En este trabajo, se realiza una investigación vinculada al análisis de herramientas de autor para la generación de contenido de Realidad Aumentada (RA), con especial énfasis en aquellas orientadas al escenario educativo. Se consideran características tales como la funcionalidad que proveen, la amigabilidad de la interface, la licencia de uso, la plataforma sobre la cual se puede ejecutar, entre otras. El foco de este análisis es obtener un panorama general de las herramientas de autor para RA disponibles en el mercado, en relación con sus posibilidades de generar contenido de RA para el ámbito educativo. Además se incluyen en el trabajo, conceptos y definiciones necesarias para contextualizar al lector. Así, se aborda una introducción a la Realidad Aumentada y sus características, la definición de herramientas de autor adoptada, y criterios de evaluación que se consideran usualmente para analizar éstas, en relación al ámbito educativo. Se considera que la recopilación y análisis planteados aquí, resultarán un aporte para los docentes que deseen incluir actividades educativas mediadas por tecnología de RA.

This study investigated the students&rsquo / perceptions about the web-based learning environment in the blended learning environment in terms of web-based instruction, online collaborative learning and the online instructor. The study tried to show the contributions of the web-based instruction in traditional face-to-face instruction. In this case study, Programming Languages II Course (CEIT211), a undergraduate course at Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department (CEIT), at Middle East Technical University, at the 2002-2003 Spring semester, was delivered as blended learning with a new web site. Totally 65 subjects, 2nd year CEIT students, attended the course in the term and participated to the study. The course was delivered via traditional face-to-face instruction and supported with the web site. At the end of the semester, three questionnaires were administrated in order to understand the students&rsquo / perceptions about web-based learning environment in terms of web-based instruction, online collaborative learning and online instructor. The time spent on the web site and the numbers of messages posted to forum were other data sources in this study. The data were statistically analyzed. The quantitative data showed that the students&rsquo / perceptions about web-based instruction and online instructor were positive, but online collaborative learning perceptions are about neutral. Beside the research questions, some design considerations in the blended learning case were presented. The study results may be used in evaluation of the blended learning environment for the instructor and for the department, may show a direction in the future design of the course.

This study examines elementary school students&rsquo / project-based learning (PBL) experiences through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the use of computer-mediated communication tools in a project-based collaborative learning process enhances 5th grade students&rsquo / attitudes toward computer and computer class within an online supported environment, analyze the level of learners&rsquo / satisfaction about the project-based collaborative learning through CMC, and examine students&rsquo / perceptions of their social presence and how effective social presence is as a predictor of overall students&rsquo / satisfaction. The sample of this study is included 36 5th grade students of two private schools in Ankara and Nisde, and convenience and purposeful sampling methods were used. At the beginning of the study, subjects were given the Computer Attitude Scale to measure their attitudes toward computers. At the end of the study, participants were given the CAS again to measure their attitudes toward computers, satisfaction scale and social presence scale. The results indicated that the students&rsquo / attitudes toward computer did not change from the beginning to the end of the study. However, evidence suggests a positive response by students to the use of CMC in the project-based collaborative learning environment. Majority of the students were satisfied with the learning experience they had in the project-based collaborative learning environment through CMC. Moreover, although results on perceived social presence were low, students tried to develop an online community throughout the project. This study also showed that social presence was a strong predictor of satisfaction in a PBCL environment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese students made meaning of their collaborative learning experiences as they engaged in creating a supportive dialogical environment in an Intensive English Reading class. The class utilized dialogue as inquiry along with activities that facilitated communication to approach the learning process. These activities included: pre-class writing, in-class presentations, after-class reflections, and small group online discussions. Students and teacher engaged one another in questioning and responding that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about texts and knowledge of language. Thirty sophomore English major students participated in this study, ten of whom were randomly selected for final participation. Data sources consisted of transcriptions from phenomenological interviews, student weekly and final written reflections, and researcher’s field notes. Analysis of these data yielded four themes: relationship, confidence, engagement, and change. That the four themes overlap suggests that they mutually reinforce one another to make students’ learning experiences collaborative. Results indicate that creating a socially, affectively, and pedagogically-supported dialogical environment promotes students’ communication with others as well as creative and reflective doing and thinking. The results have implications for foreign language teachers, educators, and researchers interested in performing action research in their practice.

The World Wide Web contains rich collections of digital materials that can be used in education and learning settings. The collaborative authoring prototype of Walden's Paths targets two groups of users: educators and learners. From the perspective of educators, the authoring tool allows educators to collaboratively build a Walden's Path by filtering and organizing web pages into an ordered linear structure for the common information needs, which can be extended, tailored and modified into a derivative path from its parent version to meet dynamic and evolving educational requirements. From the students' perspective, Walden's Paths provide a shared knowledge space that facilitates collaborative learning. Specifically, collaborative learners can annotate locally and globally on pages and share among group members, where each annotation fosters the initiation of a thread of discussion. Therefore, knowledge transfer can be achieved in the process of social interaction associated with shared annotations.

In a European-wide effort to improve the professional development of teachers, the 2AgePro project was conducted from November 2008 to October 2010. One of its goals was to develop and test different forms of intergenerational teacher collaboration among junior and senior teachers in primary and secondary schools. Another aim was to utilise the results from these pilots, which were conducted in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to create a model for intergenerational collaboration that could be used in any national or cultural setting. This article reports on the national pilots and proposes a European model for intergenerational collaboration for teachers. / 2AgePro

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is one approach that seemingly maps neatly to the notion of equipping learners for emergent knowledge-age work practice currently exemplified by Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) or Virtual Teams. However, the difficulty of achieving peer interaction in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments has proved to be a recurrent problem. Seemingly collaborative settings have been interpreted too narrowly referring only to positive phenomenon. There has been a tendency to focus on technology rather than social scaffolds. Little is known about the influence of students' personalities on online collaborative interaction and knowledge-building activity. Within collaborative team based contexts individuals demonstrate preferences towards certain activities. Such preferences and combinations of preferences may affect team knowledge-building activity both in terms of quality and efficiency. This thesis reports on the findings from a study that investigated if knowledge-building activity can be enhanced in tertiary education CSCL environments through the use of teams balanced by Team Role Preference.

Many mobile learning (m-learning) systems have been constructed to transform traditional classroom or computer-based learning activities to be more efficient and ubiquitous, such as being able to present learners with a shared learning space. The work of learners is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more collaboration between learners who have different learning experiences. Although these m-learning systems have promised positive collaborative learning outcomes, there has been little empirical work done to translate them into the learning outcomes which mobile collaborative learning environments can provide, where learners acquire new knowledge by contributing to each member’s existing knowledge. This thesis investigates both mobile learning and collaborative learning, and the focus is on: learning performance in mobile learning, types of knowledge created by collaboration and perceived learning satisfaction from this mobile collaborative learning experience. Several experiments were carried out to understand the nature of mobile-supported collaborative learning against traditional face-to-face (FTF) collaboration. The results revealed that, firstly, the learning performance was enhanced when the participants were learning collaboratively with the mobile device; secondly, mobile collaborative learning with a shared learning space contributed to shared knowledge generation.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Environmental issues are complex and understanding them involves integration of different areas of knowledge, feedback and time delays, however strategies to cope with complexity are not often used or taught in environmental education. The aim of this thesis is to examine the benefit of three such strategies for environmental education: multiple external representations, learning from models, and collaborative learning. The socio-environmental system modelled was visitor impact in a national park in Australia. Students in Year 9 and 10 from two schools were given a text description (Text group) and either a system dynamics model (SDM group), an agent-based model (ABM group), or both models (SDM & ABM group). This experimental design allowed learning outcomes (environmental and system dynamics knowledge, and understanding of the socio-environmental system) and use of the model(s) (in terms of the proportion of time spent on each screen, activities, and strategies) to be compared in each learning environment (individual and collaborative). Multiple external representations were the most successful strategy in the individual learning environment in terms of increases in environmental knowledge. However, students given only the system dynamics model had greater understanding of the system, and students given only the agent-based model increased environmental knowledge easily identified in the animated representation. Prior knowledge, patterns of use, strategies for changing variables and the representational affordances of the models explained some of these differences. In particular, prior knowledge was an important indicator of how students coordinated use of the models in the SDM & ABM group. Learning with a system dynamics model was the most successful strategy for students in the collaborative learning environment. Differences between the learning environments were detected in all groups with respect to both learning outcomes and use of the models due to prior knowledge, interrogation of the models, and the learning environments themselves. These experiments have provided evidence that strategies for understanding complex systems provide viable methods of communicating complex ideas to school-aged students with varying levels of prior knowledge. In particular, multiple external representations provided students with flexibility in how they learned; models allowed students to experiment with a system otherwise not allowed; and a collaborative learning environment facilitated students’ interpretation of a system dynamics model.

This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy for group work and collective efficacy in terms of participation within a computer supported collaborative environment across two collaborative conditions: (a) structured chat, and (b) unstructured chat. The purpose of this study was (a) to examine the relationship between self and collective efficacy and student participation, and (b) to examine the structure of reciprocal teaching roles, scripts and prompts in moderating the relationship between self-efficacy for group work and collaborative chat participation. Data were collected from 62 grade 10 students assigned to one of the two conditions: (a) structured chat enhanced with specific cognitive roles, scripts and prompts, or (b) unstructured chat enhanced by only a text based chat tool. The participants collaboratively discussed a challenging text in groups of 4 using a text-based chat tool. A relationship was found between self-efficacy and participation where collaborative condition moderated the relationship between efficacy and participation.