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Learning Technology publication
of IEEE Computer Society's |
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Volume 9 Issue 3 & 4 |
ISSN 1438-0625 |
July-October 2007 |
Updating and 'future-proofing' a
rich Computer Aided Language Learning resource
NUCLEO an adaptive role game based
scenario
Pedagogical Issues for Developing
ESL Course on Mobile Phone
MOONCONF – A Synchronous Tool for
Online Collaboration and Training
Provision of Education for People
with Special Needs by means of ICTs
Supporting learners in an inclusive
way with standard-based user modelling techniques
Welcome to the July-October
2007 issue of Learning Technology.
Many advances in
learning technologies are happening throughout the world. This issue focuses in
bringing these new developments and emerging technologies to the readers. This
issue contains papers ranging from practical learning technology solutions to theoretical
underpinnings of learning technology.
Stace looked at how future CALL technologies can be developed in a way that is
independent of the learning environment. He looked ways in which future
developments will not be locked into a particular environment but rather can be
run on any environment. Sanchos, Fuentes and Fernandez-Manjon looked at an
eLearning system which uses a game-based approach to engage the learners. Their
argument stems from the concept that the current technology savvy learners get
bored easily with traditional approaches hence a more engaging learning
environment is needed. An eLearning system named NUCLEO was described to show
how students can be engaged using game-based approaches. Upadhyay and Upadhyay
outlined the pedagogical considerations that should be given in developing “English
as a Second Language” content for mobile devices.
Carvalho and
Bernardo looked at a synchronous tool for online collaboration and training
named MOONCONF. MOONCONF is described as a secure, flexible and rich web-based
application for web communication for conferencing, collaboration and training.
Kotsik and Tokareva describes the projects being implemented by UNESCO in
providing education to people with special needs using Information and
Communication Technology. Santos and Boticario emphasises on the use of student
modelling to support learners while Guha looked at the immense power of
learning technology in achieving higher levels in education and literacy.
This newsletter
focuses publishing new and emerging technologies in education focussing on
advanced learning technologies and its usage in different contexts. Please feel
free to bring forward your ideas and views.
Besides, if you
are involved in research and/or implementation of any aspect of advanced
learning technologies, I invite you to contribute your own work in progress,
project reports, case studies, and events announcements in this newsletter. For
more details, please refer author guidelines at http://www.ieeetclt.org/content/authors-guidelines.
|
Ali Fawaz
Shareef, PhD Director Centre for Open Learning Maldives |
Updating and 'future-proofing' a rich Computer Aided Language Learning
resource
Introduction
A collaborative partnership that endured over nine years
resulted in the establishment of a rich computer-based resource of language
learning materials. While the linguistic content, the design and the activities
did not age, the platform and application used to deliver were both reaching
the end of their life-time. In the case of the former, Apple Computer was
moving to a new operating System in OS X and at the same time, their HyperCard
application was not going to be supported through the OS change and would thus
fade away. All CALL resources that had been developed were Apple OS and
HyperCard only.
The Process – Part I
It was quickly realised that here was an opportunity to 'future-proof'
the resources so that, hopefully, they would not be locked into a particular
delivery environment in the future. This was achieved in two ways, based on the
type of resource that was being rejuvenated.
The first pathway was to move those text-only based grammar activities
to a web delivery environment. At the time, the institution was using Web CT
Campus Edition as the Learning Management System (LMS) application of choice,
so the first part of the process was to migrate content from HyperCard to WebCT
CE. This was achieved by a range of conversion processes, which depended on the
original structure in HyperCard. Some were relatively straightforward, others
were quite complex.
This first step went only part of the way towards future-proofing,
however, as the assessment environment in WebCT CE used a customised
structure that did not necessarily
ensure easy migration to other web delivery mechanisms if the institution's
LCMS was to change again in the future.
# Start of question: AdjB004
:TYPE:S:
:TITLE:AdjB004
:QUESTION:H
Donnez-m'en une douzaine
et............ (demi).
:IMAGE:
:ANSWERS:1
:CASE:1
:ANSWER1:demie:100:0:20:0
:FEEDBACK1:H
:CAT:Adjectives B
# End of question: AdjB004
Figure 1: Example
of WebCT CE question structure
The transformation was completed when WebCT CE became Blackboard Vista.
The resources were migrated from WebCT CE to Blackboard Vista, which uses an
xml structure for its assessment environment. As xml is a web delivery
standard, this should ensure that the resources are no longer locked into any
one delivery format, and should be able to be migrated into new LMS's or other
web browser technology, for example, into the future.
