The aim of the paper is to present and discuss the main design concepts and principles, for a collaborative modelling environment for sciences addressed to young students 11-16 years old. The main issues under discussion concern central design questions such as: what must the main modelling primitives be when addressing young students, belonging to a wide range of cognitive possibilities? In what specific ways can we support students' reasoning offering multiple representations? How can we ensure flexible collaboration and how can we support related needs in a community level? Furthermore, how can we support self-regulation and metacognitive development for students and how can we support teachers when working in typical school conditions? This paper, which focuses on the design principles, briefly presents the derived developed tools and functionalities of a collaborative modelling environment (MODELLINGSPACE), while citing the main research results found during the design-development process.
A majority of the pedagogical uses of computers fall somewhere within the five headings of drill, number crunching, laboratory applications, simulations, and self-paced courses (Arons, 1984). In this paper, we discuss a sixth use for computerised instruction, dispersed laboratories over the internet, one which was probably unanticipated years ago when the internet and laboratory technologies were less accessible and less friendly than now. The pervasive interconnectivity of the internet provides the means for entirely new kinds of laboratory experiences for the science student. For example, students can remotely access laboratory equipment that previously would have been too expensive or too dangerous for a typical student laboratory. Large-scale collaborative experiments between students separated geographically are also possible. This paper presents an overview of the technology for science laboratories over the internet, example laboratory experiments, and potential applications.
1D collisions are part of the curriculum for 15–16 year olds in the educational system of Cyprus. The curriculum activities in this domain commonly rely on a mathematical approach and are constrained by prerequisite algebraic skills. Conservation laws have the broadest possible application of all laws in physics and are thus considered by many scientists to be the most fundamental laws in our representations of nature. However, they are currently presented in the educational system in a very didactic manner with the result that students identify them as meaningless algorithms to be implemented in working out a solution as to the outcome of a collision. In this paper, we focus on the design of inquiry based curriculum that aims to help 13 and 14 year olds to foster conceptual understanding and modelling skills in an integrated manner in the domain of 1D collisions. Through the model-based curriculum students are also expected to appreciate the important role of conservation laws in science as a fundamental principle in analysing process end states. We will also present some preliminary pre-test results related to our threefold objective.
Virtual field trips open new possibilities for instructional designers to create more interactive worlds for learners. Three virtual field trips are examined which have all been developed for the Open University undergraduate science courses and make clever and innovative use of QuickTime Virtual Reality to allow students to enter three contrasting environments.Learning gains have been ascertained from pre-and post-test cognitive change scores. Perceived learning was also measured with a post experience questionnaire. The findings are interesting in that students felt they learnt more from the virtual environment than standing in the cold identifying biological samples. However, when it came to dealing with rock samples, students wanted to handle the real thing. This paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of using virtual science field trips and suggests the fine-tuning of feedback to students requires careful consideration in these types of virtual learning environments.
One of the debates within science teaching is the appropriate use of diverse materials to enhance the learning experiences. Significant amounts of time were set aside within curricula for relevant practical experiences but these are now often being replaced by alternative activities. In the biology context, practical experiences have included dissections, drawings, microscopy, experimentation and discussions. For many reasons, an increasing number of students these days are disinclined to handle biological materials, whilst financial cutbacks are making their provision more difficult, which makes teaching the discipline increasingly difficult. This paper discusses how first year biology students at The University of Sydney use a variety of virtual resources to provide a stimulating learning environment in an atmosphere of dwindling resources. Our research shows that students find both real and virtual materials useful in supporting their learning, illustrating the value of offering a diverse range of materials.
WebTOP is a three-dimensional, interactive computer graphics system developed at the Mississippi State University to help students learn about optics and waves. It has been used to help teach undergraduate introductory physics and upper-level optics classes. WebTOP is designed to be flexible, allowing faculty and students to use it in a variety of ways. It can be used for homework, classroom demonstrations, laboratories, and online tutorials. Currently, it comprises sixteen modules spanning eight different subject areas. The subject areas are waves, geometrical optics, reflection and refraction, polarisation, interference, diffraction, lasers, and scattering. This paper provides an overview of WebTOP, a description of each of the current modules, as well as outline of WebTOP's use for teaching and learning.
