Museums are vast resources, but much of their information is inaccessible to visitors. Typical labels for artifacts provide few details, making it difficult for non-expert visitors to learn about an artifact, and to find its relevance to other artifacts or to themselves. Although museums have developed interpretive aids such as brochures and audio guides, these are limited and do not offer visitors the possibility to explore artifacts both broadly and deeply as they go through an exhibition. Visitors often have questions that go unanswered or pass through an exhibition without being engaged. As visitors all have their own personal interests and preferences, it would be difficult to offer a usable version of any current interpretive aid that includes all of the information, stories, and related content that each visitor would like. Personal mobile devices provide a platform for interactivity and access to an unlimited amount of information, presentation of rich media, and flexibility for customized experiences both inside the museum and beyond. To bridge the gap between museum collection information and visitor engagement, I propose a framework for increasing engagement through resonant, rich, and interactive experiences mediated by a personal mobile guide, and present a case study and functional prototype mobile guide for the Hall of Architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The educational landscape is changing and a variety of technologies and techniques are blurring the lines between traditional and non-traditional learning. This change is substantial in low-income countries: individuals in developing countries have a great desire to educate themselves and improve their quality of life. Kenyans are adequately literate and accustomed to mobile technology despite being a largely impoverished, poorly educated populace. Kenya represents an optimal setting in which to research the use and feasibility of modern mobile and educational technologies. The broad aim of this dissertation is to explore how mobile devices can catalyze and enhance both informal and non-formal learning. In particular, this dissertation explores how technologies and concepts such as mobile web apps, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and learning incentives via a smartphone specifically affect informal and non-formal learning in Kenya. The primary research question is how can learning efforts that utilize mobile learning, MOOCs, and learning incentives combine non-formal and informal learning to develop and contribute to a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to learning in Kenya? The primary method is action research. The first contribution of this dissertation is the finding that mobile web apps are currently better suited for data exchange than producing new content. The second contribution is the finding that a smartphone can enhance informal learning in a developing country with little or no scaffolding. The third contribution is the finding that non-formal learning efforts as a MOOC are shown to be a viable means of delivering non-formal learning in a developing country via a smartphone. The fourth contribution is the finding that the use of incentives such as digital badges provide a means by which to validate non-formal learning and contribute to a DIY attitude towards learning creation, where individuals can freely complement or replace a traditional curriculum.

A learner in an informal learning environment, such as a museum, encounters various challenges. After initial assessment, a set of methods were proposed that may enhance a learner’s experience in a museum using computer aided technologies. The most important insight was the need to support the museum visitor in three phases of activity: prior to the visit, during the visit, and after the visit. We hypothesized that software tools that could help connect these three phases would be helpful and valuable supports for the visitor. To test and evaluate our hypothesis, a system called “The Museum Explorer” was built and instantiated using the collection in the Museum of Antiquities located at the University of Saskatchewan. An evaluation of the Museum Explorer was conducted. Results show that the Museum Explorer was largely successful in achieving our goals. The Museum Explorer is an integrated solution for visitors in museums across the pre-visit, visit, and post-visit phases. The Museum Explorer was designed to provide a means to connect and transfer user experience across the major phases of a museum visit. For each phase of a visitor’s experience, a set of tools was built that provides intelligent and interactive communication features. To assist visitors selecting artefacts to visit, a recommender system allows users to select a set of constraints. To better manage interactivity, features and functions were offered based on context. A study was conducted with volunteer museum visitors. Results from the study show that the Museum Explorer is a useful support. Analysis of the usage data captured by the Museum Explorer has revealed some interesting facts about users’ preferences in the domain that can be used by future researchers.

This thesis explores the application of vision-based augmented reality in formal and informal educational environments. It focuses on the common practices, concerns, and priorities that developers and content creators in each environment frequently encounter, offering insights into how these experiences are changing with the incorporation of new digital media technologies and the hardware platforms that support them. The research outlined in this thesis uses qualitative methods, assembled around a series of twelve hour-long interviews with highly-experienced educators, developers, researchers, and designers, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. This thesis introduces original research about the role of computer vision-based augmented reality as an educational medium, a topical discussion in information studies, museum studies, learning sciences, and a number of other fields, and makes a theoretical commitment to addressing the ways that material and virtual objects come to interact meaningfully in a variety of learning environments.