Figure 2 –
Example of resource in HyperCard before conversion
Figure 3 –
Example of resource in Blackboard Vista after conversion
As well as ensuring longevity of the product, there were additional
benefits achieved in this change. The teacher no longer had to rely exclusively
on a programmer to make even the simplest of changes, such as text edits, to
the content of the materials. That could now be done directly as Designer of
the LMS site. No longer did the teacher need to collect student marks from the
various computers that were running the HyperCard resources. Now that is all
gathered and reported on from within the LMS and accessed from wherever the
teacher wanted to, office, home or wherever there is an internet connection,
not just from the computer lab.
The Process – Part II
There was an additional category of CALL activities that existed in the
HyperCard environment, and that was a group of resources that could be
described as multimedia. That is they were more than just 'text only' but
incorporated additional functionality, typically the use of sound files and other
interactivity, that often involved divergent branching pathways, depending upon
student responses. This level of complexity was not possible in the LMS environment.
The pathway chosen for these conversions was to utilise an application
called Runtime Revolution, which is able to open native HyperCard stacks and
then enable rewriting, conversion, redevelopment and delivery as Runtime
Revolution standalone applications. While converting the scripts was reasonably
straightforward, converting the magnitude of sound resource files was another
matter again. This was due to the manner in which HyperCard stored this kind of
resource (internal to the application as resource fork components) as compared
to that used by Runtime Revolution (separate external files). This meant that
each sound files, for example, had to be converted and saved as a single file,
and there were literally thousands of them.
The major benefit of this conversion, however, was that no longer were
these resources available on Apple Macintosh computers only – the longevity
problem being addressed. Once developed in Runtime Revolution, the resource
could be saved in a variety of standalone, self-running applications for a
multitude of environments including, Macintosh OS 9 Classic, Macintosh OS X
(Universal, Power PC or Intel), Windows, and soon Linux and Unix.
Figure 4: Example
of resource in HyperCard before conversion
Figure 5: Example
of resource in Runtime Revolution after conversion
Conclusion
Thousands of hours of CALL resources that have been an integrated part
of French language teaching over many years have now been given a new lease of
life – hopefully at least another 15 years to match the length of life to date.
In the meantime, who knows in what direction web 2 applications may take us.
References
An understanding of the scope of the whole CALL projects and the
resources generated can be seen by referring to the publications by McCarthy
[link:
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/selpl/scd/UOW018761.html] and
similarly the publications by Stace [link:
|
Ray Stace Manager,
Educational Systems Development Senior
Lecturer, Educational Development Centre for
Educational Development and Interactive Resources |
NUCLEO an adaptive role game based scenario
Abstract Traditional
university instructional formats and methods are experimenting an increasing
lack of effectiveness, mainly because student's lack of motivation. The NUCLEO
e-learning system tries to approach the learning scenario to the engaging and
immersive formats of the videogames. It provides a futurist scenario in which
students (represented by avatars) have to collaborate to solve a learning
“mission”. The proposal is based in two socio-constructivist approaches,
problem based learning and computer supported collaborative learning and it
makes use of adaptation techniques to optimize group effectiveness and to
individualize the educational strategy by considering students' learning
styles.
Introduction
The Net Generation has
arrived to university and college. They have grown up using technology for
almost any activity which has surely affected the way they perceive and
interact with their environment. In this context, most university instructional
methods, anchored in traditional text based formats, suffer from an increasing
lack of student's interest. The educational community is starting to feel that
the learning applications may benefit by taking some of the engaging features
of videogames and Internet tools [Prensky 2001].
NUCLEO is an e-learning
environment that combines active and collaborative learning with the engaging
formats of videogames and virtual worlds. Deeply grounded in the
socio-constructive pedagogical stream [Vygotsky 1978], takes the learner
(represented by an avatar) into a futurist scenario where he has to solve a
difficult mission working in collaboration with other students inside a team.
Therefore, the system combines the problem based learning (PBL) and the
computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) approaches in a framework that
uses a multiplayer role videogame as the delivery format.
In a collaborative
learning context, groups are a key factor in the success of the learning
experience. A positive learning experience might turn into a negative one
depending on the group composition [Alfonseca, Carro, Martín, Ortigosa, Paredes
2006]. NUCLEO makes use of adaptation techniques to optimize student's
interaction (by grouping students according to their learning habits) and to
provide personalized learning activities in order to address their specific
learning needs.
Adaptation model in NUCLEO
PBL and CSCL are
increasingly popular instructional methods that require learners to actively
gather and apply knowledge in order to solve ill-structured real-world
problems. However research has shown that the implementation of these approaches
is a challenging task. Among the variety of reasons (see [Miao, Holst, Haake,
Steinmetz 2000]) literature stresses that the students easily loose focus and
get frustrated by lack of adequate guidance and help. This fact implies that
effective PBL requires the tutor to provide a lot of personal attention to the
students. Nevertheless an implicit assumption in collaborative learning is that
students working in groups will learn from and teach one another. NUCLEO uses
this assumption in the form of an adaptation model conceived to combine
students in a way that helps making tutor task a little less demanding by
distributing part of his role to the students themselves.
