Schlagwort: publication

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[publication] Get Granular on Twitter – Tweets from a Conference and their Limited Usefulness for Non-Participants

Our publication at this year World Computer Congress about „Get Granular on Twitter – Tweets from a Conference and their Limited Usefulness for Non-Participants“ is now online as draft version available.
Abstract:

The use of microblogging applications (especially Twitter) becomes common in different settings. Nowadays, active conference participants post messages on microblogging platforms to exchange information fast and in real- time. Recent research work addressed quantitative analyses in terms of number of tweets or active Twitter user in a specific time period. In this publication we look at the content of the contributions. It can be shown that only a few posts are of interest for non-participants of the corresponding event and that a meaningful usage of a microblogging application needs carefulness.


Reference: Ebner, M., Mühlburger, H., Schön (aka Schaffert), S., Schiefner, M., Reinhardt, W., Wheeler, S. (2010) Get Granular on Twitter – Tweets from a Conference and their Limited Usefulness for Non-Participants, N. Reynolds and M. Turcsányi-Szabó (Eds.), KCKS 2010, IFIP AICT 324, pp. 102–113

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[publication] Nintendo Wii Remote Controller in the classroom. A report on the Development and Evaluation of a Demonstrator Kit for e-Teaching

Our publication about „Nintendo Wii Remote Controller in the classroom. A report on the Development and Evaluation of a Demonstrator Kit for e-Teaching“ is now published in the Journal Computer and Informatics.

Abstract:

Increasing availability of game based technologies together with advances in Human–Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering provides new challenges to virtual environments for their utilization in e-Teaching. Consequently, a goal is to provide learners with the equivalent of practical learning experiences, whilst, at the same time, supporting creativity for both teachers and learners. Current market surveys showed that the Wii remote controller (Wiimote) is more wide spread than standard Tablet PCs and is the most used computer input device worldwide, which, given its collection of sensors, accelerometers and Bluetooth technology, makes it of great interest for HCI experiments in the area of e-Learning and e-Teaching. In this paper we discuss the importance of gestures for teaching and describe the design and development of a low-cost demonstrator kit for the Wiimote in order to demonstrate that gestures can enhance the quality of the lecturing process.

Reference: Holzinger, A.; Softic, S.; Stickel, C.; Ebner, M.; Debevc, M.; Hu, B.: NINTENDO WII REMOTE CONTROLLER IN HIGHER EDUCATION: DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A DEMONSTRATOR KIT FOR E-TEACHING. – in: Computing and informatics (2010) 29, S. 1001 – 1015

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[publication] New Forms of and Tools for Cooperative Learning with Social Software in Higher Education

Sandra and I wrote a summary of different tools and forms of cooperative learning with Social Software in higher education. It was just published in the book „Computer-Assisted Teaching: New Developments“ (ed. by Brayden A. Morris and George M. Ferguson).

Our abstract:

Since the new generation of Internet technology, called Web 2.0, has been introduced, a change of how users are dealing with the World Wide Web has been get into going. If access to the Web is available, today nearly anyone can actively participate and communicate online. Of course this recent evolution of the Web influences also the field of education. Former e-learning was mainly characterized by the use of content offered within learning management systems. Nowadays so called “Social Software” enables new possibilities and didactical approaches. In this chapter we give a short overview of how Social Software can support cooperative learning and how new technologies can enhance higher education in a meaningful new way. After a short introduction to the basics of cooperative learning different Social Software applications are classified and described. Practical examples are presented to show the general usage. In the end we conclude that these technologies have great impact on teaching and learning, as it will help to enhance education at universities.

Within the paper, we distinguished different forms of Social Software:

Social Software can be distinguished concerning their main purposes

  • Social presence and communication including discussion forums, Web chats, (micro-) blogging, (micro-) podcasting, and live streaming;
  • Collaborative development including tools that allow a collaborative work and development as the Wiki technology; or
  • Collaborative enrichment of content such as social bookmarking, social tagging, and rating.

Then we went on with a short description of different teaching settings (formally organised learning), where cooperative learning can be used:

1. Distance learning setting

The learners are distributed and do not meet in reality before and while learning and working together. The online communication is not always, but often asynchronous;

2. Blended learning setting

The learners meet in reality and additionally online but normally not parallel. The online communication usually is asynchronous;

3. Classroom group work setting – with 10 to 25 learners

Every learner additionally and parallel to “real” communication participates through networked computers or mobile phones on the group interaction

4. Lecture hall learning setting

The learners use networked computers or mobile phones to facilitate interaction and feedback loops in big groups of more than 40 people parallel to a (interactive) lecture.

In the paper we list tools and their usage and how it already worked (or not) within cooperative learning settings. We came to the conclusion (amongst other aspects!!):

The use of technology in education strongly depends on the questions how we can improve the quality of education and how we can benefit from it. For example, digital collaboration with the help of Wiki systems leads to new possibilities that had not been imaginable within a paper-based learning scenario. Furthermore tagging enhances learner’s content in a new meaningful way and makes the content shareable und reusable. Micro-blogging as described in previous chapters must be seen as a complete new form of communication – talking to a cloud, without knowing if anyone will read or even react to it.

As cooperative learning is very often a part of open educational practices, where learners have the possibilities to organize their own learning within their groups as active partners, changes of learning and teaching behavior is not only a matter of such new tools. Also the existing learning culture within the institution or the teaching abilities and attitudes of lectures are (amongst others) crucial aspects of teaching in higher education that has to be taken into account for a successful implementation or usage of such new tools for cooperative learning (cf. Schaffert, 2009).

