Technology for Learning across Physical and Virtual Spaces
J.UCS Special Issue
Carlos Delgado Kloos
(Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
cdk@it.uc3m.es)
Davinia Hernández-Leo
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
davinia.hernandez@upf.edu)
Juan I. Asensio-Pérez
(Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
juaase@tel.uva.es)
Learning is a process that happens at moments and in spaces that go
beyond those typically defined by formal educational institutions. In
fact, it is widely recognized that learners' physical and social
interactions with the "real world", outside the traditional classroom,
cannot be neglected when promoting the acquisition of certain skills
[Bruce 08]. For example, and within the context of formal education,
a visit to a museum could be used for complementing in-classroom
learning with situated activities in the "real world".
Additionally, certain current types of widely adopted learning
technology such as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), or 3D Virtual
Worlds (3DVWs), to name a few, have promoted new types of "virtual
spaces" for learning (in contrast to the "physical space" of the
traditional classroom). These "virtual spaces" provide significant
affordances in terms of, e.g., remote interaction and digital content
access and distribution, and may also complement and enhance
traditional in-classroom learning.
How to effectively support the linking, the mutual influence, and the
transitions among learning activities happening, even simultaneously,
in different spaces (e.g. virtual vs. physical, classroom vs. "real
world") has been for a long time a significant topic of research
within the field of technology-enhanced learning [Sharples and
Roschelle 10]. RFID, geo-positioning, QR codes, Augmented Reality
(AR), and Immersive Virtual Worlds are examples of researched
technologies that make "across spaces learning" feasible
[Dunleavy et al. 08]; [Klopfer et al. 11]; [Pérez-Sanagustín et
al. 11]. Additionally, the current landscape of portable computing
devices (smart phones, tablets, ...), as well as the pervasive
Internet connectivity, have definitively paved the way for the
widespread availability of those across spaces enabling technologies
in authentic learning settings.
For example, and using state-of-the-art mobile devices, it could be
easy and affordable for students, depending on their current location
during a visit to a museum, to access documents previously generated
during a preparatory VLE-based activity and augment their current
environment. Or, it might be feasible for a teacher to scaffold an
in-classroom discussion using geo-located pictures taken by the
students during a previous fieldtrip to a botanic garden. Or, students
and instructors may completely immerse together in 3D Virtual Worlds,
wherever they physically might be.
Nevertheless, the mere availability of the aforementioned enabling
technologies for across spaces learning may not be sufficient for
their adoption in real practice. Additional challenges seem to arise
for the different stakeholders involved in educational contexts:
teachers, students, instructional designers, institutions, and even
policy makers. Examples of those challenges include: how are educators
going to cope with the additional burden associated to the management
of these new technologies?; how can existing pedagogical strategies
(game-based learning, collaborative learning, ...) be appropriated
within across spaces learning?; how the "new" affordances of
learning activities happening in other spaces (e.g. situated learning)
might be incorporated in those existing pedagogical strategies?; what
are the challenges that across spaces learning pose to the evaluation
of pedagogical innovation and to the assessment of students acquired
skills?; how to frame learning activities happening in physical spaces
outside the classroom within the contextual restrictions coming from
educational institutions and policy regulations? Many of these
challenges would probably require additional technological support,
new pedagogical conceptual frameworks, as well as a potential renewal
of the constraints of formal educational contexts.
The main aim of this special issue is to present an updated view of
the undergoing research efforts, within the technology-enhanced
learning community, to tackle the aforementioned challenges for the
adoption of across spaces learning. The process towards the
elaboration of this special issue started in September 2011 with the
celebration of a workshop, in the context of the EC-TEL 2011
Conference in Palermo (Italy), titled: "Learning activities across
physical and virtual spaces (AcrossSpaces2011)". Selected
contributions to that workshop were invited to be extended and
submitted to this special issue, although other contributions not
presented at the workshop were also welcome. 12 submissions were
received, all of them peer-reviewed by at least three internationally
recognized referees. Only 5 were selected for publication, covering a
representative set of topics:
- In their paper "Design-Oriented Pedagogy for Technology-Enhanced
Learning to Cross Over the Borders between Formal and Informal
Environments", Vartiainen, Liljeström, and Enkenberg propose a
novel instructional model that fosters a "design-oriented
pedagogy". The model is framed within the principles of
participatory learning, co-development of "learning objects"
and the use of technology. The model is motivated by the need of
engaging students in design-oriented learning activities beyond the
borders of traditional classrooms, making use of technology for
linking different "spaces". The authors explain how the model
was incrementally evaluated (and subsequently improved and refined)
throughout the setting up of three authentic
experiments. Additionally, the authors describe a fourth experiment
in which they try to gain insight about the perception of the model
by practitioners from different cultural contexts.
- In their paper "A review of mobile location-based games for learning
across physical and virtual spaces", Avouris and Yiannoutsou provide
an analytical framework for classifying and comparing existing
mobile location-based games for learning. This type of games
represents a significant example of across spaces learning in which
a well-known pedagogical strategy (game-based learning) is applied
to activities in the physical space that, simultaneously, are
supported by actions and events happening in a virtual space. The
paper identifies enabling across spaces technologies employed by the
different surveyed proposals. Additionally, the paper provides
interesting reflections about the learning affordances (both
expected and emergent) of location-based games, thus leading to
further research questions.
- In their paper "ARLearn: augmented reality meets augmented
virtuality", Ternier, Klemke, Kalz, van Ulzen, and Specht elaborate
on the advantages of applying game-based learning to situations
happening in "mixed reality" (physical and virtual). The
authors advocate the linking of mobile-based augmented reality and
desktop-based augmented virtuality technologies for achieving an
effective across spaces learning in immersive games. After
identifying some shortcomings in current existing proposals, the
authors propose their own technological solution called
ARLearn. ARLearn is an open architecture that enables educators to
design serious games that can be enacted by means of a Google
Android client for mobile phones (activities in the "real
world") and a Google StreetView mashup (activities in the
"virtual space"). Both technological and educational issues
of ARLearn were evaluated by means of three authentic learning
situations.
- In their paper "SOS: Orchestrating Collaborative Activities
Across Digital and Physical Spaces Using Wearable Signaling
Devices", Hernández-Leo, Nives, Arroyo, Rosales, Melero, and
Blat propose the use of wearable signalling devices so as to
facilitate the coordination of participants in non-trivial
collaborative learning activities happening in the (technologically
augmented) physical space. The information provided by those
signalling devices (the designs of which are also described in the
paper) covers issues such as group formation, distribution of
resources and work areas, role assignment and change of
activities. More importantly, the signalling devices are controlled
by events occurring in the virtual space, thus providing an
interesting approach for reducing the coordination burden associated
to the application of collaborative learning pedagogical strategies
across virtual and physical spaces. The paper also describes how the
authors evaluated the SOS system in two authentic learning
situations in which the well-known jigsaw technique was used as the
pedagogical strategy.
- In their paper "Architecture for Collaborative Learning Activities
in Hybrid Learning Environments", Ibáñez, Maroto, García
Rueda, Leony, and Delgado Kloos present a proof-of-concept for
another type of hybrid learning environment: the combination of the
physical space and a 3D virtual world (3DVW).
The authors propose a
system that supports synchronous collaborative learning situations
by establishing a one-to-one correspondence among objects (physical
and virtual) of both spaces by exchanging and sharing geolocation
information. Interestingly, participants in the collaborative
situation might interface with a desktop-based 3DVW or actually go
to the physical space with a mobile phone. Consequently,
participants of the 3DVW are represented by avatars that, at the
same time, are shown to participants in the physical space in the
form of geolocated augmented reality objects (displayed by the
mobile phone). And, the other way around: participants in the
physical space have their corresponding avatars in the 3DVW that are
located at the "mirrored" coordinates of the virtual
world. All participants can exchange multimedia information
regardless of the space they belong to. The paper describes how the
authors carried out a qualitative usability study of the system in
the context of an authentic experiment aimed at the collaborative
learning of a foreign language.
We hope that you, the reader, find these contributions useful and
inspiring.
References
[Bruce 08] Bruce, B. C.: "Ubiquitous learning, ubiquitous
computing, and lived experience"; Ubiquitous learning, Cope, W. and
Kalantzis, M. (Eds.), University of Illinois Press / Champaign, IL
(2008)
[Dunleavy et al. 08] Dunleavy, M., Dede, C., Mitchell, R.:
"Affordances and Limitations of Immersive Participatory Augmented
Reality Simulations for Teaching and Learning"; Journal of Science
Education and Technology, 18 (2008), 7-22.
[Klopfer et al. 11] Klopfer, E., Sheldon, J., Rosenheck, P. L.,
Squire, K., Mathews, J., Shapiro, R. B., Coulter, B., Dunleavy, M.:
"Augmented reality games: place-based digital learning";
Proc. 9th International Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
Conference, Hong Kong, China (2011).
[Pérez-Sanagustín et al. 11] Pérez-Sanagustín, M.,
Ramirez-Gonzalez, G., Hernández-Leo, D., Muñoz-Organero, M.,
Santos, P., Blat, J., Delgado Kloos, C.: "Discovering the campus
together: A mobile and computer-based learning experience"; Journal
of Network and Computer Applications, 35, 1(2011), 176-188.
[Sharples and Roschelle 10] Sharples, M., Roshelle, J.: "Guest
Editorial: Special Issue on Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies for
Learning"; IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 3, 1 (2010),
4-5.
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