Adaptation can be
characterized as the ability of an e-learning system to adapt to different
conditions over time. In general, the adaptation process can be described by
three stages: retrieving information about the user, processing the information
to initialize and update a user model, and using the model to provide the
adaptive behaviour [Brusilovsky, Maybury, 2002]. In NUCLEO we consider
student’s learning style according to Vermunt’s conception for constructing a
user model. Vermunt's framework contains relevant information about student’s
capabilities towards the learning process that are, in our opinion, very useful
for optimizing team performance; it includes several student's characteristics concerning their learning
habits that may lead to determine how capable is a student of driving his own
learning process and how much of teacher guiding he needs. Along with the group
formation the student's learning style determines the role he plays in the
learning scenario by conditioning his duties in the proposed mission as well as
the tools he is allowed to use. Also individual learning activities are
proposed to the student depending on his role in order to address specific
learning needs of his learning style type.
Therefore, the student's learning style is the determinant of the adaptation process
(i.e the aspect
of the learning experience which drives the adaptation or "on what is the
adaptation based") and the constituents (i.e. the aspects of the learning
experience subject to adaptation or "what is being adapted") are the
teams and the learning strategies [Brusilovsky, 1999].
Among the variety of
proposals for user modelling [Brusilovsky, Millán 2001], we use a dynamic
stereotyping model that responds to the following adaptive cycle: At the first step
the system classifies the student into a certain learning profile by gathering
the information required using a simplified version of the "Inventory of
Learning Styles" created by J. Vermunt. Then the adaptation engine has to
update and maintain this profile using data from the student system
interaction. We obtain it from three sources: the individual activities, the results of the
collective missions and the evaluation from the rest of the members of the team
of one particular student.
Adaptation of the learning strategy is supported by associating instances of the element role provided in
the IMS LD specification to the different student profiles. As the different
learning activities are conceived to be performed by a certain role, we have
created roles for every defined learner profile (in our case for the considered
learning style types).
Figure 1. Structure of a learning strategy
Conclusions and Future Work
In order to prove
our hypothesis, a pilot system is currently being tested to teach a programming
course in C++ this semester at the Physics Faculty of the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid in Spain.
References
Alfonseca,
E., Carro, R. M., Martín, E., Ortigosa, A., Paredes, P. The
impact of learning styles on student grouping for collaborative learning: A
case study. User Model & User Adapted Interaction. Vol 16. 2006. 377-401.
Brusilovsky P,
1999. Adaptive and Intelligent Technologies for Web-based Education, Kunstliche
Intelligenz, Special Issue on Intelligent Systems and Teleteaching, 4
Brusilovsky, P.,
Maybury, M. T., 2002. From adaptive hypermedia to
the adaptive web. Communications of the ACM, 45(5), 30-33.
Brusilovsky, P.,
Millán, E. "User Models for Adaptive Hypermedia
and Adaptive Educational Systems". P. Brusilovsky, A. Kobsa, and W. Nejdl
(Eds): The Adaptive Web, LNCS 4321, pp. 3-53, 2001.
Miao,
Y., Harrer, A., Hoeksema, K., Hoppe, H. U., Modeling CSCL scripts – A reflection on
learning design approaches. Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative
Learning. Cognitive, Computational and Educational Perspectives. Fischer,
Kollar, Mandl, Haake (Ed.) Springer, 2007.
Prensky, M. Digital natives Digital inmigrants. On the Horizon. NCB University
Press, Vol 9. No. 5, October 2001.
Vygotsky,
L. S. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological process. Harvard
University Press, 1978.
Acknowledgement The Spanish Committee of
Science and Technology (projects TIC2002-04067-C03-02, TIN2004-08367-C02-02 and
TIN2005-08788-C04-01) has partially supported this work, as well as the
Regional Government / Complutense University of Madrid (grant 4155/2005 and
research group 910494).
|
Pilar Sancho Universidad
Complutense de Madrid Dpt. Of
Software Eneneering and Artificial Intelligence C/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases S/N Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid Rubén
Fuentes Universidad
Complutense de Madrid Dpt. Of
Software Eneneering and Artificial Intelligence C/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases S/N Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid Baltasar
Fernández-Manjón Universidad
Complutense de Madrid Dpt. Of
Software Eneneering and Artificial Intelligence C/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases S/N Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid |
Pedagogical Issues for Developing
ESL Course on Mobile Phone
Abstract So far researchers and theorists have focussed on issues related to
on-line/e-learning to develop effective English as Second Language (ESL) course
content. This article makes a paradigm shift from e-learning to m-learning in
that it highlights pedagogical issues that should be considered for designing
ESL course content on mobile phone. It also discusses how ESL course structure
should be designed for effective m-learning. In addition, the article also
talks about the limitations of the mobile phone (in relation to the development
of the ESL course content) along with the solutions.
