A mobile learning journey: Or "A tale of two academics' pedagogical partnership"

Today, less than a billion people have access to computers, whereas around four billion people have access to mobile phones. At the same time, the nature of the Internet has been undergoing a revolution labelled ‘web 2.0’. Most web 2.0 tools are also designed to be mobile friendly, allowing reading and updating of web 2.0 content from mobile phones, and also featuring enhanced mobile affordances such as photo and video blogging (from cameraphones), and geotagging (from GPS equipped smartphones). Hence mobile web 2.0 provides a platform for wider access than traditional computing that is context independent, facilitating ‘authentic’ learning environments (A. Herrington & Herrington, 2007, 2006; Jan Herrington, Herrington, Mantei, Olney, & Ferry, 2009) beyond the boundaries of the traditional tertiary classroom. Thus mobile learning (mlearning) presents vast potential for appropriation within tertiary education. This paper presents an academics journey into the use and appropriation of mlearning within their teaching practice. This journey is based upon a four year research project into the potential of mobile web 2.0 (Cochrane, Flitta, & Bateman, 2009). Critical incidents along this journey are identified and examples given of how mobile web 2.0 has been integrated into the academics lifestyles and pedagogical toolkits. The paper outlines the significant events in the pedagogical development of two academics over this period of four years. Critical Incident Analysis is used to identify significant ‘eureka’ moments for the participants in their mlearning (mobile learning) journeys. Several ‘lenses’ are used to bring into focus themes that emerge upon reflection over this period, including: Communities Of Practice, the Social Construction of Technology, Actor Network Theory, Activity Theory, and Social Constructivism. The symbiotic relationship developed between the academic advisor (technology steward) and the academic teaching staff has proven a rich environment for harnessing educational technology to design social constructivist learning environments for different groups of tertiary students. It is hoped the insights gained will be useful for other academic staff wanting to implement pedagogical innovation, and for professional development staff seeking insights for facilitating academics to integrate educational technology into their pedagogies

UbiComp in Opportunity Spaces: Challenges for Participatory Design

The rise of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp), where pervasive, wireless and disappearing technologies offer hitherto unavailable means of supporting activity, increasingly opens up ‘opportunity spaces’. These are spaces where there is no urgent problem to be solved, but much potential to augment and enhance practice in new ways. Based on our experience of co-designing novel user experiences for visitors to an English country estate, we discuss challenges for PD in such an opportunity space. Key amongst these are how to build a working relationship of value when there are no urgent requirements; how to understand and scope the space of opportunities; and how to leave users with new resources of value to them

Informal Evaluation and Institutionalization of Neoteric Technology Ideas: The Case of Two Danish Organizations

In this paper, we explore the complex process of how ideas evolve in organizations that are engaged in developing and using information technology (IT)-based systems. We put forward a framework emphasizing the interconnection between creativity and institutionalization. We argue that ideas are embedded in existing institutionalized technologies in organizations and that emerging technologies introduce neoteric ideas to them. Furthermore, we argue that, when attempting to introduce technology-based ideas, human actors will focus their attention on ideas embedded in existing institutionalized technologies while informally evaluating and making sense of these ideas. Moreover, we suggest that conflicts between competing frames of reference during this evaluation may result in the rejection, adoption, or multiplication of new technology ideas. Drawing on information systems (IS)-based theories of creativity, Scandinavian institutionalism, and empirical data from two Danish organizations, we investigate the interplay between creativity, technology, and human sensemaking in the process of translating and transforming technology ideas into full-fledged technological innovations

Augmented reality meeting table: a novel multi-user interface for architectural design

