The Logic-ITA in the classroom: a medium scale experiment
This paper presents the experiment and consequent evaluation of introducing the Logic-ITA in a second year tertiary undergraduate class. The Logic-ITA is a web-based Intelligent Teaching Assistant system, aimed at alleviating some of the problems caused by large classes or distance learning. Its domain of application is the construction of formal proofs in logic. The system acts as an intermediary between teacher and students: on one hand, it provides students with an environment to practice for
Can kindergarten children be successfully involved in probabilistic tasks?
This paper describes a classroom teaching experiment, concerning the concept of probability, with children aged 5 in a kindergarten school. The teaching experiment was based on constructivist and interactionist theories about the learning of school mathematics and lasted one month. The collection of the information was based on the tape-recorded interviews with the children (each child was interviewed prior to the research program, at the end of the program and one month later) and the videotape
A walk on the WILD side How wireless handhelds may change computer-supported collaborative learning
Designs for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) applications usually presume a desktop or laptop computer. Yet future classrooms arc likely to be organized around Wireless Internet Learning Devices (WILD) that resemble graphing calculators, Palm, or Pocket-PC handhelds, connected by short-range wireless networking. WILD learning will have physical affordances that are different from today's computer lab, and different from classrooms with 5 students per computer. These differing aff
Using the WWW to Build Learning Communities in K-12 Settings - Part I. Global Network Navigator
The World Wide Web (WWW) can play a vital role in the formation and successful operation of learning communities. Just 18 months ago, there were but 100 WWW servers online worldwide, while today there are over 10,000 WWW servers. Current estimates predict 100,000 WWW servers a year from now, according to M.K. Gray's Measuring the Size and Growth of the Web. This decentralized development of information resources, which cover everything from scientific databases to corporate products to traffic a
Children's mental models of recursive logo programs
Children who had a year of Logo programming experience were asked to think-aloud about what brief Logo recursive programs will do, and then to predict with a hand-simulation of the programs what the Logo graphics turtle will draw when the program is executed. If discrepancies arose in this last phase, children were asked to explain them. A prevaient but misguided "looping" interpretation of Logo recursion was identified, and this robust mental model persisted even in the face of contradiction be
The Grid Shared Desktop: a bootstrapping environment for collaboration
The paradigm shift from an information sharing infrastructure (i.e., the Web) to a resource sharing infrastructure (i.e., the Grid) has boosted the development of a new generation of online services. In particular, Grid services are stateful, dynamic and operate in a secure environment. Therefore they offer capabilities that are essential to remote collaboration. In this paper, we tackle the problem of bootstrapping and supporting a collaborative environment over a Grid infrastructure. As we tar
Towards Collaborative Learning via Shared Artefacts over the Grid
The Web is the most pervasive collaborative technology in widespread use today; and its use to support eLearning has been highly successful.
There are many web-based Virtual Learning Environments such as WebCT, FirstClass, and BlackBoard as well as associated web-based Managed Learning Environments.
In the future, the Grid promises to provide an extremely powerful infrastructure allowing both learners and teachers to collaborate in various learning contexts and to share learning materials, lea
Literature Review in Science Education and the Role of ICT: Promise, Problems and Future Directions
Today, what "counts" as science and science teaching is in a state of flux. This, however, is not new - for 150 years there have been debates about the purpose, nature and role of science education in our society. Any designer of resources and tools for the teaching of science therefore needs to be able to understand these debates, and to be aware of the origins and reasons for the changes that are currently taking place.,A NESTA Futurelab Research report - report 6
Literature Review in Creativity, New Technologies and Learning
This paper maps out the different perspectives on creativity, and the teaching and learning of creativity, and brings together latest thinking in this field. It is a rich resource of examples of the way that technology is currently used to support creativity through encouraging learners to make connections, develop ideas, create meaning, collaborate and communicate. It also highlights some of the key questions concerning assessment and creativity.,A NESTA Futurelab Research report - report 4
Kaleidoscope JEIRP on Learning Patterns for the Design and Deployment of Mathematical Games: Final R
Over the last few years have witnessed a growing recognition of the educational
potential of computer games. However, it is generally agreed that the process of
designing and deploying TEL resources generally and games for mathematical
learning specifically is a difficult task. The Kaleidoscope project, "Learning patterns
for the design and deployment of mathematical games", aims to investigate this
problem. We work from the premise that designing and deploying games for
mathematical learning re
Pedagogical approaches for technology-integrated science teaching
The two separate projects described have examined how teachers exploit computer-based technologies in supporting learning of science at secondary level. This paper examines how pedagogical approaches associated with these technological tools are adapted to both the cognitive and structuring resources available in the classroom setting. Four teachers participated in the first study, undertaken as part of the InterActive Education project in Bristol; all of them used multimedia simulations in thei
Making Distance Education Collaborative through Internet
The research presented in this thesis is located within the concept of Computer Supported distributed Collaborative Learning (CSdCL). CSdCL, developed by Annita Fjuk and Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld, is a focused study within the field Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). One approach to CSdCL, in particular practiced under the conditions of distance education, focuses on communication processes between distance learners and distance learners and teachers. The pedagogical model in this a
Technical Infrastructure: The WebReports site
The WebReports website allows children to create text-based and interactive content that is accessible on line and to comment on each otherÂ’s work, thereby being provided with opportunities to collaboratively build knowledge around a range of different learning domains. In this document we first summarise our key findings. We then provide an account of the evolution of the system during the three years of the project, giving the rationale for our major changes. Finally, we describe the function
Development of Adaptive e-Learning System Based on Learning Objects
This paper discusses Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH),
which is at present a hot topic of research and an important aim
for e-Learning systems. The presented approach is knowledgebased.
The domain ontology and the learning objects play a central
role as resources structuring the learning content and supporting
flexible adaptive strategies for navigation through this content.
EMLs : case study in distance learning education
After a short characterization of what an educational modeling language should be, we will deal
with the respective interest of two EML proposals : one proposed by OUNL (OUNL/EML and
IMS/LD which is derived from it) and one proposed by UNED (PALO). We will then identify
reasons that lead us to choose OUNL/EML for experimentation in distance learning education in
order to model our scenario. Finally we will present some limitations or extensions we have
identified.
Organisational patterns for e-learning centres
In this paper we explore the notion of using organisational patterns in educational design for the development of e-learning centres. We are using patterns to discuss some of the key aspects concerning the implementation of an e-learning centre within an institution, with an emphasis on the purposes and pedagogical principles that will help to successfully support such an initiative. The research approach which informed our pattern development work includes use of a qualitative survey of a set o
Learning Object-Oriented Programming
Loud discussions concerning various ways of teaching object-orientation have taken place without much empirical evidence for any position. This paper reports qualitative observations of learning of object-ori-ented programming in an introductory course. The students were found to cope reasonably well with the object-oriented concepts, and they had learnt procedural programming first. However, they modeled the real world domain to be represented in the program by imagination and through coding. T
ToonTalk in Kindergartens: Field Notes
The emergence of a fully graphical, animated programming language, such as ToonTalk, prompted the question: is computer programming a viable educational activity with kindergarten-aged children? Since May 2000, we have been conducting ToonTalk sessions with 3- to 5-year old children, trying to determine what approaches are more successful, what activities are viable, what issues may arise in the process. From November 2001 to February 2002, the sessions took place regularly in a normal kindergar