Key Issues for developing ESL course on Mobile Technologies
It has been
identified that “The newest technological revolution” is the convergence of
mobile, handheld and wireless communication technologies (Wills, 2001). Mobile phones are available in the wide varieties of
capabilities and features as shown in table 1. The growing popularity of mobile
phones are because of its small size, personal assistance, pre-installed
application for basic function, WAP enabled, connectivity such as Bluetooth,
Wi-Fi and GSM, Real player, e-book, dictionary, and extra memory for future
applications. The mobile phones are easy to use and handle. The menus are
designed and located as text, graphics and icons by which one can easily
recognize the associated function. Navigation buttons controls and touch screen
provides a better user interface suited for developing ESL course content.
|
CAPABILITIES |
DESCRIPTION |
|
Portability |
Compact physical
size |
|
Connectivity |
Infra-Red,
Bluetooth, GSM, WLAN, Mobile phone SIM, Wi-Fi |
|
Features |
Address book,
Memo diary, To-Do list, Reminder, Alarm, Calculator, E-mail and WAP
Enabled, Real player, Audio player, Video player Flash Player
etc. |
|
Memory |
Available for
Pre-installed applications. Extra memory for
the installation of other applications. |
|
Interface |
Better Graphical
User Interface |
|
Less additional costing |
Freeware. Demo and Trial
version of Shareware. |
Table 1: mobile phone
capabilities
Following key
issues has been to improve and enhance learning and teaching capabilities using
mobile technologies:
·
Context: Contextual
information should not violate learners wish for anoymity and privacy, as there
exist significant ethical issues (Lonsdale et, al.,
2003).
·
Mobility: Mobility
capability provides students to escape from classroom, which may not be linked
with any form of learning or curriculum agenda (Sharples
and Beale, 2003).
·
Learning over time: Feedback
and forward learning experience should persist which is based on experience.
For this, learning tools such as recording, organization and retrieval of
(mobile) learning experience, are needed (Vavoula,
2004).
·
Ownership: Students want to keep hold and control their personal
technology all the time. But within the classroom the scope of technology usage
has to be maintained (Savill et, al., 2003).
Pedagogical Considerations for Designing ESL Course Content
The present curriculum on ESL supports
mostly static and non-interactive content. However, mobile phone based
curriculum provides effective and comfortable development of platform for
teaching and learning along with sound instructional practices. The research on
readability and comprehension with small screens (Duchnicky and Kolers, 1983;
Dillon et, al. 1990) shows that even for very small displays of only a few
lines of text, users can read and understand information well. Following issues
have been identified for designing ESL course content on mobile phone:
·
Keep course content simple.
·
Avoid voluminous data.
·
Use
short and crispy sentences for understanding of grammar.
·
Organize
the lesson content in a way that it equally emphasizes both receptive and
productive skills.
·
Use
voice recordings for clear pronunciation and articulation of words.
·
Record
short stories for developing reading skills.
·
Incorporate
different levels of exercises and quizzes for evaluating the language
proficiency of the users.
·
Maintain
consistency in providing links to the content pages through out the
application.
·
Always
provide links to the main page or index.
·
Provide
automated evaluation of pronunciation and speaking.
·
Use selection list for data entry
·
Provide
interaction mechanism with the content via student’s responses.
·
Avoid
underline text, as this will be mistaken for links.
·
Provide
effective learning using multimode applications.
Mobile phones: Limitations and Solutions
There are also
some limitations of mobile phones.
·
Due to
small screen less information can be displayed.
·
Inputting
data or text is quite inefficient and slow as keys are tiny.
·
Because
of slow connectivity rich media contents cannot be accessed.
·
Due to
slow CPU speed and limited memory all the available applications cannot run.
·
Limited
battery power results in heavy data loss.
·
Incompatibility
of applications with OS results in crash and operation failure.
Table 2 describes
the limitations and the corresponding solutions.
|
LIMITATIONS |
FUTURE SOLUTIONS AND VISION |
|
Small Screen Size |
Flexible Paper-Like
Film Display |
|
Data input method |
Voice
recognition, Touch Screen and Pointer, Projection
Keyboard, Cursive Hand-writing recognition. |
|
Slow CPU speed |
Speed Efficient
architecture for CPU |
|
Weak Battery Life |
New version of
Lithium Battery. |
|
OS |
Generic OS for
All small computing phones. |
|
Infrastructure compatibility |
Middleware for
bridging mobile and LAN platform. |
|
Connectivity |
3G and 4G mobile
capacity, Bluetooth v.1.2. |
Table 2 Limitations and Solutions.
Conclusion
Mobile learning
enhances the mode of learning as learning becomes easy due to the underlying
advantage – ‘anytime anywhere’. In
m-learning the role of instructor changes from transmitter of knowledge to
supervisor of learning resources. ESL learning course material should be
created after analyzing the target audience and the available resources. For
the growth of m-learning paradigm e-learning community must target on the
issues related to the performance, quality and productivity rather than
traditional lecture style training or courseware. Incorporating adaptivity,
personalization, context awareness and automated intelligence can enhance the
mobile learning environment capability.
The course content and learning methodology should encompass exercises,
quizzes to test knowledge, summary of major ESL learning points, and
interaction with the other students and the tutor.
References
Dillon, A, Richardson, J & McKnight, C
(1990) "The Effect of Display Size and Text Splitting on Reading Lengthy
Text from the Screen," Behaviour and Information Technology,
9(3):215-227.
Duchnicky, R L & Kolers, P A (1983)
"Readability of text scrolled on visual display terminals as a function of
window size," Human Factors, 25:683_-692.
Lonsdale,
P, Baber, C, Sharples, M and Arvanitis, TN (2003). A context-awareness architecture for
facilitating mobile learning. Proceedings of MLEARN 2003: Learning with Mobile
Devices. London, UK: Learning and Skills Development Agency, 79-85.
Savill,
Smith, C and Kent, P
(2003). The use of palmtop computers for learning. Learning and Skills
Development Agency. Available online at:
www.m-learning.org/docs/the_use_of_palmtop_computers_for_learning_sept03.pdf
Sharples,
M and Beale, R (2003).
A technical review of mobile computational devices. Journal of Computer
Assisted Learning, 19(3): 392-395.
Vavoula,
G (2004). KLeOS: A
Knowledge and Learning Organisation System in Support of Lifelong Learning. PhD
Thesis, The University of Birmingham.
Wills, S. (2001)
Wireless, Mobile & Handheld: Where are our teachers and studentsgoing with
their computers? The power of 3. EDUCAUSE in Australisia 2001: The power of 3
Available at: http://www.gu.edu.au/conference/educause2001/content2a.html.
|
Dr. Shalini Upadhyay Languages Group BITS-Pilani Goa Campus Nitin Upadhyay Computer Science & Information Systems Group BITS-Pilani Goa Campus |
MOONCONF – A Synchronous Tool for Online Collaboration and Training
Introduction
This short
document has three objectives:
- Explore and disseminate further ways for online
collaborative education / training;
- Brief description of a synchronous collaborative
tool (Moonconf);
- To illustrate how web conference is being used,
and can be used, for academia purposes.
Technical Description
Moonconf [1] is a secure, flexible and rich web-based
application that provides to companies and individual users, web communication
solutions for training, marketing, company web conferencing and online
collaboration.
From the company /
business side it is presently being used to conduct live / synchronous sessions
as meetings and presentations and vocational training (either blended or fully
online). The users only need to have a browser, the latest Adobe Flash Player,
a webcam and headphones and speakers. Some of the technical features are:
·
Web-based
application (there is no need to download the application to your PC)
·
Slide
presentation
·
Video-chat
(webcam)
·
VoIP
(audio / headphones and speakers)
·
Text
chat
·
Whiteboard
(all participants can interact on blank or ongoing slide presentations)
·
View
documents
·
View
videos
·
Share
files
·
Screen
and desktop sharing
·
Session
recordings
·
Live
virtual tours through the use of an IP camera
All these features
can be made available for all users in a synchronous session depending on the
session’s moderator objectives and choices. Some examples are provided in
Figure 1.
Figure 1. Sample Print screens from Moonconf
Synchronous toll
Educational Applications
For educational
purposes this application offers students a virtual learning environment (VLE)
and a conference room through the web. There are mainly two past and present
experiences which are now being redesigned: i) an online collaborative learning
environment [2] integrated with F2F sessions (university
course supported by online learning and teaching through the use of discussion
boards and online interactivity and peer review), and; ii) remote access and
virtual tours [3] in order to support cooperation activities
between distant institutions (previously performed with the Skype® software as
a free VoIP application and a network camera for capturing and sending live
video over an IP network). Therefore, there are several ways to successfully
integrate this synchronous tool into University students’ education:
·
It is
a web-based application (students simply enter a URL to enter the live
conference)
·
It is
not a “one way” application (moderator → students) but mainly a
multi-directional and interactive one
·
Interaction
can be achieved through text chat, video-chat (and voice) either by the
moderator’s permission or all together
·
For
some learning activities [2] it facilitates the collaboration and
sharing between students
·
Allows
for a wider choice of having invited speakers for an in-class seminar [2]
As it is a
web-based application it is simple for students to use once a login and
password are provided. This can assist students in their group work assignments
and for the preparation of F2F oral presentations. Also, the students can also
be given the opportunity to virtually visit other Institutes facilities through
the use of the IP cam and the video-chat for presentations and Questions and
Answers.
