148 research outputs found
From conditioning to learning communities: Implications of fifty years of research in eâlearning interaction design
This paper will consider eâlearning in terms of the underlying learning processes and interactions that are stimulated, supported or favoured by new media and the contexts or communities in which it is used. We will review and critique a selection of research and development from the past fifty years that has linked pedagogical and learning theory to the design of innovative eâlearning systems and activities, and discuss their implications. It will include approaches that are, essentially, behaviourist (Skinner and GagnĂ©), cognitivist (Pask, Piaget and Papert), situated (Lave, Wenger and SeelyâBrown), socioâconstructivist (Vygotsky), socioâcultural (Nardi and Engestrom) and communityâbased (Wenger and Preece). Emerging from this review is the argument that effective eâlearning usually requires, or involves, highâquality educational discourse, that leads to, at the least, improved knowledge, and at the best, conceptual development and improved understanding. To achieve this I argue that we need to adopt a more holistic approach to design that synthesizes features of the included approaches, leading to a framework that emphasizes the relationships between cognitive changes, dialogue processes and the communities, or contexts for eâlearning
Growing intimate privatepublics: Everyday utopia in the naturecultures of a young lesbian and bisexual womenâs allotment
The Young Womenâs Group in Manchester is a âyoung womenâs peer health project, run by and for young lesbian and bisexual womenâ, which runs an allotment as one of its activities. At a time when interest in allotments and gardening appears to be on the increase, the existence of yet another community allotment may seem unremarkable. Yet we suggest that this queer allotment poses challenges for conventional theorisations of allotments, as well as for understandings of public and private. In this article we explore how the allotment project might be understood to be intensely engaged in âgrowing intimate publicsâ, or what we term âprivatepublicsâ. These are paradoxical intimacies, privatepublic spaces which are not necessarily made possible in the usual private sphere of domestic homes. Here we focus on the work involved in materialising the allotment, which we understand as a queer privatepublic ânaturecultureâ (Haraway, 2008) which appears as an âeveryday utopiaâ (Cooper, 2014)
A Dialogue and Social Software Perspective on Deep Learning Design
This article considers projects in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) that have focussed on designing digital tools that stimulate and support dialogue rich learning. These have emphasised collaborative thinking and meaning making in a rich and varied range of educational contexts. Technically, they have exploited AI, CSCL and HCI techniques, and ongoing projects are incorporating social software and semantic technologies. To address the particular challenge of extending this line of work within the Web 2.0 landscape and beyond, where the pace of technological change is profound, we will introduce the original notion of Deep Learning Design (DLD). This is a paradigm that we hold is important to both better understanding and realising learning in the digital age that counters the sort of technological determinism that is unhealthy for the field of learning. So this article will: consider the current challenges of designing dialogue rich learning; explain why the challenges raised necessitate the introduction of an original conceptualisation of design; and, exemplify and map this new notion of design to two large-scale TEL initiatives. These are projects in Digital Dialogue Games (DDGs) and MATURE: Continuous Social Learning in Knowledge Networks, where the latter includes a particular strand of research that brings both projects together. Finally some implications are considered and some conclusions are drawn
RadioActive101-Learning through radio, learning for life: an international approach to the inclusion and non-formal learning of socially excluded young people
This article describes an original international approach to inclusion and non-formal learning of socially excluded young people, through participatory internet radio - RadioActive101. First, we critically discuss the social and digital exclusion of young people. We then describe our approach - that includes participatory action research methods that are influenced by the work of Dewey and Freire, and operate as a process of complex intervention. This supports the inclusive co-production of radio content in ways that support non-formal learning in two EU contextsâthe UK and Portugal. We then summarise and compare a qualitative investigation of RadioActive101. This showed positive results, with important similarities and differences between the two contexts. Participants reported that RadioActive101 was motivating and contributed to the development of contemporary skills, and also stimulated improvements in psychosocial dimensions such as confidence (self-efficacy) and self-esteem. This investigation informed the development of an original recognition system for non-formal learning that maps EU Key Competences for Lifelong Learning to radio practices and activities that are recognised through electronic badges. Our reflections emphasise that in order to support the non-formal learning of socially excluded young people we must foreground our attention to fostering psychosocial dimensions alongside developing contemporary competences.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Digging by Debating: Linking massive datasets to specific arguments
We will develop and implement a multi-scale workbench, called "InterDebates", with the goal of digging into data provided by hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of digitized books, bibliographic databases of journal articles, and comprehensive reference works written by experts. Our hypotheses are: that detailed and identifiable arguments drive many aspects of research in the sciences and the humanities; that argumentative structures can be extracted from large datasets using a mixture of automated and social computing techniques; and, that the availability of such analyses will enable innovative interdisciplinary research, and may also play a role in supporting better-informed critical debates among students and the general public. A key challenge tackled by this project is thus to uncover and represent the argumentative structure of digitized documents, allowing users to find and interpret detailed arguments in the broad semantic landscape of books and articles
VR-Participation & Dialogue: Towards Integrated Framework for Virtual Reality-Mediated Consensus and Community Building
Successful e-Participation requires a thriving community of users-citizens who engage and collaborate with governments and decision
makers on key democratic and social maters. Effective community building and meaningful social interactions are contingent
on strong, organic consensus achieved through engaging dialogue
rather than discussions or argumentation.
The emerging social Virtual Reality platforms offer new means of
immersive communication that brings an opportunity to overcome
some of the challenges identified to be hindering state-of-the-art e-Participation from supporting constructive citizen-to-government
dialogue. In this paper we investigate the key concepts and explore
the principles of dialogue and consensus building in the context of
e-Participation. We match those principles with specific VR affordances and propose an Integrative Framework for Virtual-Reality-Mediated Consensus and Community Building. Finally, we discuss
the application of the framework to e-Participation
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