Collaborative trails in e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future

Visualising the Intended Practical Doing: Future-Oriented Movements in Swedish Vocational School Workshop Settings

Context: This article focus on teaching and learning processes in a vocational classroom in Swedish vocational education. There are few studies within the field of vocational education that have a focus on how vocational learning is done in interaction in the vocational classroom/workshop, and what vocational learning content is displayed in the interaction between teacher and student, and thus made possible to learn. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the future-oriented movements that take shape when a vocational teacher and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational plumbing school workshop settings. An increased understanding of these processes can help to improve the actual teaching of a specific subject content to support students in their vocational learning, aiming for learning a professional trade.Methods: The data consists of video recorded lessons from the Sanitary, Heating and Property Maintenance Programme in Swedish upper secondary school. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons the article explores the interaction between teachers and students in vocational school workshop settings using CAVTA. CAVTA is based on Conversation Analysis (CA) and Variation Theory (VT) and is a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used together and integrated to reach understanding of both how- and what-aspects of the learning process in practice, when analysing teaching and interaction.Findings: Findings shows how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space with a vocational learning content of a more general nature. These general objects of learning are also related to work-specific vocational learning and knowledge in relation to the future profession, but on a more general level than the task specific vocational knowledge. Altogether, this illuminates how different layers of work-specific vocational learning are made visible in the interaction, and how they mutually contextualise each other in the here and now.Conclusion: This article illustrates that the specific and the general vocational learning content can complement each other and open up for a more in-depth vocational learning. In conclusion, this article emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life

Timing Relationships between Speech and Co-Verbal Gestures in Spontaneous French

International audienceSeveral studies have described the links between gesture and speech in terms of timing, most of them concentrating on the production of hand gestures during speech or during pauses (Beattie & Aboudan, 1994; Nobe, 2000). Other studies have focused on the anticipation, synchronization or delay of gestures regarding their co-occurrence with speech (Schegloff, 1984; McNeill, 1992, 2005; Kipp, 2003; Loehr, 2004; Chui, 2005; Kida & Faraco, 2008; Leonard and Cummins, 2009) and we would like to participate in the debate in the present paper. We studied the timing relationships between iconic gestures and their lexical affiliates (Kipp, Neff et al., 2001) in a corpus of French conversational speech involving 6 speakers and annotated both in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2009) and Anvil (Kipp, 2001). The timing relationships we observed concerned the position of the gesture stroke as compared to that of the lexical affiliate and the Intonation Phrase, as well as the position of the gesture Phrase as regards that of the Intonation Phrase. The main results show that although gesture and speech are co-occurring, gestures generally start before the related speech segment

Timing Relationships between Speech and Co-Verbal Gestures in Spontaneous French

International audienceSeveral studies have described the links between gesture and speech in terms of timing, most of them concentrating on the production of hand gestures during speech or during pauses (Beattie & Aboudan, 1994; Nobe, 2000). Other studies have focused on the anticipation, synchronization or delay of gestures regarding their co-occurrence with speech (Schegloff, 1984; McNeill, 1992, 2005; Kipp, 2003; Loehr, 2004; Chui, 2005; Kida & Faraco, 2008; Leonard and Cummins, 2009) and we would like to participate in the debate in the present paper. We studied the timing relationships between iconic gestures and their lexical affiliates (Kipp, Neff et al., 2001) in a corpus of French conversational speech involving 6 speakers and annotated both in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2009) and Anvil (Kipp, 2001). The timing relationships we observed concerned the position of the gesture stroke as compared to that of the lexical affiliate and the Intonation Phrase, as well as the position of the gesture Phrase as regards that of the Intonation Phrase. The main results show that although gesture and speech are co-occurring, gestures generally start before the related speech segment

Evaluating the development of wearable devices, personal data assistants and the use of other mobile devices in further and higher education institutions

This report presents technical evaluation and case studies of the use of wearable and mobile computing mobile devices in further and higher education. The first section provides technical evaluation of the current state of the art in wearable and mobile technologies and reviews several innovative wearable products that have been developed in recent years. The second section examines three scenarios for further and higher education where wearable and mobile devices are currently being used. The three scenarios include: (i) the delivery of lectures over mobile devices, (ii) the augmentation of the physical campus with a virtual and mobile component, and (iii) the use of PDAs and mobile devices in field studies. The first scenario explores the use of web lectures including an evaluation of IBM's Web Lecture Services and 3Com's learning assistant. The second scenario explores models for a campus without walls evaluating the Handsprings to Learning projects at East Carolina University and ActiveCampus at the University of California San Diego . The third scenario explores the use of wearable and mobile devices for field trips examining San Francisco Exploratorium's tool for capturing museum visits and the Cybertracker field computer. The third section of the report explores the uses and purposes for wearable and mobile devices in tertiary education, identifying key trends and issues to be considered when piloting the use of these devices in educational contexts

