An Architecture of Decision Support System for Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic (VAK) Learning Styles Detection Through Behavioral Modelling

Learning style (LS) is a description of the attitudes and behaviors which determine an individual’s preferred way of learning. Since each student has different LS, it is important for the teacher to recognize the differences in LS. Thus, an appropriate technique to detect students' LS, improve the motivation and academic achievement are required. The common approach using questionnaires to identify LS is less accurate due to complete the questionnaire is a tedious task for students and tend to choose answers randomly without understanding the questions. Emotions such as anger, sadness, and happiness resulting the different questionnaire answers. Due to the approach constrains, this study has focused on automated approaches that identify student LS from student behavior in the learning process. Implementation of decision support system (DSS) as automated application systems is needed to help teachers make decisions in determining students' LS. Thus, the objective of this study is to propose the architecture of LS detection automatically using decision support system. The development of the architecture is applying the behavioral modelling, that are contained student’s behavior parameters for visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK) model. Evaluation of the architecture is tested with the precision DSS engine. The accuracy of the rule technique achieves significant 80% accuracy. This study aims to help teachers to identify the ability of the student through the learning style (LS) in order to create effectiveness of learning and improving student’s achievement indirectly. Keywords— decision support system, reasoning engines, learning style detection, user behavior, visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK) mode

Understanding Music Interaction, and Why It Matters

This is the introductory chapter of a book dedicated to new research in, and emerging new understandings of, music and human-computer interaction—known for short as music interaction. Music interaction research plays a key role in innovative approaches to diverse musical activities, including performance, composition, education, analysis, production and collaborative music making. Music interaction is pivotal in new research directions in a range of activities, including audience participation, interaction between music and dancers, tools for algorithmic music, music video games, audio games, turntablism and live coding. More generally, music provides a powerful source of challenges and new ideas for human-computer interaction (HCI). This introductory chapter reviews the relationship between music and human-computer interaction and outlines research themes and issues that emerge from the collected work of researchers and practitioners in this book

STEAM Education in Ontario, Canada: A Case Study on the Curriculum and Instructional Models of Four K-8 STEAM Programs

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning and project-based learning are important educational initiatives in North America. However, it is important to consider whether current STEM educational practices are sufficient to prepare students for the world they are to live and work in. This prompts discussions about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) which is shifting educational paradigms towards art integration in STEM subjects. This study investigates the STEAM education reform movement in Canada to better understand the STEAM curriculum and instructional programs offered by non-profit organizations and publicly funded schools. This research study addresses the following major questions: 1) what curriculum and instruction models of STEAM education are implemented in non-profit and in-school contexts in Ontario, Canada? 2) What do students learn through different models of STEAM education? 3) What types of assessment of student learning is happening in STEAM education? 4) How do classroom teachers view such models of STEAM education in meeting their curriculum and instruction goals? To explore these questions, I took a small sample of four different STEAM programs in Ontario, Canada. I conducted interviews, observations, content analysis of curriculum documents and a focus group interview. At the four research sites, the main pedagogies used are design-based and inquiry-based models which focused on the students’ interests and encourages students to construct their own knowledge. Students learn character-building skills that empower them to solve real-world problems, develop perseverance and grit, engage in their community and develop a global perspective. The instructors/teachers describe the STEAM tasks at each site as rich and authentic experiences. The findings also suggest that sharing the learning in the STEAM program with the community extends the learning experiences to a wider community and contributes to the collective knowledge about how students learn. This study can inform teaching practices for teachers who seek to engage and motivate students by integrating the arts in STEM subjects. This study also promises to deepen the field’s understanding of STEAM education in Canada and to provide new insights into the practicality, affordances, and tensions of designing and implementing a STEAM program

Logibot:Investigating Engagement and Development of Computational Thinking Through Virtual Reality

In this study we assess the effects of teaching fundamental programming concepts through a virtual reality (VR) block-based programming application and its impact on engagement. As a comparison study, participants played an existing desktop-based game (LightBot) and the developed VR game (LogiBot) covering similar gameplay mechanics and blockbased programming. Initial results indicate that traditional desktop applications are currently more engaging than VR for teaching programming. We thus identify the need for careful design of interaction methods to support ease of use and reward factors to promote engagement in VR-based learning applications beyond the initial wow-factor

