Revisiting Affordances for Learning in Mobile Technology Based Environments

The term “affordance” has been used in Information Communications Technology (ICT) based environment to explore the opportunities the educational technologies provide for students. Gibson (1979/1986) defines affordances as the possibilities that the environment offers for the perceiver. The perceiver and the environment make an inseparable pair. In the case of learning, affordances are those relationships that provide a “match” between something in the environment and the learner (Van Lier, 2004) as a whole. The learning environment is a complex system consists of different components and layers. By becoming integrated components of the environment, different learning entities, whether social or individual, constitute affordances for each other. Through interactions, these affordances are integrated, and transform into effectivities (Visser, 2001). Besides, according to Gibson, affordances are invariant. However, they can be increased when the intensity of stimulation changes. They can also form higher order affordances when primary affordances are always found in particular combinations. Finally, Gibson (1979/1986) argues that affordances are not neutral. A focus on affordances for learning in mobile technology-based environment helps us identify how the environment as an integrated whole provides support for students’ learning, what and how components of the environment interact to provide various affordances.published_or_final_versionCentre of Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong and Education and Manpower Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong SA

The effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game

In this paper, we present an educational game for an iPhone and a Tablet PC. The main objective of the game was to reinforce children's knowledge about the water cycle. The game included different interaction forms like the touch screen and the accelerometer and combined AR mini-games with non-AR mini-games for better gameplay immersion. The main differences between the two devices were screen size and weight. A comparative study to check how these differences affect different aspects was carried out. Seventy-nine children from 8 to 10 years old participated in the study. From the results, we observed that the different characteristics (screen size and weight) of the devices did not influence the children's acquired knowledge, engagement, satisfaction, ease of use, or AR experience. There was only a statistically significant difference for the global score in which the iPhone was scored higher.We would like to highlight that the scores for the two devices and for all the questions were very high with means of over 4 (on a scale from 1 to 5). These positive results suggest that games of this kind could be appropriate educational games and that the mobile device used may not be a decisive factor. (C)2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was funded by the Spanish APRENDRA project (TIN2009-14319-C02). We would like to thank the following for their contributions: The "Escola d'Estiu" and especially Juan Cano, Miguelon Gimenez, and Javier Irimia. This work would not have been possible without their collaboration. Noemi Rando, Encarna Torres, Severino Gonzalez, M. Jose Vicent, Patricia Liminana, Tamara Aguilar, Alfonso Lopez, Yolanda Martinez, Enrique Daunis, M. Jose Martinez, and Eloy Hurtado for their help. The children's parents who signed the agreement to allow their children to participate in the study. The children who participated in the study. The ETSInf for letting us use its facilities during the testing phase.Furió Ferri, D.; González Gancedo, S.; Juan Lizandra, MC.; Seguí, I.; Costa, M. (2013). The effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game. Computers and Education. 64:24-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.015S24416

Visualization methods for analysis of 3D multi-scale medical data

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Evaluation of mobile and communication technologies for language learning

Results from a study by the Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia indicate that the English language performance of Malaysian university students and graduates is a cause of concern. The National Higher Education Strategic Plan was launched by the Malaysian government in 2007 as a response to the challenges of the education sector that needs to be more internationalised and industry driven. In the strategic plan, the English language is identified as a crucial element in the effort to achieve a developed country status by the year 2020. Therefore, academicians and researchers are actively finding ways to improve students English skills in reading, listening, writing and speaking. Mobile Learning (or m-learning) is a new approach to enhance the learning experience utilising mobile technologies. For example, in order to learn new words the brain requires repeated reminders. The use of mobile devices can help to reinforce the learning process. The use of mobile devices to deliver learning in chunks or nugget sizes, on the move, at any time and anywhere, have shown to engage the learners very effectively in some research projects. Communication technologies such as blogs and Wikis also hold promises for enhancing learning. For instance, writing for a wider audience encourages students' ownership and responsibility. Moreover, comments and feedback from peers can motivate and encourage students. This, in turn, will lead to more active participation. Recognising the potential of these technologies for language learning, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of using mobile phones and communication technologies for English language learning with Malaysian students. Two experiments were carried out in this study. The initial pilot experiment was carried out with a small group of students to determine the feasibility of using mobile and communication technologies for language learning for Malaysian students in higher education. The main experiment was conducted after addressing the lessons learned from the initial experiment. An experimental group and a control group from a public higher education institution in Malaysia took part in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and analysed. The quantitative results show that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in the post written test. The experimental group is in favour of receiving lesson reminders and quizzes that were sent to their mobile phones. However, they did not like receiving messages about web resources. They also did not like reading learning material on a wiki and updating wiki entries. Three themes are derived from the interviews and questionnaires: 1) access, 2) communication, and 3) usability. Access to learning focuses on the ease of use to access learning materials. Students agreed that mobile phones and wikis allowed them to access learning material easily. However, the use of wiki did not engage the students. In terms of communication, lecturers and students can use mobile phone and wiki platforms for communication. However, students were not keen to communicate with the lecturer. As for usability, the students have no problems using a mobile phone but the problem is with the small screen size and it is difficult to type long replies. The students did not want to invest time in learning how to use a wiki as they see it as being irrelevant because they did not want to publish and share their ideas with others. In conclusion, the use of a mobile phone and wiki for language learning is feasible, but further investigation is required regarding student engagement. The lessons learned from this study can help practitioners, in particular those in Malaysia, to adapt their language learning processes when integrating mobile and communication technologies