A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education

This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, ‘Peals in the Cloud’, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching

Correlated multi-streaming in distributed interactive multimedia systems

Distributed Interactive Multimedia Environments (DIMEs) enable geographically distributed people to interact with each other in a joint media-rich virtual environment for a wide range of activities, such as art performance, medical consultation, sport training, etc. The real-time collaboration is made possible by exchanging a set of multi-modal sensory streams over the network in real time. The characterization and evaluation of such multi-stream interactive environments is challenging because the traditional Quality of Service metrics (e.g., delay, jitter) are limited to a per stream basis. In this work, we present a novel ???Bundle of Streams??? concept to de???ne correlated multi-streams in DIMEs and present new cyber-physical, spatio-temporal QoS metrics to measure QoS over bundle of streams. We realize Bundle of Streams concept by presenting a novel paradigm of Bundle Streaming as a Service (SAS). We propose and develop SAS Kernel, a generic, distributed, modular and highly ???exible streaming kernel realizing SAS concept. We validate the Bundle of Streams model by comparing the QoS performance of bundle of streams over different transport protocols in a 3D tele-immersive testbed. Also, further experiments demonstrate that the SAS Kernel incurs low overhead in delay, CPU, and bandwidth demands

The seamless integration of Web3D technologies with university curricula to engage the changing student cohort

The increasing tendency of many university students to study at least some courses at a distance limits their opportunities for the interactions fundamental to learning. Online learning can assist but relies heavily on text, which is limiting for some students. The popularity of computer games, especially among the younger students, and the emergence of networked games and game-like virtual worlds offers opportunities for enhanced interaction in educational applications. For virtual worlds to be widely adopted in higher education it is desirable to have approaches to design and development that are responsive to needs and limited in their resource requirements. Ideally it should be possible for academics without technical expertise to adapt virtual worlds to support their teaching needs. This project identified Web3D, a technology that is based on the X3D standards and which presents 3D virtual worlds within common web browsers, as an approach worth exploring for educational application. The broad goals of the project were to produce exemplars of Web3D for educational use, together with development tools and associated resources to support non-technical academic adopters, and to promote an Australian community of practice to support broader adoption of Web3D in education. During the first year of the project exemplar applications were developed and tested. The Web3D technology was found to be still in a relatively early stage of development in which the application of standards did not ensure reliable operation in different environments. Moreover, ab initio development of virtual worlds and associated tools proved to be more demanding of resources than anticipated and was judged unlikely in the near future to result in systems that non-technical academics could use with confidence. In the second year the emphasis moved to assisting academics to plan and implement teaching in existing virtual worlds that provided relatively easy to use tools for customizing an environment. A project officer worked with participating academics to support the teaching of significant elements of courses within Second LifeTM. This approach was more successful in producing examples of good practice that could be shared with and emulated by other academics. Trials were also conducted with ExitRealityTM, a new Australian technology that presents virtual worlds in a web browser. Critical factors in the success of the project included providing secure access to networked computers with the necessary capability; negotiating the complexity of working across education, design of virtual worlds, and technical requirements; and supporting participants with professional development in the technology and appropriate pedagogy for the new environments. Major challenges encountered included working with experimental technologies that are evolving rapidly and deploying new networked applications on secure university networks. The project has prepared the way for future expansion in the use of virtual worlds for teaching at USQ and has contributed to the emergence of a national network of tertiary educators interested in the educational applications of virtual worlds

Remote real-time collaboration through synchronous exchange of digitised human-workpiece interactions

In this highly globalised manufacturing ecosystem, product design and verification activities, production and inspection processes, and technical support services are spread across global supply chains and customer networks. Therefore, collaborative infrastructures that enable global teams to collaborate with each other in real-time in performing complex manufacturing-related tasks is highly desirable. This work demonstrates the design and implementation of a remote real-time collaboration platform by using human motion capture technology powered by infrared light based depth imaging sensors and a synchronous data transfer protocol from computer networks. The unique functionality of the proposed platform is the sharing of physical contexts during a collaboration session by not only exchanging human actions but also the effects of those actions on the workpieces and the task environment. Results show that this platform could enable teams to remotely work on a common engineering problem at the same time and also get immediate feedback from each other making it valuable for collaborative design, inspection and verifications tasks in the factories of the future. An additional benefit of the implemented platform is its use of low cost off the shelf equipment thereby making it accessible to SMEs that are connected to larger organisations via complex supply chains

Adaptive subframe allocation for next generation multimedia delivery over hybrid LTE unicast broadcast

The continued global roll-out of long term evolution (LTE) networks is providing mobile users with perpetually increasing ubiquitous access to a rich selection of high quality multimedia. Interactive viewing experiences including 3-D or free-viewpoint video require the synchronous delivery of multiple video streams. This paper presents a novel hybrid unicast broadcast synchronisation (HUBS) framework to synchronously deliver multi-stream content. Previous techniques on hybrid LTE implementations include staggered modulation and coding scheme grouping, adaptive modulation coding or implementing error recover techniques; the work presented here instead focuses on dynamic allocation of resources between unicast and broadcast, improving stream synchronisation as well as overall cell resource usage. Furthermore, the HUBS framework has been developed to work within the limitations imposed by the LTE specification. Performance evaluation of the framework is performed through the simulation of probable future scenarios, where a popular live event is broadcast with stereo 3-D or multi-angle companion views interactively offered to capable users. The proposed framework forms a ``HUBS group'' that monitors the radio bearer queues to establish a time lead or lag between broadcast and unicast streams. Since unicast and broadcast share the same radio resources, the number of subframes allocated to the broadcast transmission are then dynamically increased or decreased to minimise the average lead/lag time offset between the streams. Dynamic allocation showed improvements for all services across the cell, whilst keeping streams synchronised despite increased user loading

A Cybersecurity Model for a Roblox-based Metaverse Architecture Framework

The adoption of virtual reality VR and augmented reality AR headsets in futuristic and science fiction has made it possible for the Metaverse to exist as a single universal immersive virtual universe By extending technology outside of our physical reality the Metaverse alters the human experience The four categories we use to categorize metaverse definitions are environment interface interaction and social value Currently it is unclear what the metaverse s structure and elements are A cybersecurity framework for these devices is necessary as the world grows more interconnected and immersive technologies are increasingly widely used in business government and consumer markets Used was a literature revie

Teaching and learning in virtual worlds: is it worth the effort?

Educators have been quick to spot the enormous potential afforded by virtual worlds for situated and authentic learning, practising tasks with potentially serious consequences in the real world and for bringing geographically dispersed faculty and students together in the same space (Gee, 2007; Johnson and Levine, 2008). Though this potential has largely been realised, it generally isn’t without cost in terms of lack of institutional buy-in, steep learning curves for all participants, and lack of a sound theoretical framework to support learning activities (Campbell, 2009; Cheal, 2007; Kluge & Riley, 2008). This symposium will explore the affordances and issues associated with teaching and learning in virtual worlds, all the time considering the question: is it worth the effort

Transforming pre-service teacher curriculum: observation through a TPACK lens

This paper will discuss an international online collaborative learning experience through the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teacher knowledge required to effectively provide transformative learning experiences for 21st century learners in a digital world is complex, situated and changing. The discussion looks beyond the opportunity for knowledge development of content, pedagogy and technology as components of TPACK towards the interaction between those three components. Implications for practice are also discussed. In today’s technology infused classrooms it is within the realms of teacher educators, practising teaching and pre-service teachers explore and address effective practices using technology to enhance learning