Technology enhanced interaction framework

This paper focuses on the development of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations. A review of existing interaction frameworks shows that none of them help technology designers and developers to consider all of the possible interactions that occur at the same time and in the same place. The main and sub-components of the framework are described and explained and examples are given for each type of interaction. Work is now in progress to provide designers with an easy to use tool that helps them apply the framework to create technology solutions to complex communication and interaction problems and situations

Harmony and Technology Enhanced Learning

New technologies offer rich opportunities to support education in harmony. In this chapter we consider theoretical perspectives and underlying principles behind technologies for learning and teaching harmony. Such perspectives help in matching existing and future technologies to educational purposes, and to inspire the creative re-appropriation of technologies

Design approaches in technology enhanced learning

Design is a critical to the successful development of any interactive learning environment (ILE). Moreover, in technology enhanced learning (TEL), the design process requires input from many diverse areas of expertise. As such, anyone undertaking tool development is required to directly address the design challenge from multiple perspectives. We provide a motivation and rationale for design approaches for learning technologies that draws upon Simon's seminal proposition of Design Science (Simon, 1969). We then review the application of Design Experiments (Brown, 1992) and Design Patterns (Alexander et al., 1977) and argue that a patterns approach has the potential to address many of the critical challenges faced by learning technologists

Issues in conducting expert validation and review and user evaluation of the technology enhanced interaction framework and method

A Technology Enhanced Interaction Framework has been developed to support designers and developers design and develop technology enhanced interactions for complex scenarios involving disabled people. Issues of motivation, time, and understanding when validating and evaluating the Technology Enhanced Interaction Framework were identified through a literature review and questionnaires and interviews with experts. Changes to content, system, and approach were made in order to address the identified issues. Future work will involve detailed analysis of the expert review and validation findings and the implementation of a motivating approach to user evaluation

System upgrade: realising the vision for UK education

A report summarising the findings of the TEL programme in the wider context of technology-enhanced learning and offering recommendations for future strategy in the area was launched on 13th June at the House of Lords to a group of policymakers, technologists and practitioners chaired by Lord Knight. The report – a major outcome of the programme – is written by TEL director Professor Richard Noss and a team of experts in various fields of technology-enhanced learning. The report features the programme’s 12 recommendations for using technology-enhanced learning to upgrade UK education

Technology-enhanced Personalised Learning: Untangling the Evidence

Technology-enhanced personalised learning is not yet common in Germany, which is why we have tasked scientists with summarising the current status of international research on the matter. This study demonstrates the great potential of technology in implementing effective personalised learning. Nevertheless, it has not been assessed yet whether the practical implementation actually works: Even in countries such as the U.S., which lead the way in using techology in classroom settings, hardly any evaluation studies have been done to prove the effectiveness of technology-enhanced personalised learning. In the light of the above, the authors make recommendations for actions to be taken in Germany to make best use of the potential of technology in providing individual support and guidance to students

Is technology enhanced learning an interdisciplinary activity?

This paper describes an approach to working in educational technology informed by the recognition of the subject as a major current site for interdisciplinary activity. Currently the most popular term for educational technology embraced in the UK and in the EU is Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). We draw on the literature on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary working, contemporary rationales for interdisciplinarity as an imperative for meeting the challenges of knotty real world problems, and the experience of working in interdisciplinary teams in TEL. The purpose is to establish the particular features of this collaborative research effort. This perspective from literature and contemporary rhetoric around practice is supplemented with reference to several interview studies of TEL project teams. These studies outlined the advantages in terms of growth, multiple perspectives and design methodologies but also the challenges in terms of sustainability, career progression and publication, the benefits of technologies for communication within teams and distinctive working practices (Jordan et al. 2012, Conole et al., 2010, Scanlon et al, 2013)

Interdisciplinarity in Technology Enhanced Learning: An Interview Study

This paper explores the influence of the concept of interdisciplinarity on the work of educational technologists and others involved in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) research. There is a growing recognition of the need for interdisciplinarity in solving complex research problems in many areas of science. Technology-enhanced learning is a relatively young area of research adopting a multidisciplinary approach to investigating the use of technologies for learning. This makes it a field that is worthy of exploration in terms of how the ways of working developed by its practitioners inform our understanding of the challenges of the field as well as its benefits. This paper reporting on work commissioned by the Joint Research Councils’ programme on Technology Enhanced Learning provides a discussion of the growing literature on this topic, and a study of the working practices of academics in TEL research. An interview study of 18 participants was conducted as part of the project. The paper reports on the key findings from the interviews and concludes with some practical suggestions to help participants deal with the challenges posed by interdisciplinary working in TEL research

Charting collective knowledge: Technology-enhanced professional learning

The workplace is an environment where powerful, deep and effective learning takes place through non-formal workplace learning, as well as through formal training and education. This article describes a mechanism to enhance learning at work by capitalising on collective knowledge within an organisation. Two scenarios are presented illustrating how individual and group learning and performance may be improved. These scenarios are based on empirical data of knowledge work practices within a multinational organization