Web interfaces to enhance CAL materials: Case studies from law and statistics

One impact of the ‘information age’ is that a variety of new learning resources have become available to both students and tutors. Using these resources effectively and with a sound pedagogical basis presents a whole array of issues for teaching professionals. In this paper the authors describe the development and implementation of a Web interface to existing computer‐based learning materials in an attempt to enhance the student learning experience. Although the innovations occurred in two very different disciplines ‐statistics and law ‐ there are common lessons to be learned about the process of learning and the use of technology

Children’s information retrieval: beyond examining search strategies and interfaces

The study of children’s information retrieval is still for the greater part untouched territory. Meanwhile, children can become lost in the digital information world, because they are confronted with search interfaces, both designed by and for adults. Most current research on children’s information retrieval focuses on examining children’s search performance on existing search interfaces to determine what kind of interfaces are suitable for children’s search behaviour. However, to discover the true nature of children’s search behaviour, we state that research has to go beyond examining search strategies used with existing search interfaces by examining children’s cognitive processes during information-seeking. A paradigm of children’s information retrieval should provide an overview of all the components beyond search interfaces and search strategies that are part of children’s information retrieval process. Better understanding of the nature of children’s search behaviour can help adults design interfaces and information retrieval systems that both support children’s natural search strategies and help them find their way in the digital information world

Introduction to location-based mobile learning

[About the book] The report follows on from a 2-day workshop funded by the STELLAR Network of Excellence as part of their 2009 Alpine Rendez-Vous workshop series and is edited by Elizabeth Brown with a foreword from Mike Sharples. Contributors have provided examples of innovative and exciting research projects and practical applications for mobile learning in a location-sensitive setting, including the sharing of good practice and the key findings that have resulted from this work. There is also a debate about whether location-based and contextual learning results in shallower learning strategies and a section detailing the future challenges for location-based learning

Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies

In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project