After lunch two sessions of parallel sessions. Firstly two streams running on user centric developments and future directions. First presentation from a group from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and presented by Sobah Petersen on ‘connectedness in practice based education: the why, who what. Based on ‘diary studies’ of teacher students on how students perceive connectedness in a mobile environment. Established the need for trainee teachers to feel connectedness with who they are, what they do and where they are practicing. Technology eg. mobile blogging helped the process.
Second one up ‘embedding moodle into ubiquitous computing environments’ presented with Christian Glahn and Marcus Specht from Open University of the Netherlands. Challenge to move existing virtual learning environment (Moodle) to become context awareness and integrations into a spatial learning environment. Based on adaptation and personalization, orchestrating learning and learner mobility. Adaptation / personalization requires contextualization and adapting to requirements of various devices, systems etc. Orchestrating learning requires understanding of the ways in which tasks, rules, roles and environment interconnect / interface. Need to acknowledge contributions of personal/stationary, mobile and social facets. Building architecture for Moodle to move it into spatial learning includes working through the sensor, semantic, control and indicator layers. A start may be made by making the learner logs more ‘intelligent’ so that learner activity information is more useful. Allowing teachers to configure this aspect, provides even better information. To assist, log aggregators should also check type of device accessing various Moodle activities and a trigger build in to flag relevant times when intervention may be required. Food for thought with this one.
Move across to the user-centric stream. Presentation with Claire Bradley and Debbie Holley from London Metropolitan University on ‘how students in Higher Ed. Use their mobile phones’. Used a platform called Mediaboard to support student groups and texted students ‘learning tips’. Integrated textools where students provide answers while in lectures. A survey carried out to ascertain how students actually make use of mobile phones. Also, tracked by loaning video camcorders to students to record their daily mobile learning use, supported by student interviews. More students now on contract (63% then pay as you go), range of phones diverse and 80% now own smart phones. Almost all phones have colour screens, cameras, video, audio recorders, internet, Bluetooth. About ½ have wifi and 3G. Most students used their phones (blackberry) for a wide range of learning processes including note making, record lectures, photos as reminders, access social networking site, access university systems, share files, saves txt messages as a form of note taking. Need to share this with library staff to update survey of students’ technology use.
Followed by Kathryn Macallum from Eastern Institute of Technology, NZ with ‘ integrating mobile learn into the tertiary environment: the educators’ perspective’. 4 case studies of educators, all technology savvy, of their perspectives on barriers to continuing mobile learning use. Reported on socio-cultural (issues of whose phone is it – ownership, trial and error, shared community), organizational (support), pedagogical (variety and interest) and technological (variety and portability, ease of use and cost) issues.
After afternoon tea, the two streams are technologies and future directions. I stay in the future directions stream beginning with Stockdale and David Parson from Massey presenting ‘cloud as content: virtual world learning with Open Wonderland’. Openwonderland is open source version of ‘second life’ platform to provide ‘developers’ with a place to share ideas and collaborate on projects. Has a series of virtual blackboard in various rooms with appropriate tools to draw ideas etc. Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) provide opportunities to do things which may be difficult to do in reality due to ethics, complexity, difficulty in building, too expensive etc. Evaluations indicate creating a viable virtual world is a major tasks, users seem enthusiastic about the technology is challenging and difficult to know yet if expectations met.
Then ‘remote fieldwork: using portable wireless networks and backhaul links to participate remotely in fieldwork’ presented by Trevor Collins of work with MARK Gaved and John Lea from The Open University UK. Described work with geology students undertaking fieldwork in UK and Nicaragua. Main objective to extend learning undertaken during fieldwork to provide access to students who are unable to get to places which are difficult to get to. Communication toolkit needs to be portable, weatherproof etc. with standard hardware and software (open source if possible). The kit consists of networking (both local and wide area), devices (netbooks, wifi still cameras, IP video cameras, encoders and android phones) and services (LAMMP web, Asterisk VoIP and Prosody XMPP). Examples provided from each of the sites and technical issues discussed.
Next up, Jean Johnson and Jonny Dyer (Inclusion Trust UK) on ‘use of mobile phones to develop learning with marginalized young people’. Young people who are not in education or employment might be between 10 – 40% in European countries. On-going work in adapting on-line learning guidelines to assist with mobile learning delivery to dis-enfranchised youth. Guidelines include a truly personlised and bespoke curriculum, learning has to be fun, a thriving on-line community, student-led project-based leanring, student-led work portfolios, destinations to reflect lifelong learning, NOT content delivery or teaching. Therefore, learn where I like, learn what I like and learn when I like = person centred constructivist learning.
Last paper of the day with Matthew Kearney, Marie Schuck (University of Technology Sydney) and Kevin Burden (University of Hull) on ‘locating mobile in the Third space’. Based on two projects – Mobalogy (community of learners from Higher Ed. Working with mobile devices in Sydney) and Bird in the Hand (trainee teachers and teacher educators in UK). Interest in time-space as fixed spaces, fixed times, contrasted with learning anywhere and socially negotiated time. Third space proposed as space separate from home or work and where social / leisure takes place or in education, space between formal (school) and informal space (museums, libraries etc.). Framework visualized as venn diagram with 3 characteristics of social interactivity, authenticity and customization and wrapped around these are time/space. Interesting concept to think through.
All in a busy day. Good to see and hear the focus of many mlearning projects moving from just pushing content (as per mlearn 3 - 4 years ago) to being much more student / user centric. The move into Web 2.0 and the cloud has accelerated emphasis on student / learner generated content. So now, mlearning, supported generally by pedagogical frameworks reflecting collaborative, problem-based or project-based learning, has matured. Hopefully, this remains the future direction of using technology to enhance learning as hardware, software and humanware come together to become mainstream everyware.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
mlearn 2010 day 2 morning
Day two dawns fine but cloudy and begins with keynote from Prof. Mohammed Ally (Athabasca University) who presents on ‘mobile learning to transform the delivery of education: Are we ready? Provided overview of mobile learning. Currently over 4 billion mobile subscribers with growth mainly in developing countries with younger people most comfortable with mobile technology. People now have multiple mobile devices, using each where most applicable / effective / cheapest. Perhaps in the future, no such thing as mobile devices but communicators embedded into our environment, cloths,ourselves and interact with these seamlessly as they are integrated into our lifestyle – no mlearn as such, maybe embedded communications /learning conferences Still resistance by educators. professionals and experts but what about what happened with internet use in education? However, our students more accepting and interested in learning on the go. What will the role of the teacher in a world with open access to information? Mobile learning development needs to take into account aspects of social justice. (youtube video).
Call to researchers to ensure mlearning research taken one step further, to help make a difference to the lives of people who do not have ready access to education. Need to help change educations system!!, attitude of educators / managers, lobby for free connectivity, work with hardware/software developers to develop mobile education devices to achieve education for ALL using mobile learning.
Second shorter keynote from Inaki Berroeta , CEO of Vodaphone Malta on ‘how smartphones and data technologies enable mLearning’. Use of mobile phones is higher than PC use, especially with young people. Smartphones have evolved to become the ‘perfect enabler’ with examples including vision learning Provided examples of learning resources developed through partnership of University of Malta and Vodaphone Malta including science based quizzes (sci-roid) and interactive mobile interactive city adventure of Malta. Another example using SMS or WAP in India to help students learn English words – one word a day, at very low costs. (.35R)
First concurrent sessions for the morning divided into two streams of short papers. One on applications and the other on future directions. I pick the ones I am interested in and move between the two rooms.
First up ‘mobile question and answer explorative exercises’ presented by Chris Borgermann with Frank, Siepermann and Lackes. Explains how mashup of game-based learning and mlearning based on questions and answers. Potential of mlearning to provide for interaction, focusing on problem solving with feedback provided. Game-based learning perceived to be fun and may lead to exploration and experimentation. Well-known game concepts tend to only bring about lower level / surface learning, therefore learning game developers need to go beyond. Porting existing elearning to mobile devices also not always successful. Mobile learning should be based on the learners’ mobility (using location-based learning) and not be premised just on using a mobile device. Proposed concept of a ‘treasure hunt text adventure’.
Next up ‘mobile based group quiz to promote collaborative learning’ from Aljohani, Loke and Ng. Presented a descriptive overview of the development and implementation of group quizzes (true and false only) using Nokia E71 – mainly based on text messaging. Mainly a teacher-led approach as teachers input questions but students work in groups to answer questions. Evaluated 3 trials with small groups of students.
Then on ‘mobile collaborative learning’ presented by Chris Borgermann with work from Frank, Kushmood and Lackes. Based on trying to define what is learner/group-centred interaction (passive to active learning) and collaborative or cooperative learning. Learning paradigm changing from centralized, teacher-centred which is static to localized, student-centred dynamic learning. Mobile learning must not be just elearning on the go. Proposes need to cater to learners by changing to a location-sequence-based learning. A collaborative learning system enhances mlearning.
A large group represented by Cindy Kerawalla from the University of Nottingham present on the topic of ‘being a geographer: Role of mobile script inquiry for field trips’. Reported on a case study of secondary students working on a geography project on ‘urban heat) using a variety of mobile devices, laptop, GPS, thermometer and camera supported with relevant software. Students were videoed as they embarked on field trips using a process from Goodwin (2003) to analyse video stills on ‘symbiotic gestures’ and bodily measurements to develop ‘culturally organsed vision’. Process helpful in understanding the processes of students’ understanding of what it is to be a geographer.
Last paper this morning from Norazah Rahman from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia presented a group project on ‘student acceptance of mobile content of the research methodology course’. The post-graduate students are teachers attending a blended course on research methods. Mobile phone content in the form of course notes and access to discussion forum. Findings include acceptance of use of mobile phones as a source of learning content, learning support and course organization (communicate for group work).
Call to researchers to ensure mlearning research taken one step further, to help make a difference to the lives of people who do not have ready access to education. Need to help change educations system!!, attitude of educators / managers, lobby for free connectivity, work with hardware/software developers to develop mobile education devices to achieve education for ALL using mobile learning.
Second shorter keynote from Inaki Berroeta , CEO of Vodaphone Malta on ‘how smartphones and data technologies enable mLearning’. Use of mobile phones is higher than PC use, especially with young people. Smartphones have evolved to become the ‘perfect enabler’ with examples including vision learning Provided examples of learning resources developed through partnership of University of Malta and Vodaphone Malta including science based quizzes (sci-roid) and interactive mobile interactive city adventure of Malta. Another example using SMS or WAP in India to help students learn English words – one word a day, at very low costs. (.35R)
First concurrent sessions for the morning divided into two streams of short papers. One on applications and the other on future directions. I pick the ones I am interested in and move between the two rooms.
First up ‘mobile question and answer explorative exercises’ presented by Chris Borgermann with Frank, Siepermann and Lackes. Explains how mashup of game-based learning and mlearning based on questions and answers. Potential of mlearning to provide for interaction, focusing on problem solving with feedback provided. Game-based learning perceived to be fun and may lead to exploration and experimentation. Well-known game concepts tend to only bring about lower level / surface learning, therefore learning game developers need to go beyond. Porting existing elearning to mobile devices also not always successful. Mobile learning should be based on the learners’ mobility (using location-based learning) and not be premised just on using a mobile device. Proposed concept of a ‘treasure hunt text adventure’.
Next up ‘mobile based group quiz to promote collaborative learning’ from Aljohani, Loke and Ng. Presented a descriptive overview of the development and implementation of group quizzes (true and false only) using Nokia E71 – mainly based on text messaging. Mainly a teacher-led approach as teachers input questions but students work in groups to answer questions. Evaluated 3 trials with small groups of students.
Then on ‘mobile collaborative learning’ presented by Chris Borgermann with work from Frank, Kushmood and Lackes. Based on trying to define what is learner/group-centred interaction (passive to active learning) and collaborative or cooperative learning. Learning paradigm changing from centralized, teacher-centred which is static to localized, student-centred dynamic learning. Mobile learning must not be just elearning on the go. Proposes need to cater to learners by changing to a location-sequence-based learning. A collaborative learning system enhances mlearning.
A large group represented by Cindy Kerawalla from the University of Nottingham present on the topic of ‘being a geographer: Role of mobile script inquiry for field trips’. Reported on a case study of secondary students working on a geography project on ‘urban heat) using a variety of mobile devices, laptop, GPS, thermometer and camera supported with relevant software. Students were videoed as they embarked on field trips using a process from Goodwin (2003) to analyse video stills on ‘symbiotic gestures’ and bodily measurements to develop ‘culturally organsed vision’. Process helpful in understanding the processes of students’ understanding of what it is to be a geographer.
Last paper this morning from Norazah Rahman from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia presented a group project on ‘student acceptance of mobile content of the research methodology course’. The post-graduate students are teachers attending a blended course on research methods. Mobile phone content in the form of course notes and access to discussion forum. Findings include acceptance of use of mobile phones as a source of learning content, learning support and course organization (communicate for group work).
mlearn 2010 day 1 afternoon
After long lunch concurrent sessions begin. I hop between ‘user-centric development’ and ‘applications’. First up, ‘social flow in mobile learning’ from Ryu, Cui and presented by David Parsons (Massey University). Raises the question, does mobile learning also mean social learning? Based on Csikszentmihalyi’s work on ‘flow’ – balancing challenge (excitement) with apprehension (fear). Walker (2010) proposes ‘social flow’ where doing things together enhances the experience and dampens anxiety. Can social flow be enhanced with mobile learning? Compared experiences of students (some on solo mlearning, others in collaborative synchronous groups and a face to face group but delayed) to see if social flow occurs. Mobile collaboration increased cognitive curiosity and interest.
Then R. Douch, G. Parker and presented by Jill Attewell on ‘mobile technologies for work-based and vocational learning’. Overview of MoLeNET which undertook mobile learning research and then embedded into educational institutions. Workbased learners’ challenges included limited access to ICT at work/home, workplace not set up for learning, disconnect from college and limited interaction with peers/tutors, collecting evidence can be a chore, impatient to complete theory and low literacy/numeracy, difficult to engage with learning, bored by key skills requirement and assessor visits can be disruptive. Case studies available on www.moleshare.org.uk practitioner led action research encouraged so that research led to improvement in teaching, learning and outcomes. Including mobile learning tools improved engagement and attendance, retention and achievement. Learning more flexible, relevant and teaching could be differentiated and personalized more often. Quantity and quality of homework and coursework improved. Advantages also to employers, assessors and colleges involved. resources and video resources available,
Cooney from learnosity on ‘dialing for success in spoken learning and assessments’ firstly used in Ireland to assess spoken Gaelic and run on mobile phones including ipod touch and through Skype. Now scalable and used across Australia and Saudi Arabia as well. Use for spoken formative assessments, spoken self-assessment, spoken assessments practice and summative assessments. Assessments are recorded and available to teachers. Teachers able to generate own questions. In Ireland, increased spoken Gaelic practice for students leading to increase in competency. Future development to allow for peer learning so that students able to speak to each other instead of just running through set questions.
After afternoon tea, another lot of concurrent sessions beginning with mobimaths from a group from Dublin (Trinity College and the digital hub) represented by Brendan Tangley. This project uses smartphones in teaching mathematics in particular to address maths anxiety and to try to improve current maths teaching which is still didactic, behaviourist and assessment driven. Project creates contextualized, collaborative, constructivist learning opportunities for students based on set of standards-aligned maths learning activities and instructional materials.
Then a follow up on a Canadian nursing project I have been following – mobile self-efficacy in a Canadian nursing programme from Vancouver, presented by Rick Kenny (Athabasca University and Jocelyn Van-Neste Kenny from North Island College. Used Bandura’s self-efficacy (magnitude, strength /confidence to perform and generalizability) theory to find out how nursing students were engaging with mobile learning opportunities. Compared distance students and full-time students but only small sample responded to computer self-efficacy (Compeau and Higgins, 1995) questionnaire. Findings indicate familiarity and confidence in using various mobile phones /devices (ipod touch) however will need to repeat the study with a larger sample.
Next up, teachers’ perspectives on implementing science lessons using mobile phones from Ekanake and presented by Jocelyn Wishart from University of Bristol. Study undertaken in schools in Sri Lanka. Support of mobile phone required for teachers’ managerial processes, assisted teachers to link lesson to students’ prior learning and to implement a student- centred approach. Greater student participation, student-teacher interactions and student-student interactions. Challenges presented to students using a range of mobile phones and usual mobile phone technical issues. For teachers, challenges included time required for technical mobile phone support and cost of phones and data. In general, both teachers and students provided positive feedback on using mobile phones to enhance science learning.
Last one today on SCROLL: Supporting to share and reuse ubiquitous learning logs presented by Hiroaki Ogata with work also by Mengmeng, Hou, Uosaki, El-Bishant and Yano from University of Tokushima. How can we record learning experiences as they happen in the real world in anytime, anywhere? Idea of life logging not new (65 years at least!) but currently many apps usable eg. Evernote, 3banana. Aim of learning log project to record learning processes, primarily of overseas students learning Japanese. Based on some studies on ubiquitous learning log object (ULLO) and adapted to create SCROLL which is android OS, running off a web server to allow smart phones the capability of capturing learning on the move (text, photos with location, audio (asking questions of other users). Also allows organization of LO collected as evidence organized in a timeline and also locations of evidence so that the user is aware of these when they return to the same place. Quizzes used for formative assessment. Evaluation using pre and post-test of vocabulary words indicate improvement in recall.
