Classifiers for educational technology

Peer reviewe

Characteristics of pervasive learning environments in museum contexts

There is no appropriate learning model for pervasive learning environments (PLEs), and museums maintain authenticity at the cost of unmarked information. To address these problems, we present the LieksaMyst PLE developed for Pielinen Museum and we derive a set of characteristics that an effective PLE should meet and which form the basis of a new learning model currently under development. We discuss how the characteristics are addressed in LieksaMyst and present an evaluation of the game component of LieksaMyst. Results indicate that, while some usability issues remain to be resolved, the game was received well by the participants enabling them to immerse themselves in the story and to interact effectively with its virtual characters

Troubled by the humics — effects of water colour and interspecific competition on the feeding efficiency of planktivorous perch

Peer reviewe

Suomenlahden tilan muutokset – vaikutukset avomerialueen kalakantoihin ja kalastukseen

Hankkeessa arvioitiin ympäristötekijöiden ja niissä tapahtuvien muutosten vaikutuksia Suomenlahden avomerialueen kalojen alueelliseen runsaudenvaihteluun, kalojen ravinnonkäyttöön ja kalojen kuntoon. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että GAM-mallinnuksen (yleistetty additiivinen malli) avulla kalatiheyden vaihtelut avomerialueella voitiin selittää suureksi osaksi ympäristötekijöistä johtuviksi. Tutkimusajanjakson aikana Suomenlahden kalakannoissa tapahtui voimakkaita muutoksia. Sekä silakoiden että kilohailien osoitettiin vuonna 2003 kärsineen ravintopulasta. Kalat olivat laihoja ja suuri osa oli selvästi nälkiintyneitä. Nuorten kalojen kasvun havaittiin olevan erittäin vähäistä vuonna 2003. Kalojen nälkiintymisestä seurannut silakka- ja kilohailikantojen huono tila yhdessä samanaikaisesti voimaan tulleiden pyydysrajoitusten kanssa aiheutti Suomenlahden silakka- ja kilohailisaaliiden ennennäkemättömän voimakkaan romahduksen vuonna 2003. Hankkeessa myös arvioitiin, miten mahdolliset kalastuksessa tulevaisuudessa tapahtuvat muutokset vaikuttaisivat dioksiinien ja furaanien kertymiseen Suomenlahden ja Itämeren pääaltaan silakkaan ja kilohailiin. Hankkeessa kehitettiin mallit, joiden avulla osoitettiin olevan mahdollista kuvata kilohailin ja silakan kasvun riippuvuutta kalatiheydestä ja ympäristötekijöistä. Malleja käytettiin ennustettaessa kalastuksen vaikutuksia kalakantojen tilaan ja dioksiinien kertymiseen silakkaan ja kilohailiin. Kehitetyn mallin avulla kalastuskuolevuuden osoitettiin potentiaalisesti vaikuttavan erityisesti kilohailin kasvuun ja dioksiinien kertymiseen kilohailiin. Silakan kasvunmuutoksiin ja dioksiinien kerääntymiseen todennäköisesti vaikuttavat kalatiheyden ohella Itämeren suolapitoisuuden muutokset

On designing a pervasive mobile learning platform

This article presents the features, design and architecture of the Myst pervasive game platform that has been applied in creating pervasive mobile learning games in various contexts such as science festivals and museums in Finland. Based on our experiences with the development, we draw a set of design principles for creating successfully a pervasive game platform that can be easily ported to various contexts. These principles advocate openness, flexibility, interaction models, connections to the outside world, and participatory design of the game content. In the evaluation part we present preliminary results of tests conducted in Finland at the SciFest 2008 festival in Joensuu and at the Museum of Technology in Helsinki. The results suggest that games built with the Myst platform are particularly suitable for children and young adults, and these games motivate players to interact with the environment and help to learn by discovering new things. The Myst platform has clearly potential for similar success in other environments due to easy portability and extensibility

Where is the answer? The importance of curiosity in pervasive mobile games

ABSTRACT Today games are increasingly recognized not only for their entertainment value, but also for their positive impact on social interaction, educational potential, technical interests, publicity and economical power. A new game genre of pervasive games extends a virtual game world into the real world environment, allowing players to move seamlessly from one to the other. Our research is focused on identifying the elements that are important in a pervasive playful application that can trigger the interest of different individuals towards the reflection and understanding of the knowledge surrounding them. Our findings suggest that stimulating the curiosity of players is one of these key elements, and that it should be considered in the design of serious mobile games with pervasive characteristics, while looking to enrich the informal learning. In addition, mobile phones are well accepted as play tools. These results are based on the feedback given by 45 players of our game entitled SciMyst, which is a mobile adventure game with pervasive and multiplayer characteristics. In SciMyst the player has to solve different types of enigmas, which are based on the information from the real world. The player is required to become familiar with the surroundings in order to succeed, and at the same time s/he is learning from the environment in a playful manner. The game was in action and the data collection took place during SciFest 2007, a science festival in Joensuu, Finland, in March 2007

COMPARING MAXIMUM A POSTERIORI VECTOR QUANTIZATION AND GAUSSIAN MIXTURE MODELS IN SPEAKER VERIFICATION

Gaussian mixture model- universal background model (GMM-UBM) is a standard reference classifier in speaker verification. We have recently proposed a simplified model using vector quantization (VQ-UBM). In this study, we extensively compare these two classifiers on NIST 2005, 2006 and 2008 SRE corpora, while having a standard discriminative classifier (GLDS-SVM) as a reference point. We focus on parameter setting for N-top scoring, model order, and performance for different amounts of training data. The most interesting result, against a general belief, is that GMM-UBM yields better results for short segments whereas VQ-UBM is good for long utterances. The results also suggest that maximum likelihood training of the UBM is sub-optimal, and hence, alternative ways to train the UBM should be considered

Hypercontextualized learning games: fantasy, motivation, and engagement in reality

A Hypercontextualized Game (HCG) is a locally designed game that supports its players in gathering context-specific information and in-depth understanding and knowledge regarding the context of a site. LIEKSAMYST, an exciting mobile application, with which visitors can play various games based on stories, was originally developed for the open-air section of the Pielinen Museum and is an example of such a hypercontextualized game. Each individual game (which together make up LIEKSAMYST) was developed in, for and with the co-operation of the Pielinen Museum. In its design, LIEKSAMYST purposefully attempts to connect users to the local history and thus promote affective engagement. With the co-operation of both a local school (Lieksan Keskuskoulu) and the museum authorities, we set out to discover how LIEKSAMYST guides the informal learning experience of Grade 7 pupils. We gathered information from 101 pupils on-site (through questionnaires) and used this data, as well as the pupils’ academic grades, to elucidate our study by investigating the relationship between engagement and motivation. The data were analyzed using a quantitative method guided by a qualitative interpretational approach and we found a significant correlation between (a) fantasy and (b) affective and cognitive engagement. The study highlighted the importance of evoking and harnessing both affective and cognitive engagement, through the fundamental element of fantasy, in the game narrativ