E-learning courses as factors that affect development of intellectual thinking...
Conference Paper · July 2012
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Golan Carmi
Jerusalem College of Technology 25PUBLICATIONS 11CITATIONS
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Dan Bouhnik
Jerusalem College of Technology 31PUBLICATIONS 261CITATIONS
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IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
E-LEARNING 2012
part of the
IADIS MULTI CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS 2012
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
E-LEARNING 2012
Lisbon, Portugal JULY 17 - 20, 2012
Organised by
IADIS
International Association for Development of the Information Society
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks.
Permission for use must always be obtained from IADIS Press. Please contact secretariat@iadis.org
e-Learning Volume Editors:
Miguel Baptista Nunes and Maggie McPherson Computer Science and Information Systems Series Editors:
Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías Associate Editor: Luís Rodrigues
ISBN: 978-972-8939-71-7
FOREWORD xiii
PROGRAM COMMITTEE xvii
KEYNOTE LECTURE xxiii
KEYNOTE PAPER
CO-EVOLUTION OF LEARNING, NEW MEDIA, AND NEW LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
Gerhard Fischer
xxvii
FULL PAPERS
AN IRF-BASED ENGLISH GRAMMAR LEARNING ASSISTANT (IRF-EGLA) SYSTEM
Tzone-I Wang , Wei-Chih Jaw and Chien-Yuan Su
3
APPLYING A TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE FRAMEWORK IN ETHIOPIAN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION Berhanu Abera
11
USING INTERACTIVE VIDEO CONFERENCING FOR BLENDED TEACHING AT AJMAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Ahmed Ankit, Mahmoud Abou Naaj and Mirna Nachouki
20
EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE AND PREVIOUS STUDY IN E-LEARNING COURSES AS FACTORS THAT AFFECT DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLECTUAL THINKING DISPOSITIONS IN ONLINE LEARNING
Dan Bouhnik and Golan Carmi
29
LEARNERS’ PARENTS: CAN THEY HELP US TO IMPROVE E-LEARNING?
Thomas Richter and Christian M. Stracke
37 ADAPTIVE E-LEARNING SYSTEMS FOUNDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION
Eduardo Pratas and Viriato M. Marques
47
ASSISTANTS IN PHYSICS
Ana Marli Bulegon and Liane Margarida Rockenbach Tarouco
VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS VERSUS VIRTUAL LEARNING PROCESS ENVIRONMENTS
Ayodeji Adesina and Derek Molloy
71
HISPANIC STUDENT SUCCES AS EXPLAINED BY PERCEPTIONS OF WORKING WITH E-TOOLS
Edith Galy and Jennie Johnson
82
E-LEARNING TOOLS APPLIED IN TEACHING ENGLISH Valéria Medárová
90 E-LEARNING COURSE DESIGN PROCESS
Leszek Rudak
97 A STUDY INVOLVING MULTIMEDIA INTERACTIVITY IN A PRIMARY
EDUCATION SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
Eunice Maria Mussoi, Érico Marcelo Hoff do Amaral, Liane Margarida Rockenbach Tarouco and José Valdeni de Lima
105
SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S WRITING MOTIVATION THROUGH THE USE OF A MOBILE APPLICATION
Sari Kanala, Tuula Nousiainen and Marja Kankaanranta
113
SITUATION-BASED SCENARIOS FOR E-LEARNING
Fabrice Trillaud, Phuong Thao Pham, Mourad Rabah, Pascal Estraillier and Jamal Malki
121 DISTANCE STUDENTS’ READINESS FOR AND INTEREST IN
COLLABORATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA Bruno Poellhuber, Terry Anderson and Nicole Racette
129
CHOOSING A VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT TO SUPPORT
CLASSROOM TEACHING AT INSTITUTE OF EXACT AND APPLIED SCIENCES Tiago França Melo de Lima, Thiago Nazareth dos Passos and Lucinéia Souza Maia
137
THE TRANSFORMATIONAL ROLE OF E-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION Julian Sims, Philip Powell and Richard Vidgen
145 DEVELOPING A DECISION-THEORETIC MODEL BASED ON A STATE AND
TRANSITION MODEL FOR IMPROVING STUDENT PERFORMANCE Wichian Premchaiswadi, Nipat Jongsawat and Nucharee Premchaiswadi
153
A STUDY OF MOBILE APPLICATION FOR CHILDREN'S LEARNING -BASED ON STUDY OF JAPANESE OLD POETRY-
Yuko Hiramatsu, Atsushi Ito, Fumihiro Sato, Fumie Shimada and Natsuki Tanaka
161
A GEO-REFERENCED MULTISENSORY GRAPHICAL EDITOR FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Fernando Lima, Maria José Marcelino, Hugo Vieira, Cristina Gomes, Maria João Silva
169
BARRIERS TO E-LEARNING ADOPTION IN CHINA’S TRADITIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY AT THE
INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL Wenqiang Fan and Shanshan Yi
185
ONTOLOGY-BASED EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM Ádám Tarcsi, Erika Nyitrai and Balázs Varga
