Eileen Scanlon

Informal learning with PDAs and smartphones

There has been increasing interest in informal learning in recent years alongside interest in how such learning can be supported by technology. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which adults make use of their own mobile devices to support informal learning. In this study, a survey was used to investigate whether, and to what extent, experienced users of mobile devices use their mobile devices to support intentional informal learning. If so, do they make use of mobile device connectivity to support opportunistic informal learning and does such connectivity support or encourage collaborative informal learning? Experienced mobile device users were recruited from web forums and business, and asked whether they used their devices to support informal learning. A pattern of learning uses emerged, some of which deployed the mobile device capabilities relatively unchanged, others triggered adaptations to typical learning activities to provide a better fit to the needs of the learner. These informal learning activities provided the basis for the design of a flexible mobile learning framework that can be extended to support developments in mobile technology, and increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies by informal learners.

Using technology in Higher Education: an activity theory perspective

This paper describes the application of Activity Theory to considerations of enhancing learning through the use of technology in Higher Education. The theory is reviewed and its extended version which uses the idea of an activity system to help analyse the use of technology in context described. Two case studies of teaching and learning in Higher Education are described: one exploring the use of ICT in a postgraduate study of science communication and the other a history course using the web to provide a range of resources and communication facilities for students. These two case studies represent different uses of technology in different disciplines and lead to a consideration of how the use of Activity Theory informs understanding of these learning experiences.

Combining interaction and context design to support collaborative argumentation using a tool for synchronous CMC

Empirical studies and theory suggest that educational dialogue can be used to support learners in the development of reasoning, critical thinking and argumentation. This paper presents an educational design for synchronous online peer discussion that guides student dialogue in ways that lead to improved argumentation and collaborative knowledge development. This design includes a mediating interface – or tool, linked to a broader set of online educational activities – a designed local context, where the latter aims to provide conditions that support argumentation. The approach is based on collaborative working and dialogue game approaches to discussion. Preliminary findings with UK Open University students showed the argumentation process was more coherent, varied, deeper and extended when using our interaction design compared with the use of a simple unstructured interface.

Contexts for evaluating educational software

The evaluation of educational software is of concern to two particular academic communities: HCI and educational technology. There is a danger that usability features are considered at the expense of educational issues (and the converse of this is of course equally true). This paper considers how the notion and practice of evaluation in the educational community differs from that in HCI and also identifies areas of overlap. It then describes how particular influences and contexts have led one group of evaluators from the educational community to develop a context, interactions, attitudes and outcomes (CIAO!) model of evaluation for computer assisted learning (CAL) evaluation in distance education. The application of this model is illustrated by case studies from a recent evaluation project and related research. The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues raised for both communities by this model for evaluation. q 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Using remote laboratories to extend access to science and engineering

This paper will describe an approach to the provision of laboratory experience using communications and control technology. This approach provides the possibility of extending access to laboratory work for students who are unable to attend a conventional laboratory for a variety of reasons, such as disability, caring responsibilities, or part-time study. A remote experimentation system is under development for students to conduct a range of experiments in science and engineering education. It will be seen that laboratory work is an important aspect of learning in these disciplines, although there are constraints on its provision, including the specific barriers facing people with disabilities. The PEARL project seeks to overcome many of the existing constraints. The paper presents the design for the system and its specific features, and discusses its use in an educational context. In order to illustrate how PEARL will support people with disabilities, this paper also presents an overview of the assistive technologies currently in use.

