Design of a scrutable learning system

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) refer to systems that allow individual learners to manage and control their own learning in their own space and at their own pace. In this work we explore the different ways in which a learning experience can be informal, and propose a 4D model of informal learning to characterise the informal aspects of a learning experience.The model includes dimensions for learning objectives, the learning environment, learning activities and learning tools, and reveals how much of the experience is really under the control of the learner. In an analysis of mobile tools presented in the mLearn 2008 conference we show that many emerging m-learning systems focused on informality in the environment dimension but not in the others.To solve this problem this report proposes a scrutable learning model approach that allows personal learners to take control of their learning objectives while still allowing the system to intelligently support them with appropriate learning activities and resources. In addition an experimental design is described based around a prototype of a scrutable learning system for mobile devices

Mobile and Personal Learning for Newcomers to a City

Growing numbers of newcomers arrive in cities across the globe as temporary visitors or for longer periods of time. They often face communication challenges and need to learn a new language or improve their knowledge quickly. The article considers the domain of language learning for social integration and inclusion, what it means to be a newcomer to a city, and the role of mobile technologies in advancing a more personal approach to language learning. Mobile learning research explores innovative and practical solutions to the specific challenges faced by newcomers, and it revives, develops or reinterprets pedagogical methods and underlying learning theories. To illustrate this, three research projects conducted at The Open University, UK, focusing on migrants’ learning with mobile apps, are presented and reflected upon. Mobile learning experiences deliberately designed for newcomers to a city can support them in everyday language learning and in their efforts to explore their new environment. The article includes suggestions as to what seems to be missing from current apps for newcomers. It considers relevant issues and future directions for the design of mobile apps and services for this diverse target group

Connected Education: Teachers\u27 Attitudes Towards Student Learning in a 1:1: Technology Middle School Environment

Online and blended forms of learning has been increasingly common in K-12 settings, along with the technological advancement with always-on and connected devices. The study purports to understand teachers’ attitudes towards the middle school’s 1:1 policy and students’ frequent use of always-on and connected technology, as well as their concerns about middle school students’ capabilities of using mobile devices and technologies in 1:1 environments. Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, data was obtained through semi-structured interviews, pre- and post- teacher open-ended surveys, along with classroom and lab observations. The study concluded that teachers typically embraced student use of school issued connected technology, as well as personal, connected mobile devices in a 1:1 environment. Meanwhile, teachers are cognizant of the potential drawbacks, implementing differing strategies to balance the use of such device for productive classroom learning and student engagement of personal non-course related activities. The pivotal role of teacher guidance is reiterated by teachers’ perceptions of students’ inability to engage in self-directed and self-motivated learning. The challenges reveal what middle school teachers’ may face when planning a curriculum and instruction for connected digital age learners

Personalizing a Service Robot by Learning Human Habits from Behavioral Footprints

For a domestic personal robot, personalized services are as important as predesigned tasks, because the robot needs to adjust the home state based on the operator's habits. An operator's habits are composed of cues, behaviors, and rewards. This article introduces behavioral footprints to describe the operator's behaviors in a house, and applies the inverse reinforcement learning technique to extract the operator's habits, represented by a reward function. We implemented the proposed approach with a mobile robot on indoor temperature adjustment, and compared this approach with a baseline method that recorded all the cues and behaviors of the operator. The result shows that the proposed approach allows the robot to reveal the operator's habits accurately and adjust the environment state accordingly

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) Applications for Interactive and Engaging Classrooms: APPsolutely!

Mobile Assisted Language Learning, a specialization of mobile learning, represents a new field of the educational system, which offers new possibilities of delivering content to learners and facilitates the learning process. Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) or m-learning which is defined as learning with mobile devices that can be utilized in any place that is equipped with unbroken transmission signals[1] has created new opportunities and challenges for educational use. It introduced a new learning model combining new types of mobile devices, wireless communication services and technologies with teaching and learning. Recent advancements in the mobile world such as the Apple IOS devices (IPhone, IPod Touch and IPad), Android devices and other smartphone devices and environments (such as Windows Phone 7and Blackberry), allowed learning to be more flexible inside and outside the classroom, making the learning experience unique, adaptable and tailored to each user [2]. Creativity, learner autonomy, collaboration and digital practices of language learners are encouraged as well as innovative pedagogical applications, like the flipped classroom, for such practices in classroom contexts are enhanced. These developments are gradually embedded in daily life and they also seem to be heralding the sustainable move to paperless classrooms. Since these varied digital technologies are increasingly viewed as a main platform for delivery, we as educators need to design our activities, materials and learning environments in such a way to ensure that learners are engaged and feel comfortable. This paper presents how apps (for Apple devices) can be integrated into teaching and learning in higher education. Current Approaches to MALL The use of mobile devices in education has become common across all educational sectors and the range of research into the use of mobile communication technologies for the purposes of language learning has been diverse. This is motivated by a search for effective pedagogical innovations and educational applications of new media since classroom instruction needs to constantly adapt to new technologies and interests. As mobile learning has gradually gained popularity, several researchers have attempted to develop models and frameworks to explain where and how mobile learning fits within the context of education to support various kinds of learning. Pereira and Rodrigues [3] presented the evolution of the learning models where mobile learning is the most recent model, which reduces the limitations of the previous models. Fig. 1. The evolution of the learning models [3] Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula and Sharples\u27 report [4] stated that mobile devices can support traditional pedagogical approaches as well as contemporary approaches. In their literature review, Viberg and Gronlund [5] found that the theories and models applied on MALL mostly derive from previous theories of learning such as constructivism and social constructivism. With a constructivist approach to learning, learners actively generate ideas or concepts based on their current knowledge and build on what they already know as they are encouraged to collaborate with peers to do so. Project-based learning, a constructivist approach, allows mobile technology integration in meaningful ways so that learners can explore and develop content purposefully and engage in authentic problem-based, casebased and inquiry-based learning using the most efficient mobile applications and tools such as mobile investigations or casual games. A more recent development is Siemens\u27 theory of connectivism [6] which is described as ..including technology and connection making as learning activities begins to move learning theories into a digital age . Combining connectivism with constructivist approaches offers learners an opportunity to achieve 21 st century skills such as technology-mediated multi tasking. Blended-learning approach [7] is another way to integrate mobile technology applications into classroom practice by using Learning Management System Apps or Personal Learning Environments such as blogs. The flipped classroom, where the sequence of activities or assignments is rearranged so learners watch teacher created videos outside the classroom so that they spend more time for practice in class, is conceptually grounded in active learning and student engagement theories and is made effective with MALL applications. Given that mobile technology devices and tools are still rather new and developing, using an integrated pedagogy in ways that support engagement of learners should be the driving force behind our classroom practice. MALL Apps in Language Learning Mobile technology involves the use of portable devices that are also embedded in our daily lives, such as mobile phones, smart phones, tablet PCs and other hand-held gadgets and the fact that learners are already using communication facilities and technology-related activities such as content creation on their portable gadgets has contributed to teachers\u27 efforts to integrate them into teaching and learning. These screen-based technologies are significant in educational technology as they provide many advantages like mobility of the learners and flexibility of the learning environment, connectivity and accessibility to materials, authenticity, creativity and collaborative learning. With MALL, learners are able to combine the advantages of the Internet with personalized and ongoing learning activities anytime, anywhere. Ally [8] describes mobile learning as powerful support for effective learning and performance-based assessment . Since the arrival of Apple IPhone in 2007 and the IPad in 2010, a wide range of MALL applications have been developed which are intended to enhance the learning process, create a learner-centred environment and focus on the ongoing process of learning rather than the end result. Learners increasingly lead tech-filled lives outside the classroom and mobile apps offer the ability to capture the full attention of the learners with full customization in regards to personal preferences and differentiation. There are a lot of apps available for carrying out a variety of tasks from media creation to productivity

Bootstrapping navigation and path planning using human positional traces

Navigating and path planning in environments with limited a priori knowledge is a fundamental challenge for mobile robots. Robots operating in human-occupied environments must also respect sociocontextual boundaries such as personal workspaces. There is a need for robots to be able to navigate in such environments without having to explore and build an intricate representation of the world. In this paper, a method for supplementing directly observed environmental information with indirect observations of occupied space is presented. The proposed approach enables the online inclusion of novel human positional traces and environment information into a probabilistic framework for path planning. Encapsulation of sociocontextual information, such as identifying areas that people tend to use to move through the environment, is inherently achieved without supervised learning or labelling. Our method bootstraps navigation with indirectly observed sensor data, and leverages the flexibility of the Gaussian process (GP) for producing a navigational map that sampling based path planers such as Probabilistic Roadmaps (PRM) can effectively utilise. Empirical results on a mobile platform demonstrate that a robot can efficiently and socially-appropriately reach a desired goal by exploiting the navigational map in our Bayesian statistical framework. © 2013 IEEE

Constructivist theory as a foundation for the utilization of digital technology in the lifelong learning process

Lifelong learning, with the help of digital technology, possesses the capacity to offer individual significant advantages to individual learners. This paper examines both the diverse approaches to lifelong learning and the digital tools available to promote these strategies. The paper contains a review of some of the main articles pertaining to the fields of constructivism, digital technology, and the process of lifelong learning. Specifically, the authors intend to critically evaluate the utilization of rapidly developing digital technologies, such as computers, tablets, and mobile devices, within lifelong learning and their role as tools in promoting access to both practical and theoretical knowledge and in facilitating the communication of ideas within a global network, as per the constructivist approach. Hence, this article relies upon a specific definition of lifelong learning and an exploration of the notional foundation of what comprises lifelong learning and the environment in which their knowledge acquisition occurs. Thus, a framework for the present research is established wherein peer-reviewed studies concerning the use of social media by lifelong learners is explored, and extrapolating from the dual tenets of professional development and adult learning theory. Moreover, the authors additionally examine approaches to the notion of PLEs (personal learning environments) and PLNs (personal learning networks) as related to the selection of relevant lifelong learning strategies. The discussion is exemplified by cases ranging from video platforms to blogs and is simultaneously multidisciplinary and spanning diverse fields. Each example has applicability for lifelong learning and represents the characteristics of constructivism and its support within a web-based learning environment. It is thereby suggesting that effective and meaningful strategies supportive of the lifelong learning lifestyle can be achieved via well- designed PLEs and PLNs

Mobile Medical Education (MoMEd) - how mobile information resources contribute to learning for undergraduate clinical students - a mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: Mobile technology is increasingly being used by clinicians to access up-to-date information for patient care. These offer learning opportunities in the clinical setting for medical students but the underlying pedagogic theories are not clear. A conceptual framework is needed to understand these further. Our initial questions were how the medical students used the technology, how it enabled them to learn and what theoretical underpinning supported the learning. METHODS: 387 medical students were provided with a personal digital assistant (PDA) loaded with medical resources for the duration of their clinical studies. Outcomes were assessed by a mixed-methods triangulation approach using qualitative and quantitative analysis of surveys, focus groups and usage tracking data. RESULTS: Learning occurred in context with timely access to key facts and through consolidation of knowledge via repetition. The PDA was an important addition to the learning ecology rather than a replacement. Contextual factors impacted on use both positively and negatively. Barriers included concerns of interrupting the clinical interaction and of negative responses from teachers and patients. Students preferred a future involving smartphone platforms. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to describe the learning ecology and pedagogic basis behind the use of mobile learning technologies in a large cohort of undergraduate medical students in the clinical environment. We have developed a model for mobile learning in the clinical setting that shows how different theories contribute to its use taking into account positive and negative contextual factors.The lessons from this study are transferable internationally, to other health care professions and to the development of similar initiatives with newer technology such as smartphones or tablet computer

English Language Learners’ Attitude and Challenge Utilized M-Learning: Comparison Mobile Application Moodle and Google Classroom

Mobile learning became the alternative device and gadget in the online learning environment. Its implementation enabled English language learners to acquire and archive learning content regardless of their location or environment, ensuring that online learning is relevant. However, compact devices are restricted with various technicality challenges, and English lecturers and learners need their adaptation in university. The study aimed to measure and compare English language learners’ attitudes and challenge toward Moodle and Google Classroom mobile application (app). The study employed a quantitative descriptive approach applied to the survey research design cross-sectional. 149 English language learners were concerned as participants from South Jakarta Universities. The questioner findings revealed that the Google Classroom application had a moderately positive attitude toward mobile phones for language learning and teaching than Moodle Application. These findings suggest that the challenges of both platforms could be minimized by recognizing the comprehensive feature from both applications. The English language learners utilized and adopted to learn and develop their communicative capabilities in the Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) context. Its platforms could have the alternative device for conducting a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) rather than a personal computer or laptop interface. The characteristics of Moodle and Google Classroom mobile applications supported and enhanced both learners’ individual and social aspects of the online learning environment. The comparable parameters displayed Google Classroom application was more compatible with learning media than Moodle application. Nevertheless, the advance and complete feature would be accessed from Moodle application than Google Classroom