User-Centred Design to Support Exploration and Path Creation in Cultural Heritage Collections

In this paper, we present the results of the user requirements and interface design phase for a prototype system, designed to enhance interaction with cultural heritage collections online through means of a pathway metaphor. We present a single user interaction model that supports various work and information seeking tasks undertaken by both expert and non-expert users within the context of collection exploration and path creation. The user interaction model is shown to enable seamless movement between interaction modes, with the potential over time to encourage deeper engagement and learning

State-of-the-Art Duolingo Features and Applications

Duolingo is a rapidly growing on-line platform for language learning. In this paper learning theories that are embodied in its design are analyzed and certain shortcomings are identified. In the past two years, Duolingo has expanded its platform with the addition of new applications and features. State-of-the-art updates are reviewed in order to uncover whether they address limitations of Duolingo’s original design or provide enhancements to the learning platform

Exploration Games:Can Game-Guided Systems Support Users in Automated Exhibition Sites?

This article delves into the potential of incorporating elements fromadventure games into museum exhibitions, with a particular focus on automatedexhibition sites. We advocate that principles derived from adventure games canadeptly bridge the two primary expectations of exhibitions: enlightenment andexperience. Exploration-based games, such as Explore the Redoubt (XTR)crafted for automated venues, enable users to fulfill both these objectives. XTR,conceived to address the prevailing research voids, integrates game mechanicsinto the automated exhibition environment, enhancing visitor motivation andengagement. It harnesses interactive digital mediums to present cultural heritagein a relaxed, informal manner.Existing research scarcely touches upon the design of experiential learninggames developed for automated sites, which encompass both indoor and outdoordisplays. Our methodology contemplates the transformation of visitor conduct atexhibitions, morphing them into avid knowledge seekers. We challenge theadequacy of current user experience models in portraying exhibitions striving toprovide both enlightenment and an immersive experience. Consequently, weintroduce a framework for museum interactions that deeply engages users, urgingthem to define their exploration trajectories, seamlessly fusing enlightenment,and engagement. Our study is set in a 17th-century redoubt where initialobservations indicated greater outdoor engagement compared to indoor spaces.This observation fueled our initiative to amplify indoor visitor participation.After testing XTR with 30 participants and employing a combination ofobservations and interviews, we derived key insights on designing digitalexploration games that seamlessly combine enlightenment and engagement. Weconclude with three design strategies to enhance visitor curiosity and exploration

Narrative and learning with Web 2.0 technologies: towards a research agenda

This paper investigates the impact of Web. 2.0 technologies on the ways learning can be conceived of as a narrative process within contemporary contexts, using blogs as an illustrative example. It is premised on the concept of narrative as a way in which individuals re-present and organize experience in order to learn from it and make it sharable with others within social contexts. The first part of the paper offers a theoretical analysis of the role of narrative in the social construction of knowledge by the ways it enables users of Web 2.0 technologies to participate meaningfully in the exchange of experiences and ideas. The second part of the paper offers a ‘situated’ analysis of the narrative practices engaged with by users of blogs. A ‘narrative trail’ is used to provide a contextualized instance of the narrative practices which are involved. The paper concludes by examining the research issues which are raised and suggests a research agenda which is needed to explore Web 2.0 technologies as social utilities affecting knowledge production, in which the adaptation of narrative theory is a central feature

Process Drama in the Virtual World - A Survey

Process drama is a form of improvisational drama where the focus is on the process rather than the product. This form of improvisational activities has been used extensively in many domains. Role play, for example, has been used in health therapy as well as for training health personnel. Creative drama is a form of process drama that focuses on the use of story dramatization techniques; it has been extensively used to promote language and literature skills as well as creative and critical thinking. In these domains process drama exhibit itself in physical space. Recently, there have been many advances in technology that allows process drama to be exhibited in virtual space. In this article, we look at the form and structure of process drama. We specifically discuss process drama, especially Creative Drama. We outline several key factors of process drama that affect its effectiveness as a learning vehicle, including involvement and reflection. Through this lens, we survey several cases of virtual process drama both as a single person experience as well as a multiuser internet-based virtual experience

Qui suis-je : Discontinuity as part of teacher identity in Canadian French immersion

The scarcity of research on French immersion teachers’ professional identity contrasts with the increasing popularity of French immersion programs in Canada and the concomitant need for French immersion teachers. This study explores the professional identity negotiation of four French immersion teachers in Alberta, Canada, with a focus on discontinuity. Semi-structured interviews conducted face-to-face with the participants were analysed using dialogic narrative analysis. The findings highlight how discontinuity is occasioned by a change in knowledge about the French immersion teaching as a profession, encountering classroom realities, shifting one’s values concerning second language learning and the emotions one experiences in moments of discontinuity. A negative change in emotion may encourage discontinuity in immersion teacher identity and teachers’ understanding of themselves as second language learners. On the other hand, positive emotions underline the harboured passion for French and second language learning and may help re-align French immersion teacher identity to the sense of purpose teachers identified in their professional lives. The study concludes with a discussion of certain considerations arising from the data.Peer reviewe

My social autoethnography: How one teacher educator used digital communication to help tell his own stories

This paper inhabits the increasingly popular space of autoethnographic study. The piece is designed to critique and contextualise the process and usefulness of autoethnography as a way of making meaning. The study centres on how one highly experienced teacher and newly appointed teacher educator is using narrative writing to unpick and locate their skillset in a period of swift change and marked transition. One of the reasons for this choice is the freedom that autoethnography allows. Autoethnography is frequently dismissed as vague and self-indulgent as a method of social research. This paper will propose that autoethnography is a rigorous and powerful research method. It deploys some innovative methods of data collection, analysis and dissemination. The paper's discussion of the literature will naturally help interrogate debates around where autoethnography sits in the intellectual landscape related to qualitative research. The study found that using grounded theory as a research methodology helped arrive at potentially illuminating theories and self-knowledge. These were limited, however, by the underlying risk of indulgence, subjective autobiographical writing and participant bias. The paper also has potential value as a way of helping early career teachers explore critical incidents

Micro-augmentations: situated calibration of a novel non-tactile, peripheral museum technology

Micro-augmentations provide novel ways to interact directly with the past. This is a new concept that uses minimum stimulation to achieve maximum effects in spaces of cultural heritage. We experiment with new implicitly interactive and almost transparent museum technologies to create a holistic emotional visitor experience and solve a number of museum problems (i.e. misconceptions, intra-group communications, and visitor engagement). The paper presents the rationale for the design decisions, as well as the technical challenges faced during implementation. Audio micro-augmentations were firstly used at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology. Initial user testing data from the system's calibration phase at that museum revealed the entertaining and learning potential of the application, together with issues for future development

Successful learning with whiteboard animations – a question of their procedural character or narrative embedding?

Although whiteboard animations are increasingly used for educational purposes, there is little empirical evidence as to why such animations can enhance learning. To specify essential elements, their dynamic visual presentation, as well as their narrative embedding, were found to be theortically important. In a first Experiment (N = 133) with a 2 (presentation mode: static pictures vs. progressive drawing) x 2 (narrative context: with vs. without a narrative) between-subject factorial design, motivational, cognitive, affective variables, as well as learning outcomes, of secondary school students were measured. Results revealed that progressive drawing, as well as a narrative context, are mostly associated with an increase in learning-relevant variables. In a second experiment with the same sample and the same experimental design but a different whiteboard animation, results from Experiment 1 generalize to another learning content. Again, a progressive drawing, as well as a narrative context within whiteboard animation, fostered learning relevant variables as well as learning outcomes. Results are discussed considering the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the contiguity effect as well as the instructional design theory of anchored instruction