Structuring collective activities with tasks and plans
Symba is a Web-based framework designed to support collective activities in a learning context. In order to make students explicitly work out their organization it dissociates an "organizational level" and an "activity level" and allows students to describe their organization as plans composed of tasks.
Exploring Semantic Description and
Matching Technologies for Enhancing the
Automatic Composition of
In the implementation of e-learning frameworks, a problem still unsolved is how to use and integrate low-level learning services to compose more complex high-level services or tools that make sense to both tutors and learners. In that sense semantic description of Grid learning Services appears like a powerful tool to be used for discovering and matching learning services depending of a set of parameters inside the learning framework. These parameters must represent significant functional charac
Confronting ideas in collaborative scientific discovery learning
This study investigated how collaborative knowledge construction within a scientific discovery (or inquiry)learning environment can be assisted with tools that aim to support studentsÂ’ proposition generation and testing
processes. Sixty-six fourth year pre-university education students participated in a kinematics learning task. The instructional goal of the learning activity was to develop studentsÂ’ understanding of one dimensional kinematics. All students completed a proposition test in whic
Computer simulations - Technological advances in inquiry learning
Computer simulations enhance inquiry-based learning - in which students actively discover information - by allowing scientific discovery within a realistic setting.
Herzberg : une simulation multimédia à interactivité variable
Herzberg est un environnement de simulation multimédia permettant de visualiser et d’explorer la vibration et la rotation des molécules. Il permet de créer des documents formés d’un ensemble de pages affichant une ou deux molécules dans des configurations prédéfinies; un texte et une voix d’explication peuvent être associés à chaque page. Il est possible de fixer pour chaque document le niveau d’interactivité. On peut également, sans effectuer de programmation, ajouter de nouvell
Hypermedia as a means for learning and for thinking about learning
This paper is about the design and realization of an experimentation with a hypermedial system, IPER-3, facing the three ‘classical’ problems in the history of mathematics (trisection of the angle, quadrature of the circle, duplication of the cube) and some issues which have developed around them. The aim of the work is to study the opportunities provided by hypermedial systems in dealing with topics of interest for the training of teachers and/or for class work, exploiting the possibility o
Portfolios and ICT as means of professional learning in teacher education
Teaching portfolios supported by new learning technologies have increased in importance in Norwegian schools and teacher education. However, the learning potentials of integrated e-portfolios have still to be researched and further developed. This article focuses on professional learning in a teacher education programme reorganised by use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), teaching portfolios and assessment. Findings reveal that the portfolios have prompted professional learning
Virtual Reality for Learning: Sharing Experiences rather than Resources
Virtual Reality is becoming a major candidate for embodying immersive learning environments. Whereas in the two preceding decades learning has been conceptualized as situations where students are guided rather than elicited to undertake actions, it is now the right time to explore the other side or the continuum.
Domain Modelling To Support Educational Web-based
authoring
This paper describes an approach to web-based authoring of educational material. We define a model for the class of subjects of our interest (those including both theoretical and practical issues). From this model, specific content outlines can be derived as subclasses and then instanced into actual domains. The last step consists in generating interactive documents, which use the instanced domain. Students can explore these documents through a web browser. Thus, an interactive learning scenario
Affordances – a Merleau-Pontian Account
In this paper, the concept of ‘affordance’ is given an ontological and epistemological explication building on a
Merleau-Pontian view of human being as always already being-in-the world in a non-thematized, pre-reflective
correspondence of body and world in the concrete activity. A dynamic, agent-centred, cultural-, experience- and
skill-relative, but perception-independent, ontology is proposed for affordances. It is argued that this is more in
line with the original Gibsonian understanding
A Quick Scan on possibilities for automatic metadata generation
The Dutch six-part series Leerobjecten in de praktijk (Learning objects in practice) is about six divergent and difficult problems that occur frequently in working with learning objects. Based on research into existing practice, guidelines are offered to policy makers, educational technology consultants, teachers, educational designers and developers of digital learning materials who are struggling with these problems in higher education.,research report
Tutorial planning : Adapting course generation to todayÂ’s needs.
Most of today's course generation does not allow an in-depth, generic representation of pedagogical knowledge. However, supporting
individual learners with different goals requires an elaborate representation
of pedagogical expertise. In this paper, I describe a framework that adapts existing approaches for representing and using pedagogical knowledge to meet today's needs. Furthermore, I will show how in this
framework several of today's problems are solved, such as the integration of distribut
Re-engineering of collaborative e-learning systems: evaluation of system, collaboration and acquired
This paper relates an experimentation of a collaborative e-learning system.
In this kind of system, tracks arising from communication tools allow to build useful
indicators for all system actors. We show how tracks are analyzed and how this
analysis is useful for reengineering purposes.
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.
The impact of problem order: Sequencing problems as a strategy for improving one's performance
Two experiments investigated the impact of problem order and problem sequencing on performance. In experiment 1 subjects were either presented with a suitable or an unsuitable presentation sequence where they were free to deviate from. Presentation sequence had an impact on performance and rearranging problems improved performance for high priorknowledge subjects whereas low prior-knowledge subjects' performance deteriorated. Experiment 2 yielded evidence that effects of problem sequence have to
Home School Knowledge Exchange: activities and conceptualisations
In this paper, we wish to do two things. The first is to give an account of research undertaken on the Home School Knowledge Exchange project. The second is to examine some conceptualisations relevant to this area in the light of our experiences on the project.
The project
Children live and learn in two very different worlds - those of home and school. These worlds are often kept separate from each other. The project has been working to bridge this divide by bringing together parents, teachers
Learning in the professional workplace: relationships between learning factors and contextual factor
Evidence was collected from a set of two visits (several months apart) to 16
trainee accountants, 34 graduate trainee engineers and 40 newly qualified
nurses. Each visit involved 1-2 days observation and an interview. Analysis
led to a two-triangle model depicting the relations between the key variables:
a triangle of interacting Learning Factors -- confidence and commitment, the
challenge and value of the work, feedback and support; and a similar triangle
of interacting Context Factors – allo
Technical Paper 3 - The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Contextualising
This paper looks at the impact of recent government initiatives on early childhood care and education for 3 to 5-year olds in the full range of pre-school centres in the study. This was based on interviews conducted with 135 heads of pre-school settings and 12 local authority co-ordinators in six local authorities. At a time of rapid policy development and because of the diversity in pre-school provision, the EPPE study recorded how recent changes in local authority under-fives provision might b
Crafts for crafts sake, 1973-88
Investigation and discussion of the magazine 'Craft' 1973-88. Focusing on the identity crisis of the handmade object in an emerging post-industrial world where,conventionally, craft had meant the deployment of traditional skills in the service of functional objectives