Personalised Web Services for Activity-Based Mobile Learning Wichai Eamsinvattana PhD student, started Oct 2006 Supervised by Dr.Vania Dimitrova

2 Presentation Plan Mobile Learning Challenge Mobile Learning at Workplace Research Goal Research Questions Background – PML & WS, PML & Context, AT & Context Architecture Demo – Location Context Summary and Question for Discussion

3 Mobile Learning Challenges Definition - The provision of education and training on mobile devices: PDA, mobile phones and smartphones (Keegan, Mobile Learning: a practical guide, 2006) - Learning that take place while using mobile devices and services (Vavoula, A Study of Mobile Learning Practices, MOBIlearn 2005) Technical challenges: - Seamless integration of web and mobile access - Web services appear feasible approach Need for creative scenarios and applications - Informal and free context (Frohberg, 2006) - Promising applications (Trifonova, 2003): - access/retrieve knowledge at a certain moment directly linked to the current user activities - educational material collected/available on the field - context is crucial for the learning experience.

4 Mobile Learning at workplace Learning at workplace fits within the characteristics for promising mobile learning applications Learning should be integrated with the work practices There are no systematic approaches how this could be done Our Approach: Use activity theory to inform the design of activity-based mobile learning

5 Research Goal The main goal is to examine how information from a mobile environment can be taken into account for supporting personalised activity-based learning.

6 Research Questions How to model mobile learning context considering individual tasks, community activities, and current environment? How to use context in a particular mobile learning scenario in order to provide adaptation to users? How to develop a flexible system architecture for personalised activity-based learning?

7 Background: PML & Web Services (1) Adaptation in mobile learning - Location - Device constraints - There is lack of approaches which take into account the environment and the users activities Web services - Open standards, modular approach, easy and inexpensive implementation and reducing the costs of application integration

8 Background: PML & Web Services (2) - Example Personal Ambient Learning (Location Based & Context Aware) Killer Technology for Knowledge Society Learn eXact from Guinti Lab Using Web Services

9 Background: PML & Context Dey defines the context as any information from the situation of an entity (a person, a place, or object) Schilit divides context into three categories: computing context (connectivity, bandwidth), user context (users profile and location, social situation), and physical context (lighting, noise level)

10 Background: AT & Context (1) Environmental context Task context Social context Spatio-Temporal context Task context Personal context Kofod-Petersen Activity Model

11 Background: AT & Context (2) Integrating History and AT in Context Kaewnampornpan, 2005 T1 Tn History of context at Time1 Time S0 S1Se Sn={AT1,.., ATn} Transformation Process

12 Use of AT to model context in PML: example (1) Officer Mobile phone Communication structure Internet Position in team Level of authorisation Teams Best practices Regulations for performing tasks Current situation Investigation Police Learning Scenario Activity Model

13 Use of AT to model context in PML: example (2) Officer Mobile phone Communication structure Internet Current situation Investigation Subject - Tools - Object The officer can use their mobile to acquire information and to evaluate about situation and events to achieve their goal (evaluation of catching murder, result of investigation) Regulations for performing tasks Teams Best practices Position in team Level of authorisation

14 Use of AT to model context in PML: example (3) Officer Mobile phone Communication structure Internet Position in team Level of authorisation Teams Best practices Regulations for performing tasks Current situation Investigation Subject – Community - Division of Labour Each officer may provide or access different information to/from member of the team or other teams depending on the role of that member

15 Architecture (1) 1 Acquire information (in xml format)

16 Demo – Location Context - Simulation and Location Context Acquire Position Longitude,Latitude (x,y) by GPS Map to Picture Image Send to Servers xml Web Services

17 Architecture (2)

18 Summary & Questions for Discussion Using Activity Theory to model the context Using Web Services provide seamless access web content and adapt it to the device constraints How to model mobile learning context? – individual tasks, current environment, community activity How to use context in a particular mobile learning scenario for adaptation to users? Thank you!