Learning and technical change in the steelplant of Acindar, SA in Rosario, Argentina

Includes bibliography

From the Vice President for Library and Information Technology: Spring 2012

Param Bedi discusses technology adoption by students and its impact on teaching and learning.

The impact of new technologies on distance learning students

This is a European Commission Leonardo da Vinci Reference Material project on the impact of new technology on distance learning students. It is known that all the Ministries of Education of the 27 European Union countries pay millions of Euros annually in the provision of educational technology for their schools, colleges and universities. A review of the literature of the impact of technology, however, showed that the research in this field was unacceptably fragile. What research there was focused on the impact of technology on children in American schools. The project set out, therefore, to measure the impact of technology on adult education, lifelong learning and distance education, with a particular focus on adult distance learning.

Mobile Learning – Begriff, Modelle, Forschung

Der vorliegende Übersichtsartikel betrachtet Mobile Learning aus einer pädagogisch-psychologischen und didaktischen Perspektive. Mobile Learning (M-Learning), das seit Mitte der 1990er in unterschiedlichsten Kontexten Einzug in den Bildungssektor hielt, ist ein dynamisches und interdisziplinäres Feld. Dynamisch, weil M-Learning durch die rasche Entwicklung im Bereich der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie, wie kaum ein anderes Forschungsfeld, einem derart großen Wandel unterworfen ist. Interdisziplinär, weil durch das Zusammentreffen von mobiler Technik und Lernen auch unterschiedliche Fachdisziplinen betroffen sind. Die verschiedenen Sichtweisen und auch die Komplexität des Feldes haben dazu geführt, dass bis heute keine einheitliche Definition des Begriffs besteht. Ziel dieses Übersichtsartikels ist es, den aktuellen Forschungsstand aus didaktischer und pädagogisch-psychologischer Sicht aufzuzeigen. Dazu werden zunächst wichtige Komponenten des M-Learning-Begriffs herausgearbeitet und daran anschließend didaktisch bedeutsame theoretische Ansätze und Modelle vorgestellt sowie kritisch betrachtet. Basierend auf dieser theoretischen Ausgangslage wird dann ein Rahmen gezeichnet, der verdeutlichen soll, wo empirische Forschung aus didaktischer und pädagogisch-psychologischer Sicht ansetzen kann. Entsprechende empirische Studien werden ebenfalls vorgestellt, um einen Eindruck des aktuellen empirischen Forschungsstandes zu geben. Dies alles soll als Ausgangspunkt für den zukünftigen Forschungsbedarf dienen.

Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning

Today, Digital Systems and Services for Technology Supported Learning and Education are recognized as the key drivers to transform the way that individuals, groups and organizations “learn” and the way to “assess learning” in 21st Century. These transformations influence: Objectives - moving from acquiring new “knowledge” to developing new and relevant “competences”; Methods – moving from “classroom” based teaching to “context-aware” personalized learning; and Assessment – moving from “life-long” degrees and certifications to “on-demand” and “in-context” accreditation of qualifications. Within this context, promoting Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning, is currently a key issue in the public discourse and the global dialogue on Education, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Flipped School Classrooms. This volume on Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning contributes to the international dialogue between researchers, technologists, practitioners and policy makers in Technology Supported Education and Learning. It addresses emerging issues related with both theory and practice, as well as, methods and technologies that can support Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning. In the twenty chapters contributed by international experts who are actively shaping the future of Educational Technology around the world, topics such as: - The evolution of University Open Courses in Transforming Learning - Supporting Open Access to Teaching and Learning of People with Disabilities - Assessing Student Learning in Online Courses - Digital Game-based Learning for School Education - Open Access to Virtual and Remote Labs for STEM Education - Teachers’ and Schools’ ICT Competence Profiling - Web-Based Education and Innovative Leadership in a K-12 International School Setting are presented. An in-depth blueprint of the promise, potential, and imminent future of the field, Digital Systems for Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning is necessary reading for researchers and practitioners, as well as, undergraduate and postgraduate students, in educational technology.

Реализация на електронно-базирани курсове в магистърска програма за педагози

Daniela Ivanova Dureva–Tuparova In this paper 3 pedagogical scenarios of e-learning courses are performed. The courses have been implemented in blended mode with the students in Master program “ICT in primary schools”. The courses apply different didactical methods such as “Jigsaw” interactive technique, on-line simulations, project based learning, etc. Some results from study of students’ attitude to the used didactical methods and technology enhanced educational activities are presented and discussed.

Resisting the final word:challenging stale media and policy representations of students’ performative technological encounters in university education

This article explores powerful, constraining representations of encounters between digital technologies and the bodies of students and teachers, using corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It discusses examples from a corpus of UK Higher Education (HE) policy documents, and considers how confronting such documents may strengthen arguments from educators against narrow representations of an automatically enhanced learning. Examples reveal that a promise of enhanced ‘student experience’ through information and communication technologies internalizes the ideological constructs of technology and policy makers, to reinforce a primary logic of exchange value. The identified dominant discursive patterns are closely linked to the Californian ideology. By exposing these texts, they provide a form of ‘linguistic resistance’ for educators to disrupt powerful processes that serve the interests of a neoliberal social imaginary. To mine this current crisis of education, the authors introduce productive links between a Networked Learning approach and a posthumanist perspective. The Networked Learning approach emphasises conscious choices between political alternatives, which in turn could help us reconsider ways we write about digital technologies in policy. Then, based on the works of Haraway, Hayles, and Wark, a posthumanist perspective places human digital learning encounters at the juncture of non-humans and politics. Connections between the Networked Learning approach and the posthumanist perspective are necessary in order to replace a discourse of (mis)representations with a more performative view towards the digital human body, which then becomes situated at the centre of teaching and learning. In practice, however, establishing these connections is much more complex than resorting to the typically straightforward common sense discourse encountered in the Critical Discourse Analysis, and this may yet limit practical applications of this research in policy making.

Differential Impacts of Information Technology Services in the Korean Hotel Industry: A Study of Management Perceptions

Successful introduction of information technology applications in various operations of hotel management is vital to most service firms. In recent decades, technologies of information, automation, and communication are increasingly recognized as essential components of a hotel company’s strategic plan. In this study, 62 super-deluxe hotels (5 star), deluxe hotels (4 star), and tourist hotels (3 star) in Korea are examined for differences in the impact of information technology services on guest’ satisfaction, guest convenience, and operational efficiency. The findings generally suggest that the impacts of information technology-enhanced services vary according to the category of hotels in Korea. The results of the study are expected to assist managers in the selections and implementation of information technology systems in their hotel.

Digital anthropology and educational eGames: learning through behavioural patterns in digital, game-based contexts

The selected publications are focused on the relations between users, eGames and the educational context, and how they interact together, so that both learning and user performance are improved through feedback provision. A key part of this analysis is the identification of behavioural, anthropological patterns, so that users can be clustered based on their actions, and the steps taken in the system (e.g. social network, online community, or virtual campus). In doing so, we can analyse large data sets of information made by a broad user sample,which will provide more accurate statistical reports and readings. Furthermore, this research is focused on how users can be clustered based on individual and group behaviour, so that a personalized support through feedback is provided, and the personal learning process is improved as well as the group interaction. We take inputs from every person and from the group they belong to, cluster the contributions, find behavioural patterns and provide personalized feedback to the individual and the group, based on personal and group findings. And we do all this in the context of educational games integrated in learning communities and learning management systems. To carry out this research we design a set of research questions along the 10-year published work presented in this thesis. We ask if the users can be clustered together based on the inputs provided by them and their groups; if and how these data are useful to improve the learner performance and the group interaction; if and how feedback becomes a useful tool for such pedagogical goal; if and how eGames become a powerful context to deploy the pedagogical methodology and the various research methods and activities that make use of that feedback to encourage learning and interaction; if and how a game design and a learning design must be defined and implemented to achieve these objectives, and to facilitate the productive authoring and integration of eGames in pedagogical contexts and frameworks. We conclude that educational games are a resourceful tool to provide a user experience towards a better personalized learning performance and an enhance group interaction along the way. To do so, eGames, while integrated in an educational context, must follow a specific set of user and technical requirements, so that the playful context supports the pedagogical model underneath. We also conclude that, while playing, users can be clustered based on their personal behaviour and interaction with others, thanks to the pattern identification. Based on this information, a set of recommendations are provided Digital Anthropology and educational eGames 6 /216 to the user and the group in the form of personalized feedback, timely managed for an optimum impact on learning performance and group interaction level. In this research, Digital Anthropology is introduced as a concept at a late stage to provide a backbone across various academic fields including: Social Science, Cognitive Science, Behavioural Science, Educational games and, of course, Technology-enhance learning. Although just recently described as an evolution of traditional anthropology, this approach to digital behaviour and social structure facilitates the understanding amongst fields and a comprehensive view towards a combined approach. This research takes forward the already existing work and published research onusers and eGames for learning, and turns the focus onto the next step — the clustering of users based on their behaviour and offering proper, personalized feedback to the user based on that clustering, rather than just on isolated inputs from every user. Indeed, this pattern recognition in the described context of eGames in educational contexts, and towards the presented aim of personalized counselling to the user and the group through feedback, is something that has not been accomplished before.

A First Step Towards Video Enhanced Rubrics for the Formative Assessment of Complex Skills : A literature review and a plea

Paper presentation at the TEA2016 conference, Tallinn, Estonia.

Learning Physics with the Unreal Tournament Engine

Computer games such as Unreal Tournament (UT2004 and UT3) contain a 'physics engine' responsible for producing believable dynamic interactions between players and objects in the three-dimensional (3D) virtual world of a game. Through a series of probing experiments we have evaluated the fidelity and internal consistency of the UT2004 physics engine. These experiments have then led to the production of resources which may be used by learners and teachers of secondary-school physics. We also suggest an approach to learning, where both teachers and pupils may produce learning materials using the Unreal Tournament editor 'UnrealEd'.

Teaching Through Technology – the Experience of Bulgarian Teachers

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2016

L'Intégration d'un Module d'Étude Internet Dans la Classe de Comptabilité: Perceptions des Élèves et les Résultats Académiques

Implemented in the context of Business Administration students enrolled in a college level three year technology program, this research investigated students’ perceptions and academic results concurrent with the implementation of an online web module designed to facilitate student self-study. The students involved in this research were enrolled in a program that, while offering a broad education in business disciplines, specialized in the field of accounting. As a result, students were enrolled in academically rigorous accounting courses in each of the six semesters of the program. The weighting of these accounting courses imposes a significant self-study component – typically matching or exceeding the time spent in class. In this context many of the students enrolled in the Business Administration Program have faced difficulties completing the self-study component of the course effectively as demonstrated in low homework completion rates, low homework grade averages and ultimately low success rates in the courses. In an attempt to address this situation this research studied the implementation of a web-based self-study module. Through this module students could access a number of learning tools that were designed to facilitate the self-study process under the premise that more effective self-study learning tools will help remove obstacles and provide more timely confirmation of learning during student self-study efforts. This research collected data from a single cohort of students drawn from the first three sequential accounting courses of the Business Administration Program. The web-based self-study module was implemented in the third of the three sequential accounting courses. The first two of these courses implemented a traditional manual self-study environment. Data collected from the three accounting courses included homework completion rates, homework, exam and final grades for the respective courses. In addition the web-study module allowed the automatic reporting of student usage of a number of specific online learning tools. To complement the academic data, students were surveyed to gain insight into their perceptions of the effectiveness of the web-based system. The research provided a number of interesting insights. First among these was a confirmation of the importance of the self-study process in the academic achievement of the learners. Regardless of the self-study environment, manual or web-enhanced, a significant positive correlation existed between the students’ self-study results, demonstrated in both homework completion rates and homework averages and the corresponding final grades. These results confirm the importance of self-study found generally in the prevailing academic literature regarding students enrolled in higher education. In addition, the web-enhanced learning environment implemented during the third accounting course coincided with significantly higher homework completion rates and corresponding homework averages: homework completion rates in particular increased from a combined average of 63% in the first two accounting courses to 93% in the web-enhanced context of the third accounting course. Moreover, the homework completion rates of the web-enhanced course were evenly distributed across the cohort of students. A quartile-based analysis was subsequently completed. Quartiles were constructed by ranking the students according to their combined average homework completion rates from the first two manual self-study courses, Accounting I and II. The quartile-based homework completion rates for the manual self-study courses Accounting I and II were subsequently compared to the results these same quartiles of students achieved in the web-based self-study within Accounting III. While the first two courses demonstrated significantly uneven homework completion rates across the quartiles ranging from 31% to 91% homework completion rates, the differences among the four quartiles within the web-enhanced module, with an average homework completion rate of 93%, were statistically insignificant. Congruent with the positive academic results observed in the third, web-enhanced course, through the corresponding survey, students expressed a strong attitude in favor of the online self-study environment. This research was designed to add to the existing research that studies the implementation of learning in an online setting. Specifically, the research was designed to explore a middle ground of online learning – a web-enhanced course – a context that supplements the classroom experience rather than replacing it. The web-enhanced accounting course demonstrated impressive favorable results, both academically and in terms of students' perception of the system; these results suggest that a web-enhanced environment can provide learning tools that facilitate the self-study process while providing a structured learning environment that can help developing learners reach their potential.