Mobile Games for Learning

Today, pupils at the age of 15 have spent their entire life surrounded by and interacting with diverse forms of computers. It is a routine part of their day-to-day life and by now computer-literacy is common at very early age. Over the past five years, technology for teens has become predominantly mobile and ubiquitous within every aspect of their lives. To them, being online is an implicitness. In Germany, 88% of youth aged between 12-19 years own a smartphone and about 20% use the Internet via tablets. Meanwhile, more and more young learners bring their devices into the classroom and pupils increasingly demand for innovative and motivating learning scenarios that strongly respond to their habits of using media. With this development, a shift of paradigm is slowly under way with regard to the use of mobile technology in education. By now, a large body of literature exists, that reports concepts, use-cases and practical studies for effectively using technology in education. Within this field, a steadily growing body of research has developed that especially examines the use of digital games as instructional strategy. The core concern of this thesis is the design of mobile games for learning. The conditions and requirements that are vital in order to make mobile games suitable and effective for learning environments are investigated. The base for exploration is the pattern approach as an established form of templates that provide solutions for recurrent problems. Building on this acknowledged form of exchanging and re-using knowledge, patterns for game design are used to classify the many gameplay rules and mechanisms in existence. This research draws upon pattern descriptions to analyze learning game concepts and to abstract possible relationships between gameplay patterns and learning outcomes. The linkages that surface are the starting bases for a series of game design concepts and their implementations are subsequently evaluated with regard to learning outcomes. The findings and resulting knowledge from this research is made accessible by way of implications and recommendations for future design decisions.

Blended Learning in der Musiklehrerbildung. Erfahrungen und Perspektiven am Beispiel eines Praxisprojekts

In der Lehrerbildung zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts wird einem hohen Bezug zum Berufsfeld Schule, phasenübergreifender Zusammenarbeit und lebenslangem Lernen zunehmend Bedeutung geschenkt. Mehr und mehr kommt in Veröffentlichungen und auf den Internetseiten von Lehrerbildungszentren deutscher Universitäten ein umfassendes Verständnis von Lehrerbildung zum Ausdruck, das alle Phasen der Aus- und Fortbildung von Lehrkräften einschließt: Studium, Vorbereitungsdienst („Referendariat“) und Fortbildungen für Lehrkräfte im Schuldienst. Wenn Lehrerbildung in diesem Sinne gestaltet und nicht reduziert wird auf eine Phase der Ausbildung, die der Tätigkeit im Schuldienst vorangeht, wenn neben den Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen in Studium und Vorbereitungsdienst auch Fortbildungsangebote für bereits im Beruf stehende Lehrkräfte als Selbstverständlichkeit im Rahmen eines lebenslangen Lernprozesses aufgefasst werden, eröffnet die Implementierung digitaler Medien besondere Chancen – etwa im Hinblick auf kooperatives Lernen sowie auf die Arbeit mit und den Zugriff auf Unterrichtsmaterialien. Am Beispiel eines interdisziplinär angelegten Projekts, dessen Ausgangspunkt und Zentrum das Fach Musik bildet und in dem phasenverbindendes und lebenslanges Lernen einen hohen Stellenwert einnehmen, thematisiert dieser Beitrag Möglichkeiten, Perspektiven und Herausforderungen von Blended Learning in der Lehrerbildung. Es handelt sich um einen Einblick in die Verknüpfung von Präsenz- und Online-Anteilen des Projekts und in erste Ergebnisse aus der Projektevaluation. Vorgestellt werden Teilergebnisse aus einer explorativen Studie zur Bedeutung von Kooperationen und phasenübergreifender Vernetzung, im Rahmen derer unter anderem die Akzeptanz und die Relevanz des E-Learning-Angebots thematisiert wird.

The Future of Ubiquitous Learning

This book explores emerging pedagogical perspectives based on the design of new learning spaces supported by digital technologies and brings together some of the best research in this field. The book is divided into three themes: foundations of emerging pedagogies, learning designs for emerging pedagogies and, adaptive and personalized learning. The chapters provide up-to-date information about new pedagogical proposals, and examples for acquiring the requisite skills to both design and support learning opportunities that improve the potential of available technologies.

