Towards a Domain Specific Application Development Environment for the ELeGI architecture: the Softwa
The Next Generation Grids (NGG) expert group has pioneered the vision of "Invisible Grid" whereby the complexity of Grid systems and architectures is hidden to both developers and users. In this new vision, the Grid has a different role: it will not more provide a virtual computing environment but it will be the basis of a more complex service oriented, knowledge-based and collaborative environment suitable for the specific domains in which citizen and organizations have to operate.
Grid commun
Gathering Requirements for a Grid-based Automatic Marking System
This paper reports on our experiences using a Creative Requirements [1] workshop approach to elicit requirements for a Grid-based automatic marking system. The research was conducted for ELeGI, an EU funded project whose goal is to provide a European Learning Grid infrastructure to promote a learning paradigm shift from a teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred approach.
The automatic marking system uses Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to assess the meaning of essays written by computer sc
Super Users and Local Developers: The Organization of End User Development in an Accounting Company
The paper presents a case study following the activities of super users and local developers during the adoption of a new business application by an accounting firm in Scandinavia (referred to as the Company). The Company launched a program to train super users to help with this process because of the complexity of the new system, a generic, multi-purpose application system replacing several older, non-integrated systems. The system, Visma Business (VB) is a comprehensive financial and accountin
Digital case methodology: A study of student teachers' co-construction of professional knowledge
Case pedagogy has a growing position in inquiry oriented teacher education programmes as means of bridging gaps between every-day and professional conceptions of teaching and learning and enhancing contextual and collaborative learning. The paper look at how a CSCL environment may enforce and improve collective thinking and professional reflection by the use of a cased based learning model in pre-service teacher education. The study is based on computer-supported learning resources developed at
La natura della mediazione offerta dai sistemi basati su micromondi all’apprendimento della matema
Questo lavoro analizza il ruolo che ambienti basati sull’uso del calcolatore, ed in particolare i micromondi, possono assumere nelle attività di insegnamento e apprendimento di conoscenze matematiche.
Il lavoro parte dallo studio di alcuni risultati significativi che si sono avuti in questo campo a livello internazionale. Tale studio viene utilizzato come quadro di riferimento per situare e analizzare una ricerca specifica che abbiamo svolto in questo settore.
Tale ricerca riguarda la proge
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
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
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
Competence-based Knowledge Structures for Personalised Learning
The ELeGI project focuses on integrating technology-enhanced learning methodologies into a pedagogy-driven and service-oriented architecture based on Grid technology. It aims at a system that is capable of realising personalised, adaptive, and experiential learning.
This requires to have available a framework that, on the one hand, allows for representing existing domain knowledge, and, on the other hand, provides a representation of the learner's current state of knowledge. It is shown that a
E-Assessment using Latent Semantic Analysis
E-assessment is an important component of e-learning and e-qualification. Formative and summative assessment serve different purposes and both types of evaluation are critical to the pedagogical process.
While students are studying, practicing, working, or revising, formative assessment provides direction, focus and guidance. Summative assessment provides the means to evaluate a learner's achievement and communicate that achievement to interested parties.
Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a st
The Triangle Teacher - Pupil - Knowledge in E-Learning Environment
Our proposal starts from the study of the epistemological statute of the didactics of the mathematics (Henry, 1991; D'Amore, 1999), which faces the phenomenon of learning from the point of view of fundaments, in order to give useful and specific considerations for e-learning environment. In particular we will focus on how the triangle, teacher-pupil-knowledge changes when we use e-learning platforms.
Functional specifications of argumentative collaboration services
This document defines the functional specifications of the argumentative collaboration services to bedeveloped within the framework of the IST project Palette. More specifically, it justifies the need forproviding such services to communities and it describes the functionality of the specified services from a user's perspective.,PALETTE deliverable - report number D.MED.05 - 34 pages
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
Towards an xml-based representation of collaborative action
Interaction analysis is a core function for the support of coaching and evaluation in CSCL. It
relies on information captured from the actions performed by the participants during the collaborative process. This information includes data of distinct nature and format, which demands a flexible and standardised data representation, adaptable to different analytical perspectives and collaborative situations. Besides this, it is known that the correct interpretation of human action needs to take con
Reusing IMS-LD Formalized Best Practices in Collaborative Learning Structuring
Designs of CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) activities should be flexible, effective and customizable to particular learning situations. On the other hand, structured designs aim to create favourable conditions for learning. Thus, this paper proposes the collection of representative and broadly accepted (best practices) structuring techniques in collaborative learning. The paper also proposes the formulation of these techniques as patterns: the so- called CLFPs (Collaborative Le
Knowledge Structures and Didactic Model Selection in Learning Object Navigation
In this paper two levels of content aggregation are considered: (i) a ‘conceptual
level’ of the content of the learning objects, and (2) a ‘didactic preference level’ of
the specific preferences expressed by a taecher or educational institution. We then
present a knowledge structure model in which the learning objects are organized
according to constraints imposed at these two distinct levels. The structure on
the learning objects is then used to restrict the number of learning paths ava
Taking teaching context into account for semantic annotation patterns
In this article, starting from MemoNote pattern functionalities enabling teacher to memorize semantic and personal annotations, our objective is to extend them with context-aware capabilities. MemoNote uses annotation patterns to deduce annotation semantics from the form chosen by the teacher. We specify the annotation context, its capture from elements of the teaching situation and we model it with ontologies. Annotation context model is then directly integrated into the previous pattern formal
Formalismes pour une mémoire de formation à base d’annotations : articuler sémantique implicite
Cet article a pour objet de présenter les formalismes définis pour des mémoires de formation à base d’annotations au sein du projet MICA. Il explicite les objectifs de la recherche et les exigences que cela apporte sur les outils visés. Une étude des travaux de la littérature sur les annotations et leurs formalismes montre qu’ils ne couvrent que de façon très limitée nos objectifs. Nous présentons alors les formalismes que nous avons développés, en structurant l’objet d’anno
