Presentation at 4th European Immersive Education Summit, Vienna 2014

1. A Contribution to Collaborative
Learning Using iPads for
School Children
Benedikt Kienleitner, Martin Ebner
4th European Immersive Education Summit

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martin.ebner
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tugraz.at

3. Research goal
.. is to use digital devices to connect the
learners to strongly assist communication
between peers. The fundamental idea is
to develop a prototype-application where
learners can actively engage into
collaborative work.

4. Theoretical Background
• Collaborative Learning
• Educational Games
• Mobile Devices in Classroom

5. Idea
Overcome to major issues:
• Missing feedback for teachers (Overview about pupil’s
performance)
• Lack of collaboration (Mobile devices tend to act as
stand-alone devices)

6. Cloud / Webplatform act as central
database
Learner
iPad
Learner
iPad
Learner
iPad
Learner
iPad
Teacher
Define questions/answers
Main Architecture I
Download
exercises
Play the game

7. Main Architecture II

8. User Interface - Start Screen

9. User Interface - Login Form

10. User Interface - Start Game Screen

11. User Interface - Join Game Screen

12. User Interface - Main Screen

13. User Interface - Main Screen

14. First Field Study
Setting:
• Two primary schools / second classes with 15/18
pupils
• Two trials (groups of two and groups of four)
• Participatory observation

15. Observed aspects
• Children understood quickly the concept, were
motivated
• Game was easy to use, enjoyable
• Steady communication between learners happened
• Children cooperated very well
• Connection failures, connection process difficult,
password problems, drag & drop problems of letters

16. Results of Interviews
Question Mean
1. Did you like to play togehter? 1
2. Was the app easy to use? 1-2
3. Did you learn new words? 1
4. Was the difficulty of the game (words) ok? 1-3
5. Would you like to play again? 1

17. Children’s performance
groups of two
groups of four

18. Summary
• App fostered communication and collaboration
• Given the right setting, children support each other
and work together
• The presentation as a game is more enjoyable
• There are few technical difficulties that need to be
addressed.

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20. Slides available at: http://elearningblog.tugraz.at
SOCIAL LEARNING
Computer and Information Services
Graz University of Technology
Graz University of Technology
Martin Ebner
martin.ebner@tugraz.at
http://elearning.tugraz.at
mebner