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.
Showing posts with label Iadis Celda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iadis Celda. Show all posts
Sunday, October 17, 2010
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 (UniversitàPolitecnicadelle 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 (UniversitàPolitecnicadelle 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.
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