193 INFLUENCES ON VIRTUAL PEDAGOGICAL DESIGNS
Thomas Hansson and Ossi Pesämaa
203 STUDENT ATTITUDE TOWARD AUGMENTED REALITY-BASED DESIGN
COLLABORATION
Chih-Hsiang Ko and Ting-Chia Chang
214
TESTIMONIES OF TEACHERS USING EXTENSIVELY AND CREATIVELY WEB 2.0: BENEFITS AND PREREQUISITIES
Athina Grammatikopoulou, Nika Panagiota and George Palaigeorgiou
221
BLOGS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: ANALYSING STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND PRESENCE IN A COMMUNITY OF BLOGGING
Athanassios Jimoyiannis, Panagiotis Tsiotakis and Dimitrios Roussinos
228
THE NEW RICH-MEDIA BASED PROGRAMMING SYSTEM EDUART AND ITS APPLYING FOR THE SUPPORT OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Ivo Martiník and Vladimír Lieberzeit
236
MACOPP: A MULTI-AGENT COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM FOR REALIZATION OF PROJECTS BY GROUPS
Henda Belaïd Ajroud, Insaf Tnazefti Kerkeni and Chourouk Hammami
244
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: UNDERSTANDING THE EXPECTATIONS OF LEARNERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Grace Ssekakubo, Hussein Suleman and Gary Marsden
251
SOA INTEGRATION OF A TOOL FOR RETRIEVING OPEN LEARNING RESOURCES INTO A MODULAR VIRTUAL CAMPUS
Antonio Navarro, Miguel Rodríguez-Artacho, Francisco Huertas, Juan Cigarrán and Félix Buendía
262
DESIGNING EMPATHY: THE ROLE OF A “CONTROL ROOM” IN AN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Annie Gentes and Marie Cambone
270
THE EFFECTS OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LANGUAGE LITERACY IN ONLINE LEARNING
Stephen D. Arnold and David Torres
279
A WEB-BASED INTERACTIVE SYSTEM FOR LEARNING FOL TO CF CONVERSION
Foteini Grivokostopoulou, Isidoros Perikos, Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis
287
SANDBOX Mark Frydenberg
COGNITION OF ABSTRACT MATHEMATICS E-LEARNING Hamide Dogan
311
SHORT PAPERS
PREVENTING E-LEARNING FAILURE WITH SPECTOR – AN ACTIVITY MONITORING TOOL FOR MOODLE
Dorota Sidor, Maciej Słomczyński and Tomasz Rybick
321
SIDICON: A STUDY CASE OF EDUCATIONAL APPLICATION IN THE AMAZON REGION
Aline F. dos A. Lima, Hugo H. Inoue, Marcos C. da R. Seruffo, Zilda L. R. Paiva
325
ENCOURAGING INDEPENDENT LEARNING USING E-PORTFOLIOS Jessie Choi
330 USES OF IPAD TO SUPPORT ONLINE AND CLASSROOM TEACHING
ACTIVITIES Ieda M. Santos
335
EVALUATION OF A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL FOR VIRTUAL SUBJECTS IN UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Sara Redondo Duarte and Águeda Benito Capa
339
THE USE OF SYSTEMS FOR KNOWLEDGE SEARCH IN E-LEARNING Olga Lebedeva and Nataly Prokofjeva
343 E-LEARNING CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
Ivana Ogrizek Biškupić and Mihaela Banek Zorica
349 STRIVING FOR CONGRUENCY ACROSS FACE-TO-FACE, ONLINE AND
INTENSIVE LEARNING MODES Guilherme D. Pires
354
THE DESIGN AND USABILITY ASSESSMENT OF A METACOGNITIVE SCAFFOLDING SYSTEM FOR ONLINE INQUIRY LEARNING
Ya-Ping Huang and Chiung-Sui Chang
359
E-VIEW: VIRTUAL CAMPUS WBL MODEL FOR MANAGEMENT COMPETENCES
Alfredo Soeiro
364
SCHOOL CHANGE OF ICT IMPLEMENTATION: A CASE STUDY OF A TAIWANESE RURAL SCHOOL
Yih-Shyuan Chen, Yu-Horng Chen and Fang-Kai Tang
369
THE EFFECT OF DIGITAL BOOKS ON 4TH GRADERS’ LEARNING OF CHINESE CHARACTER RECOGNITION: A PRELIMINARY STUDY
Pei-Yu Wang, Ya-Shan Chen and Hsiu-Feng Wang
379
STUDENT EVALUATION OF AUDIO DIGITAL FEEDBACK IN AN ONLINE POSTGRADUATE COURSE
Catherine Moore and Ian P.H. Wallace
384
USING GOAL MODELING TO IMPROVE THE INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN PROCESS
Christian Smietana and Annika Wagner
389
DEVELOPED SUPPORT SYSTEM TO DESIGN BLENDED LEARNING AND ITS USE EVALUATION
Isao Miyaji, Hayato Shimizu, Kouji Yoshida and Yoshinori Naruse
393
A LEARNING WEB RESOURCE RECOMMENDER SYSTEM BASED ON SOCIAL TAGGING
Fatima Zahra Lahlou and Driss Bouzidi
398
AVI.CAT: TURNING GRAMMAR CHECKING INTO AN E-LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Antoni Oliver, Salvador Climent, and Marta Coll-Florit
403
E-LEARNING SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTS INVOLVING ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT MAKING AND SOUND SIGNAL PROCESSING
Atsushi Takemura
407
INTELLIGENT ASSISTANCE IN A PROBLEM SOLVING ENVIRONMENT FOR UML CLASS DIAGRAMS USING A HYBRID EXPERT SYSTEM
Hilke Garbe
412
INTERACTIVE ONLINE LEARNING
Ann Peterson, David Neil, Clive Warren, Dominic McGrath and Deidre Seeto
417 CONCEPTIONS OF PROJECT-BASED MOBILE LEARNING AMONG COLLEGE
STUDENTS
Chiung-Sui Chang and Ya-Ping Huang
421
ECUTE: DIFFERENCE IS GOOD!
Asad Nazir, Christopher Ritter, Ruth Aylett, Eva Krumhuber, Aleksandra Swiderska, Nick Degens, Birgit Endrass, Colette Hume, John Hodgson and Samuel Mascarenhas
425
ICT AND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A STUDY WITH 3RD GRADE STUDENTS IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL
Fabiana Diniz Kurtz and Karine Soltis
430
DEVELOPMENT OF A QUESTION-AUTHORING TOOL FOR MATH E-LEARNING SYSTEM STACK
Yasuyuki Nakamura, Yuka Ohmata and Takahiro Nakahara
435
ENVIRONMENTS (VCA MLE)
Antonio Navarro, Félix Buendía, Carmen Fernández-Chamizo, Ana Mª Fernández-Pampillón AN INTEGRATED WEB ARCHITECTURE FOR PROVIDING ACADEMIC SERVICES
Alina Andreica, Daniel Stuparu, Florina Covaci, Călin Miu, Gabriel Pop, Romulus Gadi, Flavius Chira, Grigorie Bogdan Mărcuş, Cosmin Tarţa and Cristina Câmpeanu
449
LABINTER: CONNECTING AND CREATING INTERDISCIPLINARY INTERACTIVE E-LEARNING PROJECTS
Andréia Machado Oliveira, Suzana Cristina Reis and Frederico Menine Schaf
455
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL NETWORKING EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM
Michael Paraskevas and Helen Stergatu
460
A SOFTWARE FRAMEWORK FOR E-TESTING Ingrid Duda and Thomas Walter
465 CLOSING THE EQUITY GAP BETWEEN ADVANTAGED AND PREVIOUSLY
DISADVANTAGED SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITIES THROUGH THE E-DELIVERY OF LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Tom Park and Antoinette van der Merwe
471
SERVICE BASED EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT - STEP TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY WORLD CONSUMPTION
Oleksiy Khriyenko
475
A PROPOSAL FOR LEARNING OBJECTS HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION BASED ON MOODLE AND CONCEPT MAPS
Fabiano Rodrigues Ferreira, Pedro Henrique Alves Felix and Renata Viana de Barros Thomé
481
ITV-LEARNING: A TOOL FOR CONSTRUCTION OF LEARNING OBJECTS FOR INTERACTIVE DIGITAL TELEVISION
Fausto Alves de Sousa Neto, Ed Porto Bezerra and Daniele dos Santos Ferreira Dias
486
REFLECTION PAPERS
LEARNING THE ORGANIZATIONAL BRAND WITH COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
Catarina Lélis and Óscar Mealha
493
E-LEARNING AS A RESPONSE TO DEMOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Yvonne Cleary and Marie Flannery
497
Marcus Birkenkrahe, Dimitri Schild and Valery Trofimov
DESIGN OF A CUSTOMIZED WEB-BASED PORTFOLIO SYSTEM TO IMPROVE PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ REFLECTIVE SKILLS
Diler Oner and Emine Adadan
509
POSTER PAPERS
ASTRONOMY IN EARLY YEARS OF BASIC EDUCATION: A PROPOSAL FOR TEACHING THE USE OF ICT
Franciele Braz de Oliveira Coelho and Ana Marli Bulegon
515
DEVELOPING A LEARNING TECHNOLOGY PREPAREDNESS PLAN Ann Peterson, Hilary Macleod, Derlie Mateo-Babiano, Dominic McGrath and Deidre Seeto
519 ASSURING ONLINE COURSE QUALITY THROUGH CUSTOMIZED MINIMUM
COURSE STANDARDS
Sandhya Srinivasan, Sang Joon Lee, Andres Abril, Trudian Trail and Samantha Lopez
521
AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION? ISPY, A NETWORK PLATFORM FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH SPY GAMES
Mercedes Rico, Paula Ferreira, María José Naranjo, J. Enrique Agudo, Héctor Sánchez and Eva Domínguez
524
THE USE OF E-LEARNING TO PRIME FOR THE SKILLS COURSE ENDOVASCULAIR SIZING
Carla Steenbeeke
527
E-INCLUSION PROJECT. IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS IN THE PROCESS OF COURSE DESIGN IN VIRTUAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
Rocael Hernández, Hector R. Amado-Salvatierra and José R. Hilera
529
THE NATURE OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL) AND THE IMPACT OF CROSS-CULTURE ON PBL
Chih-Yang Chao, Hui-Chun Wu and Kuei-Yu Chuang
532
WEB-BASED SYNCHRONOUS TUTORING IN NURSING EDUCATION TARGETING CLINICAL PRACTICE
Wenche Bergseth Bogsti, Tove Vassbø, Fred Johansen, Nina Tvenge, Birgitta Hedelin
535
AUTHOR INDEX
These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference e-Learning 2012, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society in Lisbon, Portugal, 17 – 20 July, 2012. This conference is part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2012, 17 - 23 July 2012, which had a total of 1036 submissions.
The IADIS e-Learning 2012 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within e-Learning. This conference covers both technical as well as the non-technical aspects of e-Learning.
The conference accepts submissions in the following seven main areas: Organisational Strategy and Management Issues; Technological Issues; e-Learning Curriculum Development Issues;
Instructional Design Issues; e-Learning Delivery Issues; e-Learning Research Methods and Approaches; e-Skills and Information Literacy for Learning.
The above referred main submission areas are detailed:
Organisational Strategy and Management Issues - Higher and Further Education
- Primary and Secondary Education - Workplace Learning
- Vocational Training - Home Schooling - Distance Learning - Blended Learning - Change Management - Educational Management
- Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for Educational and Training Staff - Return on e-Learning Investments (ROI)
Technological Issues
- Learning Management Systems (LMS) - Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) - Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
- Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Tools - Social Support Software
- Architecture of Educational Information Systems Infrastructure - Security and Data Protection
- Learning Objects
- XML Schemas and the Semantic Web - Web 2.0 Applications
- e-Learning Models
- Conceptual Representations - Pedagogical Models
- e-Learning Pedagogical Strategies - e-Learning Tactics
- Developing e-Learning for Specific Subject Domains
Instructional Design Issues - Designing e-Learning Settings
- Developing e-Learning Pilots and Prototypes - Creating e-Learning Courses
- Collaborative learning - Problem-based learning - Inquiry-based learning - Blended learning - Distance learning
- Designing e-Learning Tasks - E-learning activities - Online Groupwork - Experiential learning - Simulations and Modelling - Gaming and edutainment - Creativity and design activities - Exploratory programming
e-Learning Delivery Issues - e-Delivery in different contexts - Higher and Further Education - Primary and Secondary Schools - Workplace Learning
- Vocational Training - Distance Learning - Online Assessment
- Innovations in e-Assessment - e-Moderating
- e-Tutoring - e-Facilitating
- Leadership in e-Learning Delivery
- Networked Information and Communication Literacy Skills - Participation and Motivation in e-Learning
- Systematic Literature Reviews - Historical Analysis
- Case Studies
- Meta-analysis of Case Studies - Effectiveness and Impact Studies - Evaluation of e-Learning Technologies - Evaluation of Student and Tutor Satisfaction - Learning and cognitive styles
- Ethical Issues in e-learning
e-Skills and Information Literacy for Learning - Teaching information literacy
- Electronic library and information search skills - ICT skills education
- in schools and colleges
- for business, industry and the public sector - in adult, community, home and prison education - informal methods (peer groups, family)
- Education for computer-mediated communication skills - Netiquette
- Online safety for children and vulnerable users - Cybercrime awareness and personal prevention - Student production of online media
- Web design
- Digital storytelling - Web 2.0 tools - etc.
- Digital media studies
The IADIS e-Learning 2012 conference received 232 submissions from more than 41 countries.
Each submission has been anonymously reviewed by an average of four independent reviewers, to ensure that accepted submissions were of a high standard. Consequently only 38 full papers were approved which means an acceptance rate of 17 %. A few more papers were accepted as short papers, reflection papers and posters. An extended version of the best papers will be selected for publishing as extended versions in the Interactive Technology and Smart Education (ITSE) journal (ISSN:1741-5659) and also in the IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet (ISSN: 1645-7641). Other outlets may also receive extended versions of the best papers, including journals from Inderscience
Besides the presentation of full papers, short papers, reflection papers and posters, the conference also included one keynote presentation from an internationally distinguished researcher. We would therefore like to express our gratitude Professor Gerhard Fischer, Director of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, professor in the Department of
members of the Program Committee for their hard work in reviewing and selecting the papers that appear in this book. Special thanks also go to many auxiliary reviewers who contributed to the reviewing process. We are especially grateful to the authors who submitted their papers to this conference and to the presenters who provided the substance of the meeting. We wish to thank all members of our organizing committee.
Last but not the least, we hope that everybody will have a good time in Lisbon, and we invite all participants for the next edition that will be held in Prague, Czech Republic.
Miguel Baptista Nunes, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom Maggie McPherson, University of Leeds, United Kingdom e-Learning 2012 Conference Program Co-Chairs
Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal MCCSIS 2012 General Conference Co-Chairs
Lisbon, Portugal July 2012
E-LEARNING CONFERENCE PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Miguel Baptista Nunes, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Maggie McPherson, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
MCCSIS GENERAL CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal
E-LEARNING CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS Adamantios Koumpis, ALTEC Software S. A., Greece
Adel Elsayed, University of Bolton, United Kingdom
Alex Voychenko, International Research And Training Center For Its, Ukraine Alexei Tretiakov, Massey University, New Zealand
Alla Manako, Irtc, Ukraine
Amali Weerasinghe, University Of Canterbury, New Zealand Amjad Mahmood, University Of Bahrain, Bahrain
Andreas Bollin, Klagenfurt University, Austria Andreas Papasalouros, University Of The Aegean, Greece
Andreja Pucihar, University Of Maribor , Slovenia Angélica De Antonio, Universidad Politecnica De Madrid, Spain
Ania Lian, Australian Catholic University, Australia Annabell Preussler, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Annette Payne, Brunel University, United Kingdom
Annika Wagner, Hochschule Fulda - University Of Applied Sciences , Germany Anouk Gelan, University Hasselt, Belgium
Antonio Cartelli, University Of Cassino, Italy
Antonio Hervás-Jorge, Universidad Politécnica De Valencia, Spain Antonio Navarro, Universidad Complutense De Madrid, Spain
Apostolos Gkamas, University Ecclesiastical Academy of Vella of Ioan, Greece Avgoustos Tsinakos, Department Of Industrial Informatics, Greece
Ben Chang, National Chiayi University, Taiwan Ben Du Boulay, University Of Sussex, United Kingdom
Benno Volk, ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technolog, Switzerland Branislav Smitek, University Of Maribor , Slovenia
Carmen Holotescu, University Politehnica Timisoara, Romania Cengiz Hakan Aydin, Anadolu University, Turkey Cerstin Mahlow, University of Basel, Switzerland
Danguole Rutkauskiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania David Guralnick, Kaleidoscope Learning, United States David Millard, University Of Southampton, United Kingdom
Demetrios Sampson, University Of Piraeus, Greece
Demosthenes Akoumianakis, Technological Educational Institute Of Crete, Greece Denise Leahy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Diana Pérez Marín, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Dimitris Fotiadis, University Of Ioannina, Greece Dirk Ifenthaler, University of Manheim, Germany Egle Butkeviciene, Kaunas University Of Technology, Lithuania
Elena Mosa, Indire, Italy
Eliza Stefanova, Sofia University, Bulgaria Eric Schoop, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
Erick Araya, University Austral Of Chile, Chile
Esteban Vázquez Cano , Spanish National University Of Distance Education, Spain Eufrasio Pérez Navío, University Of Jaén, Spain
Eva Jereb, University Of Maribor, Slovenia
Eva Martínez Caro, Universidad Politécnica De Cartagena, Spain Ezendu Ariwa, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Fawzi Al Balooshi, Quality Assurance Authority For Education And Trai, Bahrain Francesca Pozzi, Instituto Tecnologie Didattiche – CNR, Italy
Francisco Martinez, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain Fridolin Wild, The Open University, United Kingdom Frina Albertyn, Eastern Institute Of Technology, New Zealand
Fuhua Lin, Athabasca University, Canada
Gabriela Grosseck, West University Of Timisoara, Romania Gabriella Dodero, Free University Of Bolzano Bozen, Italy
Gary Wills, University Of Southampton, United Kingdom Geoffrey Lautenbach, University Of Johannesburg, South Africa
George Palaigeorgiou, CSD, AUTH, Greece George Tsihrintzis, University Of Piraeus, Greece
Giuliana Dettori, Itd-cnr, Italy
Gloria Yi-ming Kao, National Taiwan University Of Science And Technolo, Taiwan Gregor Lenart, University Of Maribor, Slovenia
Guglielmo Trentin, Cnr - Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche, Italy
Gwo-jen Hwang, National Taiwan University Of Science And Technolo, Taiwan Hamid Harroud, Al-Akhawayn University In Ifrane, Morocco
Hasan Caliskan, Anadolu Universitesi, Turkey Helena Bukvova, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
Ibrahim Ahmed, International Islamic University, Malaysia Ignacio Aedo, Universidad Carlos Iii De Madrid, Spain
Igor Bernik, University Of Maribor, Slovenia
Imed Hammouda, Tampere University Of Technology, Finland Ingo Dahn, University Of Koblenz-landau, Germany
Ioannis Vardiambasis, Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Crete, Greece
Jaime Ramirez, Universidad Politécnica De Madrid, Spain Jan Kusiak, University Of Science And Technology, Poland
Jan Pawlowski, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Jane Sinclair, University Of Warwick, United Kingdom
Jan-Torsten Milde, Hochschule Fulda, Germany Jarkko Suhonen, University of Eastern Finland, Finland
Jasmina Znidarsic, University Of Maribor, Slovenia Jekaterina Bule, Riga Technical University, Latvia Jerzy Dabkowski, Cracow University Of Technology, Poland
Jesualdo Breis, University Of Murcia, Spain
Jesús Boticario, Universidad Nacional De Educación A Distancia (UNED) Spain Jesús Ibáñez, Universidad De Las Islas Baleares, Spain
Jesús Sánchez Allende, Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, Spain Jirarat Sitthiworachart, Walailak University, Thailand Johannes Magenheim, Universitaet Paderborn, Germany Josep Davila-montes, University Of Texas At Brownsville, USA
Jozef Hvorecky, City University Of Seattle, Slovakia Jozef Simuth , City University Of Seattle, Slovakia
Juan M. Santos, University of Vigo, Spain Katerina Kabassi, TEI of Ionian Islands, Greece
Katherine Maillet, Institut Telecom & Management Sudparis, France Katherine Sinitsa, Ukraine International Research And Training Center, Ukraine
Kazunori Nozawa, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Kostas Vassilakis, Technological Educational Institution Of Crete, Greece Lampros Stergioulas, Brunel University, United Kingdom
Larbi Esmahi, Athabasca University, Canada Larisa Zaiceva, Riga Technical University, Latvia Leonardo Garrido, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
Liodakis George, Technological Educational Institution Of Crete, Greece Lisette Poggioli, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela Lisha Chen-wilson, University Of Southampton, United Kingdom
Lorraine Cleeton, Walden University, Usa
Ludmila Layne, Universidad Nacional Experimental Simon Rodriguez, Venezuela Ludovico Sassarini, Csita - University Of Genoa, Italy
Luis Álvarez-González, Universidad Austral De Chile, Chile Luis Anido-Rifón, University Of Vigo, Spain
Lynde Tan, National Institute Of Education, Singapore Maiga Chang, Athabasca University, Canada Mairtin ODroma, University Of Limerick, Ireland Mandel Schewa, University Of Zürich, Switzerland Mandy Rohs, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Manolis Tsiknakis, Forth, Greece
Manos Varvarigos, University Of Patras, Greece Manuel Prieto-Méndez, UCLM, Spain
Manuel Santiago Fernández Prieto, University Autónoma De Madrid, Spain
Maria Virvou, University Of Piraeus, Greece Marina Ribaudo, University Of Genova, Italy
Marina Rui, University Of Genoa, Italy Mario Vacca, University Of Rome , Italy Martin Ebner, Graz University of Technology, Austria
Martin Wessner, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany Martin Wolpers, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Martín Llamas-Nistal, University Of Vigo, Spain Martine Verjans, Universiteit Hasselt, Belgium
Michael Paraskevas, Computer Technology Institute & Press, Greece Michael Piotrowski, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Michail Kalogiannakis, University of Crete, Greece Michalis Xenos, Hellenic Open University, Greece Michel Ebouyea, University of La Rochelle, France Miguel Zapata Ros, University Of Alcala de Henares, Spain Mihaela Dinsoreanu, Technical University Of Cluj-napoca, Romania
Mihai Jalobeanu, Universitatea de Vest , Romania Mike Joy, University Of Warwick, United Kingdom
Mirjana Ivanovic, University Of Novi Sad, Serbia Mizue Kayama, Shinshu University, Japan Mohamed Ally, Athabasca University, Canada
Mohamed Amine Chatti, RWTH Aachen University, Germany Mojca Bernik , University Of Maribor, Slovenia
Mona Laroussi, Insat/lifl, Tunisia
Monica Landoni, University Of Strathclyde, United Kingdom Murat Ataizi, Anadolu University, Turkey
Natalija Prokofjeva, Riga Technical University, Latvia Niki Lambropoulos, University Of Patras, Greece Nirmi Ziegler, Durban University Of Technology, South Africa
Nora Lizenberg, ISP Joaquín V. González, Argentina Novella Caterina, Italian Ministry Of Education, Italy
Oktay Ibrahimov, National Academy Of Sciences Of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Oliver Bohl, University of Kassel, Germany
Panagiotes Anastasiades, University Of Crete, Greece Panagiotis Kampylis, European Commission - Dg Jrc , Spain
Paolo Gentilini, Irre Liguria, Italy
Patrick Blumschein, University of Freiburg, Germany Patrick Fahy, Athabasca University, Canada Pavel Rusakov, Riga Technical University, Latvia Penne Wilson, Ralph J. Bunche Academy, United States Peter Mikulecky, University Of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
Pilar Moreno Díaz, Alfonso X El Sabio University, Spain Pilar Orero, University Autonoma Of Barcelona , Spain
Qing Tan, Athabasca University, Canada Rafael Morales, University of Guadalajara, Mexico
Rosabel Roig-Vila, Universidad de Alicante, Spain Rose Liang, National Institute Of Education , Singapore Rubén Edel Navarro, Universidad Veracruzana, México
Rune Pettersson, Pettersson, Sweden
Sandra Schoen, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Austria Santiago Mengual Andrés, University Of Alicante, Spain
Sobah A. Petersen, Sintef, Norway
Spiros Sirmakesis, Technological Educational Institutional of Messolo, Greece Stamatina Anastopoulou, University Of Nottingham, Greece
Stanimir Stojanov, University Of Plovdiv, Bulgaria Stefania Bocconi, National Research Council Of Italy, Italy
Susan Moisey, Athabasca University, Canada Symeon Retalis, University Of Piraeus, Greece
Tatiana Amaral, University Nacional De Educacion A Distancia De Ma, Spain Telmo Zarronandia, Carlos III University, Spain
Thomas Lehmann, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany Thrasivoulos Tsiatsos, University Of Patras, Greece
Toshio Okamoto, University Of Electro-communications, Japan Tuomo Kakkonen, University Of Joensuu, Finland
Ulrike Hanke, Universitaet Freiburg, Germany Vaiva Zuzeviciute, Magnus University, Lithuania Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Vassilis Triantafillou, Τechnological Educational Institution Of Mess, Greece Veijo Meisalo, University of Helsinki, Finland
Veronika Makarova, University Of Saskatchewan, Canada Vyacheslav Shitikov, Riga Techinical University, Latvia
Werner Beuschel, IBAW Brandenburg, Germany Wolfram Laaser, Fernuniversität In Hagen, Germany
Xavier Ochoa, CTI - ESPOL, Ecuador Xiaokun Zhang, Athabasca University, Canada
Yannis Psaromiligkos, Technological Education Institute Of Piraeus, Greece Zinayida Petrushyna, Rwth Aachen, Germany
CO-EVOLUTION OF LEARNING, NEW MEDIA, AND NEW LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
Professor Gerhard Fischer
Director of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and
a fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
ABSTRACT
Our research at the Center for Lifelong Learning & Design (L3D) over the past two decades has been focused on creating a new understanding of learning, new media, and new learning organizations. Our co-evolutionary perspective explores the dialectical relationship between:
how a deep understanding of learning (specifically: lifelong learning, self-directed learning, and informal learning) creates innovative demands and design criteria for future generations of social-technical environments;
how the unique potential of computational media (specifically: meta-design, distributed cognition, context-aware environments) impacts and transforms learning by transcending
"gift-wrapping" and “technology-centered” approaches; and
how new learning organizations (specifically: cultures of participation, learning webs, niche communities in Long Tail environments) contribute to reinvent learning and education in the 21st century. The conceptual framework is illustrated by specific developments of social-technical environments that we have designed and evaluated including: domain- oriented design environments, critiquing systems, creativity support environments, and courses-as-seeds.
The conceptual framework is illustrated by specific developments of social-technical environments that we have designed and evaluated including: domain-oriented design environments, critiquing systems, creativity support environments, and courses-as-seeds.
Keynote Paper
CO-EVOLUTION OF LEARNING, NEW MEDIA, AND NEW LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
Gerhard Fischer
Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L3D),
Department of Computer Science, and Institute of Cognitive Science University of Colorado at Boulder
ABSTRACT
Our research at the Center for Lifelong Learning & Design (L3D) over the past two decades has been focused on creating a new understanding of learning, new media, and new learning organizations. Our co-evolutionary perspective explores the dialectical relationship between:
how a deep understanding of learning (specifically: lifelong learning, self-directed learning, and informal learning) creates innovative demands and design criteria for future generations of social-technical environments;
how the unique potential of computational media (specifically: meta-design, distributed cognition, context- aware environments) impacts and transforms learning by transcending "gift-wrapping" and “technology- centered” approaches; and
how new learning organizations (specifically: cultures of participation, learning webs, niche communities in Long-Tail environments) contribute to reinvent learning and education in the 21st century.
The conceptual framework is illustrated by specific developments of social-technical environments that we have designed and evaluated including: courses-as-seeds; collaborative, domain-oriented design environments, context-aware systems, courses with massive enrollments, and course environments for large number of topics.
KEYWORDS
Lifelong learning, self-directed learning, meta-design, cultures of participation, long tail, socio-technical environments
1. INTRODUCTION
Our research has been centered for many years on creating human-centered socio-technical environments empowering humans to think, work, design, learn, and collaborate in new ways. These environments have explored (1) multiple perspectives of learning [Fischer, 2009]; (2) new and different relationships between humans and computers [Fischer & Sugimoto, 2006]; and (3) alternative learning organizations [Fischer &
Ostwald, 2005]. We have explored, designed, and evaluated innovative approaches to learning in different social infrastructures including schools, universities, work environments, homes and social networks and we have focused on individuals (being interested and knowledgeable in different domains) and different communities (including communities of practice and communities of interest [Fischer & Sugimoto, 2006]).
Our research has been influenced by a variety of different philosophies and visions of learning including:
Dewey’s and Bruner’s [Bruner, 1996] notion that students should be actively engaged participants in learning, sharing their knowledge with each other rather than competing to get good grades;
ages (which influenced more recent developments such as “One Laptop per Child (OLPC),”
http://one.laptop.org/);
Brown’s emphasis on complementing “learning about” with “learning to be” [Brown, 2005]; and
Collins’ rethinking of education in the digital age [Collins & Halverson, 2009].
These philosophies and visions of learning transcend many of the traditional frameworks (as emphasized and practiced in the majority of current school and e-learning environments) in which learners learn what curricula determine and teachers teach rather than pursuing their own interests and passions.
2. E-LEARNING: A CO-EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
e-Learning (as defined and understood it in the context of this article) subsumes all forms of learning and teaching supported by information and communication technologies. It includes specific forms such as online learning and distance learning in networked and ubiquitous environments, allowing learners to access information not only in formal learning environments such as schools, but at any place where they might be.
Equally important transformations that should be supported by e-Learning are:
people can pursue their own interests and goals (self-directed learning) and they can get feedback on their understanding from computational critics and from their peers [Fischer & Sugimoto, 2006];
content is personalized with context-aware systems [Fischer, 2012a];
new information can be acquired and learned when it is needed (learning on demand) [Fischer, 1991];
people can learn with and about technology (thereby greatly diminishing the traditional goals of memorizing facts and learning to carry out routine operations) [Collins & Halverson, 2009]; and
web-based technologies can reach more people, engage them actively (Web 2.0), and make education more affordable by using technology to refigure the economics of higher education [Brown, 2005].
To achieve these objectives, the co-evolution between learning, new media, and new learning organizations (see Figure 1) is necessary.
Figure 1. The co-evolution between learning, new media, and new learning organizations
Many e-learning approaches are too timid and fail to think radically enough by (1) by accepting too many established approaches (e.g.: a theory of human learning based solely on school learning is too limited) [Engeström & Sannino, 2010] and (2) by not embracing new learning opportunities (e.g.: exploiting the unique opportunities of social production in which all learners can act as active contributors in personally meaningful problems) [von Hippel, 2005].
New information and communication technologies (specifically the Internet and the cyberinfrastructure) have been heralded as the major driving forces behind innovation in learning and education. But many approaches have had only a minor impact based on the following limitations:
Technology-centered developments: Technology alone does not determine social structure but it creates feasibility spaces for new social and cultural practice [Benkler, 2006]. Changes in complex
fundamentally rethinking what education should and can be in the next century. They change the medium, but leave the content unchanged and contribute little to introducing new epistemologies.
Old frameworks, such as instructionism, fixed curricula, memorization, decontextualized learning and so forth, are not changed by technology itself. This is true whether we use computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, multimedia presentations, or the World Wide Web.
3. TRANSFORMATIVE FRAMEWORKS FOR LEARNING
Phenomena such as the information technology revolution [National-Research-Council, 1999], globalization, increasing trends to outsource high-level cognitive tasks, and the need to participate effectively in diverse collaborative organizations addressing complex world problems are changing learning goals. Requirements increase for educated people (1) to enter work environments requiring collaboration with experts from multiple fields, (2) to pursue several career paths addressing different problems, and (3) to interact and work with people of diverse backgrounds including those from outside academia. Such changes create new demands: learners must be able to have a meaningful life in a diverse, technical, problem-oriented world that does not yet exist, which makes it imperative that they become self-directed, lifelong learners who can thrive and participate in collaborative environments with ever-changing disciplinary boundaries.
3.1 Innovative Multi-Dimensional Aspects of Learning
As the demands for learning undergo a period of profound transformation, there is a need for exploring innovative multi-dimensional aspects of learning: people need to learn (1) more things (“what”); (2) in different ways than before (“how”); (3) everywhere instead only in formal learning environments (“where”);
(4) throughout their lives and at times when the information is needed (“when”); and (5) with peers and not only from teachers (“with whom”) [National-Research-Council, 2009].
WHAT to Learn: Exploring Personally Meaningful Problems and Acquiring Basic Skills and Core Competencies. In formal learning environments, students’ learning is determined to a large extend by a curriculum. Learners encounter few opportunities to gain experiences by exploring personally meaningful problems that need to be identified and framed. By cutting across disciplinary boundaries, these problems are often complex and ill-defined [Simon, 1996] requiring (1) the integration of problem framing and problem solving, (2) the communication and collaboration among people from different disciplines and educational levels, and (3) the intelligent use of technologies and resources that support collective knowledge construction and extend human problem-solving capabilities.
This engagement with personal meaningful problems should be complemented with learning opportunities to acquire the basic skills and core competencies for the 21st century [Collins & Halverson, 2009]. These competencies do not primarily consist of learning and memorizing facts, but should be focused on (1) acquiring and using information; (2) identifying, organizing, planning and allocating resources; (3) collaborating with others; and (4) working with a variety of technologies.
HOW to Learn. Learning in today’s world needs to explore many types of learning other than traditional curriculum-based classroom learning. It must conceptualize learning as an inclusive, social, informal, participatory, and creative lifelong activity. The learning goals and the content of the learning activity should not only be determined by curricula but by interest-based, self-directed learning objectives. Many problems (specifically design problems) are unique and ill-defined and the knowledge to address them is not “out there”
requiring contributions and ideas from all involved stakeholders. Learners in such settings must be active contributors rather than passive consumers and the learning environments and learning organizations must foster and support mindsets, tools and skills that help learners become empowered and willing to actively contribute [Fischer, 2002; von Hippel, 2005].
learning in practical settings have important differences [National-Research-Council, 2009]. What we discover about learning in schools is insufficient for a theory of human learning: schools are often focused on individual cognition, on memorization and on learning general facts whereas learning in the world at large need to rely on shared cognition, use of powerful tools and external information sources, and situation-specific competencies [Resnick, 1987].
WHEN to Learn: At the Right Time. Information overload and the rapid change of our world have created new problems and new challenges for learning and education. People will have to keep learning new knowledge and skills throughout their lifetimes as their lives and jobs keep changing. New approaches are needed to circumvent the unsolvable problems of coverage and obsolescence. Learning on demand [Fischer, 1991] is a promising approach for addressing these problems because: (1) it contextualizes learning by allowing it to be integrated into work rather than relegating it to a separate phase, (2) it lets learners see for themselves the usefulness of new knowledge for actual problem situations, thereby increasing the motivation for learning new things, and (3) it makes new information relevant to the task at hand, thereby leading to more informed decision making, better products, and improved performance. In today’s world, when people are stuck, they can explore insight from a vast network of information and use social networks to discuss with others their opinions on what to do and what to study. This process is made more effective through peer- support communities [Gorman & Fischer, 2009] and niche communities of special, idiosyncratic interests [Brown & Adler, 2008; Collins et al., 2009; Fischer, 1991].
WITH WHOM:Transcending to Individual Human Mind. Systemic problems require more knowledge than any single person possesses because the knowledge relevant to either frame or resolve these problems is usually distributed among stakeholders coming from different disciplines [Fischer & Sugimoto, 2006]. The
“Renaissance Scholar” (meaning the person who is knowledgeable in all relevant fields) no longer exists [Csikszentmihalyi, 1996]. To deal with complex multi-disciplinary problems, people need to use the powerful tools technology provides for finding, analyzing, manipulating, and communicating knowledge bringing different and often controversial points of view together to create a shared understanding among these stakeholders can lead to new insights, ideas, and artifacts.
3.2 Long-Tail
Long-Tail learning [Anderson, 2006; Collins et al., 2009] refers at least to two aspects: (1) learning about exotic topics outside the mainstream education curriculum, and (2) the opportunity to communicate with people who share similar idiosyncratic interests somewhere in the world on a regular basis. Long-Tail learning represents a fundamentally different objective to cultural literacy [Hirsch, 1996]. The Web gives children and adults the ability to pursue topics they are particularly interested and feel passionate about and which they will have no opportunity to encounter in schools. Nor are they likely to find people among their acquaintances who share their interests and would study the topics together with them. Such exotic topics remained as lone pursuits for most people until the web came along.
Rethinking and reinventing learning and education from a “Long-Tail” perspective is based on the following assumptions: (1) individuals learn more and better when they learn in areas they choose and for which they are motivated; (2) all people are interested in something (Viking ships, dinosaurs, gambling, Nuremberg trials, White Rose, castles in northern Germany, etc.); (3) whatever someone’s particular interest is, there is some niche community already formed on the net that the person can join. Long-Tail learning requires a new synergy (to be supported by rich learning environments) between themes residing
in the head of the long-tail curve focused on basic knowledge and skills for learning to learn, learning on demand, preparation for future learning, soft skills, digital fluency; and
in the tail of the long-tail curve focused on personally meaningful problems, interest and passion, self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation, and local knowledge in a globalized world.
for their own learning and education by empowering them to thrive and participate as co-designers in collaborative environments with ever-changing disciplinary boundaries.
Meta-design supports fluency with IT and it is instrumental for “the ability to reformulate knowledge, to express oneself creatively and appropriately, and to produce and generate information rather than simply to comprehend it” [National-Research-Council, 1999]. It appeals to a diverse audience to engage in interest- driven, self-directed learning by supporting them in designing and building their own socio-technical environments by situating computation in new contexts and by developing tools that democratize design, innovation, and knowledge creation.
Supporting Meta-Design with the Seeding, Evolutionary Growth, and Reseeding (SER) Model. The SER model [Fischer & Ostwald, 2005] is a descriptive and prescriptive model for creating systems that best fit emerging and evolving contexts. Instead of attempting to build complete systems, the SER model advocates building seeds that can evolve over time. It postulates that systems that evolve over a sustained time span must continually alternate between (1) periods of planned activity and unplanned evolution, and (2) periods of deliberate (re)structuring and enhancement.
A seed is built based on an initial understanding and framing of a problem. It is created by meta-designers (e.g.: teachers) acting as environment developers for future users (e.g.: learners) to be as complete as possible.
However, the understanding of a problem cannot be complete due to the situated and tacit nature of knowledge work. The evolutionary growth phase is one of decentralized evolution as the seed is used and extended by users to do their work or explore new problems. In this phase, the original developers are not directly involved because the focus has shifted to the problem framing and problem solving activities of the users. Instead, the development is performed by participants who have a direct stake in the problem at hand [von Hippel, 2005]. Reseeding is a deliberate and centralized effort to organize, formalize, and generalize solutions and artifacts created during the evolutionary growth phase. The goal of reseeding is to create an information space in which useful solutions can be easily found, reused, and extended. As in the seeding phase, developers are needed to perform substantial system and solution space modifications and users must participate because only they can judge what solutions are useful and what structures will serve their work practices.
3.4 Cultures of Participation
The rise in social computing (based on social production and mass collaboration) [Benkler, 2006] has facilitated a shift from consumer cultures (specialized in producing finished goods to be consumed passively) to cultures of participation (in which all people are provided with the means to participate actively in personally meaningful problems).
Cultures of participation [Fischer, 2011] offer important and interesting possibilities to cope with major problems our societies are facing today including: (1) problems of a magnitude which individuals and even large teams cannot solve (example: to model all buildings in the world in 3-D as addressed by “Google SketchUp and 3D Warehouse”); (2) problems of a systemic nature requiring the collaboration of many different minds from a variety of background (example: urban planning problems as addressed by the Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory); and (3) problems modeling changing and unique worlds being dependent on open, living information repositories and tools.
Cultures of participation are facilitated and supported by a variety of different technological environments (such as the participatory Web 2.0, table-top computing, domain-oriented design environments); all of them contributing in different ways to the aims of engaging diverse audiences, enhancing creativity, sharing information, and fostering the collaboration among users acting as active contributors and designers. They democratize design and innovation [von Hippel, 2005] by shifting power and control towards users, supporting them to act as both designers and consumers (“prosumers”) and allowing systems to be shaped through real-time use. But being able to act as active contributors creates numerous demands for learning that need to be supported by powerful learning environments.
Traditionally, the resources provided by an instructor such as lectures, readings, and assignments define the content of a course. By involving students as active contributors, courses do not have to rely only on the intellectual capital provided by an instructor. Our courses (a large number of them being available at:
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/courses/) are conceptualized based on the seeding, evolutionary growth, reseeding model and are supported with wiki-based course information environments in which the instructor provides the initial seed rather than a finished product and the content of a course evolves over time through contributions of the students. In such an environment, learners are not just passive recipients of knowledge, but active contributors.
The Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC) [Arias et al., 2000] is a socio-technical environment in support of collaborative learning. The EDC facilitates the creation of shared understanding among various stakeholders, contextualizes information to the task at hand, and creates objects-to-think-with in collaborative design activities. It is applicable to different domains; our specific efforts have focused on the domain of urban planning and decision making. Creating shared understanding requires a culture in which stakeholders see themselves as reflective practitioners rather than all-knowing experts [Schön, 1983].
Figure 2. A community of interest using the EDC for a design session
Figure 2 shows the current realization of the EDC environment. Individuals using the EDC convene around a computationally enhanced table (shown in the center of the figure). This table serves as the action space for the EDC [Schön, 1983]. Realized as a touch-sensitive surface, the action space allows users to manipulate the computational simulation projected on the surface by interacting with the physical objects placed on the table. The horizontal table is flanked by a second computational whiteboard, which drives another touch-sensitive surface (shown vertically in Figure 2) serving as the EDC’s reflection space. The EDC emphasizes the creation of shared interaction, common ground, and social structures between communities of learners forming a collaborative environment that builds on both distributed and face-to-face collaborations in classrooms or public sites. The EDC contributes in preparing the next generation of knowledge workers for lifelong learning and innovation in a world in which the traditional boundaries between formal educational institutions and the world at large will dissolve.
Education for Everyone and for All Interests. One of the "hottest" topics these days is creating Higher- Ed Courses with massive enrollments. There is currently a substantial hype based on developments such as:
(1) MIT’s and Harvard’s edX project offering online learning to millions of people around the world (http://www.edxonline.org/); (2) Coursera, offering free courses for everyone by an alliance between Stanford, Princeton, Michigan, and Penn (https://www.coursera.org/); (3) Udacity, a private company with the goal creating and offering classes to hundred thousands of students (http://www.udacity.com/).Interesting questions to ask based on these developments are: (1) what is covered by these educational experiences (by being free, open, and large-scale; by containing rigorous content; and by offering learning analytics opportunities based on very large numbers of participants)?; and (2) what is not covered (by being focused on
