ICTEL 2010 Abstracts
Full Papers
| Paper Nr: | 7 |
| Title: | A DISCUSSION OF THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR COMPUTER LABS |
| Authors: | Jesús Martínez-Mateo, Susana Munoz-Hernandez and David Pérez-Rey |
| Abstract: | Computer literacy is not negotiable for any professional in an increasingly computerised environment. Educational institutions should be equipped to provide this new basic training for modern life. Accordingly, computer labs are an essential medium for education in almost any field. Computer labs are one of the most popular IT infrastructures for technical training in primary and secondary schools, universities and other educational institutions all over the world. Unfortunately, a computer lab is expensive, in terms of both initial purchase and annual maintenance costs, and especially when we want to run the latest software. Hence, research efforts addressing computer lab efficiency, performance or cost reduction would have a worldwide repercussion. In response to this concern, this paper presents a survey on thin client technology for computer labs in educational environments. Besides setting out the advantages and drawbacks of this technology, we aim to refute false prejudices against thin clients, identifying a set of educational scenarios where thin clients are a better choice and others requiring traditional solutions. |
| Paper Nr: | 8 |
| Title: | SOFTWARE SUPPORT FOR RICH PICTURES - How to Help OOAD Students Accept Rich Pictures within their Projects Workflow |
| Authors: | Andrea Valente and Emanuela Marchetti |
| Abstract: | Rich pictures (RP) are common in object-oriented analysis and design courses, but students seem to have problems in integrating them in their projects' workflow. A new software tool is being developed, specific for RP authoring. To better understand students' issues and working practice with RP, and gather requirements for the tool, we followed a user-centered design approach and performed a usability test with an early prototype. The findings suggest the presence of a gap between some of the modern object-oriented development practices and engineering students' values: some techniques, like RP, presuppose design skills that are alien to our students. To bridge this gap our tool aims at making design-specific skills optional, enhancing the conceptual analytical skills that software analysis shares with design. Further studies will be conducted to assess the impact of the tool on learning. |
| Paper Nr: | 13 |
| Title: | TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL EXPERIMENTS |
| Authors: | Mihai Bîzoi, Ana-Maria Suduc and Gabriel Gorghiu |
| Abstract: | Technological progress has allowed the emergence of new approaches to teaching. The virtual instruments development has led to lessons based on virtual experiments - applications that simulates real-life phenomenon and are specially designed for students use. Many virtual experiments can be obtained free of charge from the Internet, but their use in the classroom involves more than these tools availability. It involves the use of new teaching techniques and training materials. Through a European project, hundreds of teachers of sciences were trained to develop and implement virtual experiments in the classroom. This paper presents some of the expectations of teachers before the start of the training course and their opinion after the class implementation. |
| Paper Nr: | 14 |
| Title: | A FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGNING SOCIAL INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS |
| Authors: | Di Loreto Ines and Gouaich Abdelkader |
| Abstract: | Digital natives are the potential users of many applications designed and built today. For this generation most of state of the art features related to social interactions and ubiquitous computing will be taken as granted. For this reason, we have to provide design frameworks and methodologies that integrate these features at early design stages. In this paper we propose a framework for designing Social Interactive Systems (SIS) based on four criteria: identity, space, persistence and action. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the framework the paper will describe an experiment we held with a Social Virtual World developed using the above-mentioned framework. |
Short Papers
| Paper Nr: | 18 |
| Title: | TOWARDS WEB 3.0 CONCEPT FOR COLLABORATIVE E-LEARNING |
| Authors: | Michail N. Giannakos and Vasileios Lapatas |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to define a concept based on Web 3.0 technologies to improve the learning experience and attempt to create a lifelong learning environment in people’s daily routine. To achieve that, there was a need to analyze the current curves of the World Wide Web (WWW) in this field. The last few years a lot of interesting on-line services have been introduced to the public. On-line video conferencing, synchronous/asynchronous conversations, wikis and social networking are just a few of those technologies which changed the way people see and use the Internet. By using some of these services and combining them with most resent (and interesting) techniques like background customized search and live manipulation of content, it is possible to create a Web 3.0 application with smart, content-aware interface for educational purposes. An application like that will be able to be used both in the corporate and education sector. |
| Paper Nr: | 24 |
| Title: | CASPER: FLEXIBLE SUPPORT FOR COLLABORATIVE ASSESSMENTS AND E-PORTFOLIOS FOR WORK-BASED LEARNING |
| Authors: | Martin Stanton, Nick Whittaker and Christopher Tubb |
| Abstract: | This work proposes a system for flexible support of collaborative assessments that combines both physical and electronic artefacts. The project builds on current work using RFID for identifying, tracking and cataloguing physical artefacts, and also leverages Semantic Web Technologies for maintaining the relationships between physical and electronic artefacts, allowing multiple format submissions of assessment material. These relationships can be extended to any other documentation associated with the assessment (marks, feedback, moderation etc) thus permitting the use of innovative, multi-faceted assessments where less time is spent managing the submissions and more time is spent assessing and feeding back to students. The work will provide support for any collaborative assessment, but will be particularly useful in constructing, maintaining and assessing e-portfolios for work-based learning. |
Posters
| Paper Nr: | 5 |
| Title: | DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICS AND ELECTRONIC VIRTUAL LABORATORIES IN A WEB LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM |
| Authors: | Pilar Martinez-Jimenez, Juan Luna Rodriguez, Marta Varo-Martínez, Carmen García, Gerardo Pedrós-Pérez, Pedro Perez and Juan Calero |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new Learning Management System (LMS), which permits teachers to administrate the contents stored in the system. It also allows the carrying out of student handling actions: enrolment in a course, evaluations, generation of reports in PDF format or as tabulated data in CSV format, notification via e-mail, which facilitates both the management of subjects taught by the teacher and the learning of them by students, thus obtaining a personalized Virtual Classroom. This project presents some advantages in comparison to others LMSs, since we can develop and include some virtual laboratories as a typical content in the portal, adapting them according to the needs of the user, i.e. the teacher. Particularly, whilst in other tools virtual laboratories can be only linked to external resources, in this LMS they can be directly created, edited or designed within the same environment. |
| Paper Nr: | 20 |
| Title: | WEB CONFERENCING - A Tool for Knowledge Transfer between Universities and Business Organizations |
| Authors: | Ana-Maria Suduc, Mihai Bizoi, Gabriel Gorghiu and Laura Monica Gorghiu |
| Abstract: | It is commonly accepted that universities are an important source of new knowledge, especially in the science and technology sector. The mechanisms to transfer this new knowledge from academia to business organizations are widely discussed by many authors. This paper presents how web collaboration environments may help in distance knowledge transfer and also a web conferencing example meant to stress the factors which led to a successful web meeting for knowledge diffusion. There is presented also the positive feedback of the attendees, in the conditions of low participation rate in previous similar experiences. |
| Paper Nr: | 23 |
| Title: | MAPPING GAMES AND GAMING STYLE WITH LEARNING GOALS AND STYLE |
| Authors: | Adelina Aleksieva-Petrova and Milen Petrov |
| Abstract: | In the era of e-services such as e-learning, e-government, e-business, etc. enhancing such services and adapting them to one's personal needs is a very promising way for the user to benefit even further from them. As a step forward in the development of adaptive learning systems with integrated game elements it is first necessary to review different types of games and their characteristics. Moreover, it is important to take into account gaming styles as well as to summarize the processes of learning and playing by mapping learning styles corresponding to different gaming styles. This paper attempts to investigate and describe different gaming issues as a first step toward building a software framework for the integration of game elements utilized in e-learning. |