New Pub: How well does teacher education prepare for teaching with technology?

New Pub: How well does teacher education prepare for teaching with technology?

Competence development, Digitalisation, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Open access, Publication
Despite large-scale investments into the technological infrastructure of K-12 education, research has repeatedly shown that many teachers lack the expertise to effectively incorporate technology into classroom teaching. To support teachers in this, there is a need to understand how and when the relevant knowledge develops during teacher training. To this end, Joshua Weidlich and Marco Kalz conducted a study at Heidelberg University of Education, sampling prospective teachers (N = 526) and analyzing their self-reported technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) across the seven dimensions of the framework. Specifically, they assessed (1) the extent to which students more advanced in their studies reported higher TPACK, (2) the effect of gender on these trajectories, and (3) the potential role of curricular cornerstones of the teacher education program. Regarding (1), they found that not…
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Dr. Eyal Rabin from the Open University of Israel joins EduTec group and GU as an International Visiting Fellow

Dr. Eyal Rabin from the Open University of Israel joins EduTec group and GU as an International Visiting Fellow

Computational Psychometrics, Learning Analytics, Research Methods
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Eyal Rabin, a distinguished researcher in the field of educational technology, has joined us as an International Visiting Fellow at the EduTec group at DIPF and Goethe University in Frankfurt from July till September. This fellowship is generously funded by the Goethe University and aims to foster collaborative research and knowledge exchange in the field of educational technology. Dr. Rabin serves as a research associate at the Center of Innovation in Educational Technology at the Open University of Israel. His research expertise lies in exploring the complexities of learning in online courses and digital environments, employing learning analytics methods (LA) and drawing from multiple interdisciplinary fields, including psychology, education and computer science. The focus of Dr. Rabin's research revolves around understanding the factors…
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Workshops and tutorials at LASI2023 in Singapore

Workshops and tutorials at LASI2023 in Singapore

Feedback, Learning Analytics, Summer School, Workshop
During 6-8 June 2023, Ioana Jivet participated in the first in-person Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI) since 2019, hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS). The event included a keynote delivered by NUS President Prof. Tan Eng Chye on how NUS is supporting education with educational data, a keynote delivered by Prof. Rebecca Ferguson on the current challenges and opportunities of the field of learning analytics (LA), an expert panel discussing the role of LA in the age of AI and a series of tutorials and workshops conducted by various professionals in the field of LA. As part of the program, Ioana Jivet led a 5.5-hour workshop and a 2-hour tutorial focusing on effective dashboard design, data visualization, and sense-making. The workshop "Effective Dashboard Design and Data Visualization for…
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Workshop: Teacher Dashboards supported by AI-generated Feedback @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Workshop: Teacher Dashboards supported by AI-generated Feedback @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Learning Analytics, School, Summer School, Workshop
At the JTEL Summer School 2023 in La Manga, Spain, we hosted the “Teacher Dashboards supported by AI-generated Feedback” workshop. In this workshop, the Learning Analytics Cockpit (LA Cockpit), a tool developed by us, was presented and optimized by the participants. The LA Cockpit is a teacher dashboard that allows teachers to view the learning status of students through different visualizations and to interact with these visualizations to send feedback to (individual or groups of) students through a feedback system to “steer" the learning process. After a short intro on teacher dashboards and feedback theory, the tool with its visual feedback system was be tested "hands-on" by all participants in the workshop. Afterwards we discussed on how to improve the LA Cockpit and for which purposes teachers would ideally use…
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Workshop: Hyperchalk – How to implement Self-hosted Whiteboard Tasks @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Workshop: Hyperchalk – How to implement Self-hosted Whiteboard Tasks @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Computer-supported collaborative learning, Learning Analytics, Summer School, Workshop
In this workshop which Lukas Menzel and I gave at the seventeenth JTEL Summer School, we explored the possibilities of our self-implemented whiteboard tool Hyperchalk. Hyperchalk is a backend for Excalidraw which allows for integrating learning management systems via LTI and collecting a complete history of trace data. After a short kick-off presentation, we let the participants design their own learning activities using the whiteboard. All participants created little tasks that other participants then solved. As most participants had a strong background in teaching, these were inspired by practical experiences. The tasks involved various topics, from stochastics to K12-level geography. At the end of the workshop, we taught the participants how to administrate the tool and how to set it up on their own servers. Overall, it was a successful…
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Workshop: Large Language Models for Feedback Generation @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Workshop: Large Language Models for Feedback Generation @ JTEL Summer School 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Feedback, Summer School, Workshop
At the seventeenth JTEL Summer School, Lukas Menzel and I had the pleasure of giving a workshop on the potentials and pitfalls of large language models for generating learner feedback. We kicked the event off with a general presentation on large language models. We explained the technical properties of well-known language models such as BERT or GPT. Following this, we went into different setups that can be used for feedback generation. On the one hand, this can involve training a BERT-based model to predict codes for input responses that trigger OnTask-style feedback rules. While this approach is stable regarding what feedback students receive, it is also inflexible, as such feedback cannot necessarily mirror all detailed intricacies that might occur in a student's response. For this reason, it can feel kind…
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New pub: Fostering children’s acceptance of educational apps

