ENHANCING  ELEARNING  AND  RESEARCH  IN  ICT  THROUGH  REMOTE  EXPERIMENTATION  Johann  M.  Marquez-­‐Barja  (marquejm@tcd.ie),  Guillaume  Jourjon,    Alexander  Mikroyannidis,  Christos  Tranorios,  John  Domingue    and  Luiz  A.  DaSilva  

 

EDUCON Conference, 3-5 April, 2014 Istanbul, Turkey

Forging  Online  EducaLon  through  FIRE  (FORGE)  FORGE  is  a  project  bringing  the  FIRE  and  eLearning  worlds  together.  In  parLcular,  FORGE  will  align  FIRE  (Future  Internet  Research  and  ExperimentaLon)  with  the  ongoing  educaLon  revoluLon  as  found  for  example  in  MOOCs.      FORGE  will  specify  development  methodologies  and  best  pracLces  for  offering  FIRE  experimentaLon  faciliLes  to  learners  and  to  the  learning  community  in  general.      The  project  will  lead  to  a  strong  connecLon  between  the  learning  community  and  exisLng  FIRE  plaTorms  and  supporLng  tools.    

Future  Internet  Research  ExperimentaLon  (FIRE)  

•  FIRE  iniLaLve  is  a  European  endeavour  that  promotes  the  creaLon  of  wide-­‐scale  federaLons  of  high-­‐  performance  testbed  and  experimentaLon  faciliLes  for  internet  and  network-­‐related  research.    

•  20  million  EUR  investment  

FORGE  goals  •  FORGE  aims  to  transform  the  FIRE  faciliLes,  already  vital  for  European  research,  into  a  learning  resource  for  higher  educaLon,  enabling  educators  to  easily  create  experiment-­‐based  learning  resources  

•  From  an  educaLonal  perspecLve  FORGE  promotes  the  noLon  of  Self-­‐Regulated  Learning  (a.k.a.  independent  learning  or  auto-­‐didacLc  learning)  

•  FORGE  allows  educators  to  create,  use  and  re-­‐use  FIRE-­‐based  learning  experiences  through  our  tools  and  techniques    

•  FORGE  enables  equity  of  access  to  the  latest  ICT  systems  and  tools  independent  of  locaLon  and  at  low  cost.  Experimental  faciliLes  are  expensive!!!  

FORGE  technologies  

•  Social  networking  technologies  •  Enabling  learners  and  educators  to  create  paths  from  online  resources  •  SupporLng  collaboraLon  amongst  learners.  

•  InteracLve  eBooks  •  Rich  mulLmedia  •  InteracLve  widgets  to  run  large-­‐scale  experiments  

•  Linked  data  supporLng:  •  Delivery  of  learning  material  •  Discovery  of  learning  material  through  semanLc  links  

Elearning  plaTorms  and  networking  testbeds  •  ExperimentaLon  is  a  key  concept  in  engineering  educaLon    

•  FaciliLes  usually  costly  to  implement  and  to  maintain  

•  Remote  laboratories  provide  remote  access  to  experiments  allowing  students  to  access  experiments  without  Lme  and  locaLon  restricLons    

Self  regulated  learning  

•  Learners  benefit  greatly  from  construcLvist  or  learning-­‐by-­‐doing  approaches    

•  Individual’s  ability  to  learn  how  to  learn.    

Psycho-Pedagogical Integration Model

FORGE  architecture  •  Linked  data  

•   Delivery  and  navigaLon  of  learning  materials    

• Widget  store  •  Storing,  sharing  interacLve  widgets  for  experimentaLon  

•  Interfacing  FIRE  faciliLes  •  Booking,  using,  configuring  the  FIRE  testbeds  to  perform  the  experiments  

Lab  course  design  process  

FORGEBox

Lab Course

resources  

Button

Button

txt txt

Lab  Course  descripLons  

LC  designer  

Import  LCs  

FORGEBox control panel

FORGE repository

LCs  Widgets  

FIRE  AdaptaLons  

Administer  

Widgets layer

FIRE Adaptations layer

Widget Widget

Widget

Adapter

Adapter

Adapter

Import  widgets  

Import  Adapters  

Get  LC  descripLon  

Get  widget  Content  (HTML5/

JSON)  

FIRE  Testbed  

InteracLve  Content  (JSON/XML)  

FORGEBox managing services

FRCP/SFA/SSH  

ResulLng  widgets  +  iBook  

Early  prototypes  •  FORGE  has  released  a  first  version  of  an  interacLve  electronic  book  for  the  iPad  and  MacOS.  The  book  contains  a  number  of  networking  courses  produced  by  FORGE  that  use  FIRE  faciliLes  for  introducing  basic  networking  concepts  to  the  reader/learner.  The  materials  provided  in  this  book  include  course  text  and  interacLve  mulLmedia,  real  equipment  labs,  remote  access  testbeds,  as  well  as  different  types  of  learning  acLviLes.  

•  (Live  Demo  of  the  iBook  at  EDUCON,  if  connecLvity  at  the  venue  is  available)  

FORGE  Networking  courses  iBook    

FORGE  Networking  courses  iBook    

FORGE  Networking  courses  iBook    

FORGE  Networking  courses  iBook    

FORGE  Networking  courses  iBook    

Gebng  involved  with  FORGE  

•  As  a  student  

•  As  a  facilitator/teacher  

•  As  a  designer/teacher  

Take  away  message  

•  FORGE  studies  and  develops  new  processes  to  online  learning  enhanced  by  remote  experimentaLon  on  high-­‐performance  testbed  faciliLes  

•  FORGE  reinforces  and  complements  the  tradiLonal  online  courses  with  interacLve  online  hands-­‐on  laboratories  

•  FORGE  enables  equity  of  access  to  the  latest  ICT  systems  and  tools  independent  of  locaLon  and  at  low  cost.    

•  FORGE  strengths  the  culture  of  online  experimentaLon  tools  and  remote  faciliLes.    

     

More  informaLon…  www.ict-­‐forge.eu  info@ict-­‐forge.eu  

 Download  our  Networking  courses  

iBook  for  free!  

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 610889