French Face-to-Face Interaction: Repetition as a Multimodal Resource

International audienceIn this chapter, after presenting the corpus as well as some of theannotations developed in the OTIM project, we then focus on the specificphenomenon of repetition. After briefly discussing this notion, we showthat different degrees of convergence can be achieved by speakersdepending on the multimodal complexity of the repetition and on thetiming in between the repeated element and the model. Although we focusmore specifically on the gestural level, we present a multimodal analysis ofgestural repetitions in which we met several issues linked to multimodalannotations of any type. This gives an overview of crucial issues in crosslevellinguistic annotation, such as the definition of a phenomenonincluding formal and/or functional categorization

The Effectiveness of Aural Instructions with Visualisations in E-Learning Environments

Based on Mayer’s (2001) model for more effective learning by exploiting the brain’s dual sensory channels for information processing, this research investigates the effectiveness of using aural instructions together with visualisation in teaching the difficult concepts of data structures to novice computer science students. A small number of previous studies have examined the use of audio and visualisation in teaching and learning environments but none has explored the integration of both technologies in teaching data structures programming to reduce the cognitive load on learners’ working memory. A prototype learning tool, known as the Data Structure Learning (DSL) tool, was developed and used first in a short mini study that showed that, used together with visualisations of algorithms, aural instructions produced faster student response times than did textual instructions. This result suggested that the additional use of the auditory sensory channel did indeed reduce the cognitive load. The tool was then used in a second, longitudinal, study over two academic terms in which students studying the Data Structures module were offered the opportunity to use the DSL approach with either aural or textual instructions. Their use of the approach was recorded by the DSL system and feedback was invited at the end of every visualisation task. The collected data showed that the tool was used extensively by the students. A comparison of the students’ DSL use with their end-of-year assessment marks revealed that academically weaker students had tended to use the tool most. This suggests that less able students are keen to use any useful and available instrument to aid their understanding, especially of difficult concepts. Both the quantitative data provided by the automatic recording of DSL use and an end-of-study questionnaire showed appreciation by students of the help the tool had provided and enthusiasm for its future use and development. These findings were supported by qualitative data provided by student written feedback at the end of each task, by interviews at the end of the experiment and by interest from the lecturer in integrating use of the tool with the teaching of the module. A variety of suggestions are made for further work and development of the DSL tool. Further research using a control group and/or pre and post tests would be particularly useful

