A case-based system for lesson plan construction

Planning for teaching imposes a significant burden on teachers, as teachers need to prepare different lesson plans for different classes according to various constraints. Statistical evidence shows that lesson planning in the Malaysian context is done in isolation and lesson plan sharing is limited. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether a case-based system can reduce the time teachers spend on constructing lesson plans. A case-based system was designed SmartLP. In this system, a case consists of a problem description and solution pair and an attributevalue representation for the case is used. SmartLP is a synthesis type of CBR system which attempts to create a new solution by combining parts of previous solutions in the adaptation. Five activities in the CBR cycle retrieve, reuse, revise, review and retain are created via three types of design: application, architectural and user interface. The inputs are the requirements and constraints of the curriculum and the student facilities available, and the output is the solution, i.e. appropriate elements of a lesson plan. The retrieval module consists of five types of search advanced search, hierarchical, Boolean, basic and browsing. Solving a problem in this system involves obtaining a problem description, measuring the similarity of the current problem to previous problems stored in a database, retrieving one or more similar cases and attempting to reuse the solution of the retrieved cases, possibly after adaptation. Case adaptation for multiple lesson plans helps teachers to customise the retrieved plan to suit their constraints. This is followed by case revision, which allows users to access and revise their constructed lesson plans in the system. Validation mechanisms, through case verification, ensure that the retained cases are of quality. A formative study was conducted to investigate the effects of SmartLP on performance. The study revealed that all the lesson plans constructed with SmartLP assistance took significantly less time than the control lesson plans constructed without SmartLP assistance, although they might have access to computers and other tools. No significant difference in writing quality, measured by a scoring system, was noticed for the control group, who constructed lesson plans on the same tasks without receiving any assistance. The limitations of SmartLP are indicated and the focus of further research is proposed. Keywords: Case-based system, CBR approach, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, case representation, evaluation, lesson planning

A reflective characterisation of occasional user

This work revisits established user classifications and aims to characterise a historically unspecified user category, the Occasional User (OU). Three user categories, novice, intermediate and expert, have dominated the work of user interface (UI) designers, researchers and educators for decades. These categories were created to conceptualise user's needs, strategies and goals around the 80s. Since then, UI paradigm shifts, such as direct manipulation and touch, along with other advances in technology, gave new access to people with little computer knowledge. This fact produced a diversification of the existing user categories not observed in the literature review of traditional classification of users. The findings of this work include a new characterisation of the occasional user, distinguished by user's uncertainty of repetitive use of an interface and little knowledge about its functioning. In addition, the specification of the OU, together with principles and recommendations will help UI community to informatively design for users without requiring a prospective use and previous knowledge of the UI. The OU is an essential type of user to apply user-centred design approach to understand the interaction with technology as universal, accessible and transparent for the user, independently of accumulated experience and technological era that users live in

Models for Learning (Mod4L) Final Report: Representing Learning Designs

The Mod4L Models of Practice project is part of the JISC-funded Design for Learning Programme. It ran from 1 May – 31 December 2006. The philosophy underlying the project was that a general split is evident in the e-learning community between development of e-learning tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively, and is impeding uptake of new tools and methods by teachers. To help overcome this barrier and bridge the gap, a need is felt for practitioner-focused resources which describe a range of learning designs and offer guidance on how these may be chosen and applied, how they can support effective practice in design for learning, and how they can support the development of effective tools, standards and systems with a learning design capability (see, for example, Griffiths and Blat 2005, JISC 2006). Practice models, it was suggested, were such a resource. The aim of the project was to: develop a range of practice models that could be used by practitioners in real life contexts and have a high impact on improving teaching and learning practice. We worked with two definitions of practice models. Practice models are: 1. generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices (JISC 2006) However, however effective a learning design may be, it can only be shared with others through a representation. The issue of representation of learning designs is, then, central to the concept of sharing and reuse at the heart of JISC’s Design for Learning programme. Thus practice models should be both representations of effective practice, and effective representations of practice. Hence we arrived at the project working definition of practice models as: 2. Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc).(Mod4L working definition, Falconer & Littlejohn 2006). A learning design is defined as the outcome of the process of designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme (JISC 2006). Practice models have many potential uses: they describe a range of learning designs that are found to be effective, and offer guidance on their use; they support sharing, reuse and adaptation of learning designs by teachers, and also the development of tools, standards and systems for planning, editing and running the designs. The project took a practitioner-centred approach, working in close collaboration with a focus group of 12 teachers recruited across a range of disciplines and from both FE and HE. Focus group members are listed in Appendix 1. Information was gathered from the focus group through two face to face workshops, and through their contributions to discussions on the project wiki. This was supplemented by an activity at a JISC pedagogy experts meeting in October 2006, and a part workshop at ALT-C in September 2006. The project interim report of August 2006 contained the outcomes of the first workshop (Falconer and Littlejohn, 2006). The current report refines the discussion of issues of representing learning designs for sharing and reuse evidenced in the interim report and highlights problems with the concept of practice models (section 2), characterises the requirements teachers have of effective representations (section 3), evaluates a number of types of representation against these requirements (section 4), explores the more technically focused role of sequencing representations and controlled vocabularies (sections 5 & 6), documents some generic learning designs (section 8.2) and suggests ways forward for bridging the gap between teachers and developers (section 2.6). All quotations are taken from the Mod4L wiki unless otherwise stated

Innovative use of mobile technologies in EAP oral assessment: a pilot study from The Open University

In this chapter, we explore the use of mobile technologies in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which is an emerging field both in language teaching and EAP. The value of mobile technologies in language learning and teaching is widely recognised. However, the extent of research on mobile technologies within EAP is extremely sparse. Particularly, opportunities for practising English academic speaking skills in open and distance learning (ODL) are often limited unlike in a face-to-face context. By the same token, assessing oral skills in ODL academic contexts is further complicated and demanding administratively and pedagogically. Addressing this gap, a pilot study was conducted with a group of English for Academic Purposes students at the Open UNiversity. A series of activities were designed and delivered through Talkback®, a voice response system powered by Learnosity (http://www.learnosity.com/ ). Talkback® allowed students to use mobile phones including smartphones, landlines, Skype or OU Voice (iTunes app) for practice and doing assignments. These students' experience of using this system was investigated through weekly online survey questionnaires and telephone interviews. The chapter reports on the results from the study. We conclude the chapter by presenting a number of pedagogical implications of the use of Talkback® for EAP oral assessment and speaking practice in the light of the results which may be applicable to other EAP contexts

International Conference on Computer Science and Communication Engineering

UBT Annual International Conference is the 9th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make them be aware of the recent advancements in different research fields, and provide them with a unique forum to share their experiences. It is also the place to support the new academic staff for doing research and publish their work in international standard level. This conference consists of sub conferences in different fields like: Art and Digital Media Agriculture, Food Science and Technology Architecture and Spatial Planning Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Environment Computer Science and Communication Engineering Dental Sciences Education and Development Energy Efficiency Engineering Integrated Design Information Systems and Security Journalism, Media and Communication Law Language and Culture Management, Business and Economics Modern Music, Digital Production and Management Medicine and Nursing Mechatronics, System Engineering and Robotics Pharmaceutical and Natural Sciences Political Science Psychology Sport, Health and Society Security Studies This conference is the major scientific event of the UBT. It is organizing annually and always in cooperation with the partner universities from the region and Europe. We have to thank all Authors, partners, sponsors and also the conference organizing team making this event a real international scientific event

AN ENACTIVE APPROACH TO TECHNOLOGICALLY MEDIATED LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

This thesis investigated the application of enactive principles to the design of classroom technolo- gies for young children’s learning through play. This study identified the attributes of an enactive pedagogy, in order to develop a design framework to accommodate enactive learning processes. From an enactive perspective, the learner is defined as an autonomous agent, capable of adapta- tion via the recursive consumption of self generated meaning within the constraints of a social and material world. Adaptation is the parallel development of mind and body that occurs through inter- action, which renders knowledge contingent on the environment from which it emerged. Parallel development means that action and perception in learning are as critical as thinking. An enactive approach to design therefore aspires to make the physical and social interaction with technology meaningful to the learning objective, rather than an aside to cognitive tasks. The design framework considered in detail the necessary affordances in terms of interaction, activity and context. In a further interpretation of enactive principles, this thesis recognised play and pretence as vehicles for designing and evaluating enactive learning and the embodied use of technology. In answering the research question, the interpreted framework was applied as a novel approach to designing and analysing children’s engagement with technology for learning, and worked towards a paradigm where interaction is part of the learning experience. The aspiration for the framework was to inform the design of interaction modalities to allow users’ to exercise the inherent mechanisms they have for making sense of the world. However, before making the claim to support enactive learning processes, there was a question as to whether technologically mediated realities were suitable environments to apply this framework. Given the emphasis on the physical world and action, it was the intention of the research and design activities to explore whether digital artefacts and spaces were an impoverished reality for enactive learning; or if digital objects and spaces could afford sufficient ’reality’ to be referents in social play behaviours. The project embedded in this research was tasked with creating deployable technologies that could be used in the classroom. Consequently, this framework was applied in practice, whereby the design practice and deployed technologies served as pragmatic tools to investigate the potential for interactive technologies in children’s physical, social and cognitive learning. To understand the context, underpin the design framework, and evaluate the impact of any techno- logical interventions in school life, the design practice was informed by ethnographic methodologies. The design process responded to cascading findings from phased research activities. The initial fieldwork located meaning making activities within the classroom, with a view to to re-appropriating situated and familiar practices. In the next stage of the design practice, this formative analysis determined the objectives of the participatory sessions, which in turn contributed to the creation of technologies suitable for an inquiry of enactive learning. The final technologies used standard school equipment with bespoke software, enabling children to engage with real time compositing and tracking applications installed in the classrooms’ role play spaces. The evaluation of the play space technologies in the wild revealed under certain conditions, there was evidence of embodied presence in the children’s social, physical and affective behaviour - illustrating how mediated realities can extend physical spaces. These findings suggest that the attention to meaningful interaction, a presence in the environment as a result of an active role, and a social presence - as outlined in the design framework - can lead to the emergence of observable enactive learning processes. As the design framework was applied, these principles could be examined and revised. Two notable examples of revisions to the design framework, in light of the applied practice, related to: (1) a key affordance for meaningful action to emerge required opportunities for direct and immediate engagement; and (2) a situated awareness of the self and other inhabitants in the mediated space required support across the spectrum of social interaction. The application of the design framework enabled this investigation to move beyond a theoretical discourse

Integrating case based reasoning and geographic information systems in a planing support system: Çeşme Peninsula study

Thesis (Doctoral)--Izmir Institute of Technology, City and Regional Planning, Izmir, 2009Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 110-121)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxii, 140 leavesUrban and regional planning is experiencing fundamental changes on the use of of computer-based models in planning practice and education. However, with this increased use, .Geographic Information Systems. (GIS) or .Computer Aided Design.(CAD) alone cannot serve all of the needs of planning. Computational approaches should be modified to deal better with the imperatives of contemporary planning by using artificial intelligence techniques in city planning process.The main aim of this study is to develop an integrated .Planning Support System. (PSS) tool for supporting the planning process. In this research, .Case Based Reasoning. (CBR) .an artificial intelligence technique- and .Geographic Information Systems. (GIS) .geographic analysis, data management and visualization techniqueare used as a major PSS tools to build a .Case Based System. (CBS) for knowledge representation on an operational study. Other targets of the research are to discuss the benefits of CBR method in city planning domain and to demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of this technique in a PSS. .Çeşme Peninsula. case study which applied under the desired methodology is presented as an experimental and operational stage of the thesis.This dissertation tried to find out whether an integrated model which employing CBR&GIS could support human decision making in a city planning task. While the CBS model met many of predefined goals of the thesis, both advantages and limitations have been realized from findings when applied to the complex domain such as city planning

Learning from the learners' experience: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections

This publication comprises papers from presenters who, having made a conference presentation, were invited to author an academic paper about their work