Innovative and Technology-Enhanced Learning Approaches for Older Adults

Dado que los alumnos adultos (y especialmente los alumnos mayores de sesenta años) son un grupo muy heterogéneo, es un reto crear conceptos de aprendizaje que se acoplen a la totalidad del grupo y respeten las necesidades particulares. El aprendizaje en línea puede ser una solución, pues posibilita un método de aprendizaje muy individualizado pero sin dejar de formar parte de la comunidad de alumnos que participan en un curso de estas características. Los cursos en línea para el aprendizaje de las TIC destinados a la tercera edad han revelado que este puede ser un modo muy adecuado de aprendizaje, siempre que se cumplan ciertos principios didácticos y que se ofrezca comunicación y apoyo al alumno. Este artículo describe algunas directrices básicas para la idoneidad de cursos sobre las TIC destinados a las personas mayores, y ofrece una solución para esa parte de la tercera edad que mantiene todavía ideas negativas hacia el uso de dichas TIC. Con las posibilidades de aprendizaje que brindan los dispositivos móviles, la adquisición de conocimientos sobre las TIC se facilita aún más, pues el uso de una tableta requiere menos destrezas tecnológicas que el uso de un ordenador estándar. Dado que los primeros resultados del aprendizaje a través de dispositivos móviles para la tercera edad son muy prometedores, un nuevo proyecto europeo ofrece material de aprendizaje para usuarios sin experiencia previa en cuatro países europeos. El presente artículo da a conocer también ese proyecto.As adult learners, and especially learners older than sixty years of age, are a very heterogenic group, it is challenging to create learning concepts which suit the entire group and respect particular needs. E-learning can be a solution, as it is possible to learn very individually but still as part of a learning community when participating in an e-learning course. E-learning courses for older adults about ICT learning have revealed that this can be a very successful way of learning as long as some didactical principles are fulfilled, and communication and support is offered to the learner. This article describes some basic guidelines for successful ICT courses for older adults and offers a solution for older adults who still have negative feelings towards using ICT. With the possibilities of mobile learning, ICT literacy acquisition becomes even easier as tablet use requires less technology skills than the use of a standard computer. As first results of mobile learning for older adults are very promising, a new European project offers learning material for unexperienced users in four European countries. This project is also introduced in this article

D2.4 Guidance and assessment tutorial: Inquiry Guidance and Assessment Tutorial

The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices. It lowers the threshold for linking everyday life with science teaching in schools by technology. weSPOT supports the meaningful contextualization of scientific concepts by relating them to personal curiosity, experiences, and reasoning. weSPOT addresses several challenges in the area of science learning and technology support for building personal conceptual knowledge. The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach. The project is focused on three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The foreseen weSPOT Toolkit gives smart support for personal scientific inquiry to address a lack of scientific inquiry skills in an age group of 12-25. The current deliverable, D2.4, outlines the inquiry guidance and assessment tutorial, to support teachers in their quest for scientific inquiry. The inquiry guidance tutorial includes several items that will introduce the weSPOT IBL model to the teachers, provide them with examples of how to use it in practice, describe the available tools and show them how they work. This diagnostic tutorial is focused on the diagnostic instrument which will look at the entire inquiry life cycle which may start with the formulation of a research question and may end with the valorisation of the results and it will cover the four different complexities of inquiry, from confirmation inquiry to open, self-directed inquiry. The second part of the deliverable focuses on the diagnostic framework describing the adopted approach. The weSPOT diagnostic instrument for inquiry skills and competences aimed at a) to establish a European baseline of the current level of inquiry skills in the target group and b) to demonstrate the potential of the weSPOT-technology for STEM-learning in general.weSPOT Project IST (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement N° 318499

weSPOT: a cloud-based approach for personal and social inquiry

Scientific inquiry is at the core of the curricula of schools and universities across Europe. weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a cloud-based approach for personal and social inquiry. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mashups out of cloud-based tools in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishments in social networks and receive feedback from the learning environment and their peers

weSPOT: A personal and social approach to inquiry-based learning

weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a novel approach for personal and social inquiry-based learning in secondary and higher education. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mash-ups out of cloud based tools and services in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishments in social networks and receive feedback from the learning environment and their peers. This paper presents the research framework of the weSPOT project, as well as the initial inquiry-based learning scenarios that will be piloted by the project in real-life educational settings

Working Environment with Social and Personal Open Tools for Inquiry-based learning: Pedagogic and Diagnostic Frameworks

The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach and it contains three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The current work outlines the pedagogical and diagnostic frameworks for scientific inquiry. The pedagogical framework is aimed at supporting informal, self-regulated learning settings as well as the embedding in a formal learning context. The scientific exploration process can take place independently, or in collaboration with others. The diagnostic framework focuses on the pedagogical diagnosis, which will be tailored to the ambitious aim of inferring students' inquiry and meta-cognitive skills as well as domain-specific knowledge from observational data tracked within the weSPOT environment. Pilot studies planned to be conducted in 16 test-beds across 6 EU countries will test the reference model and make use of the diagnostic instrument

Working Environment with Social and Personal Open Tools for Inquiry-based learning: Pedagogic and Diagnostic Frameworks

The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach and it contains three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The current work outlines the pedagogical and diagnostic frameworks for scientific inquiry. The pedagogical framework is aimed at supporting informal, self-regulated learning settings as well as the embedding in a formal learning context. The scientific exploration process can take place independently, or in collaboration with others. The diagnostic framework focuses on the pedagogical diagnosis, which will be tailored to the ambitious aim of inferring students' inquiry and meta-cognitive skills as well as domain-specific knowledge from observational data tracked within the weSPOT environment. Pilot studies planned to be conducted in 16 test-beds across 6 EU countries will test the reference model and make use of the diagnostic instrument.weSPOT is a 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) project funded by the European Commission under grant agreement number: 318499 (http://wespot.net)