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TOWARDS THE SEMANTIC WEB ENABLED MOBILE LEARNING

R.Pathmeswaran, V.Ahmed, G.Aouad Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment

The University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT Email: P.Raju@salford.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: Semantic Web technology enables applications and machines to understand and process well-defined, meaningful data on the web. However, Semantic Web technologies have not yet been applied widely to deliver learning materials and support e-learning. The use of mobile and wireless technologies in e-learning enables personalised learning anywhere anytime. The existing metadata standards and specifications aim at traditional e-learning in a desktop environment. These standards need to incorporate mobile learning activities as learning becomes possible whenever needed regardless of the location. The emerging Semantic Web technologies provide rich medium for facilitating e-learning via the semantic annotated learning objects and shared repositories. The wireless and mobile technologies enable discovery, search and retrieval of learning objects from repositories anytime anywhere. This paper introduces learning standards, semantic web, wireless and mobile technologies to enable mobile learning.

Keywords- Learning Objects, Learning Standards, Mobile Learning, Semantic Web, Wireless and Mobile Technologies

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through study and experience. With the ever increasing availability of the information and Internet technologies, the way of teaching and learning and delivery of learning materials are changing. As a result e-learning has begun to evolve.

E-Learning has a plethora of definitions. Hall and Snider (2000) define e-learning as the process of learning via computers over the Internet and intranets. (LSDA, 2003) states that e-learning is the use of electronic technology to deliver, support and enhance teaching and learning. Rosenburg’s (2001) definition of e-learning refers to the use of Internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhance knowledge and performance. While (NCSA, 2001) defined e-Learning as;

“The acquisition and use of knowledge distributed and facilitated primarily by electronic means. This form of learning currently depends on networks and computers but will likely evolve into systems consisting of a variety of channels (e.g., wireless, satellite), and technologies (e.g., cellular phones, PDA’s) as they are developed and adopted. E-Learning can take the form of courses as well as modules and smaller learning objects. E-Learning may incorporate synchronous or asynchronous access and may be distributed geographically with varied limits of time.” E-Learning resources, applications and tools need to use learning standards and

specifications in order to provide application and platform independence. Standards and specifications enable reusability of educational content, sharability of learner information and interoperability. They also enable users to discover, locate and retrieve the learning materials and to deliver them tailored to learners’ preferences and needs.

In order to facilitate e-learning as just-in time, personalised and on-demand learning, it has to be mobile and portable. Hennessy (1999) says that mobile technologies provide an

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opportunity for a fundamental change in education away from occasional use of a computer in a lab towards more embedded use in the classroom and beyond. Soloway et al (2001) have further argued that to make any difference in the classroom at all, computers must be mobile and within ‘arm’s reach’. Vavoula and Sharples (2002) suggest that there are three ways in which learning can be considered mobile:

“learning is mobile in terms of space, i.e. it happens at the workplace, at home, and at places of leisure; it is mobile between different areas of life, i.e. it may relate to work demands, self-improvement, or leisure; and it is mobile with respect to time, i.e. it happens at different times during the day, on working days or on weekends”.

Kukulska-Hulme (2002) suggests that mobile devices have to be seen as an extension to

current e-learning tools rather than replacing it. Mobile devices can be used for different purposes in learning activity. UniWap project uses WAP technology to create an operating environment for studying and teaching (Sariola et al, 2001). An m-learning project at Ultralab is producing learning materials for mobile devices to support the learners with lack of literacy and numerical knowledge (Collett and Stead, 2002). It also created a WAP portal for WAP enabled phones to provide educational materials for young people with the literacy problems. A system is developed at Kingston University to send SMSs to students about their timetable, examination dates and marks. LIVE (Learning in a Virtual Environment) project at the University of Helsinki explored the use of SMS to share the images between teachers. LAND (Location Activated Nomadic Discovery) project at the Ultralab explores the possibility of deliver rich context aware information via the mobile devices (Taylor at el, 2002). HandLeR project at the University of Birmingham has developed a mobile learning organiser with the context aware information. It provides time manager for scheduling lectures and course manager for organising course materials (Sharples, 2003). Mayorga-Toledano and Fernandez-Morales (2003) suggest Java midlets as learning tools in higher education.

