Designing new learning experiences
with pervasive technologies
Sara Price and Yvonne Rogers

Sara Price is a Research Fellow at the London Knowledge Lab working on a project investigating the impact of technology-enhanced learning on roles and practices in higher education. Prior to this she worked at the University of Sussex' Interact Lab, which was co-founded by Professor Yvonne Rogers who recently joined the School of Informatics at Indiana University. As part of the Equator Project, Yvonne Rogers and Sara Price - in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Sussex, Nottingham, Bristol, Southampton and the Royal College of Art - engaged in research which explored a very special approach to ubiquitous learning. In this joint receiver contribution they investigate the use and design of pervasive technologies and computing devices for combined physical/digital learning environments.
 
 
 
 
The world is witnessing a phenomenal rise in the development and availability of mobile pervasive technologies, such as wireless handheld computing devices and smart phones. This trend is set to have a huge impact on the way children learn, turning existing views about how computers are used in classrooms on their head. Imagine you are learning about why certain organisms and plants grow or live in particular environments. You can see how big the plant is, where it is growing, what kind of leaves it has, but you can't see all of the processes involved to keep the plant alive, nor can you see what it will look like at different times of the year. This is where the new technologies can really offer something different. Imagine being able to 'see' the plant breathing and feeding. Imagine that you can also take measurements of the light shining on the leaves, the nutrients in the soil and the moisture surrounding the plant. Imagine collecting this information for several different plants and comparing your results with where and when they grow, and in relation to one another and other organisms in the environment. Suppose you could then review the information you have seen and collected back in the classroom. Technologies such as wireless computing, digital probes, sensor technologies, and handheld devices like PDAs can help to make all this possible.

Advances in mobile and pervasive computing are providing opportunities for thinking quite differently about how to support, encourage and motivate children in their learning. The embedding of computers in everyday objects and the surrounding environment means that innovative learning environments can be designed both indoors and outdoors. A diversity of learning activities and interactions can now be enhanced in ways not possible before. For example, information can be presented or played via wireless speakers and embedded displays (in objects or the environment) or mobile devices (carried or worn by a child) at opportune times that are pertinent to the task at hand. Such interventions and augmentations can guide, stimulate and incite children into reflecting and remarking upon them in relation to what they are currently engaged in – encouraging new forms of collaborative and self-initiated learning that is 'active'. This, in turn, can lead to deeper and more integrated understanding, even enabling the discovery of what is "going on in their own heads" (to speak in the words of Bruner).

In our research, we have been investigating how to design and combine new technologies to encourage new forms of active learning. Our goal is to extend and support children in building their own understanding, based on what they already know, together with a world of 'augmented' digital information that is experienced through a congeries of devices and displays situated both in the classroom and other outdoor settings. Examples of augmented digital information include previously stored data, images, photos, sounds and simulations. A particular emphasis is on enabling children to make personal connections between the augmented information they gather, glean, collect and connect in the physical spaces with the abstracted knowledge that is imparted to them in the classroom.
 
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