Promoting secondary school learners' curiosity towards science through digital public displays

This paper contributes to the understanding of how digital public displays can be utilized in schools taking into consideration educational goals. This work is part of a currently on-going research project that aims to promote students' curiosity in science and technology through creative film-making, collaborative editing activities, and content sharing. In order to explore the design space concerning digital public displays for schools' contexts, six workshops with secondary school teachers in two different countries were conducted to elicit sensitivities towards possible features and interaction techniques as well as inquire about expectations and technology adoption. Our findings suggest that teachers are receptive to the technology and were able to generate scenarios that take advantage of the possibilities offered by digital public displays to stimulate learning processes.However, there are several crucial elements regarding management and control of content that need to be carefully crafted/designed in order to accommodate each schools' organizational issues

Public interactive displays in schools : involving teachers in the design and assessment of innovative technologies.

The introduction of an innovative technology in schools has the potential to change the education system, bringing major changes in the way teachers work, students learn challenging the way schools are managed. Informed by literature that sustains integration of technological innovations in educational contexts is influenced by instrumental factors such as school leadership and organizational structure (Dix, 2007) and using a development research approach, three hands-on workshops were conducted with a criterion sample of teachers of a secondary school from the north of Portugal in order to elicit expectations towards the use of digital displays to viewing videos, explore possible features for the system design as well as the management of the technological device in the school system. Development research methodology showed to produce usable findings that were born out of the collaborative partnership between researchers and stakeholders focused around inquiry that is of interest to educational leaders and teachers with the intention to inform and transform pedagogical practices. In sum, the development research approach allowed, for one hand, the conception of a new tool pedagogically adjusted to students learning needs as well as to the school organizational rules and structures. On the other hand, our methodological approach aimed to foster the acceptance of the tool as a useful pedagogical instrument for other teachers and for the whole school ecology.Comissão Europeia (FP7)CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

TechNews digests: Autumn 2004

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

They are looking... why not interacting? Understanding interaction around the public display of community sourced videos

In this paper, we study the extent to which the presentation of pedagogical videos on a public display at a communal space of the school is able to promote engagement around those videos. The videos were produced by students from the school itself. Using a mobile application, students could rate, create comments or simply bookmark videos. The evaluation of the platform is made through logs analysis, direct observation and a collective interview with end-users. The results show that even though the videos were able to attract many students to the display, there were not many of them that actually used the application to interact with content. In the final discussion, we explore some of the reasons that may justify this behavior and also the extent to which these videos have managed to foster students’ curiosity towards their topics.(undefined

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2006

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2009

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

Interactive public digital displays: investigating its use in a high school context

This paper presents a longitudinal user study that investigated the adoption of some Bluetooth based functionalities for a public digital display in a high school. More specifically, the utilization of Bluetooth device naming extended beyond social identity representation and introduced the use of a simple interaction mechanism. The interaction mechanism involves recognizing parts of the Bluetooth device name as explicit instructions to trigger the generation of content on an interactive public display. Together with representatives of the teachers' community, the design team defined some social rules concerning usage in order to account for the specificities of the place. In the user study, three fully functional prototypes were deployed at the school hall of the high school. The functionalities introduced with the different prototypes were: the visualization on the display of the Bluetooth device names, the possibility to contribute to tag clouds and the possibility to choose icons from a given set for self-expression. The results suggest that people appropriated some but not all of the functionalities employed. Implications of our findings to the design of interactive digital displays are pointed out.(undefined

Location-based technologies for learning

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring location based technologies and their potential for educatio

Landscape Study in Wireless and Mobile Learning in the post-16 sector

In the post-16 sector (further and higher education, and adult and community learning) there is a need to understand how wireless and mobile technologies can contribute to improving the student experience of learning, and help institutions fulfil their missions in an age of incomparably fast technological change. In the context of this interest and growing need, a Landscape Study project was commissioned by JISC through the Innovation strand of the JISC e-Learning Programme in 2004-5. Our project aims were to take a birds-eye view of developments and practice in the UK and internationally, and to communicate our findings to a broad and varied audience. The Summary report is accompanied by 3 associated reports on 'Current Uses', 'Potential Uses' and 'Strategic Aspects'. (The four reports are available in one single document here.

Bridging the Innovation Divide: An Agenda for Disseminating Technology Innovations within the Nonprofit Sector

Examines technology practices -- such as neighborhood information systems, electronic advocacy, Internet-based micro enterprise support, and digital inclusion initiatives -- that strengthen the capacity of nonprofits and community organizations