Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Contextblogger: learning by blogging in the real world

De Jong, T., Specht, M., & Koper, R. (2007). Contextblogger: learning by blogging in the real world. Proceedings of the ePortfolio Conference. October, 18-20, 2007, Maastricht, The Netherlands. [See also http://hdl.handle.net/1820/1680 ]In this paper we represent one specific instantiation of contextualised mobile social software for learning called contextualised blogging. Contextualised blogging combines the community aspects and flexible content access of a mobile blog with the adaptation to real-world settings made possible by contextualised computing. By combining both social and physical context information, we aim to improve current informal learning approaches. A special kind of data matrix symbols, called semacodes, is used to relate information from a blog to physical objects. The contextualised blogging application in this paper is developed in three steps. First, a conceptual model of the problem domain will be described. Second, a general technical framework based on this conceptual model will be developed. Finally, a specific instantiation of the technical framework called “ContextBlogger” is presented. The paper concludes with a description of the planned evaluation of the software, a summary, and a conclusion of the results so far

Towards customized intraocular lenses

In the eye there are two refractive components that make light focus on the retina and let you see: the cornea and the lens. When a eye develops cataract the lens becomes caractarous and is removed and replaced with a synthetic intraocular lens during a cataract surgery procedure. Although there was only one general intraocular lens used when this procedure was first developed, nowadays the properties of the lens can be specified to correct the sphere of the eye and in some cases even the cylinder can be compensated, much like with contacts or glasses. However, each eye suffers from some smaller, local defects in the refraction of the light as well, due to the imperfections in the shape of the cornea. In general these aberrations are of such a small magnitude that it is completely unnoticable for the patient. Whenever the cornea is damaged due to illness or refractive surgery however, the abberations can heavily affect the comfort and visual performance of the patient. Theoratically this problem could be solved when a customized intraocular lens would be implanted during the cataract surgery procedure, much like the focus of the intraocular lens is already customized for the eye. In this thesis I present several findings I did with the final gaol of developing customized intraocular lenses

Contextualised Mobile Media for Learning

De Jong, T. (2011). Contextualised Mobile Media for Learning. June, 10, 2011, Heerlen, The Netherlands: Open University in the Netherlands, CELSTEC. SIKS Dissertation Series No. 2011-09. ISBN 978 90 79447 47 3The research reported in this thesis was carried out at the Open University of the Netherlands in the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies as a part of the MACE project and the TENCompetence project. The European Project MACE is funded by the European Commission’s eContentPlus project, ECP 2005 EDU 038098 (portal.mace-project.eu). The TENCompetence Integrated Project, is funded by the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning, contract 027087 (www.tencompetence.org). The research reported in this thesis has been carried out under the auspices of SIKS, the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems