5,678 research outputs found
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Education in the Wild: Contextual and Location-Based Mobile Learning in Action. A Report from the STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous Workshop Series
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Introduction to location-based mobile learning
[About the book]
The report follows on from a 2-day workshop funded by the STELLAR Network of Excellence as part of their 2009 Alpine Rendez-Vous workshop series and is edited by Elizabeth Brown with a foreword from Mike Sharples. Contributors have provided examples of innovative and exciting research projects and practical applications for mobile learning in a location-sensitive setting, including the sharing of good practice and the key findings that have resulted from this work. There is also a debate about whether location-based and contextual learning results in shallower learning strategies and a section detailing the future challenges for location-based learning
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Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies
In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project
Understanding citizen science and environmental monitoring: final report on behalf of UK Environmental Observation Framework
Citizen science can broadly be defined as the involvement of volunteers in science. Over the past decade there has
been a rapid increase in the number of citizen science initiatives. The breadth of environmental-based citizen
science is immense. Citizen scientists have surveyed for and monitored a broad range of taxa, and also contributed
data on weather and habitats reflecting an increase in engagement with a diverse range of observational science.
Citizen science has taken many varied approaches from citizen-led (co-created) projects with local community
groups to, more commonly, scientist-led mass participation initiatives that are open to all sectors of society. Citizen
science provides an indispensable means of combining environmental research with environmental education and
wildlife recording.
Here we provide a synthesis of extant citizen science projects using a novel cross-cutting approach to objectively
assess understanding of citizen science and environmental monitoring including: 1. Brief overview of knowledge on the motivations of volunteers.
2. Semi-systematic review of environmental citizen science projects in order to understand the variety of
extant citizen science projects.
3. Collation of detailed case studies on a selection of projects to complement the semi-systematic review.
4. Structured interviews with users of citizen science and environmental monitoring data focussing on policy, in
order to more fully understand how citizen science can fit into policy needs.
5. Review of technology in citizen science and an exploration of future opportunities
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Reflecting back, looking forward: the challenges for location-based learning
This final section of the report has been reproduced from âD3.1 The STELLAR Rendez-Vous I report and white papersâ, published in 2009 by the STELLAR Network of Excellence. It is included here for completeness; we, as co-authors, felt that it was important to look back at the main contributions to theworkshop and also where the challenges lie for the future.
This chapter addresses two critical questions:
- What has been learned from this workshop, especially in respect to the STELLAR Grand Challenges (âConnecting learnersâ, âOrchestrationâ and âContextualisationâ)?
- What are the new research questions and issues for location-based learning, with respect to the Grand Challenges (âConnecting learnersâ, âOrchestrationâand âContextualisationâ)
Treasure codes: augmenting learning from physical museum exhibits through treasure hunting
Previous studies have highlighted the difficulty that designers face in creating mobile museum guides to enhance small group experiences. In this paper, we report a study exploring the potential of mobile visual recognition technology (Artcodes) to improve usersâ experiences in a visitor centre. A prototype mobile guide in the form of a treasure hunt was developed and evaluated by means of a field study comparing this technology with the existing personal guided tour. The results reveal a preference for the mobile guide amongst participants and show significant learning gains from pre-test to post-test compared with the pre-existing personal tour. Our observational analyses indicate how the mobile guide can be used to improve visitorsâ learning experiences by supporting active discovery and by balancing physical and digital interactions. We further expand the concept of design trajectories to consider micro-scaffolding as a way of understanding and designing future public technologies
Digital Education Evaluation: The Future of Time Lens at the Melbourne Museum
The Melbourne Museum, the most visited museum in Australia, asked the project team to determine the effectiveness of their scavenger hunt mobile application Time Lens Episode I: Treasures and Gems, as well as design a course of action for a new mobile application. The evaluation of Time Lens was used to determine if future family-based mobile applications were viable and desirable for use in the Melbourne Museum. The team observed the use of the application and discussed its effectiveness with families, staff, and peers. Based on these discussions the project team constructed plans for a future application for use at the Melbourne Museum. Our final recommendations also include plans to promote mobile technology within the museum
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Citizen Inquiry: Engaging Citizens in Online Communities of Scientific Inquiries
Citizen Inquiry has been proposed as an informal science learning approach to enable widespread involvement in science and empower citizens with reasoning and problem-solving skills used by scientists. It combines aspects from citizen science and inquiry-based learning, producing science learning experiences within distributed communities of interest. A central challenge for Citizen Inquiry is to involve citizens in planning and implementing their own investigations, supported and guided by online systems and tools within an inquiry environment, while collaborating with science experts and non-experts.
This thesis explores how to create an active and sustainable online community for citizens to engage in scientific investigations. To this end, it investigates the design of online communities, recruitment and retaining of members, factors that engage or disengage members from the community, and whether and how members learn throughout their participation. The intervention comprises two iterations of Citizen Inquiry communities: âInquiring Rock Huntersâ and âWeather-itâ. The communities were accommodated by the nQuire platform and the nQuire-it toolkit, respectively, software designed and structured to support collaborative personally-meaningful inquiry learning.
The findings of this research are explained through an analysis that compared the two design studies with previous research on citizen participation projects and online communities. Results highlight the importance of frequent project communication, multiple ways of participation, software usability, and interaction and collaboration between the members, while indicating disengagement factors such as lack of time, interest and confidence. Different categories of learning are identified (activity, on-topic and community), emphasizing the understanding of inquiry activities as part of a complete scientific process and the balance between fun and learning. The thesis concludes with design considerations for the creation of future Citizen Inquiry and other citizen participation communities
Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values
The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research
The emotion toward the ocean - Designing for visitorsâ empathic experience in SEALIFE Helsinki aquarium
The ocean is vital to human survival, but it is under severe threat from humans, such as overfishing and unsatisfactory waste management. Raising people's empathy for the ocean is helpful for them to take action to protect the marine ecology. Direct contact with nature is an effective way for people to empathise with nature, and the aquarium is one of the ways for contemporary people to contact the ocean.
The purpose of this project is to explore how aquarium service experience could support visitors' empathic resonance with sea life. In the literature review, this thesis research the studies in the field of co-design, service design, empathy and aquarium in order to build the theoretical framework for practical research activities and state the theory for supporting the proposal. The research project conducted interviews with the curator and designer of SEALIFE Helsinki Aquarium, field observation, and held the experience workshop and co-creation workshop. According to the findings and insights derived from the research activities, a proposal containing three measures was proposed by taking service design as the primary method, it includes design principles, empathy engagement activity and the toolkit for the aquarium and designer. The proposal was taken to the feedback workshop with aquarium staff to collect suggestions and feedback.
The research discovered different typologies of visitors in the SEALIFE Helsinki Aquarium from the perspective of empathy, which is adults alone, couples, parents, children, and adults with friends. Research has shown that a series of factors in the service system of the aquarium influence the empathy of visitors, including visitor density, multiple sensory experiences (such as the sound and smell of the ocean), material selection, moving methods, expression of information, distance, connection with life, undesirable service touch-points and the motivation and companion of visitors. The sensitivity of the different types of visitors to different factor is different, only information expression and the distance with the marine life shows have a remarkable influence on almost all kinds of visitors.
This thesis demonstrates that service design can contribute to supporting visitor's empathy with nature, and explores specific service methods to achieve this. It can be part of sustainable future design, however, this thesis offers only a glimpse to the topic, and the long term influence of the study and its impact is to be seen out of the frame of the thesis
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