Research contents
Learning objects and learning design
Learning interaction and dialogue design
Designing for informal and lifelong learning
Funded projects

Research and development: an overview

This theme within the LTRI adopts a design-based research approach to learning interaction and dialogue that is relevant to the digital age, to focus on what can be termed ‘Deep Learning Design’. It is a Learning Sciences approach that operates within a socio-cultural framework and combines methodologies from AI and new media development with investigative and evaluative social science approaches. Our work involves developing and evaluating near-future interactive learning technologies and the theoretical base that underpins contemporary learning and machine-mediated interaction, cognition and behaviour. Specifically, we develop innovative dialogue tools (e.g. InterLoc, CoLLeGE, MetaMuse & AcademicTalk), interactive web-portals (e.g. STARScience) and new models or frameworks for communicative interaction (e.g. Dialogue Games) that support highly interactive and social learning.

Within this theme there is a particular focus on investigating how collaborative dialogue, argumentation and ‘reasoned engagement’ relate to the development of thinking skills and ‘meaning making’ in a range of contexts (from informal learning to highly structured institution-based situations). A range of projects over the past ten years have used Dialogue Games as an interaction design paradigm for promoting empowering, engaging and effective learning activities. A current focus is on designing pervasive dialogue technologies that incorporate an emphasis on multimodal, mobile, semantic and generally ‘web 2.0’ ideas and approaches, e.g. in the context of a large-scale EC Integrated project called “MATURE: Continuous Social Learning in Knowledge Networks” (http://mature-ip.eu/).

Another relatively large-scale strand of this work designed pervasive multimedia dialogue games that support inclusive, personalised and conceptual learning. This approach has been realised through the development of a powerful Open Source tool called InterLoc. See www.interloc.org.uk

Research projects and new media tools

The LTRI had 10 projects in this area that have attracted over £5,000,000 in external funding. They are listed and briefly described below.

Current live externally funded projects

• MATURE: LTRI is part of a 13 partner consortium that has been funded by the EC's Framework 7 programme for a project entitled MATURE. MATURE investigates continuous social learning in knowledge networks. LTRI have been awarded circa £360,000 over 4 years, within a total project award of £4.4 million. This is a wide-ranging project that spans both the LIDD and DILL research themes in the LTRI. A particular focus for the LIDD members is on: evaluation; design and development methodologies for large-scale social software; and, the development of Demonstrators linking dialogue and semantic technologies. More info

Recently completed projects include:

• Cross-institutional implementation and evaluation of digital dialogue games for inclusive and personalised learning. The project is a continuation of the digital dialogue game/InterLoc project work (see below). It was worth £199,737 and led by the LTRI with partners at Exeter, OU, Queen Mary (University of London) and Teesside. The project was funded through the “JISC Capital Programme: Cross-institutional use of e-learning to support lifelong learners”. InterLoc website: http://www.interloc.org.uk
• InterLoc: Development, piloting and evaluation of InterLoc, an Open Source tool supporting dialogue games in education. Funded by JISC (£63,500), as part of second round of funding for their programme in ‘e-learning tools for teachers and learners’. The InterLoc tool was further developed by the LTRI, with the partners performing pilot testing in a range of educational contexts. The partners were the University of Southampton (eLearning Research Centre), The UK Open University (Institute of Educational Technology), Bolton University (CETIS), and the University of Oxford (Continuing Education). InterLoc is a significant development of the AcademicTalk tool (described below). InterLoc website: http://www.interloc.org.uk
• AcademicTalk: Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), LTRI led this project and collaborated with the UK OU, the University of Southampton and Bolton Institute. We were awarded £107,000 to develop a ‘next generation’ e-learning tool for educational argumentation. The project built on an existing prototype, and created an environment to manage dialogue exercises that can be adapted to particular educational contexts. More info
• PDCD Science: Developing a periphery driven curriculum development model for science. Developing interactive web-portals supporting highly communicative communities of interest and practice for school-based e-learning. EC Socrates-Minerva project (293,000 EUR), in collaboration with the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland) and the National Centre for Distance Education in Sofia (Bulgaria). More info
• Learning, Dialectics and Design for New Media: PhD Project of Simon McAlister started October 1999: Competitive scholarship awarded by the Open University Research Degrees Committee to Dr. Andrew Ravenscroft (now at London Metropolitan University) co-supervised with Prof. Eileen Scanlon (IET, UK Open University). Developed and evaluated a tool - AcademicTalk - supporting educational argumentation and debate in networked learning contexts.
• Case studies in innovative e-Learning practice: Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). LTRI led this project, in collaboration with the Western Colleges Consortium. Full title ‘Case studies in e-innovative e-Learning practice to support the e-Learning and pedagogy programme’. This project played a key role in shaping the direction of JISC's ‘e-Learning and pedagogy programme’ through working closely with other projects and the JISC Committee for Teaching and Learning (JCLT). More info
• VISIONARY: Violence in Schools, intelligence on the net archiving resources for youngsters: Development of a web-portal and online communities of concern for violence prevention in schools. EC Socrates-Minerva project, in collaboration the Universitat Koblenz-landau (Germany), Vordingborg Stratsseminarium (Denmark), Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal) and the University of Joensuu (Finland).
• ICOGAD: Interactions et changements Cognitifs dans les groupes d'Apptrentissage a distance (Interaction and cognitive change in distance-learning groups). Cognitique 2000, funded by Ministere de la Recherche, France. In collaboration with Dr. R Goodfellow, M.N Lamy (UK Open University), T Chanier & A Trognon [Group de Recherche sur les Communications, Universite Nancy 2].
• ARTyFACTS: Developed an innovative web-site for remote interaction with museum art objects. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board, in collaboration with Ann Baker (London Metropolitan University).

Interactive learning technologies

The following interactive learning technologies and web-portals have been designed by members of the LTRI within this theme:

• InterLoc (an Open Source tool supporting synchronous Digital Dialogue Games)
• AcademicTalk (an Open Source tool supporting and scaffolding argumentation and critical discussion in networked learning contexts)
• CACTUS (Command and Control Training Using knowledge-based Simulations)
• CoLLeGE (Computer based Lab for Language Games in Education)
• G-PILS (General-Purpose Integrated Learning Support System)
• MetaMuse (An AI tool modeling dialogue about musical creativity and composition)
• VISIONARY web-portal (Violence in Schools, intelligence on the net archiving resources for youngsters)
• STARScience web-portal (PDCD Science: Developing a periphery driven curriculum development model for science).
  

Representative publications

Members of the LTRI have published over 100 refereed papers in this area, and some representative journal articles and book chapters are included here. For the full list of our publications go to the Publications section of our web site.

Attwell, G., Cook, J., & Ravenscroft, A. (2009). Appropriating technologies for contextual learning: Mobile Personal Learning Environments, Proceedings of World Summit on Knowledge Society (WSKS), Crete, Greece, 16-18 September 2009. See paper

Ravenscroft, A. (2008). Social Software, Web 2.0 and Learning: Status and implications of an evolving paradigm, Guest Editorial for Special Issue of Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL), Vol 21, Issue 1, 2009, pp 1-5. See paper

Ravenscroft, A., Bradley, C., Cook. J., Schmidt, A., Smith. C., Thalmann, S., Ley, T., Bimrose, J., Barnes, S-A. & Maggenheim, J. (2009). Evaluation Plan, Formative Evaluation and Requirements Specification. Deliverable D6.1 for MATURE: Continuous Social Learning in Knowledge Networks, (2009), EC FP7 IP, http://mature-ip.eu/

Ravenscroft, A., Braun, S., Cook, J., Schmidt, A., Bimrose, J., Brown, A., & Bradley, C. (2008). Ontologies, Dialogue and Knowledge Maturing: Towards a Mashup and Design Study, Full Paper in Proceedings of International Workshop on Learning in Enterprise 2.0 and Beyond (LEB 08), European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning 2008, Maastricht, Netherlands, 16-19 September 2008. See paper

