[publication] Personal Learning Environments for Higher Education: A Mashup Based Widget Concept

Our paper about “Personal Learning Environment for Higher Education – A MashUp Based Widget Concept” within the MUPPLE 09 Workshop at this year ECTEL conference is now online available (presentation).
Abstract:

Due to the enormous growth of distributed applications, services, tools and resources, it is not easy for end users to come across existing services, manage and use them in a matter which is customized according to their personal needs. Mashups can be a very interesting approach to overcome challenges of distributed (unknown) services. Using mashups in a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) can help to connect resources and applications in one environment customized to the needs of individual users. In this paper a first approach and the concept of a PLE especially for higher education is described. The technological concept is introduced and design issues are pointed out as well as the first prototype is described.

Reference:Taraghi, B.; Ebner, M.; Schaffert, S. (2009) Personal Learning Environment for Higher Education – A MashUp Based Widget Concept, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Mashup Personal Learning Environments (MUPPLE09), Nice, France, 2009, ISSN 1613-0073, Vol-506, https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-506/

[publication] Visualizing Research Patterns in the Field of e- Learning

Our publication about “Visualizing Research Patterns in the Field of e- Learning” for this Science 2.0 for TEL Workshop at ECTEL conference is now online available.
Abstract:

In this paper we have performed a content analysis of Ed-Media conferences publications from 2003 to 2008 using our internally built visualization tool to realize various research patterns in the field of e-learning. We identified 3668 different research terms from 4607 articles’ titles. The visualization tool revealed the trends of contributions in the field over the years, evolution or decline of research terms, hot research terms, key researchers, leading institutions and nations across the world, evolution of countries, continents and institutions in comparison to each other. The results in this study will allow novice and experienced educators, researchers in the field of e- learning to understand what kind of different research terms exist and to identify different research patterns over the last six years in this field.

Reference: Khan, S., Ebner, M., Taraghi, B. (2009) Visualizing Research Patterns in the Field of e- Learning, Workshop Science 2.0 for TEL, ECTEL 2009, Nizza [Link]

Summary of Special Track MASHL 2009

The Special Track on “MashUps for Learning (MASHL09)” within the ICL 2009 conference is over and Sandra and I are very happy that we had a great time, great presentations as well as discussions. We like to thank also our “Best Paper Award” sponsored by ROLE project (represented by Ralf Klamma) for their help.

Again, thanks to Michael Auer to be part of his conference, to all presenters for their great work as well as all participants to create such successful sessions.
A special thanks also to Sandra from mine for creating the overview slides, the YouTube Video and for the great team work – it was simply a pleasure to work with you:

[publication] Personal Learning Environment – A Conceptual Study

Our publication about “Personal Learning Environment – A Conceptual Study” at the Special Track on “MashUps for Learning (MASHL09)” within the ICL 2009 conference is now online available.
Abstract:

The influence of digital technologies as well as the World Wide Web on education rises dramatically. In former years Learning Management Systems (LMS) were introduced on educational institutes to address the needs both their institutions and their lecturers. Nowadays a shift from an institution-centred approach to a learner- centred one becomes necessary to allow individuality through the learning process and to think about learning strategies in general. In this paper a first approach of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is described. The technological concept is pointed out as well as a study about the graphical user-interface done at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). It can be concluded that PLEs are the next generation environments, which help to improve the learning and teaching behaviour.

Reference:Taraghi, B., Ebner, M., Till, G., Mühlburger, H. (2009) Personal Learning Environment – A Conceptual Study, International Conference on Interactive Computer Aided Learning (ICL 2009), Villach, AT