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What are we Supposed to be Learning? Motivation and Autonomy in Smart Learning Environments

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Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions (HCII 2021)

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Abstract

This paper responds to participant interview comments made in the author’s research into experiencing smart learning from pedagogical analysis perspectives. Interviewees remarked on what was supposed to be learned as oppose to what they might have actually been interested in, motivated by or simply doing in the smart learning journey activities being investigated. Through analysis of data, it appeared that structures of relevance formed strong reasoning in the minds of learners that subsequently substantially affected their depth and type of experience, beginning before they participated in an activity. This paper explores and develops thinking around pedagogical approaches to enhance and support some significant motivating factors for autonomous participation in smart learning activities.

Just-in-time learning forms part of the ambient and pervasive interactions ‘ubiquitous computing’ landscape of digitally connected learning cities, already a future-present representation of what may become commonplace in ad-hoc ‘smart enough’ cities in the near future. Smart learning environments can only be considered smart if effective learning can take place, therefore designing learning activities for smart environments requires considerable reflection of intended aims and measurement of what may constitute learning effectiveness. Understanding potential for learning in these contexts can enhance pedagogical design and approach to support engaging and effective smart learning activities within this unfolding future learning terrain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Unesco SDG 4: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4.

  2. 2.

    https://hpreveal.com (defunct).

  3. 3.

    https://edmodo.com.

  4. 4.

    https://google.com/mymaps.

  5. 5.

    https://smartlearning.netfarms.eu.

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Lister, P. (2021). What are we Supposed to be Learning? Motivation and Autonomy in Smart Learning Environments. In: Streitz, N., Konomi, S. (eds) Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12782. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77015-0_17

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