Towards a theory of augmented place

This short paper is aimed at inspiring dialogue and debate around the theoretical perspectives underpinning research into learning in technology-enhanced augmented places, and the engagement by such learners with blended environments/spaces. The author argues that current theories do not fully model or explain our interactions with technology-enhanced physical environments and that a new theory that combines aspects of these may be required in order to fully understand the way in which we move, interact and learn within such surroundings

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

Realidade aumentada mediada por tecnologias móveis no ensino da enfermagem

Este projeto integra a Realidade Aumentada (RA) no ensino da enfermagem, utilizando objetos digitais imersos no mundo real para simular a resolução (diagnóstico e tratamento) de casos clínicos de feridas. Acreditamos que a RA, aliada ao diagnóstico e tratamento destas feridas, permitirá um diagnóstico imersivo e mais pormenorizado, podendo trazer benefícios para o desenvolvimento de competências no ensino da enfermagem. A utilização de tecnologias móveis para obtenção da RA permitirá aos estudantes observarem as feridas num contexto simulado, próximo do real. O projeto será suportado pela plataforma e-fer desenvolvida por investigadores do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (IPL), a que será acrescentada uma componente de RA em casos clínicos que possam beneficiar desta integração, constituindo-se como projeto de investigação para doutoramento do primeiro autor

Using Augmented Reality to Engage STEM Students with an Authentic Curriculum

This paper reports on the introduction of a set of 'Augmented Reality' (AR) tasks, offering an innovative, real world and problem based set of activities for a group of first year University Gaming and Computer Science students. Our initial research identifies a gap in the perceptions of STEM students between the usefulness of discipline based modules and a compulsory 'Professional Development' module where more ‘employability’ based skills were delivered. It had a history of poor student engagement and attendance, and failed to provide a compelling narrative/links to the outside world. The AR tasks were designed to facilitate group-working and multi-channel communication, and to engage students through the use of a more creative technology. Framed as a rich case study, insights are captured through student blogs, video interviews and a questionnaire. Initial findings indicate higher levels of satisfaction, enhanced student engagement and a greater awareness of the value of transferable skills

From Content-Centeredness to Learner-Centeredness in Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Student / learner-created or student / learner-centred / generated content in the teaching of languages for specific purposes (LSP) is one of the possible ways-out of the intricate maze in which LSP lecturers often find themselves when dealing with a professional content different from their own. Lecturers of languages for specific purposes, mostly experts in linguistics or literature of a foreign language, are usually faced with professions different from theirs when they start their LSP adventure and are forced to master to a certain extent the profession whose language they intend to teach. Still, keeping abreast with the latest in a profession different from the LSP lecturers\u27 own is a demanding and often hardly feasible task. Maritime English (ME) is used in an environment to which ME lecturers hardly have access, i.e. on board ocean-going and inland craft worldwide. The lecturer has to take a detour, insist on eliciting information from the professionals in the field and keep pace with the actual language requirements to meet. It still remains difficult to find adequate content for LSP purposes as the lecturer feels like a hurdles runner in a different profession field. Students interested in their future profession can often do better in this sense and should be engaged in the creation of course materials and their presentation in class. LSP lecturers should remain in their own field of the (language) coach, while students should actually run their race through the LSP course. Some ideas based in Maritime English are presented as an example of why and how student-created / centred content has become one of the principal approaches in the teaching / learning of Maritime English at the Faculty of Maritime Studies (FMS) in Split, Croatia and Gdynia Maritime University (GMU) in Gdynia, Poland

Building a values-based community of practice in Nursing Sciences during the Covid-19 pandemic

Delivering a rigorous Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) accredited academic and professional curriculum is complex; the government call for final year student nurses to fast-track their degree completion and enter clinical practice six months early as a response to the pandemic added a further challenging dimension. Distinctive features of teaching and learning in this department of Nursing Science are a curriculum built on the theory of humanisation (Todres, Galvin and Holloway,2009) and values-based teaching and learning(Shulman, 2005; Crookes, Else and Lewis, 2020),informed by Wenger’s (1999) communities of practice. This underpinning philosophy informed the support mechanisms introduced to support this complex scenario of online study and rapid pandemic-related deployment into clinical practice

Engaging Our School Teachers: an Augmented Reality(AR) Approach to Continuous Professional Development

Currently, teachers in the UK learn about behaviour management strategies from theoretical perspectives when training, through discussions with mentors, and by trial and error at their schools. Existing literature mainly focuses on such issues from the ‘adult’ viewpoint, not the voice of the child. This paper reports on work-in-progress developing a range of Augmented Reality (AR) resources for these issues, drawing upon co-design research workshops with children from a Year 6 class (aged 10) in a UK Primary School. Our research informs approaches to classroom management by encouraging reflection and analysis of ‘critical incidents’ identified by the pupils, and explored by teachers in workshops through the medium of AR, giving a reality previously uncaptured in more traditional approaches. Our final resources will be a set of Open Education Resources (OER), offered to the wider community for reuse/repurposing for educational settings through a Creative Commons (cc) licence

Effects of mobile gaming patterns on learning outcomes: a literature review

Schmitz, B., Klemke, R., & Specht, M. (2012). Effects of mobile gaming patterns on learning outcomes: A literature review. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5-6), 345-358. doi:10.1504/IJTEL.2012.051817Within the past decade, a growing number of educational scientists have started to recognize the multifaceted potential that mobile learning games have as a tool for learning and teaching. This paper presents a review of current research on the topic to better understand game mechanisms with regard to learning outcomes. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we introduce a framework of analysis which is based on previous work on game design patterns for mobile games and on learning outcomes. The framework focuses on two aspects, motivation and knowledge gain. Second, we present a set of patterns which we identified in the literature and that positively influence these two aspects. Our results support the general assumption that mobile learning games have potential to enhance motivation. It reveals that game mechanisms such as Collaborative Actions or Augmented Reality provide incentive to get engaged with learning and/or a certain topic. With regard to knowledge gain, results are less comprehensive

A Learning Outcome-oriented Approach towards Classifying Pervasive Games for Learning using Game Design Patterns and Contextual Information

Schmitz, B., Klemke, R., & Specht, M. (in press). A Learning Outcome-oriented Approach towards Classifying Pervasive Games for Learning using Game Design Patterns and Contextual InformationMobile and in particular pervasive games are a strong component of future scenarios for teaching and learning. Based on results from a previous review of practical papers, this work explores the educational potential of pervasive games for learning by analysing underlying game mechanisms. In order to determine and classify cognitive and affective learning outcomes, we propose employing game design patterns for mobile games and context information. Context information, in the course of this article, is introduced as an additional characteristic feature of mobile game design patterns. With the proposed framework we aim at understanding how pervasive game content may support learning. Findings from our research indicate that context information directs the use and presentation of content within a game and thus influences learning effects of individual patterns. This work perorates with a discussion on the shortfalls and potentials, which our framework for analysis provides