Workplace learning and training is often explicitly or implicitly planned to serve the economic interests of the organization. Furthermore, training planning and processes are generally determined by managers, instead of those who will be engaging in the learning. What happens to learning in the workplace when workers themselves determine its content and methods? As seen in the Community Training Plan (CTP), implemented at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation in 2003, control over workplace training by frontline staff has resulted in profound changes in many facets of working and community life. Using testimonials from a recent participatory evaluation of the CTP as well as a series of promotional videos, all of which were created by participants in the CTP, I demonstrate that the CTP has created new forms of engagement and participation; new learning foci; new spaces in the workplace; and finally a sense of staff ownership over learning.

This thesis is the result of two studies concerning children’s independent mobility, which means the freedom for children to walk or bike on their own or together with friends but without being escorted by parents. The studies are accomplished in four different areas and are also searching for different environmental qualities. The areas differ concerning traffic planning and architecture but also concerning commercial and cultural choice. The aim is to understand and describe how places are constructed and designed when they are used and experienced in a positive – or a negative – way by children. I emphasize, that we – through the responses in meeting with other people – learn hidden and visible rules and also how to change perspective and roles. I therefore focus on the meeting between children and other people but also on meeting between children and places. The issue is: What do places look like – what qualities or qualifications – can be notified as important to children to perceive coherence that consequently make them learn to control their environment and develop to harmonious grown-ups. The main questions are: In what degree can children’s independent mobility be related to the planning and design in the four areas? Why do some neighbourhoods/places appear as more important to children than others, making children use them in a varied way? Is it possible to describe qualities in neighbourhoods in a way that can be interpreted as meaningful for children’s development? In the first study 732 children in grade two and five in compulsory school, filled in a questionnaire and the questions focused on how they got to school, to friends, to activities etc. The results showed that in the area with more traffic than the other three areas, children were more often taken by car to school and to leisure activities. Even international research in the nineties did show that children had lost the accessibility to their neighbourhood. In the second study, 32 children in the same areas guided me around in their environment showing me the way to school and places they used to visit. At the same time they told me what they liked or disliked in their neighbourhood. Afterwards they were interviewed and they also had the opportunity to fill in so called “mobility maps”. The content in this text mainly focuses the second study. From the children’s statements, a summary of the most important differences looks as follows: I The accessibility in neighbourhoods and places: i.e. children’s independent mobility – or if they had to be escorted by grown-ups – and if they could fiddle about. II Children’s play and activities: i.e. if they had something to do, if they played in pairs or in groups and if play could take place without planning. III Children’s experiences of places and people: i.e. if they had something to show me and to tell me, if there were any meetings with other persons, if the children talked about their own yard and appreciated green areas, if they had fun or not, if they were afraid being out and if they told me any memories from some places. The theoretical framework is based on Johan Asplund’s theory on social responsivity and G. H. Mead’s theory on social relations and his view of the importance of objects. The study also is based on three different place theories as expressed by David Canter, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Clarence Crafoord and Asplund’s view of place and placelessness. This study has made it clear that everything children do in their neighbourhood can be related to concrete places and things but it differed concerning what and how they played, what they experienced and what the meetings looked like – if any. Environmental qualities arise, as I have interpreted my results, when neighbourhoods and places are safe, when there are landmarks, places for meetings, possibility of orientation and sense of locality and when the places are varied and challenging. Conclusions are drawn regarding differences in social responsivity, if there is a sense of having a place of one’s own – that in the same time is shared by other people – and if places are responding. From these statements place identity can be seen as a merging of the qualities in places and the perceived sense of place as described above. To have opportunity to investigate the neighbourhood is also an important part of children’s informal learning. They learn how to read the surroundings and how to find the way in a town or in an environment. They get to know the neighbourhood and the world outside and so they also learn how to behave and how to control themselves and even the life. Results showed though that the children in the four areas made those experiences but, certainly, in different ways.

Assessment of prior learning (APL) represents the task to identify and acknowledge an individual’s knowledge and skills regardless of how it has been obtained. In higher education this type of assessment is primarily used for the purpose of awarding access, credits or advanced standing. Because of the impact the results from APL have on the future working career for individuals claiming APL, it is of great importance that these result of APL is valid. The question of interest in this thesis is to what extent APL in higher education is a valid assessment. The thesis is written in the field of educational measurement and comprises four papers and an extensive introduction with summaries of the papers. The most recent views of validity theory were used as the general theoretical framework in all papers, and all papers are concerned with APL in higher education. Study I reviews the research area of APL in higher education from a validity perspective. The general conclusion from the review is that the majority of the studies conducted in this area primarily provide theoretical rationales and theories for a variety of APL practices, and that there is a need for empirically based studies examining and evaluating validity of APL. Studies II, III and IV are empirical studies based on, and exemplified with, an APL scheme related to higher education in Sweden. Study II examines validity issues identified from claimants (individuals or students claiming APL) view of APL. The claimants’ experiences from the specific APL scheme were examined using a questionnaire developed for that purpose. Conclusions drawn from the results are that possible threats to validity may exist in the administration of APL procedures, as well as in consequences of APL. Study III focuses on validity of admission decisions based on APL. The study examines decisions made by different higher education institutions for approximately 600 individuals applying for higher education based on their prior learning. The results show that the existing practice of APL needs improvements in order to obtain validity and trustworthiness in the decisions made in relation to APL. Finally, Study IV focuses on reliability in APL related to higher education. The study provides data of inter- and intra-rater reliability among judges in the specific APL scheme. The results show a lack of especially inter-rater reliability, and a conclusion is that reliability in this type of assessment should be further investigated. The general conclusion from this thesis is that there is a need to take validity issues in APL seriously, and that APL in higher education may not be as valid as it could be.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka barnskötares och blivande psykoterapeuters perspektiv på lärande i spänningsfältet mellan formell utbildning och informellt lärande i praktiken. För detta syfte ska barnskötare som utbildar sig till förskollärare och blivande psykoterapeuter undersökas. De fyra forskningsfrågorna är följande; (1) Hur värderar och upplever barnskötare och blivande psykoterapeuter relationen mellan formell utbildning och informellt lärande i praktiken? (2) Hur värderar och upplever barnskötare och blivande psykoterapeuter att deras lärande förändrats över tid? (3) Hur värderar barnskötare och blivande psykoterapeuter sitt lärande i relation till olika personer omkring dem? (4) Vilka skillnader och gemensamma drag finns det mellan barnskötare och blivande psykoterapeuter? Studiens empiriska insamling grundas på en enkätundersökning och urvalet omfattar totalt 11 barnskötare från Stockholms universitet och 43 blivande psykoterapeuter vid Stockholms universitet samt Uppsala universitet. Studien analyseras genom Ellströms teori om kognitivt- och kontextuellt perspektiv på lärande, anpassnings- och utvecklingsinriktat lärande samt Bertells teori om lärande på första- och andrahands arenan. Studieprocessen visar att det finns mycket lite tidigare forskning angående de undersökta professionerna och deras lärande under vidareutbildning, därför är studien ett viktigt bidrag till kunskapsfältet. Den data som agerar grund för analyserna i studien är insamlade genom en webbenkät. Mätningarna utförs via programvaran PSPP. Ur studiens resultat framgår det att de två professionerna var likartade i sin inställning som behandlade relationen mellan formell utbildning och informellt lärande i praktiken. Det går även att utläsa att respondenternas inställning indikerar på att de nu närmar sig eller befinner sig i det utvecklingsinriktat lärande, vilket har behandlats i förändring av lärande över tid. Samt att studiens resultat indikerar på att respondenternas lärande i relation med andra varierar beroende på profession och relation. Den största skillnaden mellan professionerna i studien visar sig när de ska värdera i vilken utsträckning de diskuterar nya kunskaper de lärt sig med sin chef. Gemensamma drag går att se i att de gärna diskuterar nya kunskaper de lärt sig med sina kurskamrater. Studien resulterar i slutsatser med hänsyn till semiformella relationer. Där kurskamraternas roll i respondenternas lärande ifrågasätt och visas i ett annan dimension. Detta med hjälp av en relativt ny teoretisk utgångpunkt. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the nurse and intended psychotherapists perspective on learning in the field between formal learning and informal learning in practice. For this purpose, the nurses that educate further to preschool teachers and intended psychotherapists is examined. The four research questions are as follows; (1) How does the nurses and the intended psychotherapists valuate and experience the relation between formal education and informal learning in practice? (2) How does the nurses and the prospective psychotherapists valuate and experience that their learning changes over time? (3) How does the nurses and the prospective psychotherapists valuate their learning in relation to different persons around them? What differences and common attribute is there between a nurse and a prospective psychotherapist? The empirical collection of the study is based on a survey and the selection covers in total 11 nurses from Stockholm university and 43 intended psychotherapists at Stockholm university and Uppsala university. The study is analyzed through Ellströms theory about cognitive- and contextual perspective on learning, adaptions- and development-minded learning and Bertells theory about learning at the first- and secondhand arena. The study process shows that there are less research made earlier about the investigated professions and their learning during further education, therefore the study is an important contribution to the field of knowledge. The data that the analyzes is founded on in the study is gathered through a web survey. Measures are executed through the software PSPP. It is clear that from the result of the study that the two professions where similar in its positions that treated the relations between formal education and informal learning in practice. It is also possible to interpret that the attitude of the respondents indicates that they are approaching or found themselves in the development-minded learning, which have been addressed in the change of learning over time. Furthermore the result of the study indicates that the respondents learning in relation to others varieties depending on profession and relation. The biggest difference between professions in the study shows when they are to assess in what extent they discuss new knowledge they have learned with their manager. Common features to be seen is that they willingly discuss the new knowledge they learned with their classmates. The study leads to conclusions in respect to semiformal relations. Where the classmates role in the respondents learning is questioned and shown in a another dimension. This with the help of a relative new theoretically point of view.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Adult Learning and Leadership / Kakali Bhattacharya / Royce Ann Collins / The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how two Black women, born 1946 to 1964, discuss their sexuality in relation to their understanding of spirituality and informal learning. Using the Black Feminine Narrative Inquiry framework informed by womanism, Black feminism, and narrative structures used by Black women novelists, this qualitative study analyzed the vulnerable, empowered, and spirit-driven narratives (VES Narratives) collected from the participants to explore their experiences with spirituality, sexuality, and informal learning. The data collection methods included wisdom whisper talks to elicit spirituality and sexuality timelines and glean information from the participants’ treasure chests.

This study seeks to integrate informal and formal music learning in a university guitar class with a secondary focus on evaluating the effectiveness of this approach in meeting student's stated goals for learning the guitar. Salient features in formal music learning were discovered from an examination of guitar method books. Informal features were examined from a reading of extant research on popular music pedagogy and expounded upon through research devoted to specific areas of informal music learning and popular music pedagogy. These features were used in the creation of a guitar curriculum to aid in the integration of both formal and informal music learning in a university guitar class. Data were gathered through pre- and post-study questionnaires, interviews, and video analysis. Analysis of data shows that integrating formal and informal music learning in a beginner's guitar class is effective in meeting student stated goals for the course. Note reading was an area that was not effective in meeting student goals for the course. Data revealed that note reading should be taught slowly, in key based relationships and with fewer notes taught over the 16 week course. Integrating informal music learning procedures in a formal environment proved to be challenging for the students. A difficulty existed in the student's ability to task switch between formal and informal learning in the University setting. Implications from the study are listening should be considered a primary means for learning music and haphazard learning is beneficial, though difficult to include in a systematized curriculum.