SIG Meeting: Emerging Technologies for Learning & Teaching

Tuesday, June 21 12:45 PM-1:15 PM

All are invited to join: Stephen Downes described the use of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching and learning as “e-Learning 2.0”. At the latest since then a lot of different approaches have been tested in real-life scenarios. Accepting that the user has to be at the center of all efforts a new approach to the student’s participation in learning has developed around the incorporation of the Internet into education. Collaboration and cooperation in real-time are nowadays possible and help to reach a new level in online and distance education.


In addition to this kind of social revolution based on different applications there are also remarkable technical improvements. Without any doubt the most impressive development of the last years is the increasing use of mobile devices. Learning and teaching can take place with completely different devices and in diverse environments when compared to some years ago. Does this mean that the time of the chalkboard, traditional face-to-face teaching, and the “teach-reply-test” settings have come to an end? WIFI and new mobile devices, especially multi-touch devices, have brought technology to where learning and teaching takes place – anywhere to anytime and therefore also in the lecturing room or halls.


There are many vital research questions, which need to be answered concerning how education of tomorrow looks like. But in any case the learner as well as the teacher of the future is totally digitalized. Media data as well as computers are in daily use. New interaction and usage paradigms, for instance, on multi-touch devices have an impact on the way end users interact with ubiquitous devices. A wealth of research opportunities exists within the field of new user interfaces and pervasive or ubiquitous computing. As this research and advancements are incorporated into education, a new form of education that could be named u-Learning (ubiquitous) – learning where ever you are and with your personal device – will emerge.