An Investigation of Purpose Built Netbooks for Primary School Education

ABSTRACT This paper is a qualitative evaluation of student netbooks used in a classroom setting. Netbooks are thought to be one promising development in the next generation of learning devices, pairing everyday PC capabilities with a purposeful design built for students and schools. The findings suggest that the design is appropriate and engaging for the unique needs of individual primary school students. Nevertheless, the design and specifications of the netbooks do not yet address some classroomlevel practices that are crucial to the success of the technology in classrooms. This paper describes some of the key findings of this evaluation, as well as a summary of design considerations for the future design of mobile PCs for education

Learning environment assessment

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54).This thesis introduces a rationale and a set of methods for assessing the performance of learning environments. The vehicle of this study is the assessment project of the new teaching laboratory of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Learning environments are settings that support teaching and learning activities. The objective of developing and managing learning environments is to achieve a dynamic coherence among space, equipment, tools, and operation of the learning environment so as to maximize the learning outcome. The method of learning environment assessment is to identify latent problems and explore opportunities and processes of improving its performance. To assess the performance of the learning environment, this thesis proposes that the learning environment should be examined through three lenses: teaching and learning activities, settings, and students' individual lives. Methods of examining learning environments through these three lenses are introduced in this thesis in the context of the MIT Aero/ Astro new teaching laboratory assessment.by Guoqing Fan.M.Arch

Collaborative examinations in asyncronous learning networks : field experiments on collaborative learning through online assessments

With the proliferation of computer networks and the emergence of virtual teams, learning and knowledge sharing in the online environment has become an increasingly important topic. Applying constructivism and collaborative learning theories to assessment, the collaborative online exam is designed featuring students\u27 active participation in various phases of the exam process through small group activities online. A participatory online exam process is designed featuring similar procedures except that students\u27 involvement in each phase of the exam is individual. The collaborative online exam and the participatory online exam are investigated regarding student exam study strategies, group process, exam outcomes, faculty satisfaction, and exam efficiency. A 1*3 field experiment was conducted to compare three exam modes: the traditional exam, the participatory exam, and the collaborative exam. Results show that the collaborative examination significantly enhanced interaction and promoted higher order learning. In particular, small group activities in the online learning process significantly increased interactions among students which enhanced their sense of an online learning community. Active involvement in the online exams significantly reduced the use of surface learning in exam study. Overall, students reported significantly higher perceptions of learning in the collaborative exam than the other exam modes

An active engagement pedagogy for introductory solid mechanics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-393).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Introductory Solid Mechanics has historically been taught using the traditional methods of blackboard instruction. In the Mechanical Engineering Department, we have undertaken an initiative to comprehensively transform the pedagogy of 2.001 (Mechanics and Materials I), an undergraduate course in Solid Mechanics. This transformation represents a radical shift in the teaching paradigm, one which is best described as an active engagement model. Through discovery-based and cooperative learning, it is hoped that students will develop conceptual understanding of the course material, that students will become comfortable working in teams, that student retention of course material will improve, that students will be able to engage in independent learning, and that student satisfaction will improve. There are several components to this new pedagogy: physical desktop experiments, Web-enabled learning modules, a portable computing initiative, a new classroom, and a change in the lecture format. This thesis will describe all of these, but will focus on the development of the Web modules, the synthesis of these elements in developing the new pedagogy, and preliminary assessment of the project. The thesis is dually intended as a presentation of original research and as a working document for others who may wish to undertake a project of similar scope.Jaspal Singh Sandhu.S.M

DeLFI 2011 - Die 9. e-Learning Fachtagung Informatik: Poster | Workshops | Kurzbeiträge

