Supporting lecturing in Big classrooms with technology Nelson Baloian, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

THE PEDAGOGICAL PROBLEM Teaching Still takes place in large classrooms. 2

THE PEDAGOGICAL PROBLEM It is difficult to implement good teaching practices in such a scenario Active learning Monitoring students’ work Giving the right feedback at the right moment Assuming it is difficult to change the reality, we try to help with technology 5

WIRELESS ANTENNA NETWORK DEVELOPMENT Planning locating a set of antennas and simulating the area covered by them according to various models Implementation Construction of the antennas Evaluation measuring the actual signal strength at strategic points 9

LEARNING ACTIVITY Planning Evaluation planners do the computation for a set of existing antennas according to various models for various sites Evaluation Measures go on site and measure the actual signal strength at the sites comparing the actual figure to the simulated ones They have to explain why there is a difference 9

THE LEARNING TOOL Coverage analysis tool Desktop and Mobile interfaces Add Transmitter Edit a transmitter Radiation Pattern Evaluate the Spatial coverage Desktop and Mobile interfaces Mobile interface allows students to retrieve the simulated signal strength values at the current location according to all available models while students are working on the field 10

COVERAGE ANALYSYS TOOL 10

COVERAGE ANALYSYS TOOL 10

COLLABORATION TOOL Supports exchange of information and collaboration Available for desktop and mobile devices Features Report a Simulation (available on desktop version only) Report a Measurement (on mobile version only) Vote (available on desktop and Mobile versions) 13

COLLABORATION TOOL 13

EVALUATION Were principles of situated learning correctly applied ? Does this specific activity introduces an added value to the learning process ? The experiment was performed by 28 students, divided in seven groups of four participants each. Two of them took the role of planners and two the role of measurers 14

QUESTIONNAIRE The various developed activities helped me to improve my understanding about how to apply the signal propagation models. - C1 and C2 The different perspectives both roles provide about the problem being learned helped the group in solving it. - C4. The practical activity combined with the theory of signal propagation models helped me to reflect about how to better solve the problem. - C6 and C7. The system supported the collaboration among the various members of the team. - C5. The collection of relevant data made on the field helps to understand key aspects of the problem being studied. - C1 and C2. Observation of the measured data and analysis of simulated data was of great help while solving the proposed task. - C5 and C7. 14

RESULTS Evaluation results: strong disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strong agree (5) as an answer. The last collumn shows the average values. 1 2 3 4 5 Average Q1 6 9 10 3,93 Q2 14 8 3,39 Q3 15 7 4,04 Q4 11 13 4,32 Q5 12 16 4,57 Q6 4,11 14

CONCLUSIONS Learning activity based on the situated learning theory, with the necessary computer technology to support it One step forward, as it envisages a combination of in-classroom theoretical learning sessions with laboratory and on the field work encouraging collaboration and reflection. Experiment results show high degrees of agreement with assertions related to these aspects. New insights and perspectives related to the design of situated learning activities using mobile, positioning and web technologies. 20

Context, Patterns and Geo-collaboration to Support Situated Learning I will present our article entitled “Context, Patterns and Geo-collaboration to Support Situated Learning” The authors of this article are Nelson Baloian and myself, both of us are associate professors from the University of Chile in Santiago de Chile Although, we work in different departments, we share the same research areas. In this case, the present work belongs to the developing of collaborative applications to support learning by the use of mobile technologies like smartphones or tablets.

Generalization context inside classroom Situated learning is a theory of knowledge acquisition that emphasizes the importance of the activity, the context, and the social interaction in authentic domain activity where learning occurs In this paper we describe our current research efforts that include the development of a learning environment that integrates learning with patterns, geo-collaboration tools, and mobile devices in order to support situated learning Learning activities in these settings take place in and outside the classroom and encourage students to collect data in the field in order to find, relate and document patterns of any type. context outside classroom authentic domain

The learning Cycle THE LEARNING CYCLE Students prepare results present results Students In field trips Learning with patterns can involve more activities than just collecting evidence in the field. It may start in the classroom with the teacher introducing the pattern approach, and pattern definition. The teacher then proposes a research topic, e.g. which are the most common trees in city parks? and then he or she asks the students to collect examples. Students then explore the area, take pictures of the parks and trees, make notes and sketches, etc. Back in the classroom, they present their patterns on the whiteboard, and, moderated by the teacher; they evaluate their propositions and discuss the hierarchy and the relations between the patterns they intend to work with in order to create their own pattern language. Teacher Introduces topics

DEFINING PATTERS (teacher) Defining Patterns (1) To create a pattern, it is necessary that the teacher defines its name, description, and context of occurrence. To do this, the teacher can interact easily with the touchscreen interface of the prototype by clicking some buttons and options, before applying them inside the classroom, or even during the development in the classroom. As you can see here, pictures can be associated to the description of the pattern. These pictures represent an instance which define an occurrence of the pattern; that is, they are used as pattern examples. Furthermore, each picture can be marked on the map by free-hand writing, indicating in this case the specific location where the students will find examples of this pattern. The pattern which is defined here belongs to a typical chilean tree called “Palma Chilena”.

Defining Patterns (1) Defining Patterns (2) DEFINING PATTERS (2) In this screenshot the teacher has defined the second pattern which belongs to a type of tree called “grevillea robusta”. The other pattern is hidden on the top of the pattern definition area. Also a picture of this type of tree is shown as an example, but in this case the teacher has defined a region on the map and added two specific points where these type of trees will be found

DEFINING TASKS (teacher) Defining Patterns (1) The next step after the creation of patterns is the definition of learning tasks. By the use of the prototype, the teacher can create tasks consisting of instructions to be sent to the students. These tasks may include the description of activities and their corresponding instructions annotated on the map. In this case the annotations on the map belong to a specific path within the city in order to find evidence of patterns by visiting specifically marked places. As a result, the task for the students will consist of sequentially exploring specific points in order to collect data about the instances of a pattern.

Defining Patterns (1) Defining Tasks (2) DEFINING TASKS (2) Here, the task created consists of instructions for visiting specific places which are marked on the map. The visiting order for every place is free and depends on the students` decision Therefore, taking into account this type of task and the other two types of tasks explained before, the teacher can define a path, an area, or specific places for visiting.

Assigning activities to students Defining Patterns (1) The next step before going to the field activity, is that students turn on their mobile devices running the application. The system prototype automatically discovers the students’ application and displays them on the screen as a list (as shown here) To choose the tasks to be transmitted to the students’ devices; the teacher simply clicks in the student’s and tasks labels. Also the teacher must define a start and finish date for these tasks

Students working Defining Patterns (1) Students working Student 1 Then, according to the proposed tasks by the teacher, students may follow a certain path, explore an area of the city, or go to specific places gathering data to collaboratively create instantiations of the pattern when they find certain elements that they think correspond to the pattern given by the teacher. Here we see two different views of the system belonging to student 1 and 2, with three tasks and the development of one instance found inside a specific place As you can see, instantiations consist of text descriptions, pictures or sketches of a certain object found which complies with the pattern definition. Once the students are working outside of the classroom, the teacher can use the system in a monitoring mode, so he or she can see the outside classroom displacement via the students´ devices’ GPS. Furthermore, If the teacher finds that it is important to give some advice to the students, he or she can easily write it on the map. Student 2

GENARL ARCHITECTURE General Architecture Defining Patterns (1)

Architecture for case 1 Architecture for case 1 Defining Patterns (1)

Architecture for case 2 Architecture for case 2 Defining Patterns (1)

A framework A framework Defining Patterns (1) RC MV MC MD