Additionally, we have to bear in mind that such tools are not built especially for learning settings. It is up to the researchers and every single user to find out whether learners can benefit from it or not. (…)

Reference: Schaffert, Sandra & Ebner, Martin (2010). New Forms of and Tools for Cooperative Learning with Social Software in Higher Education. In: Brayden A. Morris & George M. Ferguson (Ed.), Computer-Assisted Teaching: New Developments. Nova Science Pub, p. 151-165.

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[publication] Capture Your University

The publication of our contribution to this year IADIS e-Learning conference in Freiburg/Germany is now online. The presentation on „Capture Your University“ has been already published [Link], as well as the podcast [Link].

Reference: Nagler, W.; Grigoriadis, Y.; Stickel, C.; Ebner, M. (2010), Capture Your University. – in: IADIS International Conference e-Learning 2010, p. 139 – 144

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[publication] M-Learning in the Field

Our publicaton „M-Learning in the Field: A Mobile Geospatial Wiki as an Example for Geo-Tagging in Civil Engineering“ pulblished in the book „Looking Toward the Future of Technology-Enhanced Education“ is as Draft Version online available.
Abstract:

In subjects such as Civil Engineering, Architecture, Geology etc., education is mostly based on visual information. For example, in Civil Engineering every building can be seen as a unique object at a certain location. During the education of Civil Engineers many field based studies and excursions take place, however, not only the images but also geographical coordinates are essential. Wikis have been in use for collaborative learning for more than ten years. Mobile phones provide access to them from nearly everywhere. The availability of those technologies has led to rapid advances in the area of m-Learning and the possibility to apply challenging constructive educational concepts. Consequently, in this paper we describe the user centered design, development and evaluation of a combination of these technologies to support collaborative learning in the field: A Wiki-based mobile geospatial information system, the so-called TUGeoWiki. The primary objective of this geowiki is to provide a user-friendly tool for mobile collaborative learning for all areas where geo-tagged information could be useful. Moreover, TUGeoWiki was developed in order to provide the integration of external map material via map APIs including information such as that delivered by Google maps. Subsequently, it is possible to provide both highly detailed maps and satellite images without having the need to license such material. Furthermore, the user interfaces used by such tools is well established, due to the increasing number of mapping related mashups. The evaluation during an extensive field test within a large civil engineering excursion to various large-scale construction sites in Austria demonstrated that collaborative learning can be successfully supported by the application of a geowiki.

Reference: Safran, C., Ebner, M., Kappe, F., Holzinger, A. (2010), M-Learning in the Field: A Mobile Geospatial Wiki as an Example for Geo-Tagging in Civil Engineering, In: Looking Toward the Future of Technology-Enhanced Education, Ebner. M & Schiefner, M. (Ed.), IGI Global, Hershey, pp. 263 – 274

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[publication] Is Twitter an Individual Mass Communication Medium?

Our pulication about „Is Twitter an Individual Mass Communication Medium?“ at this year SITE Conference is now online available:

The presentation has already been published.

Reference: Wiesenhofer, H., Ebner, M. & Kamrat, I. (2010). Is Twitter an Individual Mass Communication Medium?. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (pp. 1712-1717). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

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[publication] Interactive Lecturing by Integrating Mobile Devices and Micro-blogging in Higher Education

The article about „Interactive Lecturing by Integrating Mobile Devices and Micro-blogging in Higher Education“ is now published in the Journal Computing and Information Technology. Further there is a short video about the content of the paper.
Abstract:

Following the recent advances in both technology and social interaction, implementation of interactivity to large lecture rooms presents itself as a promising new methodology to improve the learning and teaching process in academia. Namely, based on the underlying ideas of Web 2.0, learners should be able to collect and share online resources during a lecture, additional communication channels such as discussion forums, chat and micro-blogging helping to achieve interactivity on traditional face-to-face teaching. Building on such premises, first experiences have been acquired by the use of mobile devices and instant messaging in enhancing the learning and teaching behavior, with the help of a university wide available Learning Management System (LMS), which has accordingly been adapted and extended to the specific needs of supporting interactivity through mobile devices. The LMS is intended to use common and existing software and hardware (devices of the learners). The goal of the above research is to find out the potentials of interactivity in order to enhance students‘ engagement in traditional face-to-face teaching in Higher Education. The paper describes the outcomes of the first experiments in implementing interactivity in Higher Education in such a framework within the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and comments on the methodology applied. The experiments, which have been performed during lecturing within the course „Social Aspects of Information Technology“ at the BSc level, attended by about 200 students, have shown that such kind of interactivity has a positive effect on the learners‘ engagement.

Reference: Ebner, M. (2009), Interactive Lecturing by Integrating Mobile Devices and Micro-blogging in Higher Education, Journal of Computing and Information Technology (eCIT), Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2009, pp. 371-381 doi:10.2498/cit.1001382
Full article as [.pdf]

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[paper accepted] ED-MEDIA 2010

We are happy that our contributions to this year ED-MEDIA Conference 2010 are accepted:

We are pleased to inform you that the Program Committee of ED-MEDIA 2010–World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, after rigorous peer review, has decided to ACCEPT your submission for presentation.

  • Full Paper on „Has Web2.0 Reached the Educated Top?„
  • Full Paper on „Personal Learning Environment for Higher Education – A First Prototype„

See you in Toronto 🙂 .