Also, Moonconf
(Version 4) can presently run in 80 Port, making it available for a wider range
of users as there is no need to reconfigure firewall permissions.
References
[1] Moonconf Information - www.moonconf.com
[2] Carvalho, I.S. (2006). Promoting Active
Learning in Mechanical Engineering. ASME
International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 5-10, 2006, Chicago, Illinois, USA, IMECE2006-15664.
[3] Restivo, M.R., Carvalho, I.S., Mendes, J.,
Magalhães, R. and Gróf, G. (2006). Remotely Visiting Academic Labs Using ICTs. 34th SEFI Annual Conference -
Engineering Education and Active Students, June 28 – July 1, Uppsala, Sweden.
|
Isabel S. Carvalho, PhD Lecturer / Researcher UISPA / IDMEC / FEUP University of Porto, Portugal isabel.carvalho@mail.telepac.pt Alexandre Bernardo Software Developer Moonlight Lisbon, Portugal |
Provision of Education for People with Special Needs by means of ICTs
Modern society
requires education to provide increasing access to knowledge and information.
The right to education has become an essential human need and a basic human
right, which is crucial to civilization development. In this way, facilities to
access quality education for all community members promote opportunities for
active participating in civil society, including scientific, economic, social
political and cultural activities. Such issues are of primary importance for
persons with special educational needs.
Society
development influenced by fast growth of telecommunications, media and
information technologies, results in penetrating of digital technologies in
every sphere of social existence, forming the global information space. New
millennium education delivery methods based on the application of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) have become the most prevalent way of
providing the up-to-date information to students in the quickest and most
flexible ways possible. However, whilst ICTs provide new opportunities for
participation in society, otherwise, if the technology and information
resources are not corresponded with the needs of those who are unable to access
information by regular means or in conventional conditions, in its turn, will
further intensify social exclusion of those people broadening a digital divide.
Considering a wide diversity of individual learners’ capacity, the civil
society should find the ways to remove barriers to learning and provide
appropriate conditions for equal access to education for all its members in
spite of their individual requirements or restrictions in information acquisition
or perception.
Aiming at
reinforcing potential of the UNESCO Member States in ICT application for the
development of education, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in
Education (IITE) concentrates its efforts on the broad range of activities to
provide training and retraining for educators in the main aspects of ICT usage
in various fields of education. Main directions in the instruction materials
development and key trends in educators training are determined in close
cooperation with international organizations and leading experts on education
and ICTs.
One of the most
important directions of IITE activities is concerned with improving quality and
access to education for people with disabilities by means of ICTs. The
Institute is dealing with these issues within its project “ICTs in Education
for People with Special Needs” since 1999. The main objective of the project is
reinforcement of national capacities in education and social inclusion of
people with special needs on the basis of recommendations development on
systemic application of ICTs. Within the frame of this work the Institute held
a number of international expert meetings and workshops in partnership with
well-known experts from 13 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, the
Netherlands, Japan, Australia and the USA. Recommendations of international
experts provided the basis for the development of information materials and
analytical survey “Information and Communication Technologies in Special
Education”, which show the current state, prospects and main trends of ICT
application in special needs education.
Accumulated
experience enabled IITE to develop the Specialized Training Course “ICTs in
Education for People with Special Needs” (2006). The course was developed by a
team of international specialists from Italy, Russian Federation, Australia,
Denmark, Iceland and Spain, headed by Dr Edwards (United Kingdom). Materials of
the course represent the best international experience in the field of general
and specific ICT applications in education for people with physical, visual,
hearing, speech and language, cognitive, and learning impairments. Particular
emphasis of the course is placed upon the basic aspects of ICT policy
development in special needs education, including promotion of ICT
infrastructure, integration of ICTs into curriculum, training and retraining of
ICT specialists in special education. Special attention of the training course
is focused on developing of acquiring practical skills on application of ICT tools
in education. For this purpose during the training sessions the specialists
have the opportunity to practice with different kinds of assistive
technologies, provided by the representatives of manufacturing companies
specialized in software and hardware development.
Specialized
Training Course was successfully presented at seven international conferences
and attracted much interest among the specialists (France, 2005; Indonesia,
2005; Russian Federation, 2005, 2007; Latvia, 2006, Tunisia, 2007, Egypt, 2007).
