Out there and in here: design for blended scientific inquiry learning

One of the benefits of mobile technologies is to combine ‘the digital’ (e.g., data, information, photos) with ‘field’ experiences in novel ways that are contextualized by people’s current located activities. However, often cost, mobility disabilities and time exclude students from engaging in such peripatetic experiences. The Out There and In Here project, is exploring a combination of mobile and tabletop technologies in support for collaborative learning. A system is being developed for synchronous collaboration between geology students in the field and peers at an indoor location. The overarching goal of this research is to develop technologies that support people working together in a suitable manner for their locations. There are two OTIH project research threads. The first deals with disabled learner access issues: these complex issues are being reviewed in subsequent evaluations and publications. This paper will deal with issues of technology supported learning design for remote and co-located science learners. Several stakeholder evaluations and two field trials have reviewed two research questions: 1. What will enhance the learning experience for those in the field and laboratory? 2. How can learning trajectories and appropriate technologies be designed to support equitable co-located and remote learning collaboration? This paper focuses on describing the iterative linked development of technologies and scientific inquiry pedagogy. Two stages within the research project are presented. The 1st stage details several pilot studies over 3 years with 21 student participants in synchronous collaborations with traditional technology and pedagogical models. Findings revealed that this was an engaging and useful experience although issues of equity in collaboration needed further research. The 2nd stage, in this project, has been to evaluate data from over 25 stakeholders (academics, learning and technology designers) to develop pervasive ambient technological solutions supporting orchestration of mixed levels of pedagogy (i.e. abstract synthesis to specific investigation). Middleware between tabletop ‘surface’ technologies and mobile devices are being designed with Microsoft and OOKL (a mobile software company) to support these developments. Initial findings reveal issues around equity, ownership and professional identity

Remote laboratories in teaching and learning – issues impinging on widespread adoption in science and engineering education

This paper discusses the major issues that impinge on the widespread adoption of remote controlled laboratories in science and engineering education. This discussion largely emerges from the work of the PEARL project and is illustrated with examples and evaluation data from the project. Firstly the rationale for wanting to offer students remote experiments is outlined. The paper deliberately avoids discussion of technical implementation issues of remote experiments but instead focuses on issues that impinge on the specification and design of such facilities. This includes pedagogic, usability and accessibility issues. It compares remote experiments to software simulations. It also considers remote experiments in the wider context for educational institutions and outlines issues that will affect their decisions as to whether to adopt this approach. In conclusion it argues that there are significant challenges to be met if remote laboratories are to achieve a widespread presence in education but expresses the hope that this delineation of the issues is a contribution towards meeting these challenges

Instructional eLearning technologies for the vision impaired

The principal sensory modality employed in learning is vision, and that not only increases the difficulty for vision impaired students from accessing existing educational media but also the new and mostly visiocentric learning materials being offered through on-line delivery mechanisms. Using as a reference Certified Cisco Network Associate (CCNA) and IT Essentials courses, a study has been made of tools that can access such on-line systems and transcribe the materials into a form suitable for vision impaired learning. Modalities employed included haptic, tactile, audio and descriptive text. How such a multi-modal approach can achieve equivalent success for the vision impaired is demonstrated. However, the study also shows the limits of the current understanding of human perception, especially with respect to comprehending two and three dimensional objects and spaces when there is no recourse to vision

e-Archeo. A pilot national project to valorize Italian archaeological parks through digital and virtual reality technologies

Commissioned to ALES spa by the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the e-Archeo project was born with the intention of enhancing and promoting knowledge of some Italian archaeological sites with a considerable narrative potential that has not yet been fully expressed. The main principle that guided the choice of the sites and the contents was of illustrating the various cultures and types of settlements present in the Italian territory. Eight sites were chosen, spread across the national territory from north to south, founded by Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians, natives and Romans. e-Archeo has developed multimedia, integrated and multi-channel solutions for various uses and types of audiences, adopting both scientific and narrative and emotional languages. Particular attention was paid to multimedia accessibility, technological sustainability and open science. The e-Archeo project was born from a strong synergy between public entities, research bodies and private industries thanks to the collaboration of MiC and ALES with the CNR ISPC, 10 Italian Universities, 12 Creative Industries and the Italian National Television (RAI). This exceptional and unusual condition made it possible to realise all the project’s high-quality contents and several outputs in only one and a half years

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Technology-Enhanced Learning in Blended Learning Environments: A Report on Standard Practices

This report summarizes educational adoption instances of computing and communication technologies for blended learning environments. We focus on the technologies of desktop videoconferencing and podcasting as they were adopted in the 2005-07 time period. We also expand and present major issues from a panel discussion on this topic at the 2007 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) held at the Keystone Resort in Colorado

Remote laboratories extending access to science and engineering curricular

This paper draws on research, development, and deployment of remote laboratories undertaken by the authors since 2000. They jointly worked on the PEARL project (http://iet.open.ac.uk/pearl/) from 2000 to 2003 and have worked on further projects within their own institutions (the Open University, United Kingdom, and the University of Porto, Portugal, respectively) since then. The paper begins with a statement of the rationale for remote experiments, then offers a review of past work of the authors and highlights the key lessons for remote labs drawn from this. These lessons include 1) the importance of removing accessibility barriers, 2) the importance of a pedagogic strategy, 3) evaluation of pedagogic effectiveness, 4) the ease of automation or remote control, and 5) learning objectives and design decisions. The paper then discusses key topics including assessment issues, instructional design, pedagogical strategies, relations to industry, and cost benefits. A conclusion summarizes key points from the paper within a review of the current status of remote labs in education