Converging institutional expertise to model teaching and learning with emerging technologies

There is an increasing disjuncture between the use of technologies and the impact that this has on teaching and learning practice. This challenge is compounded by the lack of institutional preparedness to support emerging practices that harness transformative potential in higher education (HE). Most staff development initiatives have tended to focus on skills acquisition, which have often not translated into pedagogical change. In the previous two years (2011 and 2012), four higher education institutions (HEIs) in Cape Town, South Africa, convened a collaborative short course on ‘Emerging Technologies for Improving Teaching and Learning’, which was targeted at 43 educators at the four HEIs over the two years it was offered. The objective of the course was to empower educators from the four HEIs with pedagogical knowledge for teaching with emerging technologies by modelling authentic practices. The course provided a unique opportunity for academics to come together in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere to learn, discuss and benefit from valuable experiences of peers and expert facilitators from the four HEIs in our region regarding the use of technologies for improved teaching and learning. This article draws on the theory- based design framework for technology enhanced learning (TEL) to reflect on the two-year inter-institutional facilitation of a course aimed at empowering educators to teach with emerging technologies through modelling practice.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects

Authoring of Adaptive Single-Player Educational Games

Digital Educational Games, as one of the most important application areas of Serious Games, combine positive properties of digital games, such as strong motivation for players and inherent learning processes, with educational methods and technologies. Adaptive algorithms allow such games to be aligned automatically to the needs of different players, thereby increasing the learning efficacy. However, educational games are among the most complex game production endeavors, since they are often faced with small budget on the one hand and special requirements with impacts on all aspects of game development, from design through programming to asset production, on the other. Authoring tools have been successfully created and used in fields related to Serious Games and educational games, including e-Learning, multimedia, interactive storytelling and entertainment games. These tools incorporate parts of the production workflows in their respective areas and allow all authors, including non-programmers, to create applications. While it appears beneficial to create authoring tools for educational games, we find that authoring tools for educational games have to account for the higher complexity and interactivity of games compared to other forms of multimedia and that they have not been researched thoroughly in the past. These challenges are addressed in this thesis by presenting a concept for an authoring tool for adaptive educational single-player games that accounts for the specifics of educational game development. Major results are an educational game description model, concepts for adaptive control of educational games and author support mechanisms specifically for adaptive educational game authoring. These concepts are implemented in the authoring tool "StoryTec", which is validated in the course of a set of evaluation studies. The novel features of StoryTec include the specific support for adaptive educational games, a concept for structural and interaction templates shown to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the authoring tool, as well as the support for collaborative work. It builds the foundation for a number of current and future research and development projects, including the extension towards authoring of multiplayer games, and is tested and used by over 120 members of an open community

ATEE Spring Conference 2020-2021

This book collects some of the works presented at ATEE Florence Spring Conference 2020-2021. The Conference, originally planned for May 2020, was forcefully postponed due to the dramatic insurgence of the pandemic. Despite the difficulties in this period, the Organising Committee decided anyway to keep it, although online and more than one year later, not to disperse the huge work of authors, mainly teachers, who had to face one of the hardest challenges in the last decades, in a historic period where the promotion of social justice and equal opportunities – through digital technologies and beyond – is a key factor for democratic citizenship in our societies. The Organising Committee, the University of Florence, and ATEE wish to warmly thank all the authors for their commitment and understanding, which ensured the success of the Conference. We hope this book could be, not only a witness of these pandemic times, but a hopeful sign for an equal and inclusive education in all countries