adaptive context-aware pervasive and ubiquitous learning
TRANSCRIPT
Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2009 169
Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Adaptive context-aware pervasive and ubiquitous learning
Anastasios A. Economides Information Systems Department, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Avenue, Thessaloniki, 54006, Greece E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: In pervasive and ubiquitous learning, a learner should be able to freely perform an educational activity possibly cooperating and/or collaborating with others using multiple devices and networks as he moves in an environment. The educational activity should be able to be performed by various types of learners and to operate on various devices, networks and environments. Correspondingly, the devices and the networks should be able to support various types of learners and to operate various educational activities in any environment. In order to provide adaptive context-aware pervasive and ubiquitous learning, an adaptation engine senses the context and produces adapted educational activity and infrastructure. This paper defines the context to consist of the learner state, the educational activity state, the infrastructure state and the environment state. Furthermore, it comprehensively describes each one of the states.
Keywords: adaptation; adaptive learning; context-aware; educational activity; learner profile; learner model; mobile learning; personalised learning; pervasive learning; ubiquitous learning.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Economides, A.A. (2009) ‘Adaptive context-aware pervasive and ubiquitous learning’, Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp.169–192.
Biographical notes: Anastasios A. Economides received his DiplEng in Electrical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Holding a Fulbright and a Greek State Fellowship, he received his MSc and his PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Currently, he is an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Information Systems Department at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests include networking techno-economics, e-learning and e-services. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers. He has been the Plenary Speaker in two international conferences.
1 Introduction
Mobile phones are extensively used in every day life, mostly for phone calls and short message service (SMS) (Economides and Grousopoulou, 2008). Educational institutes are also starting to exploit mobile devices and networks for learning and management. As most students already possess handheld devices, several educational institutes are using wireless technology to deliver and support mobile learning (Davies, 2003; Waycott and