Die 9. Tagung der Fachgruppe „E-Learning“ in der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. vom 5. - 8. September 2011 in Dresden setzt eine inzwischen gute Tradition wissenschaftlicher Diskussionen in diesem Fachgebiet fort. Erneut konnten interdisziplinäre Partner gewonnen werden, um unter dem Dach einer Veranstaltung mit dem Titel „Wissensgemeinschaften 2011“ unterschiedliche Facetten des Lernens mit elektronischen Medien gemeinsam zu diskutieren. Das betrifft Themenbereiche wie Wissensmanagement, Werkzeuge und Technologien für e-Learning, didaktische und technische Aspekte des Einsatzes elektronischer Hilfsmittel oder auch kooperatives Wirken in verschiedenen Arbeitsfeldern. Diese Teiltagungen - 16. Europäische Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medien in der Wissenschaft „GMW 2011“, - 9. E-Learning Fachtagung Informatik der Gesellschaft für Informatik „DeLFI 2011“ und - 14. Tagung Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien: Virtual Enterprises, Communities & Social Netorks „GeNeMe 2011“ haben mit jeweils eigenen Experten aus einer großen Zahl von Angeboten zu wissenschaftlichen Fachbeiträgen die wertvollsten ausgewählt und präsentieren diese in eigenen Tagungsbänden. Der vorliegende Band enthält darüber hinaus gehende Arbeiten, die der Teiltagung „DeLFI“ zuzuordnen sind. Dies sind vor allem Beiträge aus den Workshops: - Mobile Learning: Einsatz mobiler Endgeräte im Lernen, Wissenserwerb sowie der Lehr-/Lernorganisation - Lerninfrastruktur in Schulen: 1:1-Computing - Web 2.0 in der beruflichen Bildung aber auch die angenommenen Short Papers, Demonstrationen und Poster. Mit der Tagung „Wissensgemeinschaften 2011“ in Dresden wurde ein Ort gewählt, der in einer wachsenden Region ein Zentrum für Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Kultur bildet und dieser Tagung das nötige Ambiente verleiht, an dem die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wissenschaft und Forschung auf einem hohen Niveau stattfindet und die Technische Universität eine Vorstufe zur Anerkennung auf Förderung im Rahmen der Exzellenzinitiative erreicht hat. Der besondere Dank gilt den Autoren für die eingereichten Beiträge sowie dem Programmausschuss für deren Begutachtung. Natürlich gilt dieser Dank auch den Sponsoren, Ausstellern und Gestaltern der Pre-Konferenz-Aktivitäten. Ferner möchten wir allen danken, die die Vorbereitung und Durchführung unterstützt haben, besonders den Studierenden der Fakultät Informatik der TU Dresden und Schülern der Europäische Wirtschafts- und Sprachenakademie (EWS) Dresden. Dresden, September 2011 Holger Rohland, Andrea Kienle, Steffen Friedric

Potentially disruptive IS innovation in UK higher education institutions: an actor-network theory analysis of the embedding of m-learning