IITE carried out a number of international training sessions and have trained
over 200 specialists from 11 countries.
Since 2007 IITE
started elaboration of recommendations for promoting suitable digital
environments for education and lifelong learning of persons with disabilities,
including the development of the standards and guidelines on ICT usage in
education, training of educational and IT personnel on e-Accessibility. For
more information concerning IITE training activities you may visit our website http://www.iite.ru or address directly the
authors of the article.
|
Dr. Boris KOTSIK Head of Training and Research Unit UNESCO IITE Dr. Natalia TOKAREVA Programme manager UNESCO IITE |
Supporting learners in an inclusive way with standard-based user modelling techniques
Inclusive adaptive
support in standard based eLearning scenarios has to be provided by developing
adaptive and accessible learning management systems (LMS). On the one hand,
personalized eLearning is no longer a research issue in small-scale settings
[1], but still does in LMS, and there are concrete challenges related to the usage
of standards to provide adaptations throughout the entire life cycle of
e-learning [2]. On the other hand, this current centred approach is
inappropriate for an increasing number of students, who are supposed to benefit
from the personal training but in practice have to face social, physical and
cognitive barriers because they have disabilities. Accessible eLearning cannot
be achieved with the universal design, but adaptation techniques based on user
modelling have to be considered. In this way, the usability of eLearning
systems can be increased for all learners, since their interaction preferences
and needs are considered.
The paper presents
an overview of the on-going work to provide dynamic support to learners during
the course execution in an inclusive way. The goal is to apply recommender
technology to support learners overcome impasses at course execution (runtime). This implies dealing with several
issues. First, the combination of design (static) and runtime (dynamic)
adaptations. This approach was applied in aLFanet [2] where the authors of the
course were allowed to define, in terms of IMS specifications, different
learning routes for different learners’ profiles and learning situations at
design time (static). However, experiments showed that authors experimented
such design as a complex task. Moreover, there are many situations that cannot
be foreseen in advance. Universal design approaches does not suffice.
Therefore, there is a need for dynamic support at runtime [3] that considers
the learners’ interactions and their evolution over time.
Second, to provide
this support in an inclusive way, accessibility and usability requirements,
pedagogical and psychological guidelines, the user access preferences, the user
context and the device used while accessing to the course are required. There
exist standards and specifications that partially considered these data and can
be of help to build an open extensible inclusive user model such as IMS Access
For All, ISO Personal Needs and Preferences, CC/PP, IMS Learning Design, WCAG.
An Accessible and
Adaptive Module (A2M) [3] is being developed on top of a multi-agent
architecture (of Jade agents). The objective is twofold: 1) update the user
models from the learners’ interactions with machine learning techniques (Weka
algorithms) and 2) generate dynamic contextual recommendations during the
course execution based on these models and collaborative filtering and
collaborative content techniques. It follows a similar approach to aLFanet
Adaptation Module [2].
Regarding the user
modelling, several types of information are used to feed the machine learning
algorithms that will learn some of the user model attributes, those that can be
learnt from the learners’ behaviour in the system. This information consider
(i) the contents characterization (in IMS-Accessibility Metadata), (ii) the
course structure (in IMS-Learning Design), (iii) results from IMS Question and
Test Interoperability questionnaires, (iv) traces from the learning services
such as forums, and (v) statistical data compiled from the progress in the
course. All this information allows building models that consider the evolution
of the attributes over time. The idea is to have open models that can be
accessed by the learners and are built to improve students’ learning increasing
their learning performance [4]. Moreover, educational standards facilitate to
explicitly define the learning scenario at design time. This static semantic
information provides helpful information for the modelling tasks, which can
facilitate the building and the dynamically update of the user model from the
user and usage data.
In order to
support learners at runtime, it has to be described what, when, how and why
recommend. At the recommendation process, the context, the record of
interactions and the user model are used to produce recommendations. In our
approach several agents generate different recommendations for the user at
hand. From these recommendations, the most appropriate(s) has to be selected
(“the what”) and provided at the appropriate moment (“the when”). “The how”
deals with managing the stop points and intend to help the learner overcome the
impasse. When presented the recommendation, the learner is to be provided with
the reason for it (“the why”).
The last step is
to follow-up the recommendation provided to measure the degree of success. This
will give input about whether the learner learns better (because she moves
forward the impasse and leaves the stop point). However, it is also needed that
the tutor evaluates if the learner proceeded appropriately and verifies that
the progress of the learners is due to the recommendation itself (and not to an
external cause).
Currently we are
working on several adaptation tasks that can be provided to learners. They are
framed in current learning situations where learning scenarios are described in
terms of standards, where existing learning design specifications are
insufficient to cope with the evolving learners’ needs and runtime context.