A good start to the conference, good to catch up with various peopled from other mlearns. At least 20% of the attendees have ipads and well over 70% attend sessions with their netbooks / laptops on to take notes. Wifi a bit patchy when many people accessing the net at the same time
Evening filled with conference dinner which includes a multimedia presentation on the history of Malta - the Malta Experience and dinner. A long but fruitful day.
Then R. Douch, G. Parker and presented by Jill Attewell on ‘mobile technologies for work-based and vocational learning’. Overview of MoLeNET which undertook mobile learning research and then embedded into educational institutions. Workbased learners’ challenges included limited access to ICT at work/home, workplace not set up for learning, disconnect from college and limited interaction with peers/tutors, collecting evidence can be a chore, impatient to complete theory and low literacy/numeracy, difficult to engage with learning, bored by key skills requirement and assessor visits can be disruptive. Case studies available on www.moleshare.org.uk practitioner led action research encouraged so that research led to improvement in teaching, learning and outcomes. Including mobile learning tools improved engagement and attendance, retention and achievement. Learning more flexible, relevant and teaching could be differentiated and personalized more often. Quantity and quality of homework and coursework improved. Advantages also to employers, assessors and colleges involved. resources and video resources available,
Cooney from learnosity on ‘dialing for success in spoken learning and assessments’ firstly used in Ireland to assess spoken Gaelic and run on mobile phones including ipod touch and through Skype. Now scalable and used across Australia and Saudi Arabia as well. Use for spoken formative assessments, spoken self-assessment, spoken assessments practice and summative assessments. Assessments are recorded and available to teachers. Teachers able to generate own questions. In Ireland, increased spoken Gaelic practice for students leading to increase in competency. Future development to allow for peer learning so that students able to speak to each other instead of just running through set questions.
After afternoon tea, another lot of concurrent sessions beginning with mobimaths from a group from Dublin (Trinity College and the digital hub) represented by Brendan Tangley. This project uses smartphones in teaching mathematics in particular to address maths anxiety and to try to improve current maths teaching which is still didactic, behaviourist and assessment driven. Project creates contextualized, collaborative, constructivist learning opportunities for students based on set of standards-aligned maths learning activities and instructional materials.
Then a follow up on a Canadian nursing project I have been following – mobile self-efficacy in a Canadian nursing programme from Vancouver, presented by Rick Kenny (Athabasca University and Jocelyn Van-Neste Kenny from North Island College. Used Bandura’s self-efficacy (magnitude, strength /confidence to perform and generalizability) theory to find out how nursing students were engaging with mobile learning opportunities. Compared distance students and full-time students but only small sample responded to computer self-efficacy (Compeau and Higgins, 1995) questionnaire. Findings indicate familiarity and confidence in using various mobile phones /devices (ipod touch) however will need to repeat the study with a larger sample.
Next up, teachers’ perspectives on implementing science lessons using mobile phones from Ekanake and presented by Jocelyn Wishart from University of Bristol. Study undertaken in schools in Sri Lanka. Support of mobile phone required for teachers’ managerial processes, assisted teachers to link lesson to students’ prior learning and to implement a student- centred approach. Greater student participation, student-teacher interactions and student-student interactions. Challenges presented to students using a range of mobile phones and usual mobile phone technical issues. For teachers, challenges included time required for technical mobile phone support and cost of phones and data. In general, both teachers and students provided positive feedback on using mobile phones to enhance science learning.
Last one today on SCROLL: Supporting to share and reuse ubiquitous learning logs presented by Hiroaki Ogata with work also by Mengmeng, Hou, Uosaki, El-Bishant and Yano from University of Tokushima. How can we record learning experiences as they happen in the real world in anytime, anywhere? Idea of life logging not new (65 years at least!) but currently many apps usable eg. Evernote, 3banana. Aim of learning log project to record learning processes, primarily of overseas students learning Japanese. Based on some studies on ubiquitous learning log object (ULLO) and adapted to create SCROLL which is android OS, running off a web server to allow smart phones the capability of capturing learning on the move (text, photos with location, audio (asking questions of other users). Also allows organization of LO collected as evidence organized in a timeline and also locations of evidence so that the user is aware of these when they return to the same place. Quizzes used for formative assessment. Evaluation using pre and post-test of vocabulary words indicate improvement in recall.
A good start to the conference, good to catch up with various peopled from other mlearns. At least 20% of the attendees have ipads and well over 70% attend sessions with their netbooks / laptops on to take notes. Wifi a bit patchy when many people accessing the net at the same time
Evening filled with conference dinner which includes a multimedia presentation on the history of Malta - the Malta Experience and dinner. A long but fruitful day.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
mlearn 2010 day 1 morning
In Valetta, capital of Malta for mLearn 2010 this week. Arrived yesterday to a wet and windy Malta. however, over the course of the afternoon, managed to walk around most of the sights in Valetta ( a UNESCO world heritage site). The walls, several metres thick and at least 10 metres high are an impressive sight. Staying at the cheap Hotel British (room the size of my wardrobe at home) but the Grand Harbour views from the window are stunning – rated 10 plus and definitely better than the ones from the window of the hotel where the conference is being held!
Conference begins with usual welcome from the conference committee and two keynote sessions. First up ‘conversations en route to learning’ from Prof. Agnes Kuklska Hulme from the Open University (UK). She overviewed forms of communications before, now and into the future. Humans have a innate preference for face to face conversations, so how can technology assist the process? Social networking assists somewhat and increase in ubiquitious computing furthers enhances the process. Examples in teaching include use of Twitter with trainee teachers and students using MXit mobile chat to assist peer interaction. Work by Pask 1976, Sharples 2003 and Laurillard 2002, 2007; provide a start in learning more about the role of conversations in learning. Work still needs to continue as conversations are now many layered, multilogues straddle multiple media, speech acts become artifact; more conversations with self (eg. this blog :); any questions answered etc. Some interesting initiative now emerging exampled by donate your SMS text to research; research data from conversation with self (mobile app mappiness mood monitor); digital jewellery as conversational prop; innovative ways of starting conversations; Perhaps, mobile communication is opening the door for a wider range of communications beyond just text to take place.
Second keynote from Andy Goff, from ConnectED (distributors of Playstation games) on augmented reality in learning. Began by setting the context of education and engagement and the status of augmented reality. Engagement not only with the students but also with teachers and with students using educational content. AR is when real life is enhanced by real time interactive digital media. Showed examples of AR on PSP games, android OS phone. Types of AR include mashup with GPS, accelerometer and compass, marker based tracking using camera reading a marker or markerless tracking.
Basically camera in phone or PSP reads a coded piece of paper and a 3D image comes up onto the screen eg. Shows up organs of body when you hold up a marker superimposed on to the person holding up the marker, or triggers a video to run. Plus games exampled by eyepet (updated AR tamagochi), second sight – Romeo and Juliet pilot, safety for vocational education in Scandinavia, English heritage (Wroxeter Roman City) etc.and a workplace example with scaffold safety on-job training session. Various projects underway include links to text books, 'questing', accessibility (sign language and other langues) etc. Moving away from PSP, AR needs to move into other mobile devices and include capabilities for image tracking, face tracking, connect with interactive whiteboards, 'lustucru' app on iphone, citroen and BMW, olympus camera, alstom adverts; interactive book which triggers 3D images which you can interact with (move, tilt).
Sunday, October 17, 2010
IADIS CELDA 2010 day 3
Sessions run until 1.30pm today to allow European conference attendees the chance to get home in time for work tomorrow. The morning begins with 4 presentations on the theme of technology, learning and expertise. Attendance is sparse after last night's wine tasting and dinner so the few of us present are doing our best ot support the presenters.
First up ‘future teachers’ reflections on teaching technology: what did they learn from service-learning? From Junko Yamamoto (Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania). Discusses the concept of using ‘community service’ to assist full-time students learning how to become teachers to make use of the skills learnt during the course (i.e. link theory to practice). In this case, to use the learning skills acquired on ‘technology and teaching’. Full-time students were first year students, most of whom have had no teaching experience.
Second up, Andreas Christ, Markus Feisst and presented by Razia Sultana (University of Applied Science Offenburgh) on ‘collaborative language learning as a device independent application'. Use of a multimedia flashcard system (language learning game - LLG) to help students learn a variety of languages. Flash cards are created dynamically and exchanged anonymously between users. Flash cards can be displayed using mobile phones with the software configured to allow the game to run on a variety of mobile phone operating systems. Purpose of LLG is to support learning of new language by increasing interactivity, active learning, confidentially, short time, available at any time and easy to use. Future plans to improve interactivity and also built interfaces for iphone and android OS.
