Fostering Open Sensemaking Communities by Combining Knowledge Maps and Videoconferencing

In this paper, our aim is to investigate the role of Compendium maps for both learners and educators to share and debate interpretations in FlashMeetingTM (FM) videoconferences in the context of OpenLearn, an online environment for open learning. This work is based on a qualitative study of knowledge maps and web videoconferencing interactions, and quantitative data presented in diagnostic reports about both tools. Our theoretical approach is based on the sensemaking concept and an existing framework for three learning scenarios. Our findings describe four applications of knowledge maps in videoconferencing: (i) Mind Maps for a FM virtual lecture (transmission scenario); (ii) Learning Path Map which integrates a FM conference (studio scenario); (iii) Concept Maps during a peer-to-peer event (negotiation scenario) and (iv) Web Maps for a FM replay (assessment scenario)

Learning fast: broadband and the future of education

Educational institutions have always had a central place in the online age. Before the advent of high-speed broadband, other communications technologies and services also played a big role in education.  University researchers were among the first Australian users of what became known as the Internet. When the domain name system was deployed in the mid-1980s, the .au domain was delegated to Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne. When the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee decided to set up a national communications network to support research, Geoff Huston transferred to its payroll from ANU to work as technical manager for AARNet, whose current chief executive, Chris Hancock, is interviewed by Liz Fell in this issue. When a 56 kbps ARPANET link with Australia was made by NASA and the University of Hawaii via Intelsat in June 1989, the connection was established in Elz’s University of Melbourne laboratory. (Clarke 2004: 31) In earlier times, the postal service made learning-at-a-distance possible by ‘correspondence’, particularly in remote areas of Australia. Advances in radio communications made it easier and the interactivity more immediate. Television sets and later video cassette and DVD players and recorders made it more visual. The telephone provided a tool of communication for teachers and learners; the best of them understood that most people were both at different times. Then simple low bandwidth tools like email and web browsing provided new ways for students, teachers and their institutions to communicate and distribute and share information. Learning management systems like Blackboard have been widely deployed through the education sector. Information that was once housed in libraries is now available online and social media platforms are providing new ways for students to collaborate. Ubiquitous, faster broadband and mobile access via smartphones and tablets promise further transformations. &nbsp

Ground-breaking fresh ideas: introduction to the special issue for young researchers

The IJTEL young researcher special issue on ‘Ground-breaking fresh ideas in technology enhanced learning’ is a bit different than other journal special issues. The main idea of IJTEL’s editor in chief Ambjörn Naeve was to have a platform where PhD students and early post-docs can present their visions for TEL. Freed from the empirical limitations of a dissertation, it should allow young researchers to take a step back and bring fresh ideas to the field. This concept was picked up by an enthusiastic group of guest editors consisting of PhD students and young postdocs at JTEL Summer School 2010. But not only is the theme something different, we also tried to innovate in the process: the programme committee included experienced reviewers as well as novel reviewers to get different perspectives on the submitted papers. Furthermore, we provided an ideas clinic, where potential authors could present their ideas and seek feedback and collaboration. An abstract submission prior to the full paper submission completed the effort to provide as much feedback and guidance as possible. The whole process was overseen by managing editor Fridolin Wild to guarantee the high quality standards of both IJTEL and Inderscience.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Unravelling peer assessment: Methodological, functional, and conceptual developments

Peer assessment is an educational arrangement where students judge a peer’s performance quantitatively and/or qualitatively and which stimulates students to reflect, discuss and collaborate. However, empirical evidence for peer assessment effects on learning is scarce, mostly based on student self-reports or involving comparison of peers’ and teachers’ ratings or anecdotal evidence from case studies. Systematic investigation of learning effects necessitates methodological, functional, and conceptual development in peer assessment research. This implies sound (quasi-)experimental studies, the definition of specific peer assessment mechanisms, and affiliations with other research domains. The articles in this special issue address these three needs and offer new directions for research

Innovate Magazine / Annual Review 2011-2012

This year\u27s issue highlights some of the ways the SJSU School of Library and Information Science is being a catalyst for global innovation, explores the tools SJSU SLIS master\u27s students and faculty use to interact in our innovative online learning environment, and describes some of the exciting career pathways our alum are pursuing.https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/innovate/1000/thumbnail.jp

Collaborative learning and co-author students in online higher education: a-REAeduca – collaborative learning and co-authors

The technologies themselves cannot be analyzed as instruments per se, nor can they be exhausted in their relation with science. There is a social and even an individual dimension that affects our own way of relating to society. It is in open education that we have been developing our educational practices. This chapter presents a collaborative learning activity, the curricular unit Materiais e Recursos para eLearning, part of an on-line Master in Pedagogy of eLearning, Universidade Aberta, Portugal. In the present work, the authors dedicate their attention to co-learning and co-research, as processes that help to exemplify some situations, the a-REAeduca. The data collection was supported essentially by the content analysis technique.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Usability dimensions in collaborative GIS

Collaborative GIS requires careful consideration of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability aspects, given the variety of users that are expected to use these systems, and the need to ensure that users will find the system effective, efficient, and enjoyable. The chapter explains the link between collaborative GIS and usability engineering/HCI studies. The integration of usability considerations into collaborative GIS is demonstrated in two case studies of Web-based GIS implementation. In the first, the process of digitising an area on Web-based GIS is improved to enhance the user's experience, and to allow interaction over narrowband Internet connections. In the second, server-side rendering of 3D scenes allows users who are not equipped with powerful computers to request sophisticated visualisation without the need to download complex software. The chapter concludes by emphasising the need to understand the users' context and conditions within any collaborative GIS project. © 2006, Idea Group Inc

Inchcolm project

Inchcolm Project is part of an interdisciplinary research project which develops new ways of designing for the moving body across media, by combining aesthetics and design methods from contemporary performance practice and video games. As such, it brought a video game (Dear Esther, The Chinese Room, 2012) to life on a Scottish island (Inchcolm island in the Firth of Forth). During the two hour experience on Inchcolm the audience/players wander freely on the island encountering geo-tagged audio, live music, performers and installation spaces evocative of the game world, a playthrough of the game projected in the 12th century Inchcolm abbey, and an orchestral performance of the video game’s soundtrack (composed by Jessica Curry, arranged by Luci Holland and David Jamieson, performed by Mantra Collective)