Lim, Kenneth Yang Teck

This article provides an overview of research in the Learning Sciences from a Design Research perspective, as it has been framed in Singapore by the National Institute of Education (NIE). The initial research agenda is considered in the light of challenges and the subsequent re-casting of objectives, based on the working out of a tripartite relationship between the NIE, the Ministry of Education, and local schools. A conceptual model is proposed as an attempt to provide structure for new research interventions going forward.

This paper describes the results of a study involving about a hundred adolescents from various Secondary Schools in Singapore in 2004. Subjects were tasked with two complementary tasks in the field, and they worked in pairs to navigate a given route, and also to subsequently engage in a debate about an issue pertaining to the same neighbourhood, using text - and picture-messaging technologies. The paper references an earlier pilot study carried out that same year with a separate, smaller, group of students. The results of the study are analysed with a view to informing more effective classroom practice, specifically when teaching map-reading, and, more generally, in collaborative learning environments as a whole.

Recent developments in handheld telephony have given rise to the ‘mobile internet' - a range of technologies, from multimedia-messaging to access of the internet through handheld devices. These trends have been accompanied by the increasing consumerization of the mobile phone. Many students today have access to a tool, which allows them to connect to potentially anyone else, regardless of spatial co-location. This paper describes a study which was carried out in the early months of 2004, focusing on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text- and picture-messaging, is used by adolescents in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they may find themselves. Students were presented with opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and used multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and subsequently in the classroom.

This paper reports on research carried out as part of a doctoral thesis which focuses on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text messaging and picture messaging, is used by teenagers in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they find themselves. To this end, the study was constructed such that students were given opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and use multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and in the classroom, regarding various issues of concern to these environments, with specific links being made to their studies in geography. Key research questions that delineate the bounds of the study are: 1) How do pupils seek to explore and understand the local environment in which they find themselves? 2) How are such understandings of three-dimensional environments communicated, through text, pictures and video, with their peers and friends? 3) What are the mechanisms (including textual and non-textual cues) which teens employ to coach their peers to successfully navigate alien environments? 4) How can the technologies of social software, specifically messaging technologies of the mobile internet, augment and / or detract from the semiotic processes of making and sharing meaning about place? Specifically, the requirement that the students engage in real-time collaborative interaction while still onsite in multiple remote locations can only be properly realized with the mobile internet. No longer should students have to wait till they return to school before sharing their thoughts with their peers. The study encouraged students to empathise with, and defend, different points-of-view. Through debate, students gained an appreciation of the issues pertaining to the geography around a particular location. The quality of the debate was a function of their powers of observation, and what they perceived as meaningful in their environment.

This article considers some of the unique affordances that Multi-User Virtual Environments-in particular, Second Life-present to the design of learning environments. Drawing upon some preliminary experiences of acquainting teachers in several schools in Singapore with Second Life, specific attention is paid to the inherent spatiality of the Second Life grid, and the implications the consequent sense of place imparts on traditional notions of the content of any given subject domain, as well as on how the understanding of learners can be facilitated and subsequently assessed.

This paper describes part of the results of a pilot study investigating how adolescents make, share and negotiate meaning with their peers about their local environments. Specifically, the results presented in this paper focus on how adolescents perceive and interpret spatial and three-dimensional data presented in various formats, such as in terms of virtually-rendered objects, photo-realistic panoramas, and traditional maps. Participants were required to undertake both a pre- and a post-test, which were identical in task. These tests involved having the participants match a series of computer-rendered three-dimensional objects with similar objects rendered from the same perspective, as well as to deduce the axis of rotation and viewing perspective of a QuickTime VR cylindrical panorama when presented with a map of the same area (the preand post-tests were separated by an intervention activity which will be described but not analysed in depth in this paper, as the activity itself has been documented in other publications by the author). Performance data obtained from the pre- and post-test results will be presented and analysed, to establish the extent to which classroom practice in geography lessons might be improved to enhance students’ performance in map reading and interpretation.