Group items tagged

"The research described in this paper is the investigation of interactivity between learners and system in the context of remote access to educational field explorations (field trips). The concept is described generically as remote access field trip (RAFT). The interactivity framework proposed for assessing RAFT considers it within the context of live distance education and needs to be judged in terms of set interaction criteria, e.g. learner & learner, learner & instructor, learner & content and learner & interface. This paper proposes that criteria for distance learning interaction assessment should consider also how the leaner interacts with a pervasive interface. This is particularly relevant in this context because the system involves participants interacting with a pervasive system within a live field trip experience, and creates a unique human-system interaction in the educational domain."

Rolf Arnold; Peter Faulstich; Wilhelm Mader; Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein; Erhard Schlutz: Research Memorandum on Adult and Continuing Education The growing importance of lifelong learning and adult education appears to be a generally accepted fact. Less well known, on the other hand, are the causes, conditions, forms and types of development in all their variety as well as the changing trends and options for solutions to be observed at different levels. This situation requires broad, intensive and sustained empirical research on adult and continuing education. This Research Memorandum - commissioned by the Section for Adult Education at the German Society for Educational Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft, DGfE) - seeks to identify, structure and label focal areas and questions in order to stimulate a more effective, coordinated division of labor in the field of research. This portrayal of the need for empirical research focuses on five fields of research: adult learning, knowledge structures and skill needs, professional action, institutionalization, system and policy. These fields of research are once again broken down into certain focal areas of research or topical areas. Questions are then proposed in order to elucidate the various research options. These questions are by no means exhaustive. Their purpose, rather, is merely to serve as examples. Overlapping between research fields, topics and issues is not random - it is, rather, an inherent aspect of all these phenomena.

RAFT (Remote Accessible Field Trips) provides the possibility for students to participate in field trips from remote locations. This paper reports on two studies to test the RAFT concept. The first study used video-mediated communication (VMC) to allow students to communicate with experts. The second study tested students' experiences of using off-the-shelf technologies to transfer data while assigned with specific roles. Participants were school students aged 11-18 years. The findings showed RAFT resulted in high levels of interest and was both positive and engaging for students. An increase in student interest in topic (p < 0.05) was reported in the second study. It is argued that these aspects of RAFT are of benefit to students and further developments are discussed.

The ability to relate abstract knowledge to real-world experiences is indispensable in the modern society. Therefore the construction of knowledge from real-world contexts is a major issue of education. This issue is not supported by the current learning management systems. In the RAFT project we develop a system to support remote accessible field trips. One of its applications, the mobile collector, facilitates constructivistic learning processes in real-world contexts.