The paper is based on the authors' experiences of using the virtual learning environment (VLE), WebCT, at De Montfort University, in Leicester and in Milton Keynes, in two first year Computing modules over two years with large and small classes. The paper evaluates the VLE from both the tutors' and the learners' perspectives and comments on practical issues and problems. Performance issues, staffing and student assessment are discussed. The authors offer solutions, recommend good practice for the use of a VLE and consider future trends.
Of the rapidly growing amount of digital educational material, very little bridges the gap between experimental learning environments and computer-based learning environments. In this paper, a concept that bridges this gap is presented. The concept is based on observations in the subject of home economics in Danish primary and lower secondary school. The work is based on the theory of flow, storyline and computer games. The concept is exemplified by a prototype of a MOO storyline. The prototype proposes a way to integrate the technology in a way that makes use of children's natural curiosity and motivation for game playing combined with the joy of working with food and thus is a step on the road to producing a learning resource in an area that until now has been dominated by electronic recipe managers and digital health-tracking managers.
An electronic performance support system (EPSS) is a computer-based environment that can be used to augment and enhance an individual's performance in a particular skill domain. In addition, an EPSS can facilitate skill and knowledge acquisition. Our ongoing research programme in this area has been investigating the potential utility of EPSS methods within a range of different domains. This current paper describes an application of the technique within the domain of quantitative research methods as taught within a psychology degree course. It outlines and discusses the results of an evaluative study of a prototype EPSS tool that has been created to facilitate the learning of psychological research methods.
Concept mapping is a valuable technique for education evaluation. This paper describes VCM, a system based on this approach: it supports teachers in creating concept-mapping tasks intended to capture the student's understanding or personal ontology of a small domain. A novel feature of our work is that the system verifies whether the student intended the map elements that will be used to infer their understanding and misconceptions. We provide a detailed description of VCM, linking it to related work and describe its qualitative evaluation.
We present an approach and a tool for helping individuals express small story-like expressions of personal perspectives in the context of larger, collage-like incubators of public opinions. Our goal is to work with people to create technologically supported public discourse spheres in which they can both represent personal views and practice new ways of forming collective opinions. We present the design and use of one public sphere system, TexTales, a large-scale photographic installation to which people can send SMS text message captions. We review one community’s experiences with TexTales, and discuss the insights we gained about how residents scale and ground their civic discourse and move between expressions of individual perspectives and public opinions.
A learner in a problem-solving domain builds up understanding of the target area, makes a plan to solve a problem based on that understanding, and performs the plan. We aim at developing a system to facilitate those processes and the reuse, sharing and inheritance of problem-solving expertise usually acquired through immense efforts. This paper presents our work to realise the former goal. The basic philosophy underlying our approach is to encourage learner's awareness of her work in order to help her develop strong problem-solving skills. Ontology is a key technique to achieve this goal. Firstly, we analyse a learner's work to clarify what support is required for them to perform the work. Secondly, we propose a framework for performing that work. Thirdly, we discuss a process ontology to encourage interaction between meta-cognition activities and cognition activities. Finally, we illustrate a prototype system that supports learner's work.
Adaptive learning systems typically involve learner profiles with sensitive information and activities that might breach learner's privacy, such as tracking, profiling or collaborative filtering. In this paper, we discuss privacy aspects of personalisation and adaptation in smart spaces for learning. A smart space for learning is a system for mediation of learning services, which is being developed in the EU IST ELENA project. We present privacy threats and requirements in smart spaces for learning with focus on a learner, we model learner profile data that are necessary for privacy protection, and propose privacy-enhancing technology based solutions.
