Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Zenith: Utility-Aware Resource Allocation for Edge Computing

In the Internet of Things(IoT) era, the demands for low-latency computing for time-sensitive applications (e.g., location-based augmented reality games, real-time smart grid management, real-time navigation using wearables) has been growing rapidly. Edge Computing provides an additional layer of infrastructure to fill latency gaps between the IoT devices and the back-end computing infrastructure. In the edge computing model, small-scale micro-datacenters that represent ad-hoc and distributed collection of computing infrastructure pose new challenges in terms of management and effective resource sharing to achieve a globally efficient resource allocation. In this paper, we propose Zenith, a novel model for allocating computing resources in an edge computing platform that allows service providers to establish resource sharing contracts with edge infrastructure providers apriori. Based on the established contracts, service providers employ a latency-aware scheduling and resource provisioning algorithm that enables tasks to complete and meet their latency requirements. The proposed techniques are evaluated through extensive experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness, scalability and performance efficiency of the proposed model

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Low-latency Networking: Where Latency Lurks and How to Tame It

While the current generation of mobile and fixed communication networks has been standardized for mobile broadband services, the next generation is driven by the vision of the Internet of Things and mission critical communication services requiring latency in the order of milliseconds or sub-milliseconds. However, these new stringent requirements have a large technical impact on the design of all layers of the communication protocol stack. The cross layer interactions are complex due to the multiple design principles and technologies that contribute to the layers' design and fundamental performance limitations. We will be able to develop low-latency networks only if we address the problem of these complex interactions from the new point of view of sub-milliseconds latency. In this article, we propose a holistic analysis and classification of the main design principles and enabling technologies that will make it possible to deploy low-latency wireless communication networks. We argue that these design principles and enabling technologies must be carefully orchestrated to meet the stringent requirements and to manage the inherent trade-offs between low latency and traditional performance metrics. We also review currently ongoing standardization activities in prominent standards associations, and discuss open problems for future research

Adaptive Augmented Reality Serious Game to Foster Problem Solving Skills

This paper describes the design of an adaptive intelligent augmented reality serious game which aims to foster problem solving skills in young learners. Studies show that our students lack computational thinking skills in high school, which raises the need to establish new methods to develop these skills in our younger learners. We believe that problem solving skills are the fundamental skills of computational thinking and are critical for STEM, in addition to a broad range of other fields. Therefore we decided to focus on those meta-cognitive skills acquired to foster problem solving, such as strategic knowledge. The game described in this paper provides a unique adaptive learning environment that aims to develop learners’ meta-cognitive skills by utilizing augmented reality technology, believable pedagogical agents and intelligent tutoring modules. It offers a great user experience and entertainment which we hope will encourage learners to invest more time in the learning process. This paper describes the architecture and design of the game from the viewpoint of educational pedagogies and frameworks for serious game design

"Tap it again, Sam": Harmonizing the frontiers between digital and real worlds in education

Lifelong leaners are intrinsically motivated to embed learning activities into daily life activities. Finding a suitable combination of the two is not trivial since lifelong learners have to face conflicts of time and location. Hence, lifelong learners normally build personal learning ecologies in those moments they set aside to learn making use of their available resources. On the other hand, the advent of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology facilitates the harmonization in the interactions between the digital world and daily physical spaces. Likewise, NFC enabled phones are becoming more and more popular. The contribution of this manuscript is threefold: first, scientific literature where NFC has been used with a direct or indirect purpose to learn is reviewed, and potential uses for lifelong learners are identified; based on these findings the Ecology of Resources for Lifelong Learning is presented as suitable setup for the scaffolding of learning activities with NFC augmented physical spaces; finally, this ecology is piloted and different learning scenarios are proposed for further extension

Systematic Review of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Hard Skills Training in Virtual Reality Environments

Advances in immersive virtual reality (I-VR) technology have allowed for the development of I-VR learning environments (I-VRLEs) with increasing fidelity. When coupled with a sufficiently advanced computer tutor agent, such environments can facilitate asynchronous and self-regulated approaches to learning procedural skills in industrial settings. In this study, we performed a systematic review of published solutions involving the use of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) to support hard skills training in an I-VRLE. For the seven solutions that qualified for the final analysis, we identified the learning context, the implemented system, as well as the perceptual, cognitive, and guidance features of the utilized tutoring agent. Generally, the I-VRLEs emulated realistic work environments or equipment. The solutions featured either embodied or embedded tutor agents. The agents’ perception was primarily based on either learner actions or learner progress. The agents’ guidance actions varied among the solutions, ranging from simple procedural hints to event interjections. Several agents were capable of answering certain specific questions. The cognition of the majority of agents represented variations on branched programming. A central limitation of all the solutions was that none of the reports detailed empirical studies conducted to compare the effectiveness of the developed training and tutoring solutions.Peer reviewe