Technology-Enhanced Systems and Tools for Collaborative Learning Scaffolding is a major research theme in CSCL and CSCW research community. This book presents up-to-date research approaches for developing technology-enhanced systems and tools to support functional online collaborative learning and work settings. It comprises a variety of research topics that span from the study of frameworks and infrastructures that foster collaborative learning and work through the application of different methods (distributed e-learning repositories, content creation and customization, social networks, collaborative ontologies building, and educational games) to the use of personalization and adaptation techniques to support the development of more powerful e-collaboration settings, including methodologies and tools for analyzing students' interactions with the aim to increase students' collaborative behaviors, performance and group organization. Researchers will find in this book the latest trends in these research topics, which gives them the opportunity to deepen further on the above issues and to extend their knowledge to other areas. Academics will find practical insights on how to use conceptual and experimental approaches in their daily tasks. Developers from CSCL community can be inspired and put in practice the proposed models and evaluate them for the specific purposes of their own work and context.

Adaptation and personalization have been extensively studied in CSCL research community aiming to design intelligent systems that adaptively support eLearning processes and collaboration. Yet, with the fast development in Internet technologies, especially with the emergence of new data technologies and the mobile technologies, new opportunities and perspectives are opened for advanced adaptive and personalized systems. Adaptation and personalization are posing new research and development challenges to nowadays CSCL systems. In particular, adaptation should be focused in a multi-dimensional way (cognitive, technological, context-aware and personal). Moreover, it should address the particularities of both individual learners and group collaboration. As a consequence, the aim of this book is twofold. On the one hand, it discusses the latest advances and findings in the area of intelligent adaptive and personalized learning systems. On the other hand it analyzes the new implementation perspectives for intelligent adaptive learning and collaborative systems that are brought by the advances in scripting languages, IMS LD, educational modeling languages and learning activity management systems. Given the variety of learning needs as well as the existence of different technological solutions, the book exemplifies the methodologies and best practices through several case studies and adaptive real-world collaborative learning scenarios, which show the advancement in the field of analysis, design and implementation of intelligent adaptive and personalized systems.

This book presents the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning, held 21-23 September 2016 at Clayton Hotel in Belfast, UK. We are currently witnessing a significant transformation in the development of education. The impact of globalisation on all areas of human life, the exponential acceleration of developments in both technology and the global markets, and the growing need for flexibility and agility are essential and challenging elements of this process that have to be addressed in general, but especially in the context of engineering education. To face these topical and very real challenges, higher education is called upon to find innovative responses. Since being founded in 1998, this conference has consistently been devoted to finding new approaches to learning, with a focus on collaborative learning. Today the ICL conferences have established themselves as a vital forum for the exchange of information on key trends and findings, and of practical lessons learned while developing and testing elements of new technologies and pedagogies in learning.

Online learning has become more and more common globally, whether for comfort, adapting to work hours or just having the freedom to study from anywhere. And now under the coronavirus pandemic, as people are having to stay at home, it has become more important than ever. Although the popularity of wireless network and portable smart device makes it possible for people to acquire and learn knowledge anytime and anywhere, it does not necessarily mean an increased learning performance. Relevant research in cognitive science has revealed possible limitations in online learning. For example, the knowledge acquired through online learning tends to be fragmented and lacks guidance for integrated thinking among different subjects, which makes it difficult for learners to form a systematic knowledge structure. Learners may experience cognitive overload, metacognitive illusion and low learning efficiency in self-regulated learning. It follows that, in the post COVID-19 era, online learning puts forward new requirements and challenges to the contemporary students, not only to their learning strategies but positive character traits in learning. Most of the current learning theories were developed in the early 20th century and may not fit in well with the current situation, then possibly leading to inefficient learning and increased learning burden. Therefore, it is necessary and important to reexplore the influencing factors and mechanisms that affect the learning efficiency of students at all levels nowadays, based on which we could construct a theoretical model of efficient learning model.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2011, held in Palermo, Italy, in September 2010. The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 158 submissions. The book also includes 12 short papers, 8 poster papers, and 2 invited paper. There are many interesting papers on topics such as web 2.0 and social media, recommender systems, learning analytics, collaborative learning, interoperability of tools, etc.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2015, held in Toledo, Spain, in September 2015. The 27 full papers, 19 short papers, 9 demo papers and 23 posters were carefully reviewed and selected from 176 submissions. They address topics such as blended learning; self-regulated and self directed learning; reflective learning; intelligent learning systems; learning communities; learning design; learning analytics; learning assessment; personalization and adaptation; serious games; social media; massive open online courses (MOOCs); schools of the future.