Then Margot McNeill, Maree Gosper and John Hedberg (Macquarie University) on ‘aligning technologies and curriculum: A snapshot of academic practice'. A survey undertaken to find out how much academics were applying 'constructive alignment' (Biggs & Tang, 2007) and whether assessments were constructed at appropriate levels of learning required (as per revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). Findings indicate academics want students to attain 'higher order' outcomes/ capacities but their design of activities and assessments do not align with acadmic's initial direction. Propose need for more intensive professional development to be carried out to support academics to align theory to practice, support staff to utilise technology more effectively and development of diagnostic tool to assist staff to work out whether alignment is occuring.
Lastly – proposing a framework for blended and flexible course design from Timos Almpanis (presenting), Susan Patrick, Ruth Mclellan, Christina Dinsmore, Andrea Faustino and Whysnianti Basuki (Southampton Solent University). Propose a framework for designing blended and or flexible courses based on literature review to asssit with defining the terminology of blended and flexible learning.
After morning tea, concurrent sessions running. Beginning with 'Ementoring in vocational teacher education' by David Lord (University of Huddersfield) and Nele Coninx (Fontys University of Applied Science). Described three projects to e-mentor / e-coach and support vocational teachers to develop 'technology skills'. Results from these projects and current project also presented. Projects include “Motivate” (Masters level opportunities and technological innovation in vocational teacher education) from Finland, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Portugal and the UK - peer mentoring set up on Moodle platform; “ASSOCiate Online” (Achieving Subject Specialist Online Communities) initiative, involving the development and operation of an on-line learning resource and network of teachers in the UK - use 'find a buddy or find a professional buddy' as objectives; and "Synchronous coaching" in the Netherlands using a WIME (Whisper In My Ear) device - adapted from sports coaching - to provide just-in-time coaching when required. Findings from these three projects used to help improve the current IMPLEMENT project (IMProving Lifelong learning through E-MENToring).
Then Dirk Iftenthaler and Tobias Schmidt (University of Mannheim) on ' assessing the effectiveness of prompts for self-regulated learning'. Reports on quantitative project to support students' reflective processes using prompts. Findings indicate that supportive information is an important aid for developing cognitive structures.
The need ofr full-featured web-based formative assessmetns in a medical problem based learning curriculum: students' adn lecturers' and theorys' view by Stefan Minder, Felix Schmitz adn Sissel Gunttormsen Schar from University of Bern. Change of traditional formative assessments (student self-quizzes) to a more interactive and provide students with information to allow them to make decisions about adjusting their own learning patterns. Current system does not meet with tutor or student needs. Feedback / findings reveal need for formative feedback to not only provide aspects of learning progress but also be interesting, motivating, captivating and inspiring!
Next up 'an analysis of answer selection patterns from multiple choice items' by Jay Powell (Better Schooling Systems, Pittsburgh), James Berbauer (Robert Morris University) and Vishnuteerth Agnihotri (Test Deveopment Educational Initiatives, Bangalore). Quantative study of how students answer multiple choice items with findings used to improve student learning and teaching practices. An interesting presentation (similar to findings by Nuttall on how students approach assessments). Content knowledge not as important as the acquistion of skills related to working things out.
Last presentation from Nguyen Thinh Le and Niels Pinkwart (Clausthal University of Technology, Germany) on 'analysis of learning curves for weighted constraint-based tutoring systems (ITS)'. Another quantative study based on statistical analysis, to try to understand learning curves as applied to pre-post test comparisons in order to find out effectiveness of a tutoring system.
In all, a good conference which provided the opportunity to connect with a wide variety of research in the cognition area with a focus on technology use. Interesting range of papers with researchers from a wide range of disciplines and countries. A good way for me to become more familiar with quantitative approaches to educational research and to collect a range of pertinent literature. Also good to range of 'technology' focused papers which have a 'deeper' focus on the pedagogy and theories which underpin practice, decisions made to implement, improve or modify and future planning. Will need to follow up on a few of the presentations and collate some of the pertinent papers to relevant CED staff when I get back to work.
First up ‘future teachers’ reflections on teaching technology: what did they learn from service-learning? From Junko Yamamoto (Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania). Discusses the concept of using ‘community service’ to assist full-time students learning how to become teachers to make use of the skills learnt during the course (i.e. link theory to practice). In this case, to use the learning skills acquired on ‘technology and teaching’. Full-time students were first year students, most of whom have had no teaching experience.
Second up, Andreas Christ, Markus Feisst and presented by Razia Sultana (University of Applied Science Offenburgh) on ‘collaborative language learning as a device independent application'. Use of a multimedia flashcard system (language learning game - LLG) to help students learn a variety of languages. Flash cards are created dynamically and exchanged anonymously between users. Flash cards can be displayed using mobile phones with the software configured to allow the game to run on a variety of mobile phone operating systems. Purpose of LLG is to support learning of new language by increasing interactivity, active learning, confidentially, short time, available at any time and easy to use. Future plans to improve interactivity and also built interfaces for iphone and android OS.
Then Margot McNeill, Maree Gosper and John Hedberg (Macquarie University) on ‘aligning technologies and curriculum: A snapshot of academic practice'. A survey undertaken to find out how much academics were applying 'constructive alignment' (Biggs & Tang, 2007) and whether assessments were constructed at appropriate levels of learning required (as per revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). Findings indicate academics want students to attain 'higher order' outcomes/ capacities but their design of activities and assessments do not align with acadmic's initial direction. Propose need for more intensive professional development to be carried out to support academics to align theory to practice, support staff to utilise technology more effectively and development of diagnostic tool to assist staff to work out whether alignment is occuring.
Lastly – proposing a framework for blended and flexible course design from Timos Almpanis (presenting), Susan Patrick, Ruth Mclellan, Christina Dinsmore, Andrea Faustino and Whysnianti Basuki (Southampton Solent University). Propose a framework for designing blended and or flexible courses based on literature review to asssit with defining the terminology of blended and flexible learning.
After morning tea, concurrent sessions running. Beginning with 'Ementoring in vocational teacher education' by David Lord (University of Huddersfield) and Nele Coninx (Fontys University of Applied Science). Described three projects to e-mentor / e-coach and support vocational teachers to develop 'technology skills'. Results from these projects and current project also presented. Projects include “Motivate” (Masters level opportunities and technological innovation in vocational teacher education) from Finland, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Portugal and the UK - peer mentoring set up on Moodle platform; “ASSOCiate Online” (Achieving Subject Specialist Online Communities) initiative, involving the development and operation of an on-line learning resource and network of teachers in the UK - use 'find a buddy or find a professional buddy' as objectives; and "Synchronous coaching" in the Netherlands using a WIME (Whisper In My Ear) device - adapted from sports coaching - to provide just-in-time coaching when required. Findings from these three projects used to help improve the current IMPLEMENT project (IMProving Lifelong learning through E-MENToring).
Then Dirk Iftenthaler and Tobias Schmidt (University of Mannheim) on ' assessing the effectiveness of prompts for self-regulated learning'. Reports on quantitative project to support students' reflective processes using prompts. Findings indicate that supportive information is an important aid for developing cognitive structures.
The need ofr full-featured web-based formative assessmetns in a medical problem based learning curriculum: students' adn lecturers' and theorys' view by Stefan Minder, Felix Schmitz adn Sissel Gunttormsen Schar from University of Bern. Change of traditional formative assessments (student self-quizzes) to a more interactive and provide students with information to allow them to make decisions about adjusting their own learning patterns. Current system does not meet with tutor or student needs. Feedback / findings reveal need for formative feedback to not only provide aspects of learning progress but also be interesting, motivating, captivating and inspiring!
Next up 'an analysis of answer selection patterns from multiple choice items' by Jay Powell (Better Schooling Systems, Pittsburgh), James Berbauer (Robert Morris University) and Vishnuteerth Agnihotri (Test Deveopment Educational Initiatives, Bangalore). Quantative study of how students answer multiple choice items with findings used to improve student learning and teaching practices. An interesting presentation (similar to findings by Nuttall on how students approach assessments). Content knowledge not as important as the acquistion of skills related to working things out.
Last presentation from Nguyen Thinh Le and Niels Pinkwart (Clausthal University of Technology, Germany) on 'analysis of learning curves for weighted constraint-based tutoring systems (ITS)'. Another quantative study based on statistical analysis, to try to understand learning curves as applied to pre-post test comparisons in order to find out effectiveness of a tutoring system.
In all, a good conference which provided the opportunity to connect with a wide variety of research in the cognition area with a focus on technology use. Interesting range of papers with researchers from a wide range of disciplines and countries. A good way for me to become more familiar with quantitative approaches to educational research and to collect a range of pertinent literature. Also good to range of 'technology' focused papers which have a 'deeper' focus on the pedagogy and theories which underpin practice, decisions made to implement, improve or modify and future planning. Will need to follow up on a few of the presentations and collate some of the pertinent papers to relevant CED staff when I get back to work.
