Sara Logghe

Hybrid e-TextBooks as comprehensive interactive learning environments

ABSTRACT An e-TextBook can serve as an interactive learning environment (ILE), facilitating more effective teaching and learning processes. In this paper, we propose the novel concept of an EPUB 3-based Hybrid e-TextBook, which allows for interaction between the digital and the physical world. In that regard, we first investigated the gap between the expectations of teachers with respect to e-TextBook functionalities, on the one hand, and the ILE functionalities offered by e-TextBooks, on the other hand. Next, together with teachers, we co-designed and developed prototype EPUB 3-based Hybrid e-TextBooks that make it possible to connect their learning content to smart devices in classrooms, leveraging both digital publishing and Semantic Web tools. Based on experimentation with our prototype Hybrid e-TextBooks, we can argue that a semantically enriched EPUB 3-based Hybrid e-TextBook is able to act as a comprehensive ILE, providing the tools needed by teachers in smart classrooms. Furthermore, expert observations and Smiley o’meter results demonstrate an effective impact on student cognition and motivation.

Hybrid Books for Interactive Digital Storytelling: Connecting Story Entities and Emotions to Smart Environments

Nowadays, many people use e-books, having high expectations regarding their reading experience. In the case of digital storytelling, enhanced e-books can connect story entities and emotions to real-world elements. In this paper, we present the novel concept of a Hybrid Book, a generic Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) artifact that requires seamless collaboration between content and smart devices. To that end, we extract data from a story and broadcast these data in RDF as Linked Data. Smart devices can then receive and process these data in order to execute corresponding actions. By following open standards, a Hybrid Book can also be seen as an interoperable and sustainable IDN artifact. Furthermore, according to our user-based evaluation, a Hybrid Book makes it possible to provide human sensible feedback while flipping pages, enabling a more enjoyable reading experience. Finally, the participants positive willingness to pay makes it possible to generate more revenue for publishers.

Developing an Audiovisual Cultural Heritage Platform for Educational Purposes: A Case Study of Teacher-Involvement Using a Living Lab Approach

For the last few decades, technological developments have fostered improvements in the process of digitizing audiovisual heritage. Besides the archiving of the audiovisual heritage content, it is also important to provide access to this specific content in order to pass on cultural heritage to future generations. However, in literature little is known about the needs and wants of end-users on audiovisual heritage archives. Within this paper we will assess the value of the Living Lab approach to map the needs of end-users and to facilitate user contributions. This will be done by a case study analysis of VIAA (the Flemish Institute of Archiving) that wants to unlock its digital archive for educational purposes. The main goal of this paper is to give an illustration of the Living Lab approach in order to map the needs of teachers towards an audiovisual heritage platform.