Agrarian learning processes in Switzerland 1918–1939

This paper examines the social impacts of weather extremes and the processes of social and communicative learning a society undertakes to find alternative ways to deal with the consequences of a crisis. In the beginning of the 20th Century hunger seemed to be expelled from Europe. Switzerland – like many other European countries – was involved in a global interdependent trade system, which provided necessary goods. But at the end of World War I very cold and wet summers in 1916/17 (causing crop failure) and the difficulties in war-trade led to malnutrition and enormous price risings of general living-standards in Switzerland, which shocked the people and caused revolutionary uprisings in 1918. The experience of malnutrition during the last two years of war made clear that the traditional ways of food supply in Switzerland lacked crisis stability. Therefore various agents in the field of food production, distribution and consumption searched for alternative ways of food supply. In that sense politicians, industrialists, consumer-groups, left-wing communitarians and farmers developed several strategies for new ways in food production. Traditionally there were political conflicts in Switzerland between farmers and consumers regarding price policies, which led mainly to the conflict in 1918. Consumers accused famers of holding back food to control extortionate prices while the farmers pointed to the bad harvest causing the price rising. The collaboration of these groups in search for new forms of food-stability made social integration possible again. In addition to other crisis-factors, weather extremes can have disastrous impacts and destroy a society’s self-confidence to its core. But even such crisis can lead to processes of substantial learning that allows a regeneration of confidence and show positive influence on political stabilization. The paper focuses on the process of learning and the alternative methods of food production that were suggested by various agents working in the field during the Interwar period. To achieve that goal documents of the various associations are analyzed and newspapers have been taken into consideration. Through the method of discourse-analysis of food-production during the Interwar period, possible solutions that crossed the minds of the agents should be brought to light.

Diffusion and implementation of a tobacco prevention program: A replication study

Tobacco use is a major health hazard, and the onset of tobacco use occurs almost entirely in the teenage years. For this reason, schools are an ideal site for tobacco prevention programs. Although studies have shown that effective school-based tobacco prevention programs exist, all too frequently these programs are not used. In order for effective programs to achieve their potential impact, strategies for speeding the diffusion of these programs to school districts and seeing that, once adopted, programs are implemented as they are intended, must be developed and tested.^ This study (SC2) set out to replicate the findings of an earlier quasi-experimental study (The Smart Choices Diffusion Study, or SC1) in which strategies based on diffusion theory and social learning theory were found to be effective in encouraging adoption and implementation of an effective tobacco prevention program in schools. To increase awareness and encourage adoption, intervention strategies in both studies utilized opinion leaders, messages highlighting positive aspects of the program, and modeling of benefits and effective use through videotape and newsletters. To encourage accurate implementation of the curriculum, teacher training for the two studies utilized videotaped modeling and practice of activities by teachers. SC2 subjects were 38 school districts that make up one of Texas' 20 education service regions. These districts had served as the comparison group in SC1, and findings for the SC1 comparison and intervention groups were utilized as historic controls.^ SC2 achieved a 76.3% adoption rate and found that an average of 84% of the curriculum was taught with an 82% fidelity to methods utilized by the curriculum. These rates and rates for implementation of dissemination strategies were equal to or greater than corresponding rates for SC1. The proportion of teachers implementing the curriculum in SC2 was found to be equal to SC1's video-trained districts but lower than the SC1 workshop-trained group.^ SC2's findings corroborate and support the findings from the earlier study, and increase our confidence in its findings. Taken together, the findings from SC2 and SC1 point to the effectiveness of their theory-based intervention strategies in encouraging adoption and accurate implementation of the tobacco prevention curriculum. ^

How fit turns into misfit and back: institutional transformations of pastoral commons in African floodplains

We enlarge the notion of institutional fit using theoretical approaches from New Institutionalism, including rational choice and strategic action, political ecology and constructivist approaches. These approaches are combined with ecological approaches (system and evolutionary ecology) focusing on feedback loops and change. We offer results drawn from a comparison of fit and misfit cases of institutional change in pastoral commons in four African floodplain contexts (Zambia, Cameroon, Tanzania (two cases). Cases of precolonial fit and misfit in the postcolonial past, as well as a case of institutional fit in the postcolonial phase, highlight important features, specifically, flexible institutions, leadership, and mutual economic benefit under specific relations of bargaining power of actors. We argue that only by combining otherwise conflicting approaches can we come to understand why institutional fit develops into misfit and back again. Key Words: African floodplains; governance; institutional change; institutional fit; New Institutionalism; pastoral commons

Learning enjoyment in early adolescence

There is empirical evidence showing that positive emotional and motivational factors in formal learning contexts decrease at the stage of young adolescence. According to Stage-Environment-Fit Theory and Self-Determination Theory, this change should be explained by a non-fulfilment of students' needs. By combining two different methods (questionnaires and day-to-day diaries) and applying a longitudinal design, this study aimed to explore the change in and the determinants of habitual and actual learning enjoyment. The sample consisted of 356 students. Quantitative results indicated that learning enjoyment and classroom practices decreased between Grades 6 and 7. Path analyses revealed that classroom practices are the source of students' learning enjoyment, while self-efficacy functions as a partial mediator. Data from students' diaries showed that a teacher's neglect of students' needs for competence and relatedness were significant sources of impeded learning enjoyment. Practical implications suggest the relevance of adjusting learning conditions to the needs of young adolescents in order to provide a facilitating basis for learning enjoyment.