This paper describes MECUREO, a system that automatically constructs an ontology from a dictionary. We describe its use in the context of a dictionary of computer science. MECUREO parses this to construct a graph representing a lightweight ontology of computer science. The paper describes MECUREO's approach to parsing the dictionary and the construction of the ontology graph. We also describe MECUREO's point query facility. This generates a small ontology for use in a particular teaching context, such as single lesson. We report two evaluations of the effectiveness of the ontology construction, one based on a qualitative concept mapping experiment, and the other, on a quantitative comparison of the computer science ontology with another similar ontology.
Design of learning contents is more difficult to support than design of a physical substance because its object is abstract and it is difficult to establish a framework to express it appropriately. To address this issue, we converted an abstract concept about learning content design to an ontology. Then, on the basis of that ontology, we developed iDesigner, a design support environment. iDesigner realises the following two points: the designers are compelled to make the implicit results of their work explicit in order to deepen thinking about the design of an abstract matter; and the designers are provided with basic information to verify content validity by simulating the change of understanding of a learner in the learning contents model at a conceptual level, which is the intermediate result of design.
In this paper, a proposal is being presented for a hierarchical decomposition of a digital learning environment. The purpose is to make a natural distinction between the technical, the design and the pedagogical aspects of a web-based learning environment. Each layer corresponds to a typical function in the organisation. The model thus implies a way of distributing tasks and responsibilities in the educational organisation. The success of each information system depends largely on the acceptance of the end users of the system, here teachers and students. A few suggestions are presented on the pedagogical design of the environment.
Many returning students desire courses that will enhance their advancement potential in their current employment. They often do not want to take an entire degree program, like the MBA, but instead seek specialised courses that are highly relevant to their current career path. There may not be enough students in the university's local region to justify such specialised courses, but internet delivery can reach students worldwide and make them viable. This paper discusses the challenges in curriculum development and delivery for business courses aimed at persons employed in a single industry. As a case study, it describes the experience of the authors in offering such courses to students in the global hospitality and tourism industry.
One problem in developing Interactive Learning Environments (ILEs) that incorporate narrative is how to ensure that the narrative elements used are meaningful to the target audience. This paper proposes a design approach that allows child users to express design ideas that are meaningful to them, in narrative form. The Brampton project is described; this investigated how children could be involved directly in the design of educational resources. It shows how the Informant Design (ID) and ethnographic approaches used in the project were not simply complementary but interdependent in uncovering meaning. The Garstang project builds on this by focusing on the role that narrative can play in an ILE designed to teach map-reading skills. The design process attempted to address the need for a narrative that had meaning for its target audience. A design framework has been devised that elicits narrative design from children in a way that is useful to designers.
The concept of m-learning covers a wide range of possibilities opened up by the convergence of new mobile technologies, wireless infrastructure and e-learning developments. This actual convergence has launched new goals to support this mobile educational system, where the heterogeneity problem (in terms of access devices, bandwidth of the network, preferences/characteristics of the user, etc.) has become one of the major problems to be solved in this kind of mobile learning environment. Different alternatives have been developed in order to allow access to any type of content from anytime-anywhere-anyhow, and the adaptive hypermedia systems (AHS) have emerged as a solution for this. At the same time, a growing interest in multiagent systems (MAS), which have become one of the most powerful software engineering approaches to develop applications in multiple and complex domains, has emerged. In previous works, we considered the hypermedia adaptation along different "adaptivity dimensions", that take into account the heterogeneity problem. According to this, we present a design proposal of an MAS for an AHS applying the well-known GAIA methodology. Furthermore, in order to complement the conceptual definition, we graphically represent the proposed MAS-SHAAD using Agent UML (AUML) notation.
Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a serious candidate for a learning environment for complex skills like vascular interventions. The diagnostics, dimensioning and insertion of the endograft stent has been modelled as a decision-making process and now faces its implementation in a VR learning space. Beyond the topological and morphological aspects it is the orientation and navigation in earlier-performed successful interventions that offer the opportunity for a competence-based learning process before the candidate surgeon enters the clinical stage.
