Johan Eliasson

Lessons from Designing Geometry Learning Activities that Combine Mobile and 3D Tools

The availability of low-cost and powerful mobile devices and 3D modeling and visualization tools provides new opportunities for bringing innovation into mathematics education. This paper reports on the findings from a mobile geometry project pilot for middle school students designed together with teachers that consisted of outdoors and indoors activities. The aim of the project has been to design and implement a prototype that combines mobile and 3D technologies that allow students to collaboratively, explore, and discuss geometrical concepts. The focus of this paper is to present and reflect on the lessons we have learned after experimenting with novel pedagogical activities that rely on mobile applications, 3D modeling and visualization to support learning in the field of geometry. Finding a balance between team goals and expectations while focusing on the learning activity flow can lead to more innovative solutions.

Mobile Devices as Support Rather than Distraction for Mobile Learners: Evaluating Guidelines for Design

This article questions the design of mobile learning activities that lead students to spend time focusing on the mobile devices at the expense of interacting with other students or exploring the environment. This problem is approached from an interaction design perspective, designing and analysing geometry-learning activities. The authors present six guidelines for designing mobile learning activities, where mobile devices support rather than distract students from contents and contexts relevant to the learning goals. The guidelines are developed through video analysis of groups of middle school students doing learning activities outdoors and evaluated using the task model. The guidelines suggest that students 1 assume roles based on a different functionality of each device, 2 use devices as contextual tools, that the activities, 3 include physical interaction with the environment, 4 let teachers assume roles, 5 encourage face-to-face communication, and 6 introduce students to the mobile devices.

Exploring the Challenges of Supporting Collaborative Mobile Learning

Mobile technology opens up opportunities for collaborative learning in otherwise remote contexts outside the classroom. A successful realization of these opportunities relies, however, on mobile learning activities providing adequate collaboration structures. This article presents an empirical study aimed at examining the role played by mobile devices, teachers and task structures as a means for collaborative learning in geometry. The study focused on the analysis of the nature of collaboration that unfolded when students measured areas outdoors in the field. The analysis of the mobile learning activity was conducted from an Activity theory perspective. The findings obtained indicate that the collaboration observed may be impaired if: 1 the functionalities needed for collaborative problem-solving are asymmetrically distributed on a number of mobile devices; 2 task-related information is not accessible to all learners; 3 the task structure is not sufficiently complex; 4 teacher scaffolding is too readily available; and 5 necessary collaborative skills are not developed.

Using Smartphones and QR Codes for Supporting Students in Exploring Tree Species

Smartphones are increasingly being used on field trips to support students in exploring the natural world. In this paper we present a design and analysis of an inquiry-based learning field trip for primary school students. One problem for design is how to make use of smartphones to support, rather than distract, students in interacting with the physical environment. We approach this problem by comparing two alternative designs, where students use smartphones for identifying tree species either by using an identification instrument or by reading a text description. The results show that students made use of the instrument for identification, QR codes, for identifying tree species and made use of the text descriptions for searching for tree species. In this sense, QR codes, connecting contextual information on smartphones to the physical environment, work as a learning tool that may be used for orienting students in their interaction with the physical environment.

Design Guidelines for Location-Based and Contextual Learning Supported by Mobile Devices

In location-based and contextual mobile learning, students are continually mobile in the virtual, social, and physical environment. A common problem in this view of mobile learning is that students spend time focusing on the mobile devices at the expense of interacting with other students or exploring the physical environment. The authors approach this problem from an interaction design perspective, where they design and analyse geometry-learning activities in two iterations. Based on video data from groups of students participating in the learning activities, the authors analyse when mobile devices are in the foreground and background of their interaction. The authors present six guidelines for designing location-based and contextual mobile learning activities, where mobile devices support rather than distract students from contents and contexts relevant to the learning goals. Finally, the guidelines are evaluated using a model of interaction, which represents mobile device interaction as one of four different modes of human interaction with technology.

Evaluating Interaction with Mobile Devices in Mobile Inquiry-Based Learning

We evaluate to what extent students are interacting with mobile devices in one of four ways intended in the design of a mobile learning activity. Video data from one class of fifth grade students were analyzed using a model of four different types of interaction. The evaluation shows that the students interacted with the devices in the ways intended in design 64% of the time. The contribution is an approach for translating learning goals to interaction design goals in mobile learning research. We conclude that this approach can be of value in designing and evaluating interaction with mobile devices for an entire mobile learning activity.

Exploring mediums of pedagogical support in an across contexts mobile learning activity

The possibility to step out of the classroom for learning in authentic contexts, that which earlier have been studied in abstract terms in the classroom context, can be an enormous asset to the educational system. A successful realization of this possibility relies, however, on that the designed mobile learning activities provide the pedagogical support learning requires. In this exploratory study, we aim to present findings on how learners can be supported in a mobile learning activity by utilizing resources available in educational settings such as teachers, mobile technology, and the possibility to cross contexts.

Embodied Interaction or Context-Aware Computing? An Integrated Approach to Design

This paper revisits the notion of context from an interaction design perspective. Since the emergence of the research fields of Computer supported cooperative work and Ubiquitous computing, the notion of context has been discussed from different theoretical approaches and in different research traditions. One of these approaches is Embodied Interaction. This theoretical approach has in particular contributed to (i) challenge the view that user context can be meaningfully represented by a computer system, (ii) discuss the notion of context as interaction through the idea that users are always embodied in their interaction with computer systems. We believe that the particular view on users context that the approach of Embodied Interaction suggests needs to be further elaborated in terms of design. As a contribution we suggest an integrated approach where the interactional view of Embodied Interaction is interrelated with the representational view of Context-aware computing.