New tools in Social Practice: Learning, Medical Education and 3D Environments
Learning with different kinds of ICT-based tools is an important issue in todays society. In this article we focus on how design of technology rich environments based on state of the art learning principles can give us new insights about how learning occur, and how we can develop new types of learning environments. Medical education constitutes the subject domain. There has been a considerable effort to develop 3D technologies in this field, and the article provides a careful review of how the
Towards Web 2.0 Schools: Rethinking the Teachers Professional Development
This paper aims at analyzing the Web 2.0 based distance education in the K-12 schools as an emerging phenomenon that catalyzes a new educational reform all over the world. Some pre-Web 2.0 best practice examples are analyzed in order to draw the main findings in the paper. The teachers professional qualification designed to meet the new challenges is considered as a key problem for a successful penetration of this phenomenon in the schools. It is emphasized on the importance of designing a lif
PRAXIS - Pervasive Rehabilitation of Aphasia with an eXtensible Interactive System
This thesis describes computer-assisted (CA) methods for the treatment of acquired language impairment in adult aphasics. A key design objective of this project was the elimination of the indirect manipulation of keyboard and mouse (in CA speech language therapy sessions) in favour of the direct manipulation of virtual and physical objects afforded by touchscreen display and radio frequency identification technology (RFID).
While computer-assisted treatment of aphasia has been used since the 196
Providing Efficient Event Information Management to CSCL Applications
This work aims to explore the importance of carrying out an efficient management of the event information generated from CSCL applications during the collaborative learning process. The achievement of this task first involves the design of a conceptual model of collaborative learning interaction that captures and distinguishes several high-level collaborative learning processes, which in turns leads to a computational model. To achieve that, we first define the main types of event information ge
A Framework for Assessing Self, Peer and Group Performance in e-Learning
In this chapter we propose a framework that supports the analysis and assessment of collaborative learning of online groups of students working on a complex task (software project, or case study) in a real web-based, distance learning context. On the one hand, our approach is based on principled evaluation criteria that involve and measure a variety of elements and factors as well as on a combination of a basic qualitative process and a quantitative method that provide a grounded and holistic fr
Stagecast Creator and Webct: An integrated use of computer programming and a virtual learning en
This paper reports on an effort to use Stagecast Creator as a means for developing modelling skills among undergraduate students taking an introductory course in science that took place in a virtual learning environment (WebCT). An inquiry-based curriculum was implemented, which guided students working in small groups to collect and study moon observations and construct a series of successive models of the moon phases using Stagecast Creator. Students reflective journals and reports of s
Stratégies d'élaboration, de réutilisation et d'indexation de scénarios
Cet article sintéresse aux conditions de réutilisation de scénarios mis en oeuvre par des enseignants. Nous nous basons sur une expérimentation concernant lorganisation dune séquence pédagogique en sciences de la vie et de la terre dans lenseignement secondaire. Cette expérimentation, effectuée dans le cadre de travaux de recherche en didactique des sciences, vise à proposer et tester des modalités de mise en oeuvre dune démarche dinvestigation en sciences basée sur lut
Flexibility in macro-scripts for computer-supported collaborative learning
In the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), scripts are designed to support collaboration among distant learners or co-present learners whose interactions are (at least partially) mediated by a computer. The rationale of scripts is to structure collaborative learning processes in order to trigger group interactions that may be rare in free collaboration. Fixing the degree of coercion is a delicate design choice: too rigid scripts would spoil the richness of collaborative in
Collaboration Load
Does collaboration increase or decrease cognitive load during learning? On one hand, collaboration enables some degree of division of labour that may reduce cognitive load. On the other hand since interacting, expressing thoughts, monitoring anothers understanding, grounding, etc., are mechanisms inducing some extraneous cognitive load, they may create cognitive overload and impede learning mechanisms. However this additional load may explain why collaboration sometimes leads to knowledge cons
A Model for the Efficient Representation and Management of Online Collaborative Learning Interaction
This study aims to explore the importance of the efficient representation and management of the event information generated from group activity in online collaborative learning practices so that we can use it to provide awareness about individual and group behaviour. The achievement of this goal first involves the design of a conceptual model of collaborative learning interaction that structures and classifies the information generated in an online collaborative learning situation at several lev
Enabling Efficient Real Time User Modeling in On-line Campus
