FLEXible

The last day of the WMUTE conference was dedicated to a session on Evaluation and Analysis in Mobile Learning and thus one of the great challenges in this research field. The session included the presentation and discussion of a multimodal analysis of spatial characteristics of a realworld learning field, the case of a mobile business game, the evaluation of interaction with mobile devices in mobile inquiry-based learning, and the support of place/space based patterns of citywide mobile learning through a multi-agent framework. Finally Prof. Masahiko Tsukamoto from the University in Kobe concluded the conference with his special keynote on A Perspective on Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing: How Does It Impact on Daily Life?

Notably the presentation on the mobile business game by the University of Auckland illustrated nicely the complete workflow from developing an idea, over the actual implementation, to the prototype evaluation. The game uses location-based anchors to augment business cases with real-world interactions and also includes an authoring environment. The whole approach reminded me a bit of the EMERGO toolkit, almost like a possible mobile extension. Another interesting presentation dealt with an offen neglected aspect of mobile learning – the evaluation of the interaction with mobile devices. Within the mVisible Outdoor Activity project the researchers developed an interaction evaluation framework that can be used to refine activities and tasks given.

If you are interested in one of the presentations or would like to have some more information, please do not hesitateto contact me.

Throughout the week at the WMUTE conference a range of presenters from different international universities and institutes presented their research on mobile and ubiquitous learning in sessions on Context-aware and Personalized Learning Approaches, Mobile Human-Computer Interaction, as well as Mobile Social Media and Emerging Mobile Technologies in Education.

In the first session the prototypes [MY]story and hi[STORY] were presented. Both mobile digital storytelling systems were developed with the overall goal to facilitate new media literacy as key competence and promote creative collaborative learning. More technically oriented the Open Device Control (OpenDC) framework for interactive applications in ubiquitous environments, an architecture for supporting heterogeneous multi-device learning environments, and the concept of a decentralized and self-adaptive system for mobile learning applications were introduced.

In the second session a device-free personal response system based on fiducial markers, the mobile applications Lotus, Uz, and Touch & Read for the cognitive support of children with disabilities, and a gesture-based interaction system to support the collaborative exploration of visualizations using Microsoft Kinect were presented. Interestingly the response system utilizes augmented reality (AR) markers in reverse, similar to what we did when implementing our social learning game and the AR business cards. More information on the response system can be found at http://ist.mns.kyutech.ac.jp/miura/awareresponse/index.php. Furthermore the timer based cognitive support applications Lotus and Uz are available for iOS in the App Store.

Finally in the last session new approaches for nomadic inquiry, the recommendation of helpers based on personal connections, and a folksonomy-based indexing for retrieving resources were presented. Furthermore a study on a augmented reality based butterfly ecology learning system and (especially interesting) the utilization of IMS LD to author authentic learning examples in a mobile context were presented. If you are interested in one of the presentations or would like to have some more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The first day of the WMUTE conference was opened by a keynote of Prof. David Cavallo from the University of Maryland iSchool and College of Education on Liberating Learning: How Ubiquitous Access to Connected Computational Devices Releases Education from the Tyranny of Information Recall. In his keynote he explained why the focus on mostly trivial information recall is the wrong educational focus for the ubiquitous age and that different approaches are needed. Furthermore he showcased some projects where he guided students to solve real-world problems using open engineering environments to foster their expression, construction, design & collaboration rather than presenting and recalling information.

The following sessions were then devoted to Mobile Learning Activity Design and Mobile Collaborative Learning. In the first session a design for mobile activity support across learning contexts, a scaffolded participatory and collaborative reading application, as well as the results of a survey covering the possibilities and challenges in mobile learning for K-12 teachers were presented. In the second session 3 collaborative system prototypes (i.e., SCROLL a context-aware ubiquitous learning-log system, LETS GO a system to support ecology field work for upper secondary schools, and SMS-HIT an approach to integrate SMS components into CSCL scripts) as well as a conceptual framework towards the support of field and in-class collaborative learning were presented. If you are interested in one of the presentations or would like to have some more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Next week I will attend the 7th IEEE International Conference on Wireless, Mobile, and Ubiquitous Technologies in Education (WMUTE) in Takamatsu, Japan. Beside some interesting keynotes from Prof. David Cavallo (University of Maryland, USA) and Prof. Masahiko Tsukamoto (Kobe University, Japan) on liberating learning and the impact of ubiquitous computing on the daily life, the conference presents an interesting program with the following workshops and sessions around mobile learning:

• Mobile/ubiquitous learning strategies and applications
• Scalability and interoperability dimensions for mobile learning
• Mobile language learning
• Mobile learning activity design
• Mobile collaborative learning
• Context-aware and personalized learning approaches
• Mobile human-computer interaction
• Mobile social media and emerging mobile technologies in education
• Evaluation and analysis in mobile learning
• Mobile learning in formal educational settings

More details about the conference and the complete program can be found here: http://wmute2012.info/