Journalism Education 2016 Vol 5(2): Guest Editor

“It’s the story that matters! Teaching journalism’s storytellers” Special Edition of Journalism Education Guest Editor: Karen Fowler-Watt, Bournemouth University, UK. Storytelling is the journalist’s craft skill. Shaped by the tenets of objectivity and accuracy, the news narrative informs the debate and brings us the human stories. If journalism is a craft, then the story is the journalist’s work of art. In a rapidly changing landscape of technological revolution, shifting business models and ethical challenges, one thing remains certain – the story still matters. As award winning BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane reminds us, the journalist is first and foremost a storyteller who is ‘trying to tell them what it is like to stand where I do and see the things I see.’ But this core skill is being challenged on all sides. The demands of the 24/7 news cycle emphasise story – processing, rather than storytelling. Originality – the storyteller’s stock-in-trade - is often sacrificed as newsrooms shrink in size and journalists fail to get out of the office. The online environment moves us away from linear storytelling and focuses on the imperative of interactivity. Stories require simplicity and multi media features to engage an audience consuming in byte-size, whilst on the move. If storytelling lies at the heart of journalism practice, how do journalism educators face these challenges? How do we teach the next generation of journalists to find original stories and to tell them in innovative ways? How do we encourage young journalists to engage audiences through their storytelling techniques? How does investigative, in-depth research and long-form storytelling fit in to this digital context? This special edition of Journalism Education aims to invite discussion and debate about a range of factors currently informing the role of storytelling in journalism education. It will devote particular attention to the ways in which journalism educators are embracing multimedia and new media approaches to storytelling. Possible topics to be examined may include: - Definitions of storytelling in a digital age - Teaching storytelling to journalists: - the role of accuracy, redefining objectivity - reporting human interest, reporting conflict - Original storytelling - Influences of social media on journalistic narrative - Understanding the role of audience in storytelling - Ethical issues in storytelling - Technological innovation, experimentation and teaching multimedia storytelling techniques - Experiential approaches to teaching storytelling - Teaching storytelling using data - Selling stories - teaching entrepreneurship: pitching story ideas, getting stories commissioned Articles will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the JE guidelines for peer review Guest Editor Dr Karen Fowler-Watt is Head of the School of Journalism, English and Communication in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. She is a former BBC journalist and co-editor (with Stuart Allan) of Journalism: New Challenges (2013, CJCR) Contact Dr Karen Fowler-Watt Head of School, Journalism, English and CommunicationW338, Faculty of Media and Communication Bournemouth University Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole. Dorset. BH12 5BB Email: [email protected] Tel: + 44(0) 1202965129 Web: www.media.bournemouth.ac.uk “It’s the story that matters! Teaching journalism’s storytellers” Special Edition of Journalism Education Guest Editor: Karen Fowler-Watt, Bournemouth University, UK. Storytelling is the journalist’s craft skill. Shaped by the tenets of objectivity and accuracy, the news narrative informs the debate and brings us the human stories. If journalism is a craft, then the story is the journalist’s work of art. In a rapidly changing landscape of technological revolution, shifting business models and ethical challenges, one thing remains certain – the story still matters. As award winning BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane reminds us, the journalist is first and foremost a storyteller who is ‘trying to tell them what it is like to stand where I do and see the things I see.’ But this core skill is being challenged on all sides. The demands of the 24/7 news cycle emphasise story – processing, rather than storytelling. Originality – the storyteller’s stock-in-trade - is often sacrificed as newsrooms shrink in size and journalists fail to get out of the office. The online environment moves us away from linear storytelling and focuses on the imperative of interactivity. Stories require simplicity and multi media features to engage an audience consuming in byte-size, whilst on the move. If storytelling lies at the heart of journalism practice, how do journalism educators face these challenges? How do we teach the next generation of journalists to find original stories and to tell them in innovative ways? How do we encourage young journalists to engage audiences through their storytelling techniques? How does investigative, in-depth research and long-form storytelling fit in to this digital context? This special edition of Journalism Education aims to invite discussion and debate about a range of factors currently informing the role of storytelling in journalism education. It will devote particular attention to the ways in which journalism educators are embracing multimedia and new media approaches to storytelling. Possible topics to be examined may include: - Definitions of storytelling in a digital age - Teaching storytelling to journalists: - the role of accuracy, redefining objectivity - reporting human interest, reporting conflict - Original storytelling - Influences of social media on journalistic narrative - Understanding the role of audience in storytelling - Ethical issues in storytelling - Technological innovation, experimentation and teaching multimedia storytelling techniques - Experiential approaches to teaching storytelling - Teaching storytelling using data - Selling stories - teaching entrepreneurship: pitching story ideas, getting stories commissioned Articles will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the JE guidelines for peer review Guest Editor Dr Karen Fowler-Watt is Head of the School of Journalism, English and Communication in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. She is a former BBC journalist and co-editor (with Stuart Allan) of Journalism: New Challenges (2013, CJCR) Contact Dr Karen Fowler-Watt Head of School, Journalism, English and CommunicationW338, Faculty of Media and Communication Bournemouth University Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole. Dorset. BH12 5BB Email: [email protected] Tel: + 44(0) 1202965129 Web: www.media.bournemouth.ac.u

Chatbot-Based Natural Language Interfaces for Data Visualisation: A Scoping Review

Rapid growth in the generation of data from various sources has made data visualisation a valuable tool for analysing data. However, visual analysis can be a challenging task, not only due to intricate dashboards but also when dealing with complex and multidimensional data. In this context, advances in Natural Language Processing technologies have led to the development of Visualisation-oriented Natural Language Interfaces (V-NLIs). In this paper, we carry out a scoping review that analyses synergies between the fields of Data Visualisation and Natural Language Interaction. Specifically, we focus on chatbot-based V-NLI approaches and explore and discuss three research questions. The first two research questions focus on studying how chatbot-based V-NLIs contribute to interactions with the Data and Visual Spaces of the visualisation pipeline, while the third seeks to know how chatbot-based V-NLIs enhance users' interaction with visualisations. Our findings show that the works in the literature put a strong focus on exploring tabular data with basic visualisations, with visual mapping primarily reliant on fixed layouts. Moreover, V-NLIs provide users with restricted guidance strategies, and few of them support high-level and follow-up queries. We identify challenges and possible research opportunities for the V-NLI community such as supporting high-level queries with complex data, integrating V-NLIs with more advanced systems such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), particularly for advanced visualisations, expanding guidance strategies beyond current limitations, adopting intelligent visual mapping techniques, and incorporating more sophisticated interaction methods