Mobile learning: benefits of augmented reality in geometry teaching

As a consequence of the technological advances and the widespread use of mobile devices to access information and communication in the last decades, mobile learning has become a spontaneous learning model, providing a more flexible and collaborative technology-based learning. Thus, mobile technologies can create new opportunities for enhancing the pupils’ learning experiences. This paper presents the development of a game to assist teaching and learning, aiming to help students acquire knowledge in the field of geometry. The game was intended to develop the following competences in primary school learners (8-10 years): a better visualization of geometric objects on a plane and in space; understanding of the properties of geometric solids; and familiarization with the vocabulary of geometry. Findings show that by using the game, students have improved around 35% the hits of correct responses to the classification and differentiation between edge, vertex and face in 3D solids.This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Design Star CDT (AH/L503770/1), the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) projects LARSyS (UID/EEA/50009/2013) and CIAC-Research Centre for Arts and Communication.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Virtual Learning Environment For C Programming

The use of computers and communication technologies in learning has a history going back at least 30 years. Recent development in Information Technology establishes a new education paradigm, for which self-directed learning is foundation strategy. Nowadays, web-based learning, which has the potential to affect fundamental changes in the design of learning process and the education system, has been gainingmomentum with an irreversible trend. A Virtual Learning Environment is one of the examples of web-based learning methods. It is an area of computing and intelligent systems which is becoming increasingly important in both research and industry. These technologies have been adopted by many educational institutions to explore better interaction and dynamics changing on teaching-learning environment. The virtual learning system act as virtual tutors and learning companions that help learners in learning. This report is a final year project involving a research and a mini-version of prototypical Virtual Learning Environment, teaching C Programming. A software development methodology has been created and proposed, namely "Water-Spiral" model, combining the Waterfall model and the Spiral model. The main goal of developing the Virtual Learning Environment ofC Programming is to utilize the solid foundation of intelligent system as a platform for a more sophisticated control of multimedia objects in a learning environment. The desirability of new instructional media which allows students to interact with course materials in more exploratory manner has become a dominant theme in current educational technology development. However, computerbased lecture already has a relatively long history and has been shown to positively influence the amount of material learned, the time taken to learn it, and the enjoyment of the learning experience. This system will provide attractive lecture notes, interactive problem-solving situations appropriate to the level of the student and track the student's performance

Interactive Experience Design: Integrated and Tangible Storytelling with Maritime Museum Artefacts

Museums play the role of intermediary between cultural heritage and visitors, and are often described as places and environments for education and enjoyment. The European Union also encourages innovative uses of museums to support education through the cultural heritage resources. However, the importance of visitors’ active role in museums as places for education and entertainment, on the one hand, and the growing and indispensable presence of technology in the cultural heritage domain, on the other hand, provided the initial ideas to develop the research. This thesis, presents the study and design for an interactive storytelling installation for a maritime museum. The installation is designed to integrate different museum artefacts into the storytelling system to enrich the visitors experience through tangible storytelling. The project was conducted in collaboration with another PhD student, Luca Ciotoli. His contribution was mainly focused on the narrative and storytelling features of the research, while my contribution was focused on the interaction- and technology-related features, including the design and implementation of the prototype. The research is deployed using a four-phase iterative approach. The first phase of the research, Study, deals with literature review and different studies to identify the requirements. The second phase, Design, determines the broad outlines of the project i.e., an interactive storytelling installation. The design phase includes interaction and museum experience design. We investigated different design approaches, e.g., interaction and museum experience design, to develop a conceptual design. The third phase, prototype, allows us to determine how to fulfill the tasks and meet the requirements that are established for the research. Prototyping involves content creation, storyboarding, integrating augmented artefacts into the storytelling system. Th final phase, test, refers to the evaluations that are conducted during the aforementioned phases e.g., formative and the final usability testing with users. The outcome of the research confirms previous results in the literature about how digital narratives can be enriched with the tangible dimension, moreover it shows how this dimension can enable to communicate stories and knowledge of the past that are complex, such as the art of navigating in the past, by integrating tangible objects that play different roles in the storytelling process

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