The existing mobile learning applications use SMS, MMS, VoiceXML, J2ME, WAP and mini browser to create learning materials and tools. Colley and Stead (2003) argue that none of the above technologies is rich by itself and suggest that these technologies in a combined form may provide beneficial experiences to learners. To deliver a rich learning experience, Popat and Stead (2004) are using these technologies with the web programming languages such as PHP, ASP, JSP, JavaScript and Flash.

Learning object is any digital resource that supports learning. Rodin (2004) explores the potential of using learning objects for mobile learning. He argues that there is not one type of learning object, instead learning object is a software object that supports learning. Matthews (2005) says that Semantic Web clearly has large application to e-learning, supporting both distance and local education and suggests that if learning objects are used properly, it is a useful and powerful concept and Semantic Web has much to offer to support e-learning. Semantic Web and learning objects concepts are obviously not yet applied to mobile learning to deliver learning materials and learning objects via mobile devices.

This paper introduces learning standards, wireless and mobile technologies, ontologies and semantic web technologies and elaborates how these technologies enable creation of mobile learning objects repository to facilitate learning anywhere anytime. It also presents some findings from existing mobile learning applications and addresses the needs for semantic annotated learning objects and Semantic Web based mobile learning environment that can be accessed from anywhere anytime. The following section explores the existing learning standards and specifications and identifies the benefits of using them in e-learning in order to achieve interoperability.

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2. LEARNING STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS The development of e-learning content is often expensive and time consuming. Curriculum developers always reinvent the wheel as they find it difficult to locate the learning materials to reuse within the e-learning systems. Learners often face problems in discovering learning materials they need. Learning content developed for a learning management system may only be used within the system itself. Therefore, learning content needs to be interoperable with different learning environments and produced in a standardised way to maximise their reusability. Since many of the learning materials and learning management systems lack interoperability with other systems, there is a need for standards to be used in e-learning. Ahmed and Shaik (2005) argue that standardisation using learning standards is the ultimate solution to achieve interoperability in e-learning. Learning standards provide standardised data structures and communication protocols for learning materials and learning management systems. Learning standards are technical protocols, which promote easy exchange of content or data between different systems based on different technologies. They are designed to facilitate description, packaging, sequencing and delivery of educational content, learning activities and learner information (Currier and Barker, 2002) and also facilitate the following:

• Interoperability – Learning content that is developed for one system is not locked to that system by proprietary encoding.

• Reusability - Learning objects are easily used in different curriculum and learning

settings. • Manageability - The system tracks information about the learner and the content. • Accessibility - Learners with different learner profiles including educational and

physical needs, easily access and assemble the content at the appropriate time. • Durability - The technology evolves with the standards to avoid obsolescence.

Learning content has to be labelled in a consistent way to be discovered by various learning tools. It also needs to be packaged in a standardised way to be transported to different learning systems. Together with the learning content, learner information has to be shared between multiple learning tools and components. Therefore, there is a need for standardising the labelling and packaging of the learning content and learner information. There are different types of standards that exist for these purposes. The existing learning standards and specifications can be classified into some general categories: Metadata Learning contents and objects must be labelled in order to support query, discovery and search by various users and tools. There are number of organisations in the process of creating metadata standard. The IEEE Learning Technology Standards committee produced a draft standard called Learning Object Metadata standard (IEEE LOM). The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has a different metadata standard with the less elements compared to IEEE LOM. Dublin Core metadata is widely used by libraries, publishers and government organisations. The IMS Global Learning Consortium and the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative have adopted IEEE LOM as the metadata standard. CanCore and SingCore have

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also developed metadata standard based on IEEE LOM with their country-specific terms and properties. Content Packaging Content packaging standards and specifications allow courses to be transported from one learning system to another. Content packages consist of learning objects and information about how these learning objects can be put together to form learning modules. They also specify the protocols for content delivery to learners. There are number of initiatives dealing with content packaging specification including IMS Content Packaging specification, IMS Simple Sequencing specification, Aviation Industry CBT committee guidelines for computer managed instruction and Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). Learner Profile Learner profile standards allows different learning components to share information about learners including personal data, learning plans, learning history, accessibility requirements, certificates, skills and status of participation in the current learning. There are number of initiatives to standardise the learner profile including IMS Learner Information Package (LIP) specification and IEEE Personal and Private Information (PAPI) specification. Learner Registration Learner Registration standard allows learning delivery and administration components to know what offerings should be made available to a learner and provides information about learning participants to the delivery environment. IMS Enterprise working group created a specification for exchanging offering and enrolment data among learning systems. Content Communication Content Communication standard allows sharing of learner data, learning history and completion status across multiple learning environments. The Aviation Industry CBT Committee’s Computer Managed Instruction includes content communication and the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative’s Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) includes a JavaScript API for content communication.