Researches in Adult Learning and Education: the European Dimension

The book represents several contributions that guide the readers in the comprehension of the paradigmatic shift from adult/lifelong education, to adult/lifelong learning. At the same time it presents the contexts where adults learn: the organized contexts, such as the institutions and services, and the informal contexts. The book is one of a series dedicated to adult learning and education developed under the auspices of ESRALE (European Studies and Research in Adult Learning and Education) an EU supported project. Its companion books are Maria Slowey (ed.) Comparative Adult Education and Learning. Authors and Texts and Vanna Boffo, Paolo Federighi, Ekkehard Nuissl, Empirical Research Methodology in Adult Learning and Education. Authors and Texts

VIRTUAL YOUTH SPACES IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES: DEVELOPING AN EVALUATIVE FRAMEWORK

This study explores the successes and challenges of the virtual space component of the 21st Century Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the MacArthur Foundation. This study synthesizes the literature on informal learning for youth that motivated these learning labs and analyzes existing evaluative approaches to public library initiatives. The author adopts a grounded theory approach and conducts semi-structured interviews with learning lab staff from four sites that received the 21st Century Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums Grant. Key concepts from the literature guide the analysis of the interviews to produce a foundational evaluative framework that can be used by public library staff to design and evaluate goals for their virtual learning lab. This framework considers both the overall mission of virtual learning labs and contextual factors that influence the library

Virtual Reality Game Classroom Implementation: Teacher Perspectives and Student Learning Outcomes

This study explored the influence of the virtual reality game (VRG) House of Languages on the ESL vocabulary acquisition of intermediate school students and establish how VR technology aids in improving the ESL vocabulary skills. A quasi-experimental design helped determine the impact of the VR use intervention on the learning process over the traditional ESL vocabulary acquisition method. Participation of 64 students divided randomly into an experimental group and control group; each group contained 32 students and their teacher from a local suburban intermediate school in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The findings from this study of independent t-tests at the end of experimental period indicated that students using the VR game House of Languages had greater achievement in learning vocabulary than those using the traditional method in learning vocabulary. The findings of paired t-tests indicated that the students in both the experimental group and control group scored higher in the post-test compared to their pre-test scores. Also, the descriptive statistics used to analyze teacher’ and students’ perceptions surveys indicate a perceived usefulness of VRG in the learning process. In spite of the fact that the participants of this study were intermediate school students, the VR technology made it applicable to primary school and high school students. So, it would be essential to create awareness among the educators that the use of the new VR technology as an effective vocabulary acquisition method in learning process should be engaged in all K12 stages not only to improve the vocabulary acquisition but to go beyond that to enhance the degree of achievement

Captains at the STEM of Their Own Ship: An Examination of Underrepresented Minority Student Participation in a Self-Directed, ICT After-School Intervention

Recent studies have advocated for early adoption of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in order to help a broader range of youth become creators rather than consumers of digital media, to open doors for opportunity in the lucrative technology sector, and to set them on a course for lifelong STEM/ICT learning. This study used data that was collected from a grant funded, multi-site, after-school program designed to help a group of students who are often underrepresented in ICT learn about computing through a unique instructional design for guiding students through the creation of mobile apps using a freely accessible block-based coding platform developed by MIT called App Inventor. The study employed a concurrent, triangulation mixed methods approach to data analysis. Data sources included participant-observer field notes, interviews, student artifacts, online surveys, and an assessment of outcomes related to a construct called computational thinking. The purpose of the intervention and this proposed study was to examine whether participants in the program learned coding and related concepts, developed an interest in STEM/ICT subject matter, and gained an optimistic view of their abilities related to 21st century computing skills. In addition, the researcher hoped to identify which aspects of the instructional design may have facilitated progress towards these goals

Teaching in the Collaborative Virtual Learning Environment of Second Life: Design Considerations For Virtual World Developers

Educators are seeking ways to better engage their students including the use of collaborative virtual learning environments (CVLEs). Some virtual worlds can serve as CVLEs as the advent of Second Life has created particular interest within the education community. Second Life, however, was not initially designed to facilitate education alone. I propose that as a CVLE, Second Life may be failing educators' expectations of its initial, ongoing, and future use as a system for supporting education. In order to determine how Second Life may be failing educators, I conducted a case study with a group of university-level educators that examined their reasons for and against adopting Second Life as a CVLE, the affordances they explored, the barriers they encountered, and how these affordances and barriers affected student learning and the participant's future use of Second Life and future virtual worlds in education. I then compare their use of Second Life to that of traditional groupware systems. As a result, I propose and detail the development of a rich integrated development environment, application programming interface, more flexible privacy policy, and more robust community tools for educators based on these comparisons