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

Automating content generation for large-scale virtual learning environments using semantic web services

The integration of semantic web services with three-dimensional virtual worlds offers many potential avenues for the creation of dynamic, content-rich environments which can be used to entertain, educate, and inform. One such avenue is the fusion of the large volumes of data from Wiki-based sources with virtual representations of historic locations, using semantics to filter and present data to users in effective and personalisable ways. This paper explores the potential for such integration, addressing challenges ranging from accurately transposing virtual world locales to semantically-linked real world data, to integrating diverse ranges of semantic information sources in a usercentric and seamless fashion. A demonstrated proof-of-concept, using the Rome Reborn model, a detailed 3D representation of Ancient Rome within the Aurelian Walls, shows several advantages that can be gained through the use of existing Wiki and semantic web services to rapidly and automatically annotate content, as well as demonstrating the increasing need for Wiki content to be represented in a semantically-rich form. Such an approach has applications in a range of different contexts, including education, training, and cultural heritage

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)

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: 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