Although these standards provide a standardised way of sharing learning content and learner information to facilitate the interoperability in desktop environments, there is a need to achieve interoperability with the mobile learning systems by adapting existing standards and specifications. (Veith and Pawlowski, 2005) argue that mobile learning systems need more information on the nature of the materials to evaluate which content can be delivered to a specific end user device and suggest that this information should be added to IEEE LOM standard as an mobile learning extension. However, the increasing use of mobile devices in everyday life creates new opportunities in e-learning. The next section explores wireless and mobile technologies and identifies their suitability to support anywhere anytime learning. 3. WIRELESS AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES The wireless and mobile technologies create wide range of possibilities to support learning. Educators, learners and organisations are motivated to make use of these technologies in learning environments. Savill-Smith and Kent (2003) identified five main reasons for the motivation such as relatively low cost devices, offer ubiquitous computing, promote information literacy, help collaborative learning and support independent learning.

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The increasing use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, handhelds and smart phones and continuing expansion of broadband wireless networks and 3G networks, is creating new opportunities for integrating wireless and mobile technologies with e-learning. This technology, combines telephony, messaging, multimedia and computing is offering a rich medium to facilitate learning anywhere anytime. The section to follow, explores the existing wireless technologies and their usability in supporting on-the-move learning. 3.1 Wireless Technologies Wireless technologies provide great possibilities to learners and educators with their flexibility and adaptability to various learning environments. Wireless technologies are being investigated as a platform for supporting learning in classrooms. They also enable always-on connection to the learning system regardless of the learner location.

The 3G, third generation mobile telephone technology provides the ability to transfer voice and non-voice data over the wireless network. It also provides ability for face-to-face calling and downloads information such as movies. The GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite navigation system used for finding accurate location information. It is widely used for route navigation, but can be used for providing content-aware information to learners. The following table (Table 1) summaries the existing wireless technologies that can be used in e-learning environment.

Table 1. Wireless Technologies

Wireless Technology

Transmission Protocol

Transmission Speed

Transmission Range

Technical Notes

Mobile/ Cellular

GSM CDMA GPRS

13.4 -14.4 Kbps per channel

Cellular network

Code Division Multiple Access;

Mobile data service for GSM mobiles

Wireless LAN/ Wi-Fi

Wireless Fidelity

802.11a 802.11b 802.11g

2Mbps 11Mbps 54Mbps

100 feet 300 feet 300 feet

Multiple devices can be connected to

network Infrared - Up to 4 Mbps 3 feet Device to device

transmission; Line of sight required

Bluetooth - Up to 1 Mbps 30 feet Device to device communication; Use of radio frequencies

to link enabled devices

3G Third-

generation wireless

WCDMA Wide-band

CDMA

2Mbps Cellular network

high-speed data and global roaming

WiMax Worldwide

Interoperability for Microwave

Access

IEEE 802.16 Up to 75Mbps 30 miles provides high-throughput broadband connections over long

distances

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Intel® IT Innovation Centre in Ireland is working towards to use Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies to develop mobile learning applications (Smyth, 2005). WiMAX is a Non-Line-of-Sight, point-to-multipoint technology that offers wireless broadband access with the throughput of up to 75Mbps and range up to 30 miles. These features make it ideal wireless technology to enable learning anywhere anytime. The next section gives overview of existing mobile technologies and devices. 3.2 Mobile Devices Mobile devices with 3G, GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi technologies and better processor speed and memory capacity, enable the creation of new learning practices, tools, applications and resources to suit learners learning needs, goals and preferences. A small, portable device that is always connected to network and internet allows easy input through keyboard, input device such as pen and speech, provides the ability to download and view images, movie clips and files and offers wireless internet to surf the net anytime anywhere, has the potential to facilitate learning regardless of the location.

Figure 1 shows the variety of mobile devices currently in use. The new portable hand-held game consoles offer not only gaming facility, but also wireless internet access and movie watching facilities.

Fig. 1. Mobile Devices

The vision of mobile computing device is that portable computation, rich interactivity,

total connectivity and powerful processing. Klopfer et al (2002) identify five properties of mobile devices that produce unique educational experiences.

• Portability – the size and weight of the mobile devices increase the portability • Social interactivity – interaction with other learners for sharing learning materials and

collaboration can happen face-to-face • Context sensitivity –context information such as location and time can provide

personalised learning environment based on the location

Mobile/

Smart Phones

Internet Tablet

Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)

Hand-held

game consoles

Laptop/Tablet PCs

Mobile devices

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• Connectivity – Bluetooth, Infrared and WiFi technologies enable communication with other devices and networks

• Individuality – learning can be personalized to suit learners goals and preferences These educational experiences presented by mobile devices create new mobile learning

environment that will facilitate personalised flexible learning anywhere anytime. The portable mobile devices with the context-aware information have the always-on connection to the learning system via wireless technologies. The web based, mobile learning environment enable learners to discover, search and retrieve learning materials via mobile devices and hence makes learning possible whenever needed. Standardised learning content with the semantic annotation can then be semantically searched and discovered using Semantic Web technologies. The next section introduces Semantic Web technologies and ontologies and identifies how these technologies can be used to develop a mobile learning environment.

4. SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES Semantic Web technologies support presentation and delivery of learning content tailored to learners needs and preferences. Learning content can be retrieved from Semantic Web based shared repositories using mobile devices anywhere anytime. The following section explores Semantic Web concept. 4.1 Semantic Web Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation (Berners-Lee et al, 2001). The current web, called Syntactic Web can only be accessed by humans and just provides information in a syntactic manner. But in Semantic Web concept, information is given well-defined meaning that can be accessed by both humans and machines. The following diagram (Figure 2) shows how the Semantic Web differs from the current Syntactic Web.

Fig. 2. Syntactic Web Vs Semantic Web (http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0623-sb-

IEEEStorConf/#(18))

Current Web: Syntactic Web Future Web: Semantic Web

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Resources and links in the Semantic Web have well-defined meaning compare to Syntactic Web which enable semantic search, discovery and retrieval of information. A set of technologies, tools and standards are developed as part of Semantic Web vision. The following section explores the technologies associated with the Semantic web. 4.2 Semantic Web Layer Semantic Web has been developing a layered architecture with the technologies and standards. These form the basic buildings blocks for the Semantic Web to support the development of meaningful web. The following Fig. 3 shows the latest architectural layer for the Semantic Web.

Fig.3. Semantic Web Layer (http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#(12))

In the Unicode and URI layer, Unicode is the standard for computer character representation while URI is the standards for identifying and locating information on the web. URIs can be used to identify definitions for concepts. XML separates data from presentation and forms a common way of structuring data on the web. It also associated with some other related standards such as Namespaces and Schemas. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is the first layer that forms the Semantic Web. An RDF graph is a set of triples; each triple consists of a subject, a predicate and an object. RDF represents metadata using URIs to identify and locate resources and information on the Web. It provides a graph model for describing and defining relationships between resources. RDF Schema is a modelling language for defining and describing classes of resources in the RDF model. Ontologies provide rich medium for defining and describing complex relationships between classes and properties. Logic and Proof layer provide reasoning support for the ontologies and to make new inferences. SPARQL is a query language for getting information from such RDF graphs.

Ontology plays major part in the Semantic Web. It defines the concepts and vocabularies that form the basis for the Semantic Web. The next section introduces the ontology and Web Ontology Language. 4.3 Ontologies Ontologies are specifications of the conceptualization and corresponding vocabulary used to describe a domain (Gruber, 1993). In the other words, ontology is an explicit description of a domain and defines a common vocabulary as a shared understanding. It defines the basic concepts and their relationships in a domain as machine understandable definitions.

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The OWL (Web Ontology Language) is a language for defining and instantiating Web ontologies. The OWL language provides three increasingly expressive sublanguages designed for use by specific communities of implementers and users. OWL Lite supports those users primarily needing a classification hierarchy and simple constraint features. OWL DL (Description Logic) supports those users who want the maximum expressiveness without losing computational completeness and decidability of reasoning systems. OWL DL includes all OWL language constructs with restrictions such as type separation. OWL Full is meant for users who want maximum expressiveness and the syntactic freedom of RDF with no computational guarantees. OWL Full allows an ontology to augment the meaning of the pre-defined RDF or OWL vocabulary.

Semantic Web technology together with the ontologies has the potential to enable anywhere anytime learning. Semantic Web based shared repositories with the learning content will enable semantic discovery and retrieval of learning resources anywhere anytime and hence facilitate interoperability and sharability. The next section explores mobile learning and mobile learning objects to enable anytime anywhere learning. 5. MOBILE LEARNING Mobile Learning (mLearning) is e-learning through mobile devices. Milrad (2003) defines e-learning as learning supported by digital electronic tools and media and mobile learning as e-learning using mobile devices and wireless transmission. Attewell (2005) finds that about 62% learners are enthusiastic about mobile learning and they are keen to take part in future mobile learning. After analysing the evidence collected from the m-learning project, Attewell (2005) also suggests that use of mobile learning may have a positive contribution to encourage both independent and collaborative learning experiences, to remove some of the formality from the learning experience and engages reluctant learners and to remain more focused for longer periods.

The following diagram (Fig. 4) illustrates the mobile learning with mobile learners who access and/or retrieve variety of learning materials, tools and applications using mobile devices via wireless technologies.

Fig. 4. Learning Anytime Anywhere

Mobile Devices

Learning Materials

Learning Management Systems

Learning Games

Educational Simulations

Learning Objects

Repositories

Examinations/Assessments

Live Lectures/Videos

Etc.

Access/Retrieve

Wireless Technologies

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5.1 Learning Objects for Mobile Learning The main aim of creating learning objects is to achieve the goal of maximum reusability, leveraging the high cost of production of quality materials without sacrificing the learning meaning. The concept of learning object emerges from the need to introduce and elaborate e-learning content with pedagogical aspects in a way that can be reused in different learning scenarios.

The IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee(LTSC) defines learning objects as “any entity, digital or non-digital, which can be used, re-used or referenced during technology supported learning”(LTSC, 2000). It also suggests that learning object can be a multimedia content, instructional content, learning objectives, instructional software and software tools, persons, organisations, or events referenced during technology supported learning. Although LTSC definition is too broad to actually define a learning object, Wiley (2000) defines learning object as “any digital resource that can be reused to support learning”. This definition includes anything that can be delivered across the network on demand, be it large or small.

A prototype learning object on Java programming for the PDA was developed at London Metropolitan University by employing a number of constructivist learning techniques that encourage active learning (Bradley at el, 2005). Although students felt that this mobile learning object offered more interactivity, the lack of semantics make it hard to share and reuse in the learning object repositories. Learning objects should have semantic content in order to facilitate reusability, sharability and interoperability. Learning object metadata will form a part of semantics, but it may not adequate to support semantic discovery, retrieval and search. The figure 5 shows how the semantic annotated learning objects can be constructed using metadata and ontology and how the repository can be accessed via mobile devices using Semantic Web.

Fig. 5. Semantic Web based Mobile Learning Objects Repository

Ontology based semantic content will enhance the retrieval of the learning objects.

Ontology must explicitly specify the relationships between the concepts and will therefore enhance the interoperability of learning objects between different learning environments. Although semantic learning objects and knowledge-based ontologies will facilitate semantic discovery and retrieval, the learning environment will need to be built in a way that supports semantic annotation, semantic discovery and semantic searching. The emerging Semantic

Learning Object

Content

Metadata

Ontology

Concept

Relation

Semantic annotated Ontology based Learning Object

Semantic Learning Objects Repository

LO

Semantic Web Mobile

Device

LO LO

LO LO

LO LO

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Web technology has the potential of supporting semantic actions and will clearly have the large application to m-learning. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK The Semantic Web technologies clearly have potential to facilitate m-learning in a large scale. It is also a rich medium for facilitating m-learning using semantic annotated learning objects. The wireless and mobile technologies will enable search and retrieval of semantic learning objects anywhere anytime. This paper introduced existing learning standards and specifications, wireless and