Quelles machines pour enseigner la langue ?
This paper first presents a history of Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), setting its origins in the 1920s with the invention of mechanical learning machines. The use of the computer then allowed the development of different types of language learning activities: comprehension tasks, simulations, etc. However, without the contribution of natural language processing (NLP), these activities are of limited use. We address the problem of the integration of NLP in CALL systems while summing up the cha
A Didactic-based Model of Scenarios for Designing an Adaptive and Context-Aware Learning System
Nowadays, technology-enhanced learning systems must have the ability to take into account the context and to allow dynamic adaptation to different learners based on substantial advances in pedagogical theories and knowledge models. The main issue is to design a generic scenario which can deal with the broadest range of learning situations. From a generic scenario, the learning system will compute on the fly a particular scenario dedicated to the current learner and its learning situation. The ma
Intelligent Tutoring Goes To School in the Big City
This paper reports on a large-scale experiment introducing and evaluating intelligent tutoring in an urban High School setting. Critical to the success of this project has been a client-centered design approach that has matched our client's expertise in curricular objectives and classroom teaching with our expertise in artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. The Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Project (PUMP) has produced an algebra curriculum that is centrally focused on mathematical anal
Task and Interaction Regulation in Controlling a Traffic Simulation
In collaborative problem solving, metacognition not only covers strategic reasoning related to the task but also reasoning related to the interaction itself. The hypothesis underlying this work states that regulation of the interaction and regulation of the task are closely related mechanisms and that their co-occurrence facilitates collaborative problem solving. These assumptions are tested experimentally with a traffic simulator. The results show that co-occurrence of task and interaction regu
Elaborating new arguments through a CSCL scenario
The CSCL community faces two main challenges with respect to learning and argumentation. The scientific challenge is to understand how argumentation produces learning, that is to discover which cognitive mechanisms, triggered by argumentative interactions, generate new knowledge and in which conditions. The engineering challenge is to determine how to trigger productive argumentation among students. These two challenges are often investigated in parallel, but this contribution focuses on the lat
An approach to distance learning curriculum appropriation
The work presented aims at supporting distance learning students in their appropriation of a curriculum. We propose an approach that consists in helping students to construct individual projects. We dissociate different aspects (planning, evaluation and regulation) that can be useful for this purpose, propose a technological approach (epiphyte system, ontology-based model) and example of tools currently provided by the Saafir framework.
Cowos: A Model of Collective Work Situations to Support Modelling and Simulation Based Approaches of
This paper describes an operational model of collective work situations. This model is rooted in the CHAT theory. It allows creating multi-agent simulations where the agents behaviour is defined in terms that make salient organization issues, and allows building learning situations that focus on making students consider explicitly these issues.
Enhancing the Adaptivity of an Existing Website with an Epiphyte Recommender System
In this paper we propose an approach to enhance the adaptivity of an existing Website by plugging on top of it (epiphyte approach) a recommender system that displays additional
tips and functionalities in a separate window. The recommender system analyzes the way the user browses through the Website according to predefined prototypical ways of using the Website (models of use) and then proposes information or functionalities that appear useful according to this model of use. Different mo
Using mobile technologies for multimedia tours in a traditional museum setting
Mobile technology was used to deliver learner-centred experiences to visitors at a geology museum without compromising the museums aesthetic appeal. Two Flash-based multimedia tours were developed for the Hypertag Magus Guide system and trialled with 25 visitors in November 2005. Trial participants found the system fun and easy to use, though they requested headphones in order to hear the audio clearly. Several suggestions were provided to improve the tours including creating stronger links b
When less is sometimes more: Optimal learning conditions are required for schema acquisition from mu
While it is usually claimed that multiple examples for the illustration of problem categories are a necessary prerequisite for schema acquisition, there is a lack of conclusive empirical evidence supporting this claim. Moreover, there are findings indicating that carefully designed one-example conditions may allow for profitable processes of example comparison as well. In line with this reasoning, we present an experiment that builds up on a series of studies conducted by Quilici and Mayer (1
Component-Based Construction of a Science Learning Space
We present a vision for learning environments, called Science Learning Spaces, that are rich in engaging content and activities, provide constructive experiences in scientific process skills, and are as instructionally effective as a personal tutor. A Science Learning Space combines three independent software systems: 1) simulations in which experiments are run and data is collected, 2) representation construction tools in which data is analyzed and conceptual models are expressed and evaluated,
Understanding weblog communities through digital traces: a framework, a tool and an example
Often research on online communities could be compared to archaeology [16]: researchers look at patterns in digital traces that members leave to characterise the community they belong to. Relatively easy access to these traces and a growing number of methods and tools to collect and analyse them make such analysis increasingly attractive. However, a researcher is faced with the difficult task of choosing which digital artefacts and which relations between them should be taken into account, and h
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
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
Open Distance Inter-University Synergies Between Europe, Africa and the Middle East (ODISEAME)
The challenge facing new technologies is whether they can contribute to a qualitative step up and to education for all as a process of facilitating the development of creative people with the ability to think critically and to engage in socially relevant decision making. In this paper, we describe a project whose purpose is to develop a learning environment that takes into account current expertise in learning theory in order to facilitate productive collaboration in a way that leads to active c
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
Designing biases that augment socio-cognitive interactions
This chapter questions the assumption that the best environment for computer-supported collaborative learning is the one that most closely reproduces the features of face-to-face collaboration. Empirical studies have failed to establish the superiority of group interaction with richer media. Instead, the chapter explores media features that do not exist in face-to-face interactions and explains how these features might augment group cognition. The first feature, the persistency of the informatio
Sharing solutions: persistence and grounding in multi-modal collaborative problem solving
This article reports on an exploratory study of the relationship between grounding and problem solving in multimodal computer-mediated collaboration. This article examines two different media, a shared whiteboard and a MOO environment that includes a text chat facility. A study was done on how the acknowledgment rate (how often partners give feedback of having perceived, understood, and accepted partner's contributions) varies according to the media and the content of interactions. It was expect
Mechanisms of common ground in case-based web-discussions in teacher education
Previous studies suggest that before the participants in Web-based conferencing can reach deeper level interaction and learning, they have to gain an adequate level of common ground in terms of shared mutual understanding, knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and presuppositions (Clark & Schaefer, 1989; Dillenbourg, 1999). In this paper, the main purpose is to explore how participants establish and maintain common ground in order to reach deeper level interaction in case-based Web-discussions. The s
New Media and Open and Distance Learning: New challenges for Education in a Knowledge Society
The "digital society" provides not only with new technology, but also with new concepts. Information plays a central role and becomes a valuable good, but knowledge cannot be reduced to information, and one aim for educators is to contribute in a "knowledge society", not only an "information society". A knowledge society is structured in networks, enriching the traditional hierarchies; a knowledge society promotes a kind of "collective intelligence". In such a society, open and distance learning