User modelling in on-line distance learning is an important research
field focusing on two important aspects: describing and predicting students actions
and intentions as well as adapting the learning process to students features,
habits, interests, preferences, and so on. The aim is to greatly stimulate
and improve the learning experience. In this context, user modeling implies a
constant processing and analysis of user interaction data during long-term learning
activities, which produces l
A Service-oriented Platform for the Enhancement and Effectiveness of the Collaborative Learning Proc
Modern on-line collaborative learning environments are to enable and scale the involvement of an increasing large number of single/group participants who can geographically be widely distributed, and who need to transparently share a huge variety of both software and hardware distributed learning resources. As a result, collaborative learning applications are to overcome important non-functional requirements arisen in distributed environments, such as scalability, flexibility, availability, inte
Improving database design teaching in secondary education: action research implementation for docume
Database design and use has educational interest for utilitarian and learning reasons. Database technology has significant economic impact and the demand for database design can not be covered by the existent educated experts. Furthermore the database management systems available at schools could be used for the design and implementation of high quality learning activities. Databases are general
purpose modeling environments that enable problem solving using conceptual frameworks closer to the s
Applying IDWBL methodology at the national high school of mathematics and science
The Innovative Didactics via web Based Learning project accents on an innovative methodology of web use in the classroom. During the project realization a repository, containing IDWBL scenarios was developed. Teachers of the National High School of Mathematics and Science were acquainted with the methodology through the cascade approach. After that the IDWBL methodology was experimented in the classrooms in regular classes. The current paper comments the results of the teacher trainings and the
The LEAP Authoring Tool: Supporting complex courseware authoring through reuse, rapid prototyping, a
An important goal of current work in computer-based learning environments is to develop systems that combine the richness and effectiveness of an individually crafted intelligent tutoring system (ITS) with the generality and flexibility of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) authoring tool. Our effort to achieve this goal is demonstrated in the Learn, Explore and Practice (LEAPsm) ITS shell and its courseware development component, The LEAP Authoring Tool (LAT). The LAT was developed for use b
Verbal Coaching During a Real-time Task
TRANSoM is a collaborative effort among university and industry researchers aimed at producing an intelligent tutoring system for training pilots of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). ROVs are unmanned, tethered, underwater vehicles used in a range of applications such as inspection, search and salvage, and mine countermeasures. Pilots have to learn to maneuver the ROV, keeping track of its tether and its surroundings, using little more than a video camera and sonar. To minimize workload while a
Towards automatic glossarization: automatically constructing and administering vocabulary assistance
We address an important problem with a novel approach: helping children learn words during computer-assisted oral reading. We build on Project LISTEN's Reading Tutor, which is a computer program that adapts automatic speech recognition to listen to children read aloud, and helps them learn to read (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~listen). In this paper, we focus on the problem of vocabulary acquisition. To learn a word from reading with the Reading Tutor, students must first encounter the word and then l
A Generic Platform for the Systematic Construction of Knowledge-based Collaborative Learning Applica
This study aims to explore the importance of efficient management of event information generated from
group activity in collaborative learning practices for its further use in extracting and providing knowledge
on interaction behavior. The essential issue here is how to design a platform that can be used for real,
long-term, complex collaborative problem-solving situations and which enables the instructor to both
analyze group interaction effectively and provide an adequate support when needed.
ZAPs: Using interactive programs for learning psychology
ZAPs are short, self-contained computer programs that encourage students to experience psychological phenomena in a vivid, self-explanatory way, and that are meant to evoke enthousiasm about psychological topics. ZAPs were designed according to principles that originate from experiential and discovery learning theories. The interactive approach that is offered invites students to engage in subject matter through exploration, experience, and discovery of psychology. In an empirical study the effe
Self-directed learning in simulation-based discovery environments
SIMQUEST1 is an authoring system for designing and creating simulation-based learn-ing environments. The special character of SIMQUEST learning environments is that they include cognitive support for learners which means that they provide learners with support in the discovery process. In SIMQUEST learning environments we try to find the balance between direct guidance of the learning process and sufficient free-dom for learners to regulate the learning process themselves. In this article we de-
