My presentation 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 – comments are highly welcome:
Mupple und Science 2.0 program online
The programs of both workshops at this year ECTEL conference where our research group will participate are now online available:
Hope we will see you there 🙂
Interest on article „How People are Using Twitter during Conferences“
Amazing, our article as well as our presentation „How People are Using Twitter during Conferences“ gathered much more interest as ever expected.
There was a big report on Read/Write Web a month ago „Study Reveals High Levels of Twitter Use at Conferences“ and our presentation on slideshare reached the „Hot on Facebook“
How People are using Twitter at Conferences is being talked about on Facebook more than any other document on SlideShare right now. So we’ve put it on the homepage of SlideShare.net (in the „Hot on Facebook“ section)
as well as the „Hot on Twitter“ list:
How People are using Twitter at Conferences is being tweeted more than any other document on SlideShare right now. So we’ve put it on the homepage of SlideShare.net (in the „Hot on Twitter“ section)
Thanks to all who were and are interested in our research and keep us motivated to do further work.
Final program of Special Track at ICL2009 online
Mashups for Learning
A track organised by:
Dr. Sandra Schaffert, Salzburg Research, Austria
Dr. Martin Ebner, Graz University of Technology, Austria
The special track “Mashups for Learning” (MASHL2009) takes place within the “International Conference on Interactive Computer Aided Learning” (ICL) in Villach, Austria.
Here you can find again the CALL for Paper.
Now we can announce the final program (including 4 Full Papers and 3 Short Papers) of the two sessios which will take place on Thursday, 24/09/2009 – we are looking forward to great discussions about the topics:
[article] Weaving Social E-learning Platforms Into The Web of Linked Data
My colleague Behnam Taraghi and his friend also contributed to this year i-Know Conference and presented a publication on „Weaving Social E-learning Platforms Into the Web of Linked Data„. I think who is interested in this topic it’s worth to take a look.
Abstract:
In this paper we present an approach for interlinking and RDFising social e-Learning Web 2.0 platforms like ELGG based on semantic tagging and Linked Data principles. A special module called SID (Semantically Interlinked Data) was developed to allow existing tagged and published user generated content an easy entrance into the Web of Data and to enrich it semantically on the other hand. Our approach uses commonly known vocabularies (FOAF, SIOC, MOAT and Tag Ontology) for modelling and generation tasks along with DBPedia as reference dataset for interlinking.
[publication] Will Personal Learning Environments Become Ubiquitous through the Use of Widgets?
Our publication „Will Personal Learning Environments Become Ubiquitous through the Use of Widgets?“ for this year i-Know Conference is now online available.
Abstract:
Nowadays Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are described as the use of different social software tools for learning and teaching. The use of common web browsers often is a precondition to fulfil the requirements of social software tools. In this publication a new perspective as well as a couple of prototypes is presented to allow a more independent solution in this context. Using the new JavaFX technology so called widgets are implemented which can be used on different devices as well as different operating systems. Furthermore also the web browser can be replaced by a browser instance. It can be summarized that through the use of widgets the learning environment of the future can be more individualized and personalized.
Reference: Taraghi, B., Mühlburger, H.; Ebner, M.; Nagler, W. (2009) Will Personal Learning Environments Become Ubiquitous through the Use of Widgets?, Tochtermann, K. and Maurer, H. (ed.), Proceedings of I-KNOW ’09 and I-SEMANTICS ’09, Graz, Austria, pp. 329-335
Here you will find the online copy.
[poster] Will PLEs Become Ubiquitous through the Use of Widgets?
Our short paper at this year iKnow Conference about „Will PLEs Become Ubiquitous through the Use of Widgets?“ is now online available:
[publication] Interactive Technology for Enhancing Distributed Learning: A Study on Weblogs
Our contribution to this year HCI 2009 conference about „Interactive Technology for Enhancing Distributed Learning: A Study on Weblogs“ is now online available.