Ravenscroft, A., Sagar, M., Baur, E & Oriogun. P. (2008). Ambient pedagogies, meaningful learning and social software. Hatzipanagos, S. & Warburton, S. (2008), (Eds.), Social Software & Developing Community Ontologies, IGI Global Publishing. Download paper

Ravenscroft, A., Wegerif, R.B. & Hartley, J.R. (2007). Reclaiming thinking: dialectic, dialogic and learning in the digital age, British Journal of Educational Psychology Monograph Series, Learning through Digital Technologies, Underwood, J. & Dockrell, J. (Guest Eds), Series II, Issue 5, pp 39-57. ISSN 0007-0998. ISBN: 978-1-85433-446-6. Download paper

Ravenscroft, A. (2007). Promoting Thinking and Conceptual Change with Digital Dialogue Games, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL). doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2007.00232.x

Ravenscroft, A. & McAlister, S. (2006). Designing interaction as a dialogue game: Linking social and conceptual dimensions of the learning process, Chapter 4 in Juwah, C. (Ed.), Interactions in Online Education. Routledge, pp 73-88. ISBN 0-415-35741-1.

Oriogun, P. K. (2006). Content Analysis of Online Transcripts: Measuring Quality of Interaction, Participation and Cognitive Engagement within CMC Groups by Cleaning of Transcripts, International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning. Available from: http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Mar_06/article03.htm

Ravenscroft, A. & McAlister, S. (2006). Digital Games and Learning in Cyberspace: A Dialogical Approach, E-Learning Journal, Special Issue of Ideas in Cyberspace 2005 Symposium, Vol. 3, No 1, pp 38-51.

Ravenscroft, A. & Cook, J. (2006). New Horizons in Learning Design, Chapter 15 in Design for Learning: rethinking pedagogy for the digital age, Partridge, H & Sharpe, R. (Eds), Routledge, due 2008.

Oriogun, P., Ravenscroft, A., & Cook, J. (2005). Validating an Approach to Examining Cognitive Engagement within Online Groups, The American Journal of Distance Education, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp 197-214.

Ravenscroft, A. (2005). Towards highly communicative e-Learning communities: Developing a socio-cultural framework for cognitive change. In Land, R. & Bayne, S. (Eds.) Cyberspace Education. Routledge, Chapter 9, pp 130-145.

McAlister, S., Ravenscroft, A., & Scanlon, E. (2004). Combining interaction and context design to support collaborative argumentation using a tool for synchronous CMC, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning: Special Issue: Developing dialogue for learning, Vol. 20, No 3, pp. 194-204.

Ravenscroft, A. (2003). From conditioning to highly communicative learning communities: Implications of 50 years of research and development in eLearning interaction design. Association for Learning Technology Journal (ALT-J), Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 4-17.

Oriogun, P. K. (2003). Towards understanding online learning levels of engagement using the SQUAD approach. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 19(3), pp. 371-388.

Cook, J., & Oliver, M. (2002). Designing a toolkit to support dialogue in learning, Computers and Education, 38 (1-3), pp. 151-164.

Cook, J. (2002). The Role of Dialogue in Computer-Based Learning and Observing Learning: An Evolutionary Approach to Theory. Journal of Interactive Media in Education (e-journal), 5. Paper online: www-jime.open.ac.uk/2002/5

Contact details

Professor Andrew Ravenscroft (C.Psychol, PhD, MSc, BSc) WWW
Deputy Director, Learning Technology Research Institute (LTRI)
Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages and Education (HALE)
London Metropolitan University
35 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA
Email: a.ravenscroft@londonmet.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7749 3753
Fax: +44 +44 (0)20 7749 3781
WWW: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/ltri

Location: How to find us

Last updated 14 October, 2010

interaction design, dialogue          games,     thinking, multimodality, Web 2.0

InterLoc tool






AcademicTalk tool


PDCD Science website














VISIONARY website



ARTyFACTS