Motor-Manipulatory Behaviours and Learning: an Observational Study
In this paper we investigated the role of motor-manipulatory behaviour in the learning modalities of thirty-five primary school children interacting with a Lego MindStorms kit. In particular, by means of an observational taxonomy of childrens behaviour, we analysed the video records of two observational sessions regarding the learning activities during the building of a small robot. Our results demonstrated that motormanipulatory behaviours are strictly linked to cognitive processes, and that
Interactive computer aided learning in social science education: strategies, scenarios, tools, and e
This paper presents the e-learning project Strategies for Networked Learning at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna, its structure, objectives and technological infrastructure. Furthermore, it discusses a blended learning case study and the selected results of an evaluation of blended learning courses conducted within the project. As these evaluations indicate, blended learning scenarios need to be very well planned and evaluated by considering the
Web-based course design on the basis of eduWeaver and advancements
EduWeaver is a courseware tool that should enable instructors to create digital learning objects, which are conform to didactical standards, and to eventually combine them to a whole course. The course structure of course models, which were designed in eduWeaver, is hierarchically classified into four different layers. Via the export functionality in eduWeaver that relies on current standards, the course can be used in diverse learning management systems or within another environment as e.g. HTM
Internationalizing the Curriculum: Champlain College and the Global Module Project
Champlain College, a leader in both online and international education, uses the Internet to create Global Modules that link the students and faculty at two or three international educational institutions for shared online readings, discussion and teamwork. Students at Champlain have used the Global Modules format to discuss womens issues with students in the U.A.E., terrorism with Jordanian students, globalization with Indian students, the peace movement with Austrian students and the Lebanon
The Global Life Long Learning Communities (GL3C) Project
In our opinion learning is moving from pushing content to an individual into the integration of formal & informal learning, just in time help and coaching, and is highly adaptive. There is a way to improve how people, organizations, and institutions are learning and working together. Therefore the Global Learning Institute and RSM Erasmus University launched the Global Life Long Learning Communities (GL3C) project and invites you to join. We started this project by first determining the cause as
Pedagogical evaluation of e-learning courses - Adapted pedagogical index
E-learning is becoming an important part of education and it can provide new possibilities for disabled people. Critical evaluation is becoming indispensable, especially in e-learning systems supporting disabled people, as very little has been done in this area. This paper describes the development of adapted pedagogical index (AdaPI), which demonstrates the pedagogical effectiveness of different courses created and adapted for disabled.
A User-Friendly Sign Language Chat
The introduced concept of a gesture based sign language chat enables the communication of hearing impaired people over networks, including concerns regarding low throughput and bandwidth characteristics. Existing applications handle that task not appropriate, since either high bandwidth networks are necessary or the extensibility of the vocabulary is complicated for untrained users. Thereby our approach facilitates existing image recognition techniques for the determination of gestures which are
What's Gotten Into You?
In this activity, students use models to investigate the process and consequences of water contamination on the land, groundwater, and plants. This is a good introduction to building water filters found in the associated activity, The Dirty Water Project.
Modeling and simulation in inquiry learning: Checking solutions and giving intelligent advice
Inquiry learning is a didactic approach in which students acquire knowledge and skills through processes of theory building and experimentation. Computer modeling and simulation can play a prominent role within this approach. Students construct representations of physical systems using modeling. Using simulation, they execute these representations to study the phenomena or systems modeled. However, the modeling task is complex, and students can fail to create adequate models, which prevents effe
Mixing Human and Software Agents: A Case Study
This paper describes a multi agent approach of the organisation of a collective activity within a pedagogical context. We consider pedagogical situations where students have to explicitly define the articulation of their collective work and then achieve the different tasks they have defined. Our objective is to support these students by taking some of these tasks in charge whilst making them work out such organisation features. For this purpose, we propose to consider that the group of students
Internet Scout Project
The Ocean Carbon-Cycle Model Intercomparison Project (OCMIP) goal is "to develop an international collaboration to improve the predictive capacity and accelerate development of global-scale, three-dimensional, ocean carbon-cycle models through standardized model evaluation and model intercomparison." Visitors to the site can learn about the objectives, reports, and other details about the two finished phases, OCMIP-1 and OCMIP-2, as well as details about the new phase, OCMIP-3. The website offer
Learning from Explanations: Extending One's Own Knowledge During Collaborative Problem Solving by At
On the basis of an experimental study, we propose a cognitive simulation model of collaborative problem solving and learning. In the experimental study, we investigated how qualitative and quantitative problem representations in classical mechanics are acquired and successively interrelated during collaborative problem solving. Two students, who were taught different aspects of classical mechanics, collaborated on problems which were beyond the competence of each of them individually. Students s
Open Notebook Science in 15 minutes
update: transcript is available
On October 10, 2008 Jean-Claude Bradley presented a 15 minute summary of Open Notebook Science and its application to the synthesis of anti-malarial compounds as part of a mini-symposium on faculty research in the Chemistry department
Internet Scout Project
Ask ERIC, or the Educational Resources Information Center, is a federally funded project within the Department of Education that hopes to "provide education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and anyone interested in education throughout the United States and the world." This portion of the site provides lesson plans in twenty-three science subjects, geared for students from K-12. Clearly and attractively presented, each lesson plan gives a suggested grade
Promoting Self-Directed Learning in Simulation Based Discovery Learning Environments Through Intell
Providing learners with computer-generated feedback on their learning process in simulation-based discovery environments cannot be based on a detailed model of the learning process due to the "open" character of discovery learning. This paper describes a method for generating adaptive feedback for discovery learning based on an "opportunistic" learning model that takes the current hypothesis of the learner and the experiments performed to test this hypothesis as input. The method was applied in
Internet Scout Project
Through this online educational environmental project, the Millennium Middle School, a facility within the Seminole County Public Schools, "encourages global participation for schools to learn about their local drinking water." Participating classrooms determine their drinking water's origin, explore their local watershed, and determine the components of their water. Users are then asked to submit their findings to the website so that everyone can compare real data. Everyone can find online less
Combining heuristics and formal methods in a tool for supporting simulation-based discovery learning
This paper describes the design of a tool to support learners in simulation-based discovery learning environments. The design redesigns and extents a previous tool to overcome issues that came up in a classroom learning setting. The tool focuses on supporting learners with experimentation to identify or test hypotheses. The aim is not only to support learning domain knowledge, but also learning discovery learning skills. For this purpose the tool uses heuristics and formal methods to assess the
Computer support for collaborative learning: foundations for a CSCL community
Proceedings of CSCL 2002 Boulder, Colorado, USA January 7-11, 2002
Regulative support during inquiry learning with
simulations and modeling
Many factors impact learning; the environment and resources available, the domain, how much prior-knowledge a student has, and how well they make use of their metacognitive skills, all of these factors impact new knowledge creation. The series of studies described in this dissertation focuses on the latter; i.e. the metacognitive skillfulness of students. Known collectively as self-regulation, planning, monitoring, and evaluation, when applied appropriately will enhance learning. Students who m
Internet Scout Project
Carried by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University, the Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project that includes over 30,000 samples and over 700,000 chemical values from oceanic stations throughout the world. Samples can be searched by location, expedition name, ship name, sample characteristics, reference, or by chemistry. A typical result might include the sample id, description, age, date, tectonic setting, l
