Dynamic Learner Interactions in Diverse Situations of Traditional

Continuing discussions with experts (teachers from the schools of people with special needs and scientific experts in disability, University of Bremen) and concerning the results about the interactions that learners have in different contexts with different me-dia, the experts emphasized the need for dynamic visualization for changes that a learner experience by working with a digital media as well as in traditional classroom learning.

Moore points to three possible contingents of content” interaction, “learner-instructor” interaction and “learner-learner” interaction (presented in section 2.5.2) [Moore 1989:1-6], and designed a pie diagram to visualize the potential role of different interactions of a learner during working with an e-learning system. Based on this strat-egy, we mapped the contingent of these three interactions according our expectations and experience on a new pie chart based on our assumptions and observations (Figure 20). The hypothetical size of each section should visualize the dynamic changes of pro-portions between these interactions by using digital media instead of traditional class-room-based learning.

In a similar way we tried to visualize the changes of interactions in special teaching contexts for students with cognitive disabilities. Our interest was to discuss the

possi-bilities and needs for the students with cognitive disapossi-bilities concerning interactions.

The following pie diagrams (Figure 20) are based on guesses and expert estimations (within our research group) and in discussions of these diagrams enabled helpful de-scriptions and analysis of our evaluations with students. Depending on the situation and the media used, each of these three interactions can have a different quantifier in pro-portion to each other. We explored the experience of teachers in four situations by try-ing to quantify the conttry-ingent of each learner interaction in a certain learntry-ing process.

The chosen situations are traditional learning in classroom, common learning by digital media (focus on e-learning), traditional learning for people with mental disabilities, and mobile learning for people with mental disabilities.

• For traditional learning in classroom, around fifty percent of the interactions are interactions from learner within content. The other interactions of the learner are social interactions that can be divided into a big part of an interaction with the expert (teacher) and a smaller part for learner interaction with other learners and classmates (Figure 20, top-left diagram).

• The second situation is learning process with common learning applications.

In this case, nearly three quarter of the interactions of the learner can be de-scribed as an interaction with the content. The remaining parts of social interac-tions consist on a bigger part of interaction with expert and a smaller part of in-teraction with other learners (Figure 20, top-right diagram).

• The third situation maps a traditional learning situation of learners with men-tal/learning disabilities. During the learning process the expert (teacher) has to conduct the learning process, so the social interaction with the experts needs nearly two third of the entire interactions. The second part is the small social in-teractions with other learners. The third part is interaction with content included in the learning process; so the remaining part is the interaction between learner and content (Figure 20, bottom-left diagram).

• In the fourth situation, we tried to visualize the quantities of these interactions for the situation where a learner with learning disabilities uses a mobile learning system. As mentioned in previous chapters, mobile learning is learning across context; the fourth interaction between the learner and context can be added here. In this case, the interaction of the learner with the content comprises the largest part. There is a direct and indirect interaction with the expert and there is also an interaction with other learners. In this case the social interaction with experts and other learners is also extended to the context. In this learning situation the interaction from the learner with the content was enabled and sup-ported by personalization (Figure 20, bottom-right diagram).

To complete the model of the four situations depicted in Figure 20, the three aspects of personalization, individualization and customization in diagram design were considered.

Figure 20: Visualization of indicators to define the dynamic of interactions according to specific learning cases.

In traditional classroom learning (first situation) the quantities of interactions can be viewed according to the involvement of teacher and learner for the decisions. The fac-tors are:

• Individualization: the teacher decides according curriculum what should be learned; this is the most important criterion for selecting the content. It is valu-able for the social interaction with the teacher and the interaction possibilities with the content.

• Personalization: the teacher sometimes takes the chance to differentiate a cer-tain exercise according the needs of cercer-tain student; but this decision aspect is seldom used. It is basically a decision that is available in the social interaction with the expert or teacher.

• Customization: often the expert or teacher enables learners to choose different variations of content on their own but normally this quality is not strongly de-veloped.

• Social Communication: in classroom two qualities of interactions are important and are interconnected with each other. Social communication is supported by interactions between learner and teacher and learner with other learners. Social communication helps motivations and the stability of the learning process.

These factors above are used in the second situation, common learning by digital media and e-learning platforms:

• Individualization: the expert decides according curriculum what kind of con-tent in which variations could be provided. It is valuable for the interaction with the expert and the interaction possibilities with the content.

• Personalization: the expert sometimes implements possibilities that enable in-teractions or feedback to differentiate the learning path according the needs of a certain learner. But this quality of decision is seldom provided. It is basically a decision that is implemented by an expert, and is in a way an indirect interaction with the expert.

• Customization: in many cases the experts let the learners choose different varia-tions of content, to adapt the design, to choose where to start in a learning proc-ess, or to select a chapter from the list to learn.

• Social Communication: in this case, social communication can be indirectly supported by the interaction of the learner with other learners and the tutor or in-structor.

In traditional classroom learning for students with learning disabilities the quantities of interactions can be viewed according the involvement of teacher and learner in decision-making. The factors are:

• Personalization: the teacher has to customize a certain exercise and learning material according the needs of a certain student, which starts by choosing ap-propriate and engaging material. Teaching method and student handling has to be prepared according to the student’s special needs. These are active decisions not only with respect to social interaction with the expert or teacher but also re-garding the choice of content.

• Social Communication: in this situation the communication with teacher or tu-tor is vital and the leading interaction but there is also a small amount of social interaction with other learners.

The following two factors play an important role in the fourth situation, mobile learning for students with learning disabilities.

• Personalization: the teacher has to customize a certain exercise and learning material according the needs of a certain student. It starts by choosing the engag-ing topics and material. The teachengag-ing method and handlengag-ing for the student has to be prepared according his/her special needs. According to this aspect the expert or teacher has to upload the learning material onto the device and to select the interactions. Via the decision engine, the system uses the criteria provided by the experts and teachers to produce needed material with supporting interactions that enable learning activities with the content.

• Social Communication: in this system indirect communication with the teacher or tutor is the leading interaction in the design of the learning material but there is also a possibility of social interaction with teacher and a social interaction with other learners. Learners sometimes get help to start an activity with the mo-bile device or together with a tutor they explore the learning system.

In a learning system, the social aspect is highly considerable and enhances the possibil-ity of the learner to autonomously accomplish a lesson through personalization.

Through visualization an important dynamic strategy can be detected. In traditional classrooms the learning process uses content as in a social dimension. With digital me-dia, the use of personalized learning content can be highlighted.

In traditional classrooms for students with learning disabilities, the social interactions with teacher or tutor are the basic aspects that enable effective learning processes. By switching to digital media, a transformation to a mobile learning system demands the implementation of stronger social connections. In our case, personalization is directed by the interactions between the teacher with the system, whereby the teacher defines the

materials and interactions on the teacher portal. Although the role of content is high-lighted more in digital media, the model is balanced and directed by the implemented personalization.

In order to validate the hypothesis that content is highlighted through digital media, we collected the evidence from literature and discussed our mapping with experts and teachers in schools and our research group. By reviewing the results, we got strong indi-cations that the dynamic model which we observed is valuable for further system design that target and support the learning process of students with learning disabilities. Further research needs to be undertaken to precisely analyze these factors.