Impacts of a word-picture training on literacy skills in elementary school children and youths with intellectual disabilities

Objective: There is convincing evidence that phonological, orthographic and semantic processes influence children’s ability to learn to read and spell words. So far only a few studies investigated the influence of implicit learning in literacy skills. Children are sensitive to the statistics of their learning environment. By frequent reading they acquire implicit knowledge about the frequency of letter patterns in written words, and they use this knowledge during reading and spelling. Additionally, semantic connections facilitate to storing of words in memory. Thus, the aim of the intervention study was to implement a word-picture training which is based on statistical and semantic learning. Furthermore, we aimed at examining the training effects in reading and spelling in comparison to an auditory-visual matching training and a working memory training program. Participants and Methods: One hundred and thirty-two children aged between 8 and 11 years participated in training in three weekly session of 12 minutes over 8 weeks, and completed other assessments of reading, spelling, working memory and intelligence before and after training. Results: Results revealed in general that the word-picture training and the auditory-visual matching training led to substantial gains in reading and spelling performance in comparison to the working-memory training. Although both children with and without learning difficulties profited in their reading and spelling after the word-picture training, the training program led to differential effects for the two groups. After the word-picture training on the one hand, children with learning difficulties profited more in spelling as children without learning difficulties, on the other hand, children without learning difficulties benefit more in word comprehension. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for frequent reading trainings with semantic connections in order to support the acquisition of literacy skills.

DAT1 polymorphism determines L-DOPA effects on learning about others' prosociality.

Despite that a wealth of evidence links striatal dopamine to individualś reward learning performance in non-social environments, the neurochemical underpinnings of such learning during social interaction are unknown. Here, we show that the administration of 300 mg of the dopamine precursor L-DOPA to 200 healthy male subjects influences learning about a partners' prosocial preferences in a novel social interaction task, which is akin to a repeated trust game. We found learning to be modulated by a well-established genetic marker of striatal dopamine levels, the 40-bp variable number tandem repeats polymorphism of the dopamine transporter (DAT1 polymorphism). In particular, we found that L-DOPA improves learning in 10/10R genoype subjects, who are assumed to have lower endogenous striatal dopamine levels and impairs learning in 9/10R genotype subjects, who are assumed to have higher endogenous dopamine levels. These findings provide first evidence for a critical role of dopamine in learning whether an interaction partner has a prosocial or a selfish personality. The applied pharmacogenetic approach may open doors to new ways of studying psychiatric disorders such as psychosis, which is characterized by distorted perceptions of others' prosocial attitudes.

Promoting Local Innovations: A tool for adaptation to climate change and sustainable development in Mountains

Throughout their history mountain communities have had to adapt to changing environmental and socio-economic conditions. They have developed strategies and specialized knowledge to sustain their livelihoods in a context of adverse climatic events and constant change. As negotiations and discussions on climate change emphasize the critical need for locally relevant and community owned adaptation strategies, there is a need for new tools to capitalize on this local knowledge and endogenous potential for innovation. The toolkit Promoting Local Innovation (PLI) was designed by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern, Switzerland, to facilitate a participatory social learning process which identifies locally available innovations that can be implemented for community development. It is based on interactive pedagogy and joint learning among different stakeholders in the local context. The tried-and-tested tool was developed in the Andean region in 2004, and then used in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) climate change adaptation projects in Thailand, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Chile. These experiences showed that PLI can be used to involve all relevant stakeholders in establishing strategies and actions needed for rural communities to adapt to climate change impacts, while building on local innovation potential and promoting local ownership

Beyond statistical learning? Continuous sequence repetition matters in implicit sequence learning

Typically, statistical learning is investigated by testing the acquisition of specific items or forming general rules. As implicit sequence learning also involves the extraction of regularities from the environment, it can also be considered as an instance of statistical learning. In the present study, a Serial Reaction Time Task was used to test whether the continuous versus interleaved repetition of a sequence affects implicit learning despite the equal exposure to the sequences. The results revealed a sequence learning advantage for the continuous repetition condition compared to the interleaved condition. This suggests that by repetition, additional sequence information was extracted although the exposure to the sequences was identical as in the interleaved condition. The results are discussed in terms of similarities and potential differences between typical statistical learning paradigms and sequence learning.

