Wireless Environments for Teaching and Learning
Research Framework

Arnold Pears, Mats Daniels, Per Gunningberg
and Christian Tschudin
Uppsala University

Background

The research is to be carried out in the context of the Swedish Learning Laboratory programme (Swe-LL) for Distributed Learning Spaces (DILS), tracks 1 and 2.

The overall framework for Swe-LL defines tracks which address "Local learning" (Track 1) and "Distributed Teams and Groups" (Track 2). The overarching objective being to encompass projects that investigate aspects of learning and the provision of and implications of new environments for learning.

Within this framework this investigation develops a pilot project to investigate the impact of a wireless network environment on teaching and learning. The study will attempt to identify and quantify important teaching and learning issues that arise from access to, and training with, a wireless network technology.

In the pilot stage (Summer 2000) the project identifies key issues for further studies to enhance and complement existing programmes in learning spaces, and wireless learning at KTH (Stockholm), and Stanford University(USA) providing a solid foundation for collaboration and research exchanges in the future.

Stages 2 and 3 are projected for course offerings in Summer 2001 and 2002, with the objective of focussing on a range of issues, and hypotheses proposed and refined in the pilot study. The stage 2 and 3 investigations focus on the areas identified in the pilot, and also attempt to identify context independent features related to the use of wireless learning spaces. This is achieved by coordinating research over several similar courses at the collaborating institutes.

The remainder of this document outlines the experimental hypotheses and provides an overview of the projected programme of research.

Hypothesis

The provision of a wireless learning and teaching environment enhances opportunities for both formal and informal communication and group activity. This enhancement in connectivity will result in changes to learning and collaboration patterns for students. Changes in teaching practice can also be observed and quantified.

Key Features

The process of extending learning modes through wireless communication allows students to engage in new modes of activity, for example

Specific Research Context

The project is a collaborative effort between KTH(Stockholm) and Uppsala University(Uppsala). The teaching context is Senior Level classes in Computer Networking at both institutes.

Students in both courses have a good background in computer science topics, and are familiar with existing Internet technologies. They have all received a course in computer networking, and have a basic understanding of networking principles and protocols.

Course content at Uppsala covers education in wireless networking protocols and techniques, and the configuration and use of wireless network technology, since each student is issued with a wireless LAN card, and base

  • stations have been installed throughout the building. Two research ares are envisaged.
    1. Technical education and hands-on experience with installation and configuration of wireless technology and ad hoc networking techniques.

      [Per Gunningberg, Christian Tschudin, Arnold Pears]

    2. Evaluation of the provision of wireless technology on teaching and learning practices. This research will address both teaching and student participants in the course.

      [Arnold Pears, Mats Daniels, Per Gunningberg, Anders Berglund]

    Collaboration with a programme in wireless communication for computer networking at KTH provides the ability to conduct parallel investigations and validate research outcomes by cross correlation. We propose to use this collaboration and the resulting preliminary observations to prioritize and set research objectives for follow up projects in 2001 and 2002. Since the current course is in the 3rd year of a 4 year programme, this project has the potential to follow a single group of students over an extended period in order to observe how their use of wireless technology evolves.

    Provisional Project Overview

    Local Study (Track 1)

    The local study section of the project investigates the effects of providing wireless networking on student study and learning activities.

    Experiment 1:

    This experiment measures the activity of two student groups working on a similar research and collaboration based class exercise.

    Group 1 (control) are not provided with access to wireless networking and are asked to solve the team problem using existing technological infrastructure and group study techniques.

    Group 2 (experimental) are provided with wireless networking and access to class peers with information about new tools for collaboration in a wireless setting. This team are asked to solve a problem of the same complexity as Group 1 using any communication tools, including those provided by wireless networking.

    Experiment 2:

    Measuring peer level interactions using spontaneous communication over wireless networks. The frequency and types of use of wireless network interaction will be collected for groups of students working on two different projects. The project topics are irrelevant to this investigation.

    Distributed teams/groups (Track 2)

    The distributed group work investigation addresses collaborations and peer learning between teams of students in the network courses at Uppsala and KTH. Students will be told that they have peers who are taking a similar course at the other institute, and encouraged to collaborate.

    By establishing a link between these course instances we intend to observe observe development of peer learning activity between students on both an inter and intra institutional level. This will provide a framework for reasoning about the generalization of pedagogic research conclusions about the effects of wireless networking on teaching and learning modes and environments.

    Timescale, and Outcomes

    Pilot project 8 weeks in Spring/Summer 2000. Full Scale Project(s) Autumn/Winter 2000 to Summer 2001. Followup Studies and Retrospective Autumn/Winter 2001 to Summer 2002