Scoping a vision for formative e-assessment: a project report for JISC

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. If the relationship between teaching and learning were causal, i. e. if students always mastered the intended learning outcomes of a particular sequence of instruction, assessment would be superfluous. Experience and research suggest this is not the case: what is learnt can often be quite different from what is taught. Formative assessment is motivated by a concern with the elicitation of relevant information about student understanding and / or achievement, its interpretation and an exploration of how it can lead to actions that result in better learning. In the context of a policy drive towards technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning, the question of the role of digital technologies is key and it is the latter on which this project particularly focuses. The project and its deliverables have been informed by recent and relevant literature, in particular recent work by Black andIn this work, they put forward a framework which suggests that assessment for learning their term for formative assessment can be conceptualised as consisting of a number of aspects and five keystrategies. The key aspects revolve around the where the learner is going, where the learner is right now and how she can get there and examines the role played by the teacher, peers and the learner. Language: English Keywords: assessments, case studies, design patterns, e-assessmen

The Conversation of Critical Practice: Pre-service Teachers As Educators for Social Justice

In this paper we examine aspects of the construction of authentic membership, competence, and sense of shared purpose within a professional community of educators accomplished by a class of pre-service teachers during a spontaneous electronic conversation. Implications for teacher education are considered

The Conversation of Critical Practice: Pre-service Teachers As Educators for Social Justice

In this paper we examine aspects of the construction of authentic membership, competence, and sense of shared purpose within a professional community of educators accomplished by a class of pre-service teachers during a spontaneous electronic conversation. Implications for teacher education are considered

Explanation before Adoption: Supporting Informed Consent for Complex Machine Learning and IoT Health Platforms

Explaining health technology platforms to non-technical members of the public is an important part of the process of informed consent. Complex technology platforms that deal with safety-critical areas are particularly challenging, often operating within private domains (e.g. health services within the home) and used by individuals with various understandings of hardware, software, and algorithmic design. Through two studies, the first an interview and the second an observational study, we questioned how experts (e.g. those who designed, built, and installed a technology platform) supported provision of informed consent by participants. We identify a wide range of tools, techniques, and adaptations used by experts to explain the complex SPHERE sensor-based home health platform, provide implications for the design of tools to aid explanations, suggest opportunities for interactive explanations, present the range of information needed, and indicate future research possibilities in communicating technology platforms

Virtual reality in theatre education and design practice - new developments and applications

The global use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has already established new approaches to theatre education and research, shifting traditional methods of knowledge delivery towards a more visually enhanced experience, which is especially important for teaching scenography. In this paper, I examine the role of multimedia within the field of theatre studies, with particular focus on the theory and practice of theatre design and education. I discuss various IT applications that have transformed the way we experience, learn and co-create our cultural heritage. I explore a suite of rapidly developing communication and computer-visualization techniques that enable reciprocal exchange between students, theatre performances and artefacts. Eventually, I analyse novel technology-mediated teaching techniques that attempt to provide a new media platform for visually enhanced information transfer. My findings indicate that the recent developments in the personalization of knowledge delivery, and also in student-centred study and e-learning, necessitate the transformation of the learners from passive consumers of digital products to active and creative participants in the learning experience

Computer conferencing: Choices and strategies

Computer conferencing permits meeting through the computer while sharing a common file. The primary advantages of computer conferencing are that participants may (1) meet simultaneously or nonsimultaneously, and (2) contribute across geographic distance and time zones. Due to these features, computer conferencing offers a viable meeting option for distributed business teams. Past research and practice is summarized denoting practical uses of computer conferencing as well as types of meeting activities ill suited to the medium. Additionally, effective team strategies are outlined which maximize the benefits of computer conferencing

A study of search intermediary working notes: implications for IR system design

This paper reports findings from an exploratory study investigating working notes created during encoding and external storage (EES) processes, by human search intermediates using a Boolean information retrieval (JR) system. EES processes have been an important area of research in educational contexts where students create and use notes to facilitate learning. In the context of interactive IR, encoding can be conceptualized as the process of creating working notes to help in the understanding and translating a user's information problem into a search strategy suitable for use with an IR system. External storage is the process of using working notes to facilitate interaction with IR systems. Analysis of 221 sets of working notes created by human search intermediaries revealed extensive use of EES processes and the creation of working notes of textual, numerical and graphical entities. Nearly 70% of recorded working notes were textual/numerical entities, nearly 30% were graphical entities and 0.73% were indiscernible. Segmentation devices were also used in 48% of the working notes. The creation of working notes during EES processes was a fundamental element within the mediated, interactive IR process. Implications for the design of IR interfaces to support users' EES processes and further research is discussed

EmbodiMentor: a science fiction prototype to embody different perspectives using augmented reality

Conferência realizada na UTAD, Vila Real, de 1-3 de dezembro de 2016This paper describes the EmbodiMentor, an interaction concept and metaphor that aims to enable users to embody a different person or character’s perspective, specify or modify his/her/its emotional elements and conditioning elements, and experience the resulting changes. Its use case scenario is the education and training of foreign languages and intercultural communication skills, were contextualization and first person experiences in common settings are key for practical skill acquisitions. It was born as the micro-science-fiction prototype “Frances can’t sleep. She crawls out of bed and with her EmbodiMentor runs through a range of a client’s emotional states, pitching to each one. She then falls asleep.” The application of the science fiction prototyping concept has been proven a strong approach to develop and investigate innovative applications of emerging technologies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

El aprendizaje temprano de lenguas adicionales en los ecosistemas del aula

In many communities around the world children are being enrolled in pre-school programmes where they learn additional languages apart from their mother tongues. This entails a fresh look at key aspects of additional language teaching pedagogies. At an early age, language learning is socially mediated, and the target language is acquired orally. This points to the importance of considering how children’s biological capacities and learning contexts contribute to the development of the learning process. Thus, building on child language acquisition approaches and on the conceptual framework of educational ecosystem, this paper describes how the learning environment of preschool classrooms shapes the additional language learning process. In addition, the article sets out the building blocks that ensure a solid construction of learning ecosystems which teachers can draw on to strengthen the quality of their teaching.En muchas comunidades de todo el mundo, los niños acceden a programas de preescolar en los que aprenden lenguas adicionales además de sus lenguas maternas. Esto implica una nueva visión de aspectos clave de las metodologías para la enseñanza de lenguas adicionales. A una edad temprana, el aprendizaje de lenguas está socialmente mediado, y la lengua meta se aprende oralmente. Esto apunta a la importancia de considerar que las capacidades biológicas de los niños y los contextos de aprendizaje contribuyen al desarrollo del proceso de aprendizaje. Basándose en los enfoques de adquisición del lenguaje infantil y dentro del marco teórico del ecosistema educativo, este documento describe cómo el entorno de aprendizaje de las aulas de preescolar da forma al proceso aprendizaje de lenguas adicionales. Además, el artículo presenta los componentes que contribuyen a la construcción sólida de ecosistemas de aprendizaje donde los maestros pueden inspirarse para fortalecer la calidad de la enseñanza