Exploring sustainability through stakeholders' perspectives and hybrid water in the Swiss alps

Can the concept of water as a socio-natural hybrid and the analysis of different users’ perceptions of water advance the study of water sustainability? In this article, I explore this question by empirically studying sustainability values and challenges, as well as distinct types of water as identified by members of five water user groups in a case study region in the Swiss Alps. Linking the concept of water as a socio-natural hybrid with the different water users’ perspectives provided valuable insights into the complex relations between material, cultural, and discursive practices. In particular, it provided a clearer picture of existing water sustainability challenges and the factors and processes that hinder more sustainable outcomes. However, by focusing on relational processes and individual stakeholder perspectives, only a limited knowledge could be created regarding a) what a more sustainable water future would look like and b) how current unsustainable practices can be effectively transformed into more sustainable ones. I conclude by arguing that the concept of water as a socio-natural hybrid provides an interesting analytical tool for investigating sustainability questions; however, if it is to contribute to water sustainability, it needs to be integrated into a broader transdisciplinary research perspective that understands science as part of a deliberative and reflective process of knowledge co-production and social learning between all actor groups involved.

Prestimulus default mode activity influences depth of processing and recognition in an emotional memory task

Low self-referential thoughts are associated with better concentration, which leads to deeper encoding and increases learning and subsequent retrieval. There is evidence that being engaged in externally rather than internally focused tasks is related to low neural activity in the default mode network (DMN) promoting open mind and the deep elaboration of new information. Thus, reduced DMN activity should lead to enhanced concentration, comprehensive stimulus evaluation including emotional categorization, deeper stimulus processing, and better long-term retention over one whole week. In this fMRI study, we investigated brain activation preceding and during incidental encoding of emotional pictures and on subsequent recognition performance. During fMRI, 24 subjects were exposed to 80 pictures of different emotional valence and subsequently asked to complete an online recognition task one week later. Results indicate that neural activity within the medial temporal lobes during encoding predicts subsequent memory performance. Moreover, a low activity of the default mode network preceding incidental encoding leads to slightly better recognition performance independent of the emotional perception of a picture. The findings indicate that the suppression of internally-oriented thoughts leads to a more comprehensive and thorough evaluation of a stimulus and its emotional valence. Reduced activation of the DMN prior to stimulus onset is associated with deeper encoding and enhanced consolidation and retrieval performance even one week later. Even small prestimulus lapses of attention influence consolidation and subsequent recognition performance. Hum Brain Mapp, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Improving Pediatric Basic Life Support Performance Through Blended Learning With Web-Based Virtual Patients: Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND E-learning and blended learning approaches gain more and more popularity in emergency medicine curricula. So far, little data is available on the impact of such approaches on procedural learning and skill acquisition and their comparison with traditional approaches. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the impact of a blended learning approach, including Web-based virtual patients (VPs) and standard pediatric basic life support (PBLS) training, on procedural knowledge, objective performance, and self-assessment. METHODS A total of 57 medical students were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=30) and a control group (n=27). Both groups received paper handouts in preparation of simulation-based PBLS training. The intervention group additionally completed two Web-based VPs with embedded video clips. Measurements were taken at randomization (t0), after the preparation period (t1), and after hands-on training (t2). Clinical decision-making skills and procedural knowledge were assessed at t0 and t1. PBLS performance was scored regarding adherence to the correct algorithm, conformance to temporal demands, and the quality of procedural steps at t1 and t2. Participants' self-assessments were recorded in all three measurements. RESULTS Procedural knowledge of the intervention group was significantly superior to that of the control group at t1. At t2, the intervention group showed significantly better adherence to the algorithm and temporal demands, and better procedural quality of PBLS in objective measures than did the control group. These aspects differed between the groups even at t1 (after VPs, prior to practical training). Self-assessments differed significantly only at t1 in favor of the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS Training with VPs combined with hands-on training improves PBLS performance as judged by objective measures.

Performance of undergraduate dental students on ICDAS clinical caries detection after different learning strategies

AIM This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a digital learning tool on undergraduate dental students' performance in detecting dental caries using ICDAS. METHODS An experimental digital learning tool (DLT) was created using digital photographs of sound and carious teeth. Thirty-nine students were divided into three groups (n = 13) and each assessed 12 randomly allocated patients before and after learning strategies: G1, ICDAS e-learning program; G2, ICDAS e-learning program plus DLT; G3, no learning strategy. Students (n = 32) reassessed patients 2 weeks after training. RESULTS Comparing before and after the learning strategies, any difference in the values of specificity and area under the ROC curve for all groups was found. Sensitivity was statistically significantly higher for G1 and G2. Comparing the groups, G2 showed a significant increase in sensitivity at the D2 and D3 thresholds. Spearman's correlations with the gold standard before and after the learning strategy were 0.60 and 0.61 for G1, 0.57 and 0.63 for G2, and 0.54 and 0.54 for G3, respectively. The Wilcoxon test showed a statistically significant difference between the values obtained before and after learning strategies for G1 and G2. CONCLUSIONS Use of the DLT after the ICDAS e-learning program tended to increase the sensitivity of ICDAS used by undergraduate dental students. The DLT appeared to improve dental students' ability to use ICDAS.