PDAs as lifelong learning tools: an activity theory based analysis

This paper describes the use of an activity theory (AT) framework to analyze the ways that distance part time learners and mobile workers adapted and appropriated mobile devices for their activities and in turn how their use of these new tools changed the ways that they carried out their learning or their work. It is argued that there are two key strengths in using an activity theory framework in this context. The first strength is the emphasis activity theory places on tools, including computer artefacts, as mediators of activity. This emphasis focuses attention on the activity itself rather than, for example, simply the interaction between the human and the computer. The focus is on the learner or user’s objectives and activities and the computer is the tool through which the user achieves her objectives. The second strength was referred to briefly above. The AT perspective also enabled analysis of an interactive dynamic process of users or learners and their tools—in this case personal digital assistants (PDAs). It revealed a two way process in which the user adapts the tools they use according to their everyday practice and preferences in order to carry out their activities; and how, in turn, the tools themselves also modify the activities that the user is engaged in. Three case studies illustrate these processes. The first case study is of distance learners’ use of e‐books on PDAs, to supplement their access to other static media such as books and computers. The second case study investigated how mobile workers in the energy industry used mobile devices to access information when away from the office. The third and final case study investigated the use of mobile devices in an art gallery. The paper concludes with a discussion of the information access needs that are apparent in each of these learning contexts, and highlights the pertinent issues in the use of mobile technologies to support lifelong learners’ information needs.

Reconsidering Simulations in Science Education at a Distance: Features of Effective Use

This paper proposes a reconsideration of use of computer simulations in science education. We discuss three studies of the use of science simulations for undergraduate distance learning students. The first one, The Driven Pendulum simulation is a computer-based experiment on the behaviour of a pendulum. The second simulation, Evolve is concerned with natural selection in a hypothetical species of a flowering plant. The third simulation, The Double Slit Experiment deals with electron diffraction and students are provided with an experimental setup to investigate electron diffraction for double and single slit arrangements. We evaluated each simulation, with 30 students each for The Driven Pendulum and Evolve simulations and about 100 students for The Double Slit Experiment. From these evaluations we have developed a set of the features for the effective use of simulations in distance learning. The features include student support, multiple representations and tailorability.

nQuire: Technological Support for Personal Inquiry Learning

This paper describes the development of nQuire, a software application to guide personal inquiry learning. nQuire provides teacher support for authoring, orchestrating, and monitoring inquiries as well as student support for carrying out, configuring, and reviewing inquiries. nQuire allows inquiries to be scripted and configured in various ways, so that personally relevant, rather than off-the-shelf inquiries, can be created and used by teachers and students. nQuire incorporates an approach to specifying learning flow that provides flexible access to current inquiry activities without precluding access to other activities for review and orientation. Dependencies between activities are automatically handled, ensuring decisions made by the student or teacher are propagated through the inquiry. nQuire can be used to support inquiry activities across individual, group, and class levels at different parts of the inquiry and offers a flexible, web-based approach that can incorporate different devices (smart phone, netbook, PC) and does not rely on constant connectivity.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: Problem Solving and Distance Education.

The aim of this research is to understand how to design effective computer based support for collaborative learning in distance education. This paper reports on three preliminary studies of cooperative problem solving among university students. The first is a questionnaire study of Open University students, the aim of which was to determine their participation in and preferences for cooperative work in their courses. The main finding was that although students expressed a preference in general for working alone as opposed to collaboratively, many of them did participate in collaborative work in their courses, and regarded such activities as helpful in their work. A more detailed investigation was indicated in order to determine the nature of collaborative activities that these students engaged in and the ways in which they found them helpful. Two studies are described, one of which was an observational study of group activities at summer school. The other study compared the use of two different kinds of interface for supporting synchronous cooperative problem solving. The implications from these studies are discussed in relation to designing computer support for collaborative learning.

Investigating cooperation and collaboration in near synchronous computer mediated conferences

The development and use of computer mediated communications as a tool for teaching and learning has grown considerably in recent years. It has been developed to extend the conventional face-to-face tutorial environment and for distance-learning purposes, actively engaging students in productive learning situations. Here we document the findings of an analysis of near synchronous conferencing where postgraduate distance learners worked in small groups to produce a report that examined media coverage of controversial science. The results suggest that students actively engaged in both cooperative and collaborative learning in preparing and producing these reports, and that tutor interventions were an important factor in influencing peer interaction. Furthermore, we have found evidence of cooperation between learners who passively participate in vicarious learning. We consider the implications of these findings with respect to current definitions of cooperation and collaboration.