Abstract:
In this study, it was investigated whether, and to what extent, Web 2.0 technologies, actually Weblogs, can be a suitable instrument for enhancing the practice of distributed learning. In educational settings, which are based on traditional lectures many students begin serious study shortly before the exam. However, from previous empirical research, it is known that the practice of distributed learning is much more conducive to retaining knowledge than that of massed learning. A 2*2 factorial design (within – repeated measures) with pre-test and post-test in a real life setting was applied; the study lasted for the whole summer term 2007. Participants were N=28 computer science undergraduates of Graz University of Technology. We randomly assigned them to two groups of equal size: The experimental group given the Weblog treatment are referred to as Group W; whereas the control group with no access are referred to as Group C. Students of group W were instructed to use the Weblog for developing their paper and studying during the lecture and they were requested not to reveal their group affiliation. The results showed that performance scores of group W were significantly higher than that of group C. This demonstrates that Weblogs can be an appropriate instrument to supplement a classical lecture in order to enable deeper processing of information over a longer period of time, consequently resulting in enhanced learning performance.
Reference: Holzinger, A.; Kickmeier-Rust, M.; Ebner, M. (2009) Interactive Technology for Enhancing Distributed Learning: A Study on Weblogs, Proceedings of HCI 2009 The 23nd British HCI Group Annual Conference, Cambridge, London, pp. 309-312
The PrePrint is available here.
[abstract accepted] Geo-Tagging in Archaeology: Practical Experiences with the TUGeoWiki
Zusammen mit meinem KollegInnen haben wir ein Abstract zum heurigen „International Congress „Cultural Heritage and New Technologies“ (Workshop „Archäologie & Computer“)“ eingereicht. Wir zeigen im Rahmen der Präsentation „Geo-Tagging in Archaeology: Practical Experiences with the TUGeoWiki“ Möglichkeiten und Nutzen von Geotagging im Bereich der Lehre auf und freuen uns auf viele Diskussionsbeiträge.
Abstract:
Introduction and Motivation: The wide spread availability of sophisticated and cheap mobile phones, providing internet access nearly everywhere, have led to advances in the application of new technologies to support field studies and Archaeological documentation. Established tools include Wiki-based mobile geospatial information systems, so called GeoWikis.
Background and Related Work: The primary objective of a GeoWiki is to provide the integration of photographs into an external map via an Application Programming Interface such as the Google maps API. Such MashUps are both a concept and a technology for merging content, services and applications from multiple sites. Experiences gained in civil engineering at Graz University of Technology made it apparent that the creation of a special GeoWiki was necessary: the TUGeoWiki.
Methods and Materials: As a use case we will be evaluating the TUGeoWiki during an archaeological documentation of Roman stones in churches. Relevant issues include both the usability and the usefulness of this application when being utilized in the archaeology domain. During this study the usefulness will be evaluated using heuristic evaluation methods. According to ISO 9241-11 there are three key aspects of usability: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction; In order to evaluate the TUGeoWiki against a standardized benchmark, we are applying the System Usability Scale (SUS), a ten-item attitude Likert scale, which isconsidered a valid method of evaluation for mobile devices.
We report on the practical experiences and lessons learned during the use and evaluation of the TUGeoWiki and discuss advantages and disadvantages and possible solutions. Advantages include: taking annotated, geotagged photographs, in a secluded area where the archaeologist has little equipment; the immediate exchange of information and the ability to cooperate with other archaeologists etc.; Disadvantages include the relatively low resolution dependent on the mobile device used; the relative inaccuracy of the GPS location data; and the deviation between the distance of the camera and the object; data protection against tomb raiders etc.
Hier der Link zu unserem Beitrag.
[CfP] ED-Media 2010 (Toronto/Canada)
Nachdem die heurige ED-Media Konferenz vorüber ist, gibt es ab sofort den Call for Papers (Deadline 18. Dezember 2009) für die nextjährige die in Toronto in Kanada stattfinden wird:
ED-MEDIA – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an international conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