This book looks at the value of integrating the arts and sciences in the school curriculum. It argues that this will help students further their understanding of analytical concepts through the use of creativity. The authors illustrate how schools can work towards presenting common practices, concepts, and content. Coverage features case studies and lessons learned from classrooms across the United States. The notion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) is an emerging discipline unique in its desire to provide a well-rounded approach to education. The chapters of this volume examine STEAM in a variety of settings, from kindergarten to higher education. Readers will learn about the practical considerations involved when introducing the arts and creativity into traditionally left brain processes. This includes best practices for creating and sustaining successful STEAM initiatives in any school, college, or university. For instance, one chapter discusses novel approaches to teach writing with the scientific method in order to help students better present their ideas. The authors also detail how the arts can engage more diverse learners, including students who are not traditionally interested in STEM subjects. They provide three concrete examples of classroom-tested inquiries: designing a prosthetic arm for a child, making a paleontology investigation, and taking a closer look at the arts within roller coaster engineering. This book is an invaluable resource for teachers and teacher trainers, university faculty, researchers, and school administrators. It will also be of interest to science, mathematics, engineering, computer science, information technology, arts and design and technology teachers.

Identifying ‘networked flow’ as the key driver of networked creativity, this new volume in the Springer Briefs series deploys concepts from a range of sub-disciplines in psychology to suggest ways of optimizing the innovative potential of creative networks. In their analysis of how to support these networks, the contributing authors apply expertise in experimental, social, cultural and educational psychology. They show how developing a creative network requires the establishment of an optimal group experience in which individual intentions inform and guide collective goals. The volume represents a three-fold achievement. It develops a ground-breaking new perspective on group creativity: the notion of ‘networked flow’ as a bridging concept linking the neuropsychological, psychological and social levels of the creative process. In addition, the authors set out a six-stage model that provides researchers with a methodological framework (also by referring to the social network analysis) for studying the creativity traditionally associated with interpersonal contexts. Finally, the book includes perceptive analysis of the novel possibilities opened up by second-generation internet technologies, particularly in social networking, that seem destined to develop and sustain online creativity. As a wide-ranging exposition of a new direction in theoretical psychology that is laden with exciting possibilities, this volume will inform and inspire professionals, scholars and students alike.

Researchers in many disciplines have been concerned with modeling textual data in order to account for texts as the primary information unit of written communication. The book “Modelling, Learning and Processing of Text-Technological Data Structures” deals with this challenging information unit. It focuses on theoretical foundations of representing natural language texts as well as on concrete operations of automatic text processing. Following this integrated approach, the present volume includes contributions to a wide range of topics in the context of processing of textual data. This relates to the learning of ontologies from natural language texts, the annotation and automatic parsing of texts as well as the detection and tracking of topics in texts and hypertexts. In this way, the book brings together a wide range of approaches to procedural aspects of text technology as an emerging scientific discipline.

Intelligent technologies are the essential factors of innovation, and enable the industry to overcome technological limitations and explore the new frontiers. Therefore it is necessary for scientists and practitioners to cooperate and inspire each other, and use the latest research results in creating new designs and products. The idea of this book came out with the industrial workshop organized at the ISMIS conference in Warsaw, 2011. The book covers several applications of emerging, intelligent technologies in various branches of the industry. The contributions describe modern intelligent tools, algorithms and architectures, which have the potential to solve real problems, experienced by practitioners in various industry sectors. We hope this volume will show new directions for cooperation between science and industry and will facilitate efficient transfer of knowledge in the area of intelligent information systems.