The W.I.L.D Thing

Dr. Darren Mundy (Lecturer), Keith Dykes (Research Student), School of Arts and New Media

Aim of Talk

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• Student Engagement

• Previous Work

• W.I.LD Version 1

– Student Feedback

• W.I.L.D Version 2

– Student Feedback

• Challenges

• Future Work

Student Engagement

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• Tackling somnambulism ‘Sleep Walking through Higher Education’

• Passive, Active, Interactive (Changes in audience reception)

• Facilitation of interaction in the teaching room environment

• Encouraging student response

– Openness in response– Different forms of response

Idea

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• Web 2.0 technologies allow individuals and organisations in real time to update pages with information.

• The client simply sees the information appear on the page through AJAX technologies.

• Could we apply these concepts in the context of a presentation to grab and display student responses through mobile devices.

Solutions

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• Proprietary technologies

– Clicker solutions– Device specific solutions– Tablet PC’s

• Proprietary messaging solution

• Bluetooth messaging

• SMS Messaging

• An open web solution

Related Projects

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• The LectureLab project (Kopf et al. 2005)

• Classtalk (Dufresne et al., 1996)

• ClassInHand (2004)

• Project Numina (Heath et al., 2005)

• Classroom 2000 (Abowd, 1999)

• Tablet PCs (Radovesich and Kahn, 2006)(Godwin-Jones, 2003)

• mInteract (Litchfield et al., 2009)

Findings

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• Research pertaining to the use of these types of devices has found increases in:

• student participation (Guthrie and Carlin, 2004),

• improvements in getting students to think about questions posed (Birdsall, 2002)

• as a motivating tool for those who answer incorrectly (Woods and Chiu, 2002).

W.I.L.D Version 1

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• University of Hull Innovation Fund Support

• Prototype demonstrator system

• Java Based Solution

– Major usability problems and transferability issues

• Proprietary

• Tested across two modules with BA and BSc Students

– Interesting feedback– ‘OMG, They now expect us to buy PDA’s to

complete the course.’

Feedback

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“encouraged participation”

“a great idea that may encourage deeper research and discussion”

“I prefer to share ideas and contribute to what is being learnt”

“omg they now expect me to buy a pda to complete the module”

“Its another way to interact, though for the times we used it, I think verbal responses might have been just as good”

W.I.L.D Version 2

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• JISC support for a 6 month re-build of the product

• Focused on open source

• Allowed the initial idea to be developed rather than the quick prototype demonstrator solution

– PowerPoint plug-in– Web based solution for question development and

integration

• Unexpected benefits that potentially have a wider impact

– Web page integration

Prototype 2

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• PPT (or other tool) plug-in for dynamic content integration and delivery

• Web Interface for dynamic content authorship

• An open solution available via Sourceforge

– http://thewildproject.sourceforge.net/

Insight – Peer Reflection

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• Used in a group of 20 students on a Game Art and Design Module

• Students encouraged through iPod Touches to comment on presented work

• Individuals one by one presented as students commented

• Initial Feelings

• Findings

– Positives – fun, interesting, large amount of comments– Negatives – text input, size of text box, wireless

connectivity

The Side Effect

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• A large amount of lecturers now use web content in the classroom environment e.g. YouTube video, a web site or application

• Generally the lecturer is forced into switching between the web browser and the presentation application in order to demonstrate the content.

• The W.I.L.D system allows for the integration of the web content directly into ppt slides removing the need to switch.

Uses of the Side Effect

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• Build Twitter feeds directly into slide content

• Embed web applications directly into a slide

• Embed web based learning objects directly into slide content

• Embed wikis, PLE’s, VLE’s etc...

• and so on

Wider Question – Apps or web apps

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• Apps

– Focused on individual devices– Smaller markets

• Web Solutions

– Available across devices (past and present mobile devices)

– Less restrictive

• Packaging

– Web solutions can be packaged as apps for devices

– Web solutions can be presented on devices as apps (iPhone demonstration)

Thinking around the wider context

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• Engaging students through twitter feeds

– ‘No sooner have we got video projectors in every room (????), we now want two’• Anecdote – the call for OHP’s

• Engaging students with feedback posting

• Mobile devices

– ‘Invading student spaces’– ‘Invading staff spaces’– ‘The mobile device as a disengaging technology’

• Student activity in the lecture theatre

– ‘Do we really just want them to listen????’

Challenges

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• Pedagogical Integration

– Dealing with ‘silence’– Pairing up with devices– Asking the right questions

• Technological Issues

– PowerPoint and Plug-ins– Wireless devices (Power/Connectivity/Interaction)– Apple

• Student Engagement

– Does it engage the unengaged?

Future Work

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• MSc by Research student just finishing off his Thesis

– Focused on W.I.L.D Thing re-development– Student feedback– Peer review usage

• Further development of functionality

– Different question types

• Figuring out web address issues on slides

– Access

References

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• Abowd, G.D. (1999). Classroom2000: An experiment with the instrumentation of a living educational environment. IBM Systems Journal, 38 (4), 508-530

• Classinhand. (2004). ClassInHand project, Class in hand, Wake Forest University, see http://classinhand.wfu.edu/

• Dufresne, R.J., Gerace, W. J., Leonard, W. J., Mestre, J. P. And Wenk L. (1996). Classtalk: A classroom communication system for active learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, volume 7, 3 – 47.

• Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). "Technologies: E-Books and the Tablet PC." Language Learning and Technology 7(1): 4-8.

• Kopf, S., Scheele, N., Winschel, L., Effelsberg, W. (2005). Improving activity and motivation of students with innovative teaching and learning technologies. Proceedings of the Methods and Technologies for Learning conference, Palermo, Italy, 551-556

• Litchfield, A, Raban, R., Dyson, L.E., Leigh, E And Taylor, J. (2009). Using students’ devices and a no-to-low cost online tool to support interactive experiential mLearning. Proceedings of the Ninth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, Riga, Latvia. 674-678

• Radovesich, D. and P. Kahn (2006). "Using Tablet Technology and Recording software to Enhance Pedagogy." Innovate: Journal of Online Education 2(6).

• Woods, H. A., & Chiu, C. (2003). Wireless response technology in college classrooms. The Technology Source, Sept/Oct 2003

Questions???