The use of mobile devices to support students’ learning experiences is a growing area of interest in higher education (Wankel & Blessinger, 2013). This study adopts an ‘umbrella’ term of m-learning to consider the use of mobile and wireless technologies to support students in a blended learning environment. Whilst m-learning pedagogy has received considerable attention (e.g. Attewell, 2005, Sharples et. al. 2007, Kukulska-Hulme, 2012), the process of adopting this potentially disruptive innovation within universities has been neglected. This study addresses this gap by attempting to answer the research question: How do university organizations (business models, modes of operation, people and processes) adapt to a potentially disruptive innovation like m-learning and what factors and working practices support or hinder embedding? Possible frameworks for studying innovation are reviewed, including Rogers’ innovation diffusion framework (Rogers, 1962), Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005) , Activity Theory ngestr m 1987), Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), theories of disruptive innovation (Christensen, 1997) and the Technology Acceptance Model (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000), Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is chosen as the most promising theoretical lens for an in-depth investigation of m-learning embedding, and a participative fieldwork approach is developed that uses Law and Callon’s ANT notion of ‘points of passage’ between local and global networks (Law and Callon, 1991) to illuminate factors and working practices that affect embedding. A framework based on Law and Callon’s work is developed through a year-long study of competing text messaging projects within a university and developed further through a three-year, longitudinal case study involving five universities using smartphone applications to assess students in medical practice situations. Several institutional issues are identified that help or hinder embedding, such as fragmentation of IT strategy and decision-making, and the need to provide students with a compelling offer of multiple institutional services on their mobiles. The role of people and artefacts in forming a link, or ‘point of passage’ between m-learning projects ‘local networks’) and institutional IT strategies and services ‘global networks’) is found to be of central interest for understanding processes of embedding. A clear path to an ANT analysis is demonstrated starting from interview and observation data, using coding techniques borrowed from grounded theory (Schatzman and Strauss, 1973) and finishing with Law and Callon’s local-global network model, which is used to compare and contrast embedding trajectories of the case study institutions. Systematic comparison enables a three dimensional model of embedding trajectories to be built, which extends Law and Callon’s work and places in sharper focus the importance of establishing a path by which local initiatives can be evaluated strategically and, where appropriate, incorporated in a timely manner into a university’s IT strategy. Grounded in extensive longitudinal research, the study offers a contribution to methodology through its demystification of ANT; a contribution to theory through its three dimensional model for mapping embedding trajectories; and a contribution to practice by highlighting specific issues that affect mobile technology adoption in higher education, such as having a compelling, multi-service offer, appropriate mobile tariffs for undertaking mandatory assessment and guidelines for incorporating knowledge gained from technology experiments into institutional strategies and decision-making. The study concludes by highlighting opportunities for using its model to explore challenges of embedding faced not only by formal projects but by ‘maverick’ innovators and for potentially disruptive technologies other than m-learning, such as Web 2.0 services

The impact of mobile reading devices on the reading habits of a group of adolescent learners in Zimbabwe

The pace of technological advancement and growth in the twenty-first century continues to soar at unprecedented levels and beyond human imagination. As the fourth industrial revolution unfolds, it has become increasingly difficult to predict the direction technological innovation will take in the not too distant future. Digital technologies have become an integral part of every aspect of human existence (work, play, schooling and personal relationships). The purpose of this study was to explore the various ways mobile technological gadgets like cell phones, tablets and laptops could be leveraged to promote a culture of leisure reading amongst a group of Zimbabwean adolescent learners. Data was collected using the literacy practices interview, mobile reading diaries, focus group interviews and the researcher’s personal field notes. Theoretically, the study was guided primarily by Urie Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological systems theory. Also, the study was supported by Guthrie and Wigfield's reader engagement model and Turner and Hicks' connected reader model. The empirical data collected through the data collection instruments were analysed inductively. The findings revealed that adolescent learners are a digital generation whose reading needs are ever growing and expectations are ever changing. The adolescent participants expect their reading to be like the rest of their digital lives, which is quick, uninterrupted, personalised and smart. It was found that the adolescent participants like to read on their terms, as they dislike being told when to read or what to read. Three reader identities were revealed namely; the eager reader, the ‘fifty fifty’ reader and the non-reader. The adolescent participants who were not already mobile readers readily accepted and adopted mobile reading as it afforded them vast reading opportunities. Besides, the findings of the study revealed that participants encountered many challenges, which in some instances militated against their mobile reading endeavours. These challenges were because of mobile phone use restrictions in schools, prohibitive data costs, a strong emphasis on academic reading as opposed to leisure reading and internet connectivity problems amongst other issues. In this study, the recommendations and guidelines outlined provide a framework with which schools, parents, mobile reading application developers and policymakers can adopt to support a robust mobile reading culture amongst Zimbabwean adolescent learners. The researcher concluded that mobile reading devices are a novel, noble and credible means through which they can foster positive leisure literacy practices amongst Zimbabwean adolescents.Language Education, Arts and CulturePh. D. (Curriculum and Instructional Studies