Immersive virtual environments have received widespread attention as providing possible replacements for the media and systems that designers traditionally use, as well as, more generally, in providing support for collaborative work. Relatively little attention has been given to date however to the problem of how to merge immersive virtual environments into real world work settings, and so to add to the media at the disposal of the designer and the design team, rather than to replace it. In this paper we report on a research project in which optical see-through augmented reality displays have been developed together with prototype decision support software for architectural and urban design. We suggest that a critical characteristic of multi user augmented reality is its ability to generate visualisations from a first person perspective in which the scale of rendition of the design model follows many of the conventions that designers are used to. Different scales of model appear to allow designers to focus on different aspects of the design under consideration. Augmenting the scene with simulations of pedestrian movement appears to assist both in scale recognition, and in moving from a first person to a third person understanding of the design. This research project is funded by the European Commission IST program (IST-2000-28559)

The Literacy Fieldtrip: Using UbiComp to Support Children's Creative Writing

Fieldtrips, traditionally associated with science, history and geography teaching, have long been used to support children’s learning by allowing them to engage with environments first-hand. Recently, ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) has been used to enhance fieldtrips in these educational areas by augmenting environments with a range of instruments, devices and sensors. However, the sorts of interaction design that UbiComp makes possible have the potential not just to enhance the value of educational techniques in known application areas, but also to expand the application of those techniques into new areas of curriculum. We report on a UbiComp-supported fieldtrip to support creative writing, associated with the learning of literacy skills. We discuss how the fieldtrip, designed and run in the grounds of a historic English country house with Year 5 UK schoolchildren, engendered interactions which changed both the processes and products of creative writing, with benefits for both teachers and children

The Tablet PC: Cool Toy or Useful Tool?

The tablet PC, or convertible laptop computer, is a relatively new technology - the potential of which is still being tested in the field of education and in libraries. This presentation will provide a brief overview of available tablets, evaluate some of their current uses in libraries and education, and demonstrate how a tablet PC is currently being used during information literacy sessions at Michigan State University. Participants will discuss the tablet’s potential uses in information literacy and will walk away with ideas, information, and best practices for incorporating this new technology into library instruction

The Interactive Lecture: Teaching and Learning Technologies for Large Classrooms

Conventional lectures in large classrooms are connected to fundamental didactic problems due to a lack of interactivity and feedback opportunities. In an interactive lecture each student is equipped with a light-weight, mobile device that can be used to interact with the lecturer during the lesson, thus creating an additional channel of communication. These devices support new teaching and learning paradigms such as participatory simulations. In this paper, we present our experiences with the usage of mobile devices in lectures. After discussing the didactic benefits of interactive lectures, we introduce the software toolkits used in our scenarios, we highlight selected tools like a quiz tool or a support tool for participatory simulation, and present major results from six studies we have conducted

THEORY-DRIVEN DESIGN OF A MOBILE-LEARNING APPLICATION TO SUPPORT DIFFERENT INTERACTION TYPES IN LARGE-SCALE LECTURES

Universities face increasing numbers of students leading to increasingly large lectures, and decreasing interaction and collaboration, which are important factors for learning success and satisfaction. The use of IT can help overcoming this challenge by increasing the interaction in large-scale lectures without massively increasing the workload of lecturers. In this research-in-progress paper, we present the design and pre-test of a mobile-learning application aiming to increase the interaction in large-scale lectures and the learning success of learners. For designing our application, we follow a design science research approach. We rely on insights from interaction theory as well as requirements gathered from lecturers and students in a focus group workshop. A pre-test of our application showed high valus for Perceived Usefulness, User Satisfaction, and Perceived Presentation Quality for the overall application and moreover high valus for Performance Expectancy and Intention to Use of all but one functions. The results show that the application is ready for being used in large-scale lectures. As a next step, the application will be used in one of our large-scale lectures aiming to evaluate whether using our application has a positive impact on interaction, satisfaction and learning success

Freeform User Interfaces for Graphical Computing

報告番号: 甲15222 ; 学位授与年月日: 2000-03-29 ; 学位の種別: 課程博士 ; 学位の種類: 博士(工学) ; 学位記番号: 博工第4717号 ; 研究科・専攻: 工学系研究科情報工学専