Mashing The MUVE - A Mashup Model for Collaborative Learning in Multi-User Virtual Environments
Mashup technologies offer opportunities for students to become proactive, collaborative and engaged. However the primary metaphors are asynchronous, allowing reflexive and expansive dialogue (Palloff & Pratt 1999) but limit dynamic collaborative learning. This paper will present a model being evaluated at the Open University using a mashup immersive learning environment to offer collaborative learning in a situated, constructivist context. The pilot project will be used to map pedagogy and learn
Design For E-Learning - Modern Educational Web-Portal
Let's notice that all the set of above-listed means appear at the user in two features - design and usability, "fine" and "suitable". However on closer examination these features are a part of some unit – web-design in its widest definition. So what the web-design of a modern educational portal should be? What kind of requirements are made of it? What kind of technical features for portal structure formation and its style decision we can allocate for today? All these questions are considered in
Patterns Instruction in Software Engineering
The paper deals with a training system with a client-server architecture created for students who are learning to design and implement object-oriented software systems with reusable components, and also targeting those users who wish become accustomed with (or improve their skills related to) software design. The paper briefly presents the design patterns which are to be found in the software library, as well as the manner of applying them. The user of such a system has five types of patterns at
Analysis of three different models used to acquire three e-learning solutions at the same university
The Universtiy of Pretoria has been using an electronic assessment system since 1991 and a learning management system (LMS) since 1998. Both systems required urgent upgrading. In 2003 a further need arose in the Faculty of Health Sciences, for an electronic portfolio system. The Department for Education Innovation has thus implemented three new systems during the past three years: a new electronic assessment system, an upgraded LMS, and an electronic portfolio system. This paper analyzes the adv
Make Engineering Students Collaborate
Even today, the majority of university courses still consist of lectures complemented with exercises. Lectures serve to convey theoretical knowledge, whereas in exercises students work on assignments to consolidate the knowledge they have acquired during lectures, and to relate their knowledge to daily practice. Cooperative Knowledge Spaces will support natural learning scenarios in a virtual environment. This paper describes the experiences of a study held to evaluate a cooperative knowledge sp
Designing and application of E-portfolio for teacher training
Portfolio is not just a magic word but it is mandatory for everyone in today's free market. Some companies started their own portfolios for employee assessment. Other has them for optimization purposes or even education. Each of us first encounter portfolio in schools. Big books with grades and other useful data were in them. In the teacher education we also have portfolios and the most important is teacher training portfolio. Based on this portfolios employees decide who to hire or not. With th
Real Remote Mass Spring Laboratory Experiments across Internet–Inherent Part of Integrated E-Learni
The paper presents the application of Integrated e- Learning, presented in general terms at this conference [1], exemplified on one of the most important parts of Physics - the thematic block “Oscillations“. The goal of the course of Physics in the chapter of Oscillations is to show the oscillatory movement as a basis of nearly all natural phenomena. The unifying model for all real world systems then may be the mass-spring system constituting the mechanical oscillator. The three constituting c
CAS for Mathematics E-Learning - a European Perspective
We report on activities and progress in a European (Comenius 2.1) project "LTMLearning Tools for Mathematics" that creates multilingual learning units on the basis of Mathematica and M@th Desktop. A customized user-interface based on palettes is optimized for use in class, and notebooks provide associated math content with a strong emphasis on visualization. The multilingual nature of the learning units makes them useful for transnational school collaboration projects, as has been demonstrated i
Real remote physics experiments across Internet - inherent part of Integrated E-Learning
Implementation of the real remote experiments across the Internet into teaching process, up till now not available, enables introduction of Integrated e-Learning, composed of three components: the real remote experiments across the Internet, the simulation applets and the electronic interactive textbooks. We present here the prospective remote laboratory system with data transfer using Intelligent School Experimental System (ISES) as hardware and ISES WEB Control kit as software. This approach e
Supporting Technology-enhanced Learning through Semi-automatic Detection and Management of Skill and
A paradigm shift from a knowledge to a competence society is going on, which also becomes increasingly important for educational and vocational training purposes. Skills and competences are employed to describe learning content, studentsÂ’ capabilities, learning processes, and the like. Creating descriptions of skills and competences and assigning them manually is usually an exhausting task. Thus technology-enhanced support is needed. This paper presents a solution approach which enables both th
Exploitation of Croquet CVE Platform for supporting Collaborative e-Learning Environments
This paper reviews the features of five 3 dimensional networked virtual environments which support collaborative learning applications, through the comparison of the tools and services they offer. Following that, we justify our choice of platform, which is the Croquet platform, and discuss design and implementation issues. Finally we present the results of the evaluation process of the virtual environment we developed, which consisted of the participation of twelve postgraduate students who comp
Towards a multidimensional model for learning objects and learners
This paper presents a multi-dimensional learning style model and a system specification to automatically generate adaptive courses using the aspect oriented technique.
Making lifelong learning a reality for all
The impact of legal and political frameworks on accessibl
Within the EU4ALL project (www.eu4all-project.eu) extensive research has been undertaken to detect the impact of legal and political frameworks on the accessibility of lifelong learning (ALL), with a clear focus on higher education in this initial phase. The introduction of appropriate technologies in educational institutions is accompanied and shaped by legal and political concepts, measures and programmes capable of reducing or strengthening existing barriers to the participation in lifelong l
Informational technologies in resolving the social issues of school communities in Uzbekistan
This article examines the experience of 40 schools of Uzbekistan in usage of Informational technologies in resolving the social issues of their communities. The article describe the projects that were used by schools in the framework of the "Global Connections and Exchange - Uzbekistan" programme during the 2005-2007 academic years, and results of the projects and their positive experience.
Advantages and disadvantages of e-learning at the technical university
The term Electronic Learning or e-Learning is being used in Russia rather rarely. It integrates a number of terminological notions in the sphere of application of modern information and communication technologies in education such as multimedia, education on the base of web-technologies, etc. Teachers and learners must realize that new opportunities are offered by modern on-line communication. A person with basic Internet and Web skills is open to a new world of knowledge, from free Web surfing
Academic research for schools
Academic subjects are usually extremely far from actual problems and questions of academic research. Material at school is often presented as a sum of fixed, immovable facts one has to learn, although in the world of research these facts may be regarded as questionable or even disproved. On the other hand, pupils rarely have an understanding of how facts are developed and understood. As it is impossible to bring a researcher to every school, we are working on the project that would help research
Introduction of Computer Studies to non-science university students: The Sri Lankan experience
Introduction of computer studies as a subject to students in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences in Sri Lankan universities is a relatively recent experience. University of Kelaniya was the first university in Sri Lanka that offered computer studies as a subject to its Bachelor of Arts Degree programme starting in 2001. This paper attempts to analyze the relative performance of science and non-science students offering the same module under the new computer studies curriculum.
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
A Hierarchy of Ontologies for Didactics-Enhanced E-learning
Ontologies are a fundamental concept of the Semantic Web envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee [1]. Together with explicit representation of the semantics of data for machine-accessibility such domain theories are the basis for intelligent next generation applications for the web and other areas of interest [2]. Their application for special aspects within the domain of e-learning is often proposed to support the increasing complexity ([3], [4], [5], [6]). So they can provide a better support for course
