A short presentation on how context can be defined in Technology Enhanced Learning

1. Strengthening learning contexts:
An introduction
Denis Gillet • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Ohrid • Wednesday June 9, 2010

2. What is context ?

3. What is context ?
• In different environments, individuals having different
background (competences) take different actions
(step in a process) with different artifacts and people
for different purposes using different devices
Context =
{environment; competence; action;
artifact; people; purpose; device; …}
• Real physical environments (classroom, home, library,
museum, …) • Virtual environments (game, Second Life, …) •
Web environments (LMS, facebook, …) • Computer software
(email client, office suite, …)
• Actions (listening, speaking, interacting, editing, reflecting, …)
• Real artifacts (book, blacboard, …) • Virtual artifacts
(documents, …)
• Purposes (fun, production, learning, communication, …)
• Devices (computers, mobile phones, furniture, walls, …)

4. Does context matter ?
• Understanding and taking into account context
help in increasing
• awareness, interest and motivation
• cognition and meta-cognition
• interaction, continuity and quality of interaction (QoI)
• experience and quality of experience (QoE)
• knowlege and knowledge management
• appropriation
•…
• Context can be caracterized by metadata

5. How to strengthen contexts ?
• By augmenting
• people and communities
• places and facilities
• devices and networks
• environments and tools
•…
• Thanks to
• personalization (user-driven)
• adaptation (system-driven)
• contextualization (situation-driven)

6. The STELLAR Vision
• Contextualizing virtual learning environments
and instrumentalizing learning contexts
(http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp1/)
• How can new forms of contextualized learning enable
novel experiences for learners and for development of
human competences?
• How to support the mobility of the learner in
distributed and multi environment learning settings,
like the transition between real and virtual contexts?
• Which standards are needed to achieve interoperability
and reusability of learning resources in this field? How
to harmonize the existing learning standards?

7. 3A Interaction Model
Groups
Topics
Tasks
3A ENTITIES
Rate, Activities
Tag and INDEFERENTLY
Annotate Spaces
CHOSEN AS
CONTEXT
Events
People Wiki pages
Actions
Services
Actors Assets Documents
Protocols
Agents
Discussion threads
Smart Devices

8. Contextual Agregator
Graaasp is a contextual aggregator
with recommendation of entities
(people, spaces, assets and tools)
dug in various online repositories

9. http://Graaasp.epfl.ch
Graaasp is a contextual aggregator
with recommendation of entities
(people, spaces, assets and tools)
dug in various online repositories