Seeking togetherness: moving toward a comparative evaluation framework in an interdisciplinary DIY networking project

There is renewed interest in community networks as a mechanism for local neighbourhoods to find their voice and maintain local ownership of knowledge. In a post-Snowden, big data, age of austerity there is both widespread questioning of what happens to public generated data shared over ‘free’ services such as Facebook, and also a renewed focus on self-provisioning where there are gaps in digital service provision. In this paper we introduce an EU funded collaborative project (‘MAZI’) that is exploring how Do-It-Yourself approaches to building community networks might foster social cohesion, knowledge sharing and sustainable living through four pilots across Europe. A key challenge is to develop a shared evaluation approach that will allow us to make sense of what we are learning across highly diverse local situations and disciplinary approaches. In this paper we describe our initial approaches and the challenges we face

Challenges in context-aware mobile language learning: the MASELTOV approach

Smartphones, as highly portable networked computing devices with embedded sensors including GPS receivers, are ideal platforms to support context-aware language learning. They can enable learning when the user is en-gaged in everyday activities while out and about, complementing formal language classes. A significant challenge, however, has been the practical implementation of services that can accurately identify and make use of context, particularly location, to offer meaningful language learning recommendations to users. In this paper we review a range of approaches to identifying context to support mobile language learning. We consider how dynamically changing aspects of context may influence the quality of recommendations presented to a user. We introduce the MASELTOV project’s use of context awareness combined with a rules-based recommendation engine to present suitable learning content to recent immigrants in urban areas; a group that may benefit from contextual support and can use the city as a learning environment

创新教学报告2015 —探索教学、学习与评价的新形式 [Innovating Pedagogy 2015]

本报告提出了在教学应用方面呈现端倪的“十大创新教学法”，包括跨界学习、论证学习、随机 学习、基于情境的学习、计算思维、利用远程实验室在科学实验中学习、具身学习、适应性教学、情绪分析 和隐性评价，预期这些方法有可能在教育实践中，尤其是在学校后继续教育中引发重大变革

Artificial Intelligence in Education

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have been researched in educational contexts for more than 30 years (Woolf 1988; Cumming and McDougall 2000; du Boulay 2016). More recently, commercial AI products have also entered the classroom. However, while many assume that Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) means students taught by robot teachers, the reality is more prosaic yet still has the potential to be transformative (Holmes et al. 2019). This chapter introduces AIED, an approach that has so far received little mainstream attention, both as a set of technologies and as a field of inquiry. It discusses AIED’s AI foundations, its use of models, its possible future, and the human context. It begins with some brief examples of AIED technologies

A learning community for teens on a virtual island - The Schome Park Teen Second Life Pilot Project

Virtual 3D worlds such as Second Life2 and online gaming environments are attracting educationalists' interest. This paper reports upon the first European Teen Second Life educational project for 13-17 year olds: the Schome Park NAGTY (National Association for Gifted and Talented Youth) Pilot. This project aimed to collect evidence about fresh approaches to education beyond the existing curricula of formal schooling through exploring the educational potentials and pitfalls of Second Life. Diverse quantitative and qualitative data sources are drawn upon to investigate issues relating to engagement, development of domain-specific and knowledge age skills as well as challenges for educators. Engagement data showed that only approximately one quarter of students accounted for almost all time spent in Schome Park. Frequency was associated with high levels of use of the wiki and forum. Evidence from self-reports and documentation on the wiki demonstrated very high levels of Second Life skills. Knowledge age skills were assessed within a framework with four levels for four dimensions. In respect of Communication, all students who engaged achieved the first level and a substantial minority initiated and moderated discussions and/or organised events. In respect of Teamwork, tensions were evident early on; however, a substantial number demonstrated their abilities to operate at the highest level being actively involved in solving governance problems. With support students moved from hierarchical approaches to the formation of governance groups, each with department officers, thus furnishing evidence of distributed Leadership at level one. Evidence from a rich and diverse programme of events illustrates an atmosphere which fostered Creativity, permitting explorations, collaborations and the encouragement to risk mistakes. Our experience suggests the importance of understanding the role of teachers in this kind of innovative environment, not as the possessors of relevant knowledge but as facilitators and promoters of a cooperative ethos. We conclude that, despite multiple challenges, there is evidence to support dramatic new possibilities for pedagogic redesigns. Students who engaged with the virtual island, the wiki and the forum demonstrated higher levels of the knowledge age skills of communication, leadership, teamwork and creativity

Ownership & influence

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/19807 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Deeper share ownership

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:8310.951(SMF-P--12) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Closing the communications gap Disclosure and institutional shareholders

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:98/06330 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo