Mobile Interactive Learning in Large Classes

This chapter aims at describing a new platform for mobile and interactive learning targeted as an effective communication medium between the professor and students during lectures. In this system, students and professors will be equipped with a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capable device (which may be PDAs, Laptops, or Tablet PCs) that is connected on the campus-wide Wireless LAN. During lectures, students can ask questions, response to questions or give immediate feedback on the lecture simply by composing a MMS message and sending it to the professor. The main advantage of this learning system is that MMS messaging is easily extensible to the mobile GSM networks, so students are not restricted to use it only on campus. In addition to enabling better interaction between students and instructor, an approach to facilitate student-to-student interaction during a lecture for peer-to-peer learning is proposed, which can be easily integrated into our existing system.

The Role of Multi-Agent Social Networking Systems in Ubiquitous Education

Knowledge it could be argued is constructed from the information actors pick up from the environments they are in. Assessing this knowledge can be problematic in ubiquitous e-learning systems, but a method of supporting the critical marking of e-learning exercises is the Circle of Friends social networking technology. Understanding the networks of practice in which these e-learning systems are part of requires a deeper understanding of information science frameworks. The Ecological Cognition Framework (ECF) provides a thorough understanding of how actors respond to and influence their environment. Forerunners to ecological cognition, such as activity theory have suggested that the computer is just a tool that mediates between the actor and the physical environment. Utilising the ECF it can be seen that for an e-learning system to be an effective teacher it needs to be able to create five effects in the actors that use it, with those being the belonging effect, the demonstration effect, the inspiration effect, the mobilisation effect, and the confirmation effect. In designing the system a developer would have to consider who the system is going to teach, what it is going to teach, why it is teaching, which techniques it is going to use to teach and finally whether it has been successful. This chapter proposes a multi-agent e-learning system called the Portable Assistant for Intelligently Guided Education (PAIGE), which is based around a 3D anthropomorphic avatar for educating actors ubiquitously. An investigation into the market for PAIGE was carried out. The data showed that those that thought their peers were the best form of support were less likely to spend more of their free time on homework. The chapter suggests that future research could investigate the usage of systems like PAIGE in educational settings and the effect they have on learning outcomes.

Design and Implementation of Multiplatform Mobile-Learning Environment as an Extension of SCORM 2004 Specifications

A learner-adaptive self-learning environment has been developed in which both mobile phones and personal computers can be used as client terminals. The learner-adaptive function has been implemented using SCORM 2004 specifications. The specifications were extended to enable offline learning using mobile phones. Because the application-programming environment of mobile phones varies from carrier to carrier, a common content format was specified for the learning content and content-execution mechanisms were developed for each carrier’s environment to maximize content-platform interoperability. The latest learning results achieved by using mobile phones were synchronized with the latest ones on the server-side sequencing engine so that the learner-adaptive function was available from personal computers as well. The system can provide adaptive courses such that the results of a pre-test taken on mobile phones can modify the lecture content on personal computers, fitting them to each learner’s level of knowledge and understanding. The functionality and usability of the system was evaluated through two trial experiments, the first of which involved adult learners and the second with small children and their parents.

Designing Effective Pedagogical Systems for Teaching and Learning with Mobile and Ubiquitous Devices

The aim of this chapter is to explore issues in effective system design to bring about pedagogically sound learning with mobile devices, including the emerging generation of new devices. The authors review pedagogical models and theories applicable to mobile learning (or m-learning) and ubiquitous learning (or u-learning, also sometimes called pervasive learning, or p-learning), consider the technological support available, and describe scenarios and case studies that exemplify the achievements and challenges for each paradigm. They will also consider possible abstractions that relate ways in which learners can work within varied pedagogical model(s) to make use of relevant supporting technologies, e.g., the notions of “personal learning workflows” and “group learning workflows.”

Co-Design and Co-Deployment Methodologies for Innovative m-Learning Systems

Building innovative m-learning systems can be challenging, because innovative technology is tied to innovative practice, and thus the design process needs to consider the social and professional context in which a technology is to be deployed. In this chapter the authors describe a methodology for co-design in m-learning, which includes stakeholders from the domain in the technology design team. Through a case study of a project to support nurses on placement, they show that co-design should be accompanied by co-deployment in order to manage the reception and eventual acceptance of new technology in a particular environment. They present both our co-design and co-deployment methodologies, and describe the techniques that are applicable at each stage.

Plastic Interfaces for Ubiquitous Learning

This chapter presents research around pervasive and ubiquitous computing, particularly oriented in the field of human learning. We are studying several solutions to deliver content over a heterogeneous networks and devices. Converting and transmitting documents across electronic networks is not sufficient. We have to deal with contents and containers simultaneously. Related work in interface adaptation and plasticity (the capacity of a user interface to withstand variations of both the system physical characteristics and the environment while preserving usability) is presented and some examples of context-aware adaptation are exposed. We present an adaptive pervasive learning environment, based on contextual QR Codes, where information is presented to learner at the appropriate time and place, and according to a particular task. This learning environment is called PerZoovasive, where learning activities take place in a zoo and are meant to enhance classroom activities.

A Multiplatform E-learning System for Collaborative Learning

A multiplatform e-learning system called the “Graphical Partitioning Model (GPM)”, with the separate versions for desktop computers and mobile devices, was developed for learning knowledge of fraction equivalence. This chapter presents a case study on the use of the mobile version GPM for the learning of the targeted topic in a mobile technology supported environment. The interactions between a dyad of Primary 5 students and the GPM were analyzed in order to understand the feasibility of the design of the mobile version e-learning system. The results show that the interactions between the students and the GPM have the potential to enhance the learning effectiveness of the targeted topic. The mobile version GPM demonstrated a possibility to integrate with collaborative learning strategies such as reciprocal tutoring and peer discussion. The case study also reveals that there is a potential for the flexible use of the dual-version GPM to foster deep learning.

Tools for Students Doing Mobile Fieldwork

Students are not always sitting at their desk when learning new things – they are also out in the world. The authors present a set of tools they developed to support groups of students who are doing field studies. Initially, the authors gave the students a Wiki for gathering field notes and their group work material. Based on observations on how they used it and collaborated, they developed additional tools to run along with the Wiki. These include a mobile application for capturing data (photo, video, audio, and text) and automatically uploading to the Wiki, and a set of Web tools which run on top of the Wiki for increasing the awareness between students, and for browsing the captured data. They describe the implementation of these tools and report on the experience from having students using them on their own equipment during the course.

SMART

Animation shares many of the educational advantages of digital video production. However, both activities can be time consuming, are non-trivial to implement as whole class activities and there are aspects of the process that are not well scaffolded by currently available software tools. The design, implementation, and evaluation of a mobile learning application called the Stop-Motion Animation and Reviewing Tool (SMART) are described. The application enables users to create animations on a mobile phone and is part of a larger generic suite of open-system software we are developing to facilitate the development of cross platform applications in the area of digital narrative production.

A Method for Generating Multiplatform User Interfaces for E-Learning Environments

In this paper the authors present a structured method for automatically generating User Interfaces for e-learning environments. The method starts with a definition of the learning scenario where the different goals, jobs (professor-student/trainer-learner), and tasks are described and stored in a template. After, the description is mapped to FlowiXML, a learning process authoring tool, where graphically trainers or content designers draw the overall process. A learning process is viewed as a workflow and modeled using Petri net notation. From each step in the process model more details are added using user task models; user’s activity interacting with a user interface is stored in such diagrams. Then, a transformational method for developing user interfaces of interactive information systems is used that starts from a task model and a domain model to progressively derive a final user interface. This method consists of three steps: deriving one or many abstract user interfaces from the task model, deriving one or many concrete user interfaces from each abstract interface, and producing the code of the final user interfaces corresponding to each concrete interface. The models and the transformations of these models are all expressed in UsiXML (User Interface eXtensible Markup Language) and maintained in a model repository that can be accessed by the suite of tools. Developing user interfaces in this way facilitates its automated generation over multiple computing platforms while maintaining portability and consistency between the multiple versions. Our approach is illustrated on an open Learning environment using a case study.