This work is taken under the research projects we are involved. In particular,
EU4ALL[1]
(IST-2005-034778), ALPE[2]
(eTen-2005-029328) and ADAPTAPlan[3]
(TIN2005-08945-C06-01).
References
[1] Brusilovsky,P.,
Vassileva,J. Course sequencing techniques for large-scale webbased education. I. J. Cont. Engineering Education &
Lifelong Learning, Vol. 13, Nos.1/2.
[2] Boticario, J.G., Santos, O.C. An open IMS-based
user modelling approach for developing adaptive learning management systems. Journal of Interactive Media in Education (in
press).
[3] Bull, S. and Kay, J. A framework for designing and
analysing open learner modelling. 12
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education. Workshop
11, Kay, J., Lum, A., Zapata-Rivera (eds.), p. 81-90, 2005.
[4] Santos O.C. Dynamic recommendations to support
‘all’ in open standard-based adaptive learning environments. In Proceedings for the 1st Doctoral Consortium.
13rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education,
2007.
|
Olga C. Santos, aDeNu Research Group. Artificial Intelligence
Dept. Computer Science School, UNED. C/Juan del Rosal, 16. Madrid 28040. Spain. Jesus G. Boticario aDeNu Research Group. Artificial Intelligence
Dept. Computer Science School, UNED. C/Juan del Rosal, 16. Madrid 28040. Spain. |
Communication
technologies today are being increasingly linked to education. In fact the two are inseparable. It all began with the phenomenon called
“Distance Education” which is popular in most parts of the world as it is adult
education, continuing education, training, digital education and professional
education. Technology became
inextricably connected with it, as technology is cost effective, breaks the
barriers of time, place and space and it also has a wide reach Technology and
education thus become concomitants and inseparable entities.
Distance Education
uses efficaciously components of technology, the print media and the electronic
media; broadly speaking. Now, electronic
learning in the form of the mobile and the internet is talked of today. Both can be used for the teaching learning
processes synchronously and asynchronously.
Added to this are audio video conferences.
My experience as
an academic administrator in the Indira Gandhi National Open University for the
last fifteen years or so has enabled me to understand clearly the following perspectives:
a)
‘low
cost’ technology such as the radio is very popular in most regions of the
country. The radio is accessible, cheap,
and contrary to popular belief that it is outmoded, is becoming very popular
with the advent of FM Channels. I am
speaking in terms of the Indian context,
b)
two
way audio and one way video tele-conferencing which is also cost efficient is
effective but we have not been able to reach all areas beyond the capital
cities of states due to complexity of reasons such as paucity of electricity,
lack of TV relay stations, lack of motivation of teachers and learners.
c)
However
in the cities and towns of the country the use of the internet is popular,
because of the mushroom growth in cyber cafes. Education most now be both,
entertainment and education, which has a popular connotation ‘edutainment’.
d)
The
popularity of the community radio and FM radio stations.
e)
The
popularity of podcasting and use of the skype and yahoo messenger. These have the potential for educational
change and transformation.
f)
The
mobile can and should be used as a e-learning source where text messages can be
used as interactive modes. The same is
of course true of the internet where the text and voice ‘chat’, are potentials
for ‘edutainment’.
I am trying to
contextualise things in a country with diversities in social and economic
development of a sharp nature. So, in
such a situation technology should be judiciously and appropriately used. The wide disparities in economy, with the
given diversities in social and geographical conditions automatically bring in
the digital divide.
It is here where
e-learning communities and non-governmental organizations can play catalyctic
roles and be ‘instruments of social change and development. In the south of India there is a community
radio site which allows for podcasting, articles by thinkers on economics,
sociology and culture.
The site is : www.voiceofambition.com. There is another e-learning group led by a
journalist Frederick Naronha : bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
which gives synoptic views of ICT applications in developing countries: the
focus is on India, Bangladesh and some of the African countries. The examples given here are eye openers to
demonstrate how technology has radicalised social, educational and economic
development.
I am now trying to
narrow down realities:
·
if
technology benefits only urban areas, the question of development really is not
addressed.
·
the
crisis continues
·
100 %
literacy in a country which has about 65 % - how do we use the digital
technology to achieve this goal.
·
can we
think of community learning centres in villages where software for using the
local languages is prevalent ?
These are all
complex questions in a country of diverse ethnicity and cultural/religious
pluralism. In the final analysis
technology is integrated; audio, video, the computer and mobile phones. Such integrated features of technology is, in
my opinion the bases for change: ushering in literacy and in its broadest sense
- ‘Education’.
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A.S. GUHA Joint Director Indira Gandhi National Open University |