New pub: Fostering children’s acceptance of educational apps

Journal, Learning Design, School, Self-Regulation
In the field of educational applications (apps), the focus has shifted from mere functionality to creating enjoyable and beneficial learning experiences for children. A recently published article sheds light on the influence of redesigning a mobile learning activity in an app to enhance its appeal and usefulness to young learners. By exploring the relationship between children's enjoyment, intention to use and the incorporation of emojis, this study provides valuable insights into optimizing educational apps. The study involved 103 children aged 9 to 14 years, who participated in a 27-day exploration of a mobile learning app. The objective was to determine how different learning activities influenced children's intention to use the app. The researchers revamped a traditional learning activity, replacing it with an emoji-based representation of learning plans. Two other standard…
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Workshop @ JTELSS – Visualizing Real-World Learning Analytics

Workshop @ JTELSS – Visualizing Real-World Learning Analytics

Learning Analytics, Self-Regulation, Workshop
In this workshop, Atezaz Ahmad, Kamran Mir, Jan Schneider and Daniele Di Mitri presented two datasets (IWWB and Presentation Trainer) to the participants. There were three main tasks: Investigate the datasets and how it could be used to design analytics dashboards. - Participants were asked to use HyperChalk and OpenLAIR to design their solutions. What are some limitations of the current datasets. - List the problems/issues with the datasets and how to improve them. What indicators will we get from this datasets. - List/Name the indicators. At the end of the workshop, we asked the participants to fill out a survey. The survey was about evaluating the IWWB+ analytics dashboard. Here are some pictures of the results:
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Keynote @ #JTELSS23 – Towards Highly Informative Learning Analytics

Keynote @ #JTELSS23 – Towards Highly Informative Learning Analytics

Conference, Feedback, Higher Education, Keynote, Learning Analytics, Learning Design, Summer School
Hendrik Drachsler delivered a keynote presentation at the 17th EATEL Summer School on Technology-Enhanced Learning (JTELSS 2023) in La Manga, Spain that unveiled groundbreaking insights from the Highly Informative and Learning Analytics (HILA) research program. This exciting initiative explores the effectiveness of HILA and the transformative power of data-enriched learning activities in providing highly informative feedback to students. Here a few highlights from Hendrik's keynote, showcasing the potential of HILA to revolutionize learning outcomes. The Power of Feedback Extensive research has long recognized the profound impact of feedback on learning success. Hendrik's presentation revealed that HILA surpasses traditional feedback methods by offering even higher efficacy. By going beyond simple right or wrong responses, HILA provides actionable feedback that enables students to exercise effective metacognitive control over their learning process. This…
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Advancing Education with “AI in the Loop” Interfaces @ #JTELSS23

Advancing Education with “AI in the Loop” Interfaces @ #JTELSS23

Artificial Intelligence, Summer School, Workshop
From June 3rd to 10th, the city of La Manga in Spain hosted an exciting event, the Seventeenth EATEL Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning (JTELSS 2023). Among the talented researchers organizing this renowned summer school for young TEL researchers in Europe, Sebastian Wollny contributed with a workshop focused on the speed design challenge. The challenge this year was to design an "AI in the Loop" interface specifically aimed at helping teachers analyze Exit Slips. These short reflection tasks, given at the end of a lesson, offer valuable insights into student comprehension and learning. However, teachers often struggle with limited time to thoroughly analyze these Exit Slips. Sebastian encouraged participants to place the human at the center of their design while incorporating artificial intelligence, embracing the concept of "AI in…
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