Nuove metodologie di apprendimento digitale: Microlearning e mobile learning

La tesi tratta in modo approfondito le tipologie di apprendimento non tradizionale, ovvero in contesto non scolastico/universitario, focalizzandosi sull'importanza che hanno i dispositivi mobili come mezzo di aggiornamento e miglioramento costante delle conoscenze e abilità delle persone. Queste nuove metodologie sono chiamate microlearning e mobile learning, evoluzioni naturali dell'e-learning nate dall'esigenza di un apprendimento che non fosse più solo a distanza, ma applicabile al contesto mobile per rispecchiare le nuove esigenze delle persone.

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.

Constructing a user experience user experience-based mobile learning environment

Mobile learning, in the past defined as learning with mobile devices, now refers to any type of learning-on-the-go or learning that takes advantage of mobile technologies. This new definition shifted its focus from the mobility of technology to the mobility of the learner (O'Malley and Stanton 2002; Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). Placing emphasis on the mobile learner’s perspective requires studying “how the mobility of learners augmented by personal and public technology can contribute to the process of gaining new knowledge, skills, and experience” (Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). The demands of an increasingly knowledge based society and the advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning. Around the world, mobile learning is predicted to be the future of online learning, and is slowly entering the mainstream education. However, for mobile learning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop more advanced technologies that are tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. A research field that allows putting the development of such technologies onto a solid basis is user experience design, which addresses how to improve usability and therefore user acceptance of a system. Although there is no consensus definition of user experience, simply stated it focuses on how a person feels about using a product, system or service. It is generally agreed that user experience adds subjective attributes and social aspects to a space that has previously concerned itself mainly with ease-of-use. In addition, it can include users’ perceptions of usability and system efficiency. Recent advances in mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies further underline the importance of human-computer interaction and user experience (feelings, motivations, and values) with a system. Today, there are plenty of reports on the limitations of mobile technologies for learning (e.g., small screen size, slow connection), but there is a lack of research on user experience with mobile technologies. This dissertation will fill in this gap by a new approach in building a user experience-based mobile learning environment. The optimized user experience we suggest integrates three priorities, namely a) content, by improving the quality of delivered learning materials, b) the teaching and learning process, by enabling live and synchronous learning, and c) the learners themselves, by enabling a timely detection of their emotional state during mobile learning. In detail, the contributions of this thesis are as follows: • A video codec optimized for screencast videos which achieves an unprecedented compression rate while maintaining a very high video quality, and a novel UI layout for video lectures, which together enable truly mobile access to live lectures. • A new approach in HTTP-based multimedia delivery that exploits the characteristics of live lectures in a mobile context and enables a significantly improved user experience for mobile live lectures. • A non-invasive affective learning model based on multi-modal emotion detection with very high recognition rates, which enables real-time emotion detection and subsequent adaption of the learning environment on mobile devices. The technology resulting from the research presented in this thesis is in daily use at the School of Continuing Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SOCE), a blended-learning institution with 35.000 students.

An autostereoscopic device for mobile applications based on a liquid crystal microlens array and an OLED display

In recent years, many experimental and theoretical research groups worldwide have actively worked on demonstrating the use of liquid crystals (LCs) as adaptive lenses for image generation, waveform shaping, and non-mechanical focusing applications. In particular, important achievements have concerned the development of alternative solutions for 3D vision. This work focuses on the design and evaluation of the electro-optic response of a LC-based 2D/3D autostereoscopic display prototype. A strategy for achieving 2D/3D vision has been implemented with a cylindrical LC lens array placed in front of a display; this array acts as a lenticular sheet with a tunable focal length by electrically controlling the birefringence. The performance of the 2D/3D device was evaluated in terms of the angular luminance, image deflection, crosstalk, and 3D contrast within a simulated environment. These measurements were performed with characterization equipment for autostereoscopic 3D displays (angular resolution of 0.03 ).

El Mobile Learning en el aula de ELE. Propuestas para el alumnado italófono

Los dispositivos móviles se han convertido en una herramienta irrenunciable en la vida de los seres humanos, principalmente como instrumento para estar en contacto con cualquier persona en cualquier lugar y en cualquier momento. La introducción de los smartphone y las tabletas en las aulas de Educación Secundaria favorece la motivación y la autonomía del alumnado, puesto que las aplicaciones digitales (Apps) son el mundo en el que nace y vive. Sin embargo, el concepto de Mobile Learning se puede aplicar tanto al aula de lengua y literatura para hispanohablantes como al aula de español para extranjeros, empleando el móvil no como sustituto del material en papel, sino como elemento que fomenta las habilidades comunicativas. Teniendo en cuenta la utilidad de las app para dispositivos móviles en las aulas de Español como Lengua Extranjera (ELE), en el presente trabajo se desarrolla una propuesta didáctica desde el área de lengua y literatura española para el alumnado italófono: estos estudiantes constituyen un grupo particular de aprendices de español ya que, como los dos idiomas se parecen, surgen dificultades inesperadas al descubrir las divergencias durante el estudio de la lengua.

Provision of Mobile Learning in Higher Schools

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2013

Mobile learning: Una propuesta de intervención para la igualdad de género en Educación Secundaria

Este artículo pretende recoger una propuesta de intervención para el fomento de la igualdad de género con profesorado y alumnado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, a través de la metodología del mobile learning. Propone realizar con el profesorado acciones formativas para el uso didáctico de aplicaciones del móvil en el aula y desarrollar competencias digitales con el alumnado fundamentalmente femenino, para un uso eficaz y favorecedor de oportunidades de esta herramienta, a la vez que plantea conocer aplicaciones útiles para su proceso de aprendizaje y la gestión de recursos para la igualdad de oportunidades.

English for tourism : contribution to language use through mobile learning

Tourism is growing and is becoming more competitive. Destinations need to find elements which demonstrate their uniqueness, the singularity which allows them to differentiate themselves from others. This struggle for uniqueness makes economies become more competitive and competition is a central element in the dynamics of Tourism. Technology is also an added value for tourism competitiveness, as it allows destinations to become internationalised and known worldwide. In this scenario, research has increased as a means to study Tourism trends in fields such as sociology and marketing. Nevertheless, there are areas in which there is not much research done and which are fundamental: these are the areas concerned with identities, communication and interpersonal relations. In this regard, Linguistics has a major role for different reasons: firstly, it studies language itself and through it, communication, secondly, language conveys culture and, thirdly, it is by enriching language users that innovation in Tourism and in knowledge, as a whole, is made possible. This innovation, on the other hand, has repercussions in areas such as management, internationalisation and marketing as well. It is, therefore, the objective of this thesis to report on how learning experiences take place in Tourism undergraduate English language classes as well as to give an account of enhanced results in classes where mobile learning was adopted. In this way, an alliance between practice and research was established. This is beneficial for the teaching and learning process because by establishing links between research based insight and practice, the outcome is grounded knowledge which helps make solid educational decisions. This research, therefore, allows to better understand if learners accept working with mobile technologies in their learning process. Before introducing any teaching and learning approach, it was necessary to be informed, as well, of how English for tourism programmes are organised. This thesis also illustrates through the premises of Systemic Functional Linguistics that language use can be enhanced by using mobile technology in Tourism undergraduate language classes.

Implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution with composable and one-sided-device-independent security against coherent attacks

Secret communication over public channels is one of the central pillars of a modern information society. Using quantum key distribution this is achieved without relying on the hardness of mathematical problems, which might be compromised by improved algorithms or by future quantum computers. State-of-the-art quantum key distribution requires composable security against coherent attacks for a finite number of distributed quantum states as well as robustness against implementation side channels. Here we present an implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution satisfying these requirements. Our implementation is based on the distribution of continuous-variable Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen entangled light. It is one-sided device independent, which means the security of the generated key is independent of any memoryfree attacks on the remote detector. Since continuous-variable encoding is compatible with conventional optical communication technology, our work is a step towards practical implementations of quantum key distribution with state-of-the-art security based solely on telecom components.

A model driven framework to address challenges in a mobile learning environment

In this paper a review of the pedagogical, technological, policy and research challenges and concepts underlying mobile learning is presented, followed by a brief description of categories of implementations. A model Mobile learning framework and dynamic criteria for mobile learning implementations are proposed, along with a casestudy of one site that is used to illustrate how the proposed model can be applied. Implementation challenges including pedagogical challenges, technological challenges, policy challenges, and research challenges are described. These align well with the themes of EduSummIT 2013 that hosted the dialogue resulting in this paper.

Mobile phones as a learning device : is it time to stop the ban?

It is now time for teachers as well as colleges to make a place for mobile learning within the classroom setting. Teachers should be encouraged to integrate mobile phones for teaching and learning within the classroom, as they can be seen as an effective learning tool for students of all ages. We believe that mobile phone bans in colleges should be reviewed and reconsidered. This paper draws on some important aspects which mobile phones can bring into the classroom; it illustrates how mobile phones can fit seamlessly in a normal classroom environment; and the advantages that they provide. A possible integration method which encourages collaboration among students and teacher will be discussed and proposed.