IADIS CELDA 2010 day 2
Day dawns cloudy and cool with intermittent rain. A full day today with various concurrent sessions followed by presentation of Romanian / Timisoaro history, city tour and conference dinner in the evening. Will help me readjust to the change in time zones as it has been a struggle staying up beyond 8pm. Sorted out wifi access this morning, so all go with blogging as each session runs.
First up this morning, Ioana Ghergulescu and Cristina Hava Muntean (National College of Ireland) present their work on assessing motivation in game based e-learning. Began with an overview of motivation theories (good overview in paper) and explained process undertaken to assess students’ motivation to learn through elearning.
First from Catherine Schifter, Diane Jass Ketelhut and Brian Nelson (Temple University, Philadelphia), on presence, Piaget’s stages of development and middle school children in an immersive virtual game environment. An overview on ‘presence’ Goffman’s social psychology theories and Gibson’s perception learning theory – sense of participation and involvement, being in the environment or perceptual illusion of non-mediation. Wanted to find out if ‘presence’ also in younger children as previous work mostly with adolescent and adults. Used Piaget’s developmental stages as a guide including children moving to ‘formal operational’ stage by age of 11. Small sample found some differences between grade 6 and 7 students in how they engaged with a game with grade 7 students more prepared to interact with the problem solving aspects of the game.
Next Hariklia Tsalapatas (University of Thessaly), Olivier Heidmann and presented by Marina Mogli (Elementary School of Portaria, Greece) on Virtual experimentation towards the development of early environmental responsibility skills. Decribed the development and evaluation of a 'game' to help primary school children learn about concepts of sustainability. The environmental game (EnvKids) developed as a Europe wide (Greece, France, Czech Republic and Sweden) initiative. Has three focuses - my home, my town and my planet.
Last paper before morning tea on robot technology and numbers in the classroom with Gunver Majgaard, Morten Misfeldt and Jacob Nielson (from Universities in Denmark). Reported on an initial exploration project using 'cubic user-configurable building blocks' to support the learning of numbers with 6 - 10 year olds including developing understanding of place value, creating large numbers etc. Included demonstration of the cubes (Iblocks) - blocks are lined up and a 'answer' block placed at the end - which will pronounce the number set up (as Danish system of number and place values can be difficult to conceptualise and numbers complicated to pronounce).
After morning tea Ville Karavirta (Aalto University) presented on real world student selected data for education – learning graph algorithms. As with previous presentation, good example of 'making learning visible'. The software developed uses real data (such as coordinates off Google maps and Dijkstra algorithm) - sematic data - and makes the data visual and easier to understand and manipulate.
Vegard Fleisher Orkelbog (University of Oslo) presented on situated simulation as a learning tool – experiencing Forum Iulium with the iphone (mobile augmented reality). As with two previous presentations, this presents an iphone app, developed to utilise the location function of iphones to provide visitors to an archeological / historical site, access to the background information on the specific place the visitor is currently viewing. Included methods used to assist learners / viewers with matching existing artefacts with the 3D models available in the app.
Then a presentation on the effect of prior knowledge on learners’ navigation of webpage structure with Gokhan Akcapinar and Arif Altun (Hacettepe University). Used concepts of navigation to study whether differences between students with prior knowledge navigated webpages differently. Found difference in that experienced users generally less likely to be linear and inexperienced users tended to follow structure as laid out on learning resource.
Last paper before lunch, exploiting virtual worlds for teachers’ professional development with Kallonis Pavlos and Demetrios Sampson (University of Pireaus). Interesting paper detailing professional development process for teachers. Used concept of synetics - making the strange familiar - to introduce teachers to the opportunities available in using technology to assist with students' learning. Introduced second life by having teachers compare scenarios on learning new skills either through traditional methods or in virtual worlds. Sloodle (second life integration to Moodle) used as platform.
After lunch two papers – first from Sabrina Leone, Guiliana Guazzaroni, Laura Carletti and presented by Tommaso Leo (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy) on increasing the need of validation of non-formal and informal learning. The case of the community of practice of ‘webm.org’. Based on a social learning framework (e.g. Web 2.0 - user as a node in knowledge creation). So what kind of learning takes place on Web 2.0 - formal or non-formal or informal?? who gains from learning, individual competence or competences which contribute to social advance? In the EU, guidelines have been provided to 'measure' conpetences learnt through non-formal / informal routes but each EU country uses these guidelines in different ways. A webm.org (collating a range of Web 2.0 tools - google docs, wordpress, twitter, facebook, manymoon, dimdim / webed, udutu and smartphones, pdas) Cop (double link COP) for informal learning for evidence based medicine studied to find out role of informal learning. Therefore, important to evaluate how effective webm.org has been in promoting and sharing co-constructed knowledge.
Last paper of the day with Nuno Pena and Pedro Isaias (Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University) on the ipteaces elearning framework – analysis of success indicators and the impact of student social demographic characteristics. Introduces the use of Invovlement, preparation, transmission, exemplification, application, connection, evaluation and simulation (IPTEACES) as a instructional design framework to help facilitate elearning by reducing diversity in elearning programmes facing a non-homogenous audience (gender, educational background, previous knowledge, literacy, computer proficiency, organisational culture, values / experiences, inexperience in elearning etc.). Support before student begins (student kit) and easily accessible and prompt support (phone or email helpdesks 24/7)required to support all students embarking on elearning. Evaluation of effectiveness also presented. need to explore this one further as it contains some good links between what works and pedogogical theories.
Not presented by paper provides for interesting reading. Belkcem Mostefai, Faical Azouaou and Amar Balla from the National High School for Computer Science , Algeria, on SQAR: an annotation-based study process for the learner’s personal learning. Survey, question, annotation and review (SQAR) is used as a method to help student’s learn concepts. Of interest is the annotation system developed to annotate webpages – WebAnnot as an extension of Firefox. Students who annotated more and build up substantial ‘clouds’ of various topics tended to learn concept.
First up this morning, Ioana Ghergulescu and Cristina Hava Muntean (National College of Ireland) present their work on assessing motivation in game based e-learning. Began with an overview of motivation theories (good overview in paper) and explained process undertaken to assess students’ motivation to learn through elearning.
First from Catherine Schifter, Diane Jass Ketelhut and Brian Nelson (Temple University, Philadelphia), on presence, Piaget’s stages of development and middle school children in an immersive virtual game environment. An overview on ‘presence’ Goffman’s social psychology theories and Gibson’s perception learning theory – sense of participation and involvement, being in the environment or perceptual illusion of non-mediation. Wanted to find out if ‘presence’ also in younger children as previous work mostly with adolescent and adults. Used Piaget’s developmental stages as a guide including children moving to ‘formal operational’ stage by age of 11. Small sample found some differences between grade 6 and 7 students in how they engaged with a game with grade 7 students more prepared to interact with the problem solving aspects of the game.
Next Hariklia Tsalapatas (University of Thessaly), Olivier Heidmann and presented by Marina Mogli (Elementary School of Portaria, Greece) on Virtual experimentation towards the development of early environmental responsibility skills. Decribed the development and evaluation of a 'game' to help primary school children learn about concepts of sustainability. The environmental game (EnvKids) developed as a Europe wide (Greece, France, Czech Republic and Sweden) initiative. Has three focuses - my home, my town and my planet.
Last paper before morning tea on robot technology and numbers in the classroom with Gunver Majgaard, Morten Misfeldt and Jacob Nielson (from Universities in Denmark). Reported on an initial exploration project using 'cubic user-configurable building blocks' to support the learning of numbers with 6 - 10 year olds including developing understanding of place value, creating large numbers etc. Included demonstration of the cubes (Iblocks) - blocks are lined up and a 'answer' block placed at the end - which will pronounce the number set up (as Danish system of number and place values can be difficult to conceptualise and numbers complicated to pronounce).
After morning tea Ville Karavirta (Aalto University) presented on real world student selected data for education – learning graph algorithms. As with previous presentation, good example of 'making learning visible'. The software developed uses real data (such as coordinates off Google maps and Dijkstra algorithm) - sematic data - and makes the data visual and easier to understand and manipulate.
Vegard Fleisher Orkelbog (University of Oslo) presented on situated simulation as a learning tool – experiencing Forum Iulium with the iphone (mobile augmented reality). As with two previous presentations, this presents an iphone app, developed to utilise the location function of iphones to provide visitors to an archeological / historical site, access to the background information on the specific place the visitor is currently viewing. Included methods used to assist learners / viewers with matching existing artefacts with the 3D models available in the app.
Then a presentation on the effect of prior knowledge on learners’ navigation of webpage structure with Gokhan Akcapinar and Arif Altun (Hacettepe University). Used concepts of navigation to study whether differences between students with prior knowledge navigated webpages differently. Found difference in that experienced users generally less likely to be linear and inexperienced users tended to follow structure as laid out on learning resource.
Last paper before lunch, exploiting virtual worlds for teachers’ professional development with Kallonis Pavlos and Demetrios Sampson (University of Pireaus). Interesting paper detailing professional development process for teachers. Used concept of synetics - making the strange familiar - to introduce teachers to the opportunities available in using technology to assist with students' learning. Introduced second life by having teachers compare scenarios on learning new skills either through traditional methods or in virtual worlds. Sloodle (second life integration to Moodle) used as platform.
After lunch two papers – first from Sabrina Leone, Guiliana Guazzaroni, Laura Carletti and presented by Tommaso Leo (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy) on increasing the need of validation of non-formal and informal learning. The case of the community of practice of ‘webm.org’. Based on a social learning framework (e.g. Web 2.0 - user as a node in knowledge creation). So what kind of learning takes place on Web 2.0 - formal or non-formal or informal?? who gains from learning, individual competence or competences which contribute to social advance? In the EU, guidelines have been provided to 'measure' conpetences learnt through non-formal / informal routes but each EU country uses these guidelines in different ways. A webm.org (collating a range of Web 2.0 tools - google docs, wordpress, twitter, facebook, manymoon, dimdim / webed, udutu and smartphones, pdas) Cop (double link COP) for informal learning for evidence based medicine studied to find out role of informal learning. Therefore, important to evaluate how effective webm.org has been in promoting and sharing co-constructed knowledge.
Last paper of the day with Nuno Pena and Pedro Isaias (Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University) on the ipteaces elearning framework – analysis of success indicators and the impact of student social demographic characteristics. Introduces the use of Invovlement, preparation, transmission, exemplification, application, connection, evaluation and simulation (IPTEACES) as a instructional design framework to help facilitate elearning by reducing diversity in elearning programmes facing a non-homogenous audience (gender, educational background, previous knowledge, literacy, computer proficiency, organisational culture, values / experiences, inexperience in elearning etc.). Support before student begins (student kit) and easily accessible and prompt support (phone or email helpdesks 24/7)required to support all students embarking on elearning. Evaluation of effectiveness also presented. need to explore this one further as it contains some good links between what works and pedogogical theories.
Not presented by paper provides for interesting reading. Belkcem Mostefai, Faical Azouaou and Amar Balla from the National High School for Computer Science , Algeria, on SQAR: an annotation-based study process for the learner’s personal learning. Survey, question, annotation and review (SQAR) is used as a method to help student’s learn concepts. Of interest is the annotation system developed to annotate webpages – WebAnnot as an extension of Firefox. Students who annotated more and build up substantial ‘clouds’ of various topics tended to learn concept.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
IADIS CELDA 2010 DAY 1
In Timisoara, Romania for the annual IADIS Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age conference.Took about a day and a half to get here (with short stops at Hong Kong and Rome airports).
Did an exploratory walk in the afternoon. The old town centre of Timisoara is very picturesque with a blend of Italian, Austrian and Turkish styles in the architecture, a reflection of Romania’s rich history. Some parts of the old town remind me of post-earthquake Christchurch, with buildings sheathed in scaffolding or in various stages of decline / disrepair. However, the Timisoarans are very friendly and I found my way around the various monuments, magnificent churches and leafy parks.
The conference programme is varied with various keynotes and concurrent sessions and held at the Universitatea Politehnica. Conference officially opened by the IADIS committee who organized the conference. Provided an overview of pass conferences and also summary of the current conference focus.
First session were on ‘student-centred learning / assess of exploratory learning approaches, a mixture of long and short papers. Papers on integrating digital games into the school curriculum – from Hercules Panoutsopoulous and Demetrious Sampson (University of Piraeus).Discussed the contradictory evidence of efficacy of using games to improve mathematics learning. Generally student motivation is improved but does not necessarily lead to improvement in understanding of maths context. The effect of introducing novel pedagogy may raise expectations of students to the educational outcomes from engaging in the extra effort required to learn how to use the technology in addition to learning content.
Then designing online quizzes with Maree Gosper from Centre of Learning and Teaching, Macquarie University.There is a need to use a whole curriculum approach to designing on-line quizzes, her paper provides good background on the uses of quizzes for formative feedback. Also the importance of Bigg’s constructive alignment in ensuring quizzes are integrated into the overall learning process. Plus use updated Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) to work out when and how to use quizzes. A model useful for finding out if using curriculum alignment /cognitive practices and learner characteristics actually is effective.
YuhiYuzuchara, Yong Xu, Keiichi Kaneko from Tokyo University of Agriculture and TechnologyMasatoshi Ishikawa from Tokyo Seitoku University and HarukoKiyakoda from Tsuda College provided background on work they have been conducting on vocabulary learning with coloured-learning materials.An interesting study, improving on work established by others on using coloured letters to improve recall. In this case, learners generate their own colours leading to better association of colours with certain words to be learn as foreign vocabulary.
Mark Frydenberg and John Miko presented on using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as an example of authentic learning. SEO simulator in the form of a ‘contest’ used to engage students into learning the techniques (many tacit skills involved) to complete effective SOE.
During morning tea, had a look at the poster by Akiko Orita, Atsushi Yoshikawa and Takao Terano from Keio University and Tokyo Insitute of Technology on using Manga case for learning in practice:embedding awareness experience and knowledge in description. Students are provided case to study in the form of a manga comic / manga case. This is then used to raise topics for discussion etc. and leads to students forming improved concepts of topics. Of interest is the multiliteracies approach used to engage students’ interest using a form of communication they were familiar with.
All the above provide some interesting ideas, mostly not too difficult to put into practice which may enhance student learning in specific contexts.
After lunch, opening keynote from Professor Miguel Nussbaum from the Universidad Catolica de Chile via virtual conferening. He spoke about ‘looking into the future: integrating technology and pedagogy.
Bases his work on Engestrom’s activity theory to study the consequences of technology on present children’s development. Used example of the evolution of language (txt speak) as an example of how technology has changed the way in which we interact with each other. However, teachers are still using traditional methods when integrating technology into learning / teaching. Introduces the concept of ‘one mouse per child’, using minimal equipment (computer, projector, one mouse / PDA per student) to change the way in which interactions could be enhanced by technology in the classroom – participatory literacy. Basically, link each child with teachers’ computer in similar concept to classroom presenter (used at CPIT).
Lost connection part way so Mark Frydenberg presented an overview of Web 2.0 moving to Web 3.0 (the semantic web) with examples provided as freebase.com, google goggles, spottime.com, google squared labs and wolfram alpha. All these allow for ‘mashups’ and aggregation of data, often based on user preferences / location / or use patterns.
The attended session in the learning communities and web service technologies stream
Daniel Chia-en Teng (National Sun Yet Sen University), TommasoLeo (Università Politecnicadelle Marche
Ancona, Italy), Kinshuk(Athabasca University) and Nian-ShingChen (National Sun Yet Sun University) presented on using online synchronous learning.Evaluation of use of Synchronous Cyber Classroom for group of students from Italy, Canada and Taiwan working through a post-graduate programme.Evaluated model of community of inquiry (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) to study teacher, social and cognitive presence. Student (12 Phd students) feedback indicate teacher presence was perceived to be weak (could be due to cultural differences, unfamiliarity with online environment, students assumed an active role as speaker / moderator); social presence again was low (maybe due to no class work required collaboration and students did not know each other well); and cognitive presence was better (students have sufficient prior knowledge to cope and make relevant links to information presented).
Masayuki Shinohara, Hiroshi Shimeno, Shigenori Ioroi and Hiroshi Tanaka from Kanagawa Institute of Technology on a lecture system using cell phones, similar concept to clickers. In-house system constructed (open source) to allow use of cell phones to be linked to tutor computer with software to manage the answers coming in.Future developments include integration into elearning system and a review function for incorrect answers. Something to follow up on although the system will be based on the mobile web, still an expensive option in NZ :(
BahaaeldinMohamed (TU Dresden) and Thomas Koehloer on effect of using project based web 2.0 learning on students’ outcomes (nicely done presentation on prezi). Re-defines problem based learning using community based, project (start, lit review, method, research, conclusion) management (CBPM) as a model. Compared two groups, one using online CBPM and other using offline model. Explored students acceptance and attitudes.
Kathleen Houston from the University of Central Lancashire on online employability workshops. Evaluates the effectiveness of using online workshops to raise awareness in students – about to graduate – on the requirements to prepare for work, look for employment and create effective CVs.
Did an exploratory walk in the afternoon. The old town centre of Timisoara is very picturesque with a blend of Italian, Austrian and Turkish styles in the architecture, a reflection of Romania’s rich history. Some parts of the old town remind me of post-earthquake Christchurch, with buildings sheathed in scaffolding or in various stages of decline / disrepair. However, the Timisoarans are very friendly and I found my way around the various monuments, magnificent churches and leafy parks.
The conference programme is varied with various keynotes and concurrent sessions and held at the Universitatea Politehnica. Conference officially opened by the IADIS committee who organized the conference. Provided an overview of pass conferences and also summary of the current conference focus.
First session were on ‘student-centred learning / assess of exploratory learning approaches, a mixture of long and short papers. Papers on integrating digital games into the school curriculum – from Hercules Panoutsopoulous and Demetrious Sampson (University of Piraeus).Discussed the contradictory evidence of efficacy of using games to improve mathematics learning. Generally student motivation is improved but does not necessarily lead to improvement in understanding of maths context. The effect of introducing novel pedagogy may raise expectations of students to the educational outcomes from engaging in the extra effort required to learn how to use the technology in addition to learning content.
Then designing online quizzes with Maree Gosper from Centre of Learning and Teaching, Macquarie University.There is a need to use a whole curriculum approach to designing on-line quizzes, her paper provides good background on the uses of quizzes for formative feedback. Also the importance of Bigg’s constructive alignment in ensuring quizzes are integrated into the overall learning process. Plus use updated Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) to work out when and how to use quizzes. A model useful for finding out if using curriculum alignment /cognitive practices and learner characteristics actually is effective.
YuhiYuzuchara, Yong Xu, Keiichi Kaneko from Tokyo University of Agriculture and TechnologyMasatoshi Ishikawa from Tokyo Seitoku University and HarukoKiyakoda from Tsuda College provided background on work they have been conducting on vocabulary learning with coloured-learning materials.An interesting study, improving on work established by others on using coloured letters to improve recall. In this case, learners generate their own colours leading to better association of colours with certain words to be learn as foreign vocabulary.
Mark Frydenberg and John Miko presented on using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as an example of authentic learning. SEO simulator in the form of a ‘contest’ used to engage students into learning the techniques (many tacit skills involved) to complete effective SOE.
During morning tea, had a look at the poster by Akiko Orita, Atsushi Yoshikawa and Takao Terano from Keio University and Tokyo Insitute of Technology on using Manga case for learning in practice:embedding awareness experience and knowledge in description. Students are provided case to study in the form of a manga comic / manga case. This is then used to raise topics for discussion etc. and leads to students forming improved concepts of topics. Of interest is the multiliteracies approach used to engage students’ interest using a form of communication they were familiar with.
All the above provide some interesting ideas, mostly not too difficult to put into practice which may enhance student learning in specific contexts.
After lunch, opening keynote from Professor Miguel Nussbaum from the Universidad Catolica de Chile via virtual conferening. He spoke about ‘looking into the future: integrating technology and pedagogy.
Bases his work on Engestrom’s activity theory to study the consequences of technology on present children’s development. Used example of the evolution of language (txt speak) as an example of how technology has changed the way in which we interact with each other. However, teachers are still using traditional methods when integrating technology into learning / teaching. Introduces the concept of ‘one mouse per child’, using minimal equipment (computer, projector, one mouse / PDA per student) to change the way in which interactions could be enhanced by technology in the classroom – participatory literacy. Basically, link each child with teachers’ computer in similar concept to classroom presenter (used at CPIT).
Lost connection part way so Mark Frydenberg presented an overview of Web 2.0 moving to Web 3.0 (the semantic web) with examples provided as freebase.com, google goggles, spottime.com, google squared labs and wolfram alpha. All these allow for ‘mashups’ and aggregation of data, often based on user preferences / location / or use patterns.
The attended session in the learning communities and web service technologies stream
Daniel Chia-en Teng (National Sun Yet Sen University), TommasoLeo (Università Politecnicadelle Marche
Ancona, Italy), Kinshuk(Athabasca University) and Nian-ShingChen (National Sun Yet Sun University) presented on using online synchronous learning.Evaluation of use of Synchronous Cyber Classroom for group of students from Italy, Canada and Taiwan working through a post-graduate programme.Evaluated model of community of inquiry (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) to study teacher, social and cognitive presence. Student (12 Phd students) feedback indicate teacher presence was perceived to be weak (could be due to cultural differences, unfamiliarity with online environment, students assumed an active role as speaker / moderator); social presence again was low (maybe due to no class work required collaboration and students did not know each other well); and cognitive presence was better (students have sufficient prior knowledge to cope and make relevant links to information presented).
Masayuki Shinohara, Hiroshi Shimeno, Shigenori Ioroi and Hiroshi Tanaka from Kanagawa Institute of Technology on a lecture system using cell phones, similar concept to clickers. In-house system constructed (open source) to allow use of cell phones to be linked to tutor computer with software to manage the answers coming in.Future developments include integration into elearning system and a review function for incorrect answers. Something to follow up on although the system will be based on the mobile web, still an expensive option in NZ :(
BahaaeldinMohamed (TU Dresden) and Thomas Koehloer on effect of using project based web 2.0 learning on students’ outcomes (nicely done presentation on prezi). Re-defines problem based learning using community based, project (start, lit review, method, research, conclusion) management (CBPM) as a model. Compared two groups, one using online CBPM and other using offline model. Explored students acceptance and attitudes.
Kathleen Houston from the University of Central Lancashire on online employability workshops. Evaluates the effectiveness of using online workshops to raise awareness in students – about to graduate – on the requirements to prepare for work, look for employment and create effective CVs.
Monday, October 11, 2010
ITF Secondary – Tertiary transitions forum
The ITF NZ Secondary to Tertiary Forum ran was on 1st October. Unfortunately, I had already committed to presenting at the National Teaching & Learning Conference at UCOL. However, the efficient ITF has posted the power points of various presentations and I spend the morning catching up on the various presentations, which inform work I am doing on the ‘first year apprentices’ project.
First presentation was from Jeremy Baker ITF executive director, who called for a more structured form of information to be provided to school leavers, already overwhelmed by a plethora of career options and provided with a whole host of options while still at school to try out occupations/ careers while still at school. The ITF proposes a ‘sectoral pathways’ to try to make the information on transition from school to tertiary options and eventually to work, clearer. Sectors include university and other pathways, service industries, manufacture and technology, building and construction, primary industries and social and community services.
Next up, Stuart Middleton, as per his video advocating for the establishment of ‘tertiary academies’ presents the rationale on powerpoint, for the need for a new interface to with multiple pathways which requires interaction between schools and tertiary institutions, in the form of ‘tertiary high schools’.
The Post-primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) represented by Penney Dunckley, Peter Kemp and Sarah Dalton, present secondary schools / teachers viewpoints on youth guarantees, trade academies and qualifications and the need for better strategies to help young people get the most out of their education.
The a presentation on the proposed structure for the Christchurch based ‘trades academy’ – Canterbury Tertiary College, to be a joint Linwood College and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) partnership beginning 2011. A comprehensive series of slides on the consultation process and the types of certificates / programmes to be offered.
The government Career’s services/ Ruapara perspective was then offered by Susan Kosmala on ‘smart decisions, smart transitions’. There is a need to still improve on information to be provided to school leavers as over 40% of tertiary students decide to change courses or drop out due to enrolling in the wrong course! Career’s services is now offering multiple entry points to their web-based resources via various social networking sites.
All in, the above presentations represent the ‘state of play’ with regards to the various initiatives being undertaken to assist students with school to post-school options. As Stuart Middleton explained, NZ will have a growing number of 'non-traditional' students which schools and tertiary institutes will need to put effort into engaging / re-engaging.
Friday, October 08, 2010
Looking for net tabs / ipad alternatives
As a follow up from blog in August, I did a trawl through possible places to look for ipad alternatives when I am in Hong Kong or Singapore later this month. Not sure if I will have time as I only have a day in Hong Kong but will be based in MongKok, which has several likely possibilities for tech. toys.
In Singapore for not quite 5 days with two days taken up by conference and a day at least (perhaps two) with working on the last edit of my thesis with my supervisor, Stephen. Also will have to fit in the obligatory hello to my mother-in-law and various aunties! So time will be of the essence. Good thing about Singapore is shops are open late so should be able to get at least a short hour or so at either of Sim Lim computer / mobile phone centre or at Funan IT Mall on Bridge Road.
An item reported in August reports on 9 alternatives , another with 7 and android forum turns out to be good place to find out more about the large number of Android tablets now available. I found links there to a comparison of various 'lower end' tablets and a link with release dates.
On the ipad end of the market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab seems to be leading the flock with a comparison between the ipad and the galaxy tab from pcworld, Augen tabs do not seem to have withstood deep scrutiny and no physical sign, as yet of the Asus eee Pad or the MSI windpad and the Blackberry Playpad not as yet launched.
So might be a case of having a good look and to do some hands on play with various models including ones with 7" screens and resistive rather than capacitive screens. If I have time, will also do a read up on the various technical specifications, difference between VIA and rockchip processors plus have a chat with various techy types at mlearn 2010 who will have advice to offer. This will provide a better understanding of capabilities of net tabs and form the basis of next year's 'elearning' project applications.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Collaboration tools
Well, found rather a lot on collaboration tools! A very comprehensive sample from Robin Good plus some recommended ones for project management and free web based collaboration tools.The CED team will really need to knuckle down and work out the main objective of using a collaboration tool in order to try to work out the best option available.
CPIT IT will be moving to a totally Microsoft environment next year. First adjustment will be transition from Novell’s Groupwise to Microsoft’s Outlook. Microsoft Sharepoint will be available from later in 2011. A review from the enterprise 2.0 viewpoint reveals both good and bad points depending on whether you are a user or IT adminstrator. So not sure if starting CED staff on collaboration tools will be a good move at this point in time. However, use of Sharepoint might not eventuate until well into 2012!
There has been an increase in interest in using Google Docs as a teaching / learning platform through two presentations / workshops attended recently. Firstly, the CAME project around automotive courses at Unitec and then demonstration of using Google docs by Aaron Steele with computing students’ projects at UCOL. Having a change to play with Google Docs last week with Aaron, was a good chance to try out the latest features on Google Docs.
So to begin, it might be good to start people on using google docs and just setting up one document into which we could archive various links etc. under various categories. This may still be the easiest approach as some Wiki tools can be intimidating to newcomers as per this article on the dos and don'ts of setting up collaborative sites and why people don't like using wikis. Using Google Docs will help everyone come to grips with the possibilities of using collaborative cloud computing based platforms and building capability for more complex initiatives.
However, the extent of the various collaboration tools, does raise greater possibilities for project planning. Other options are basecamp (well-known but costs), wiggio (recommended by another team at NMIT and on trying out, seems to be user friendly and free) and dropbox (essentially a file sharing system).
CPIT IT will be moving to a totally Microsoft environment next year. First adjustment will be transition from Novell’s Groupwise to Microsoft’s Outlook. Microsoft Sharepoint will be available from later in 2011. A review from the enterprise 2.0 viewpoint reveals both good and bad points depending on whether you are a user or IT adminstrator. So not sure if starting CED staff on collaboration tools will be a good move at this point in time. However, use of Sharepoint might not eventuate until well into 2012!
There has been an increase in interest in using Google Docs as a teaching / learning platform through two presentations / workshops attended recently. Firstly, the CAME project around automotive courses at Unitec and then demonstration of using Google docs by Aaron Steele with computing students’ projects at UCOL. Having a change to play with Google Docs last week with Aaron, was a good chance to try out the latest features on Google Docs.
So to begin, it might be good to start people on using google docs and just setting up one document into which we could archive various links etc. under various categories. This may still be the easiest approach as some Wiki tools can be intimidating to newcomers as per this article on the dos and don'ts of setting up collaborative sites and why people don't like using wikis. Using Google Docs will help everyone come to grips with the possibilities of using collaborative cloud computing based platforms and building capability for more complex initiatives.
However, the extent of the various collaboration tools, does raise greater possibilities for project planning. Other options are basecamp (well-known but costs), wiggio (recommended by another team at NMIT and on trying out, seems to be user friendly and free) and dropbox (essentially a file sharing system).
Friday, October 01, 2010
National Teaching & Learning conference 2010 - day 3
Last morning of the conference, with two keynotes and a workshop (where I have a ‘round table’ session to extend on keynote presentation yesterday).
First keynote of the morning from Dr. Kirsty Weir, the research manager from Ako Aotearoa who spoke on ‘enhancing learner outcomes through evidence-based teaching’. How can research be used to build up a evidence base to improve outcomes for students. She began with current state of play in research (agenda, methods, dissemination). Challenges – researchers working in isolation leading to use of a narrow range of methods & dissemination to small / academic audiences. Need to improve quality and impact of research to educational change. At the agenda stage, need to engage practitioners, researchers and policy makers together to work on research questions which will help to drive policy. Methods can be improved by embracing diverse methods (need to match research question to method not just use method most familiar to researcher), systematically measuring (measure actual change not just perceptions) outcomes (e.g. as proposed by Sir Mason Durie on day 1) and employ inferential analyses (to judge if interventions are effective). During dissemination, need to ensure research goes to practitioners and policy makers (using most appropriate channels) by making research accessible, actively target audience (e.g. practice focused summaries for practitioners), scale up application (share key points and work at generalization to applications beyond research context). Used the Carl Weiman based improving the learning of science project as an example. Therefore research agenda needs to have collaboratively set priorities, methods include providing Ako Aoteaoroa funding to build research capability and developing improved mechanisms for dissemination (e.g. Ako Aotearoa good practice publication grants).
Important pointers in Kirsty’s direction to planning towards future projects :)
Workshop session followed with a small number of keen participants. I managed to garner feedback on the presentation I have been working on for an Adult Learning Symposium in Singapore at the end of October. The overall approach to link the metaphor of belonging, becoming and being (b3) to help students learn ‘judgment’ and importance of feedback in the process. Participants also worked on using the b3 metaphor to assist with development or evaluation and re-development of curriculum and teaching plans and staff development.
Closing keynote from Dr. Billy O’Steen from University of Canterbury, assisting as to work out ‘where to from here? Applying your conference learning journeys’. Based his presentation on having the conference participations work out what they have gained from the conference based on the 4 keynotes : Where have we come from (Tamati), where have you been during the conference / motivations (Mason), what will you take from here (Kirsty) and where to from here – the continuing journey of becoming and being a teacher (Selena). A good session to unpack the large amount of learning that takes place when one engages with conference activities. Particularly, how to apply new ideas to enhancing student engagement (can be defined from student behavior or systems institutions use to help students learn and measured by surveys like AUSSE).
Conference proceedings will be archived on Ako Aotearoa website in a couple of weeks. Conference closed with a poroporoaki. Next year’s conference (early October) will be organized by Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).
First keynote of the morning from Dr. Kirsty Weir, the research manager from Ako Aotearoa who spoke on ‘enhancing learner outcomes through evidence-based teaching’. How can research be used to build up a evidence base to improve outcomes for students. She began with current state of play in research (agenda, methods, dissemination). Challenges – researchers working in isolation leading to use of a narrow range of methods & dissemination to small / academic audiences. Need to improve quality and impact of research to educational change. At the agenda stage, need to engage practitioners, researchers and policy makers together to work on research questions which will help to drive policy. Methods can be improved by embracing diverse methods (need to match research question to method not just use method most familiar to researcher), systematically measuring (measure actual change not just perceptions) outcomes (e.g. as proposed by Sir Mason Durie on day 1) and employ inferential analyses (to judge if interventions are effective). During dissemination, need to ensure research goes to practitioners and policy makers (using most appropriate channels) by making research accessible, actively target audience (e.g. practice focused summaries for practitioners), scale up application (share key points and work at generalization to applications beyond research context). Used the Carl Weiman based improving the learning of science project as an example. Therefore research agenda needs to have collaboratively set priorities, methods include providing Ako Aoteaoroa funding to build research capability and developing improved mechanisms for dissemination (e.g. Ako Aotearoa good practice publication grants).
Important pointers in Kirsty’s direction to planning towards future projects :)
Workshop session followed with a small number of keen participants. I managed to garner feedback on the presentation I have been working on for an Adult Learning Symposium in Singapore at the end of October. The overall approach to link the metaphor of belonging, becoming and being (b3) to help students learn ‘judgment’ and importance of feedback in the process. Participants also worked on using the b3 metaphor to assist with development or evaluation and re-development of curriculum and teaching plans and staff development.
Closing keynote from Dr. Billy O’Steen from University of Canterbury, assisting as to work out ‘where to from here? Applying your conference learning journeys’. Based his presentation on having the conference participations work out what they have gained from the conference based on the 4 keynotes : Where have we come from (Tamati), where have you been during the conference / motivations (Mason), what will you take from here (Kirsty) and where to from here – the continuing journey of becoming and being a teacher (Selena). A good session to unpack the large amount of learning that takes place when one engages with conference activities. Particularly, how to apply new ideas to enhancing student engagement (can be defined from student behavior or systems institutions use to help students learn and measured by surveys like AUSSE).
Conference proceedings will be archived on Ako Aotearoa website in a couple of weeks. Conference closed with a poroporoaki. Next year’s conference (early October) will be organized by Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).
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