Adaptive Personalisation in Self e-Learning Networks
This paper presents some of the personalisation services designed for self e-learning networks in the SeLeNe project. A self e-learning network consists of web-based learning objects that have been made available to the network by its users, along with metadata descriptions of these learning objects and of the networkÂ’s users.
The architecture of the network is distributed and service-oriented. The personalisation facilities include: querying learning object descriptions to return results tail
Medical Response to Weapons of Mass Destruction: Nerve Agents
This presentation discusses exposure to nerve agents such as sarin gas and their use as weapons of mass destruction, disease manifestations, how to diagnose and treat them. Medical Response to Weapons of Mass Destruction, A Course on Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare for Healthcare Providers, was the first of its kind following the devastating events of 2001. This Web-based course combines Medantic Technology's didactic presentations and Medulator virtual patient cases delivered via a cu
The Internetworked School: A Policy for the Future
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Cyclone in the classroom: bringing the atmospheric science community into the high school
There has been much discussion about the failure of traditional science education to prepare students for careers in science (Halloun & Hestenes, 1985; Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990). Students may become adept at solving textbook problems, but they fail to apply the theories that are learned in school to the actual phenomena that the theories attempt to explain (Tinker, 1992). This is in large part due to the fact that students don't often experience phenomena in the classroom. They spend most of t
Synthesizing instructional technologies and educational culture: exploring cognition and metacogniti
This research was initiated to examine instructional technologies and educational cultures in relation to identified cognitive and metacognitive strategies uses in school tasks. The project involved activities from the social studies curricula that were presented through two new software programs intended to support the development of problem-solving and reasoning strategies - IDEA [Interactive Decision Envisioning Aid, Pea (76)] Notecards (34) - and through instructional approaches bases upon "
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
Experiences with Writing Grid Clients for Mobile devices
This paper describes our attempts to write GRID clients for Mobile Devices, such as a PDA, which have restrictive computational and storage facilities. Our experiences are based on an implementation of a mobile GRID client for Finesse, an existing web-based e-learning system.
At this stage of our work we are not looking to novel applications of mobile learning, but rather are exploring the feasibility of mobile devices as GRID platforms, with novel learning applications as our future aim. We ex
edCity - a New Learning Environment
edCity will facilitate learning anywhere, anytime, for anyone - for users of all ages both in traditionally taught and in pedagogically innovative courses - by fusing physical and virtual representations of real cities in order to provide a new learning framework.
The edCity project will be scenario-driven with major conceptual inputs to the design generated by highly interactive scenario-building activities.
After 18 months, a "Semantic Web" framework will be published and a prototype of the
On the cognitive effects of learning computer programming
This paper critically examines current thinking about whether learning computer programming promotes the development of general higher mental functions. We show how the available evidence, and the underlying assumptions about the process of learning to program, fail to address this issue adequately. Our analysis is based on a developmental cognitive science perspective on learning program, incorporating developmental and cognitive science considerations of the mental activities involved in progr
Symbol Systems and Thinking Skills: Logo in Context
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Word closet
Word Closets give students an additional classroom resource for "researching" the correct spelling of words to use in their daily writing. Word Closets are particularly focused toward concept words, season words, and favorite words that students like to use in their writing but may need help with spelling.
The Collaborative Visualization Project
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Supporting Conceptual Awareness with Pedagogical Agents
This paper describes a series of efforts in building and conceptualizing software agents
for distributed collaborative learning. The agents are referred to as pedagogical agents.
We have integrated pedagogical agents within two collaborative environments,
TeamWave Workplace and Future Learning Environment. The role of agents in these
environments differs from past work on software agents in their function as extended
awareness mechanisms, focusing on task and concept awareness (conceptual a
Informatics-based Learning Resources for Patients and their Relatives in recovery
In this paper we describe experiences from design of an informatics-based learning resource for patients and relatives. The prototype, REPARERE (learning REsource for PAtients and RElatives during REcovery), aims to support patients and their family recovering from heart surgery in meeting challenges in to daily living post discharge.
Using recovery experiences and patient teaching material, REPARERE includes examples of textual information, video-clips, images and illustrations relevant to th
Principles of Effective Online Teaching
Principles of effective online teaching helps you understand and develop your own e-learning by presenting various approaches, options, and decisions involved in e-learning. The book also provides the necessary overview of constructs, relevant pedagogical theories, and definitions common to the field. It has been designed to help you navigate the virtual forest of e-learning and the rethinking and modifying of your teaching, curriculum, and methods of planning necessary to become more effective
Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning: The Learner's Perspective
The object-oriented paradigm is increasingly being integrated in computer science education as well as in industry. There is a high demand for understanding the learner’s actions, strategies and thoughts while solving object-oriented problems. Little is known about these processes. Aimed at both teachers and researchers involved in teaching object-oriented technologies, this book reports findings from four case studies, two design experiments and three controlled experiments, with a total of 1
COML (Classroom Orchestration Modelling Language) and Scenarios Designer: Toolsets to Facilitate Col
In a one-to-one collaborative learning classroom supported by ubiquitous computing,
teachers require tools that allow them to design of learning scenarios, and to manage and
monitor the activities happening in the classroom. Our project proposes an architecture for
a classroom management system and a scenarios designer tool, both based on a Classroom
Orchestration Modelling Language (COML), to support these requirements. We are
developing and testing this with the GroupScribbles software using a
A Method for Creating Collaborative Mobile Learning Trails
In this paper I report results from recent trials in which students used mobile devices to collaboratively create, edit and share trails. These included 9- to 10-year-olds as well as adult diploma students, in the subject of horticulture in botanic gardens. Findings indicate that a narrow subject focus and a manageable amount of data capture are appropriate in most cases; trails are most effective when framed with structured tasks and a narrow focus. Structure can be introduced through the use o
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
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.
