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What is it? Daring to voice new sounds, words, and phrases is an essential part of learning to speak a language. However, getting students, particularly in mono-lingual classes, to try to speak a foreign language can be a significant challenge. Voice interaction assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, offer new opportunities to create meaningful, fun tasks for language learning that require accurate spoken production. Designing good tasks requires an understanding of the learning context and needs as well as the interactional opportunities, constraints, and risks associated with any particular technology.

Heat stress exerts significant impact on plant-parasite interactions. Phytohormones, such as salicylic acid (SA), play important roles in plant defense against parasite attacks. Here, we studied the impact of a combination of heat stress and exogenous SA on the resistance of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants to the Hessian fly [Mayetiola destructor (Say)]. We found that the wheat cultivar 'Molly', which contains the resistance gene H13, lost resistance to Hessian fly under heat stress (40°C for 3 and 6 h), and that exogenous application of SA on Molly seedlings right before heat stress can partially prevent the loss of resistance of Molly plants under heat conditions. Our findings have significant implications for understanding the dynamics of plant-insect interactions in the context of heat stress.

Heat stress exerts a profound impact on the resistance of plants to parasites. In this research, we investigated the impact of an acute transient heat stress on the resistance of the wheat line 'Molly,' which contains the R gene H13, to an avirulent Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor (Say)) population. We found that a significant portion of Molly seedlings stressed at 40 degrees C for 6 h during or after the initial Hessian fly larval attack became susceptible to otherwise avirulent insects, whereas unstressed control plants remained 100% resistant. Specifically, 77.8, 73.3, 83.3, and 46.7% of plants heat stressed at 0, 6,12, and 24 h, respectively, after the initial larval attack became susceptible. Biochemical analysis revealed that heat stress caused a transient decrease in 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid, but an increase in salicylic acid accumulation in Molly plants. The change in phytohormones after heat stress and Hessian fly infestation was not observed in 'Newton,' a near-isogenic but Hessian fly susceptible wheat line. Instead, heat stress caused a relatively prolonged reduction in palmitoleic acid. The role of phytohormones in heat-induced loss of wheat resistance was discussed.

MiLexicon is an innovative handheld system that helps self-directed learners employ personal learning environments in their language learning. We conducted interviews with experienced language learners in order to investigate the resources they use to support their language learning across formal and informal settings. Our analysis of these interviews reveals a process of self-initiated personal and collaborative language inquiry and identifies ways technology can support this kind of learning. Here we describe miLexicon, a software prototype for Android phones, which we have developed to meet these requirements.

In this study we assess whether and how the Homework System was effective in creating greater continuity of understanding between home and school. Children in a mixed Year 1 and Year 2 class (aged 5–6 years old) were taught numeracy using the Homework System on tablet PCs, and they were assigned activities to carry out on the tablet PC for homework. The Homework System blurs the boundaries between home and school by making learning materials, individual learning histories and information of aims and objectives available in both the school and home context. Six families took part in two semi‐structured interviews, pre and post the introduction of the system. Themes that emerged from these data suggest that the Homework System was successful in empowering parents with a new understanding of classroom teaching methods and materials. Overall, children's levels of enthusiasm, confidence, responsibility and independence in numeracy increased significantly in all the households. Moreover, the way in which home a...

In this paper, experiences from different research groups illustrate the state-of-the-art of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (henceforth, MALL) in formal and non-formal education. These research samples represent recent and on-going progress made in the field of MALL at an international level and offer encouragement for practitioners who are trying to incorporate these approaches into mainline second language teaching. Furthermore, researchers interested in the field can see that the work presented here exemplifies how fertile it is, which should hopefully serve as motivation to undertake new studies to move the state-of-the-art further on.

This paper reports on action research aimed at helping teenage English language learners become more aware of ways they might use technology to support their learning. Over nine-months we used iPads to support a wide variety of teacherdesigned learning activities and then used design thinking to help students co-design their own activities. Students’ design ideas were iteratively refined in collaboration with the teacher over several weeks. Finally, groups tried out each other’s activities. Evidence suggests students did reflect on their English learning practices and ways technology could support these. However, there is no indication that students adopted new practices outside class. Nevertheless, students did produce useful designs for classroom activities. This paper describes the activities we developed and indicates how the co-design process will be modified in future iterations in ways that might better promote uptake of technology-enhanced learning practices outside class.

This study aims to inform the design of mobile apps for vocabulary learning. Learning vocabulary involves developing, connecting, and sustaining various types of knowledge and skills. Learners do not typically acquire these all at once, but rather over the course of distinct episodes of activity. Yet, little is known about learning experience designs that help learners connect these episodes, which often make use of different socio-technical resources, and are distributed over time, and across settings. We use participatory design to explore how mobile apps might help learners enact episodes of learning activity and connect these in effective vocabulary learning trajectories. In order to stimulate design thinking, six adult language learners used an app for self- directed vocabulary learning in authentic conditions for from six weeks to six months. Then, in a post-study workshop, participants developed new designs for scaffolding self-directed vocabulary learning trajectories, grounded in reflection on their own experiences.

This paper introduces miLexicon, an innovative mobile tool for self-initiated, resource-based language learning. In essence, miLexicon consists of two interacting and extensible collections. One collection contains the language items a learner chooses to investigate, the other references resources (e.g. people, tools, media) useful to this inquiry. We describe this process of personal and collaborative language inquiry and show how we derive it from interviews with language learners. We then indicate how miLexicon is designed to support this process and prompt learners to reflect on their resource use. In describing the development of miLexicon we also provide an exemplar application of a novel framework for designing technology-rich learning contexts.

This paper formulates a conceptual model for designing wireless sensor networks as a development enabling tool in extremely resource-limited environments. The model effectively integrates the conventional communications and networking approach with data processing techniques and usability interfaces. The paper also highlights several novel design mechanisms that have been developed around the proposed model and implemented within the context of a broader ongoing project addressing ICT needs of rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The involvement of technology to support and enhance learning is ever increasing; for example moving from the traditional blackboard to electronic whiteboards, from printed books to virtual reality training simulations, and from class room meetings to (a-)synchronised meeting over the web with handheld mobile devices. These technologies promise improved efficiency for traditional ways of learning or even to open up totally new ways of learning. Designing technology-enhanced learning that engages learners in successful learning strategies requires an understanding of the learning context, learners' needs, motivations, habits and desires as well as ease of use. This workshop invites researchers, designers, and educators to discuss their work in this area and explore how HCI practices and methods can be applied or should be extended.

This paper presents an innovative application of wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies to support informal and collaborative learning in Kenyan rural farming communities. Such an approach is achieved by the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) integrated with existing local community communication channels, together with experimental knowledge management (KM) initiatives employing the VeSeL (Village e-Science for Life) distributed resource kits (DRKs). The initiatives support illiterate and semi-literate farming community groups, in learning new agriculture practices, and also enable the use of advanced digital technology to improve their agricultural practices and literacy levels. Results of a recent field trip to Kenya are presented and an application sketch is developed. The process of applying wireless and Internet technologies for the education of local farming communities, using irrigation and water management as the application, concludes the paper.

The use of computer applications to support learning and assessment is becoming more common, along with a growing body of research focusing on the pedagogical effectiveness of these applications. However, until recently less research attention has been given to the design of learning technology with regard to their usability, actual use, and the way they motivate and engage learners. Learner centered design [7] looks beyond the technological possibilities such as distance learning, virtual reality, and computer assisted assessments by focussing on learners in their learning contexts, and how their interaction with these applications can help and stimulate them to apply deep learning strategies. However, what are the best and most effective ways to accomplish this? Can lessons learned in the field of HCI be directly applied, or do e-learning applications have their own set of design guidelines? The workshop plans to bring together individuals with an interest in the design and use of e-learning systems with the aim of improving and understanding the learning experience. The workshop will be a platform to discuss new ideas and to share experiences, but also to identify new research challenges and potential solutions.

Contains fulltext : 50008.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) A computer-based decision support system to assist radiologists in diagnosing and grading brain tumours has been developed by the multi-centre INTERPRET project. Spectra from a database of 1H single-voxel spectra of different types of brain tumours, acquired in vivo from 334 patients at four different centres, are clustered according to their pathology, using automated pattern recognition techniques and the results are presented as a two-dimensional scatterplot using an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Formal quality control procedures were performed to standardize the performance of the instruments and check each spectrum, and teams of expert neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, neurologists and neuropathologists clinically validated each case. The prototype decision support system (DSS) successfully classified 89% of the cases in an independent test set of 91 cases of the most frequent tumour types (meningiomas, low-grade gliomas and high-grade malignant tumours--glioblastomas and metastases). It also helps to resolve diagnostic difficulty in borderline cases. When the prototype was tested by radiologists and other clinicians it was favourably received. Results of the preliminary clinical analysis of the added value of using the DSS for brain tumour diagnosis with MRS showed a small but significant improvement over MRI used alone. In the comparison of individual pathologies, PNETs were significantly better diagnosed with the DSS than with MRI alone.

This paper discusses the importance of learning context with a particular focus upon the educational application of mobile technologies. We suggest that one way to understand a learning context is to perceive it as a Learner Centric Ecology of Resources. These resources can be deployed variously but with a concern to promote and support different kinds of mediations, including those of the teacher and learner. Our approach is informed by sociocultural theory and is used to construct a framework for the evaluation of learning experiences that encompass various combinations of technologies, people, spaces and knowledge. The usefulness of the framework is tested through two case studies that evaluate a range of learning contexts in which mobile technologies are used to support learning. We identify the benefits and challenges that arise when introducing technology across multiple locations. An analytical technique mapped from the Ecology of Resources framework is presented and used to identify the ways in which different technologies can require learners to adopt particular roles and means of communication. We illustrate how we involve participants in the analysis of their context and highlight the extent to which apparently similar contexts vary in ways that are significant for learners. The use of the Ecology of Resources framework to evaluate a range of learning contexts has demonstrated that technology can be used to provide continuity across locations: the appropriate contextualization of activities across school and home contexts, for example. It has also provided evidence to support the use of technology to identify ways in which resources can be adapted to meet the needs of a learner. Editors: Ann Jones, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Daisy Mwanza. Reviewers: Karen Swan (Kent), Richard Joiner (Bath), Daisy Mwanza (Open).

The HomeWork project is building an exemplar system to provide individualised experiences for individual and groups of children aged 6-7 years, their parents, teachers and classmates at school. It employs an existing set of broadcast video media and associated resources that tackle both numeracy and literacy at Key Stage 1. The system employs a learner model and a pedagogical model to identify what resource is best used with an individual child or group of children collaboratively at a particular learning point and at a particular location. The Coherence Compiler is that component of the system which is designed to impose an overall narrative coherence on the materials that any particular child is exposed to. This paper presents a high level vision of the design of the Coherence Compiler and sets its design within the overall framework of the HomeWork project and its learner and pedagogical models.