Virtual Scientific Experiments
In this work we want to put in evidence the necessity to integrate theoretical, methodological and didactical aspects with innovative e-learning systems, in order to hypothesize possible learning models able to facilitate and qualify the e-learning world.
Specifically, our aim will be direct to theoretical learning models of Virtual Scientific Experiments to be implemented inside the platforms. Therefore, the result to be achieved comes from the interaction of two different "macro-environments"
Constructive Interactions
The new paradigm of "knowledge construction using experiential based and collaborative learning approaches" is an outstanding opportunity for interdisciplinary research. This document is an attempt to introduce and exemplify as much as possible using the lexicon of "social sciences", considerations and tools belonging to "artificial intelligence" (eg.:the machine learning tradition).
In the paper we first draw a conceptual framework for rational agents in conversational interaction; then we use
The Challenge of Change: Reducing Conflict in Implementing e-Learning
This paper calls for the design of the European Grid for Learning to take note of important issues which have arisen in previous e-learning cycles in the UK. In particular, low take-up of products and services by lecturers has been explained in terms of techno-fear, or ignorance of e-learning potential.
These claims are unsubstantiated. Other explanations are possible for the observed resistance of the educational specialist to the use of educational technology. Rather than ignore possible area
Quality of Service Requirements for the e-Learning Grid
In the same way that the Web has evolved from being a technology designed to aid scientific collaboration to one which is employed extensively in e-business and increasingly in e-learning, the Grid is also evolving from its original concept as a highly distributed dynamic source of computing resources "on tap", like the power grid, for e-science, to a means of supporting enterprise computing across heterogeneous, distributed, virtual organisations.
However, even the most recent ideas associated
Software Interoperability Problems and E-Learning
Grid applications are special cases of networking applications. In order to investigate potential applications of Grid technologies to e-learning we discuss in the following some current applications of network technologies in e-learning as they have occurred at the University Koblenz-Landau.
At the appropriate points we shall indicate demands that our e-learning applications pose to the underlying network services and mention, how they might benefit from resource sharing as potentially offered
A Learning Grid for the multichallenge school ECP
The aim of this presentation is to try to define the requirements of a European Learning Grid that would fit best with the challenges and today and future practices of Ecole Centrale Paris.
In a first part, after a brief presentation of Ecole Centrale Paris, we describe the actual challenges today practices and the interest of an e-learning GRID. In a second part we describe some potential cases of such system and the associated requirements.
Towards Collaborative Learning via Shared Artefacts over the Grid
The Web is the most pervasive collaborative technology in widespread use today; and its use to support eLearning has been highly successful.
There are many web-based Virtual Learning Environments such as WebCT, FirstClass, and BlackBoard as well as associated web-based Managed Learning Environments.
In the future, the Grid promises to provide an extremely powerful infrastructure allowing both learners and teachers to collaborate in various learning contexts and to share learning materials, lea
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
Students' activity in computer supported collaborative problem solving in mathematics
The purpose of this study was to analyse secondary school students' (N=16) computer-supported collaborative mathematical problem solving. The problem addressed in the study was: What kinds of metacognitive processes appear during computer-supported collaborative learning in mathematics? Another aim of the study was to consider the applicability of networked learning in mathematics. The network-based learning environment Knowledge Forum (KF) was used to support students' collaborative problem sol
Analyse de fichiers de traces d'étudiants : aspects didactiques
Users of a learning platforms are usually required to log in, that provides a great deal of data. The general question studied here is: how to exploit this data to help the different actors involved? At first let us introduce the platform and the experiments we conducted. Then we use a didactic model to produce a qualitative analysis from the quantitative data collected. A simple exercise classification emerges from the construction of two indicators. It is consistent with the different experim
Studying participation networks in collaboration using mixed methods
This paper describes the application of a mixed-evaluation method, published elsewhere, to three different learning scenarios. The method defines how to combine social network analysis with qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to study participatory aspects of learning in CSCL contexts. The three case studies include a course-long, blended learning experience evaluated as the course develops; a course-long, distance learning experience evaluated at the end of the course; and a synchron
Domain Modelling To Support Educational Web-based
authoring
This paper describes an approach to web-based authoring of educational material. We define a model for the class of subjects of our interest (those including both theoretical and practical issues). From this model, specific content outlines can be derived as subclasses and then instanced into actual domains. The last step consists in generating interactive documents, which use the instanced domain. Students can explore these documents through a web browser. Thus, an interactive learning scenario
Combining qualitative evaluation and social network analysis for the study of classroom social inter
Studying and evaluating real experiences that promote active and collaborative learning is a crucial field in CSCL. Major issues that remain unsolved deal with the merging of qualitative and quantitative methods and data, especially in educational settings that involve both physical and computer-supported collaboration.
In this paper we present a mixed evaluation method that combines traditional sources of data with computer logs, and integrates quantitative statistics, qualitative data analysis
It's About Interactive Learning
This paper draws on results of a research project InterActive Education: Teaching and Learning in the Information Age. The overall aim of the project is to examine the ways in which new technologies can be used in educational settings to enhance learning. To this end the project centres around the design and evaluation of teaching and learning initiatives for pupils from the age of eight to eighteen. Within this paper we report on our work with teachers and pupils, who have developed learning i
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
Teaching Teachers to Use ICT to Teach History: WWF meets ICT in the classroom
In this paper the authors explore the purpose and potential of using ICT to enhance the teaching of some aspects of the history National Curriculum in England and Wales. The focus is on the ways in which learning takes place in the context of historical knowledge and how the appropriate use of computers is able to engage pupils in the process of their own learning. The paper includes many examples and teaching ideas drawn from current classroom practice and training materials for initial teach
