Title: Supporting lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies in daily physical spaces

Authors: Bernardo Tabuenca; Stefaan Ternier; Marcus Specht

Addresses: Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC), Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands ' Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC), Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands ' Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC), Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands

Abstract: This paper presents the results from a questionnaire filled out by 147 lifelong learners with the aim to analyse learning practices of adults, and to recognise patterns of lifelong learners in order to support them with technology. These patterns capture the context in which lifelong learners are more willing to learn, that is, the day of the week, duration, location activity being performed, type of device being used, way to interact with their devices and how these aspects can affect when an adult student takes the initiative to learn. Likewise, this paper examines previous publications on surveys, questionnaires and information collected with the same objective, to corroborate and contrast the findings. Moreover, we present a literature review on augmented tangibles for learning identifying potential contexts to orchestrate tangibles depending on the physical space where they are normally used. As an outcome of this work, important research questions are raised to integrate smart learning objects in learner-centred ecologies of resources.

Keywords: mobile usage patterns; lifelong learning; personal learning ecologies; tangibles; physical spaces; adult learners; smart learning objects; personal learning environments; PLEs; mobile devices; smartphones; tablets; cloud computing; cloud services; learner behaviour; timing; learner motivation; m-learning; mobile learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMLO.2013.057160

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 2013 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.177 - 196

Received: 17 Dec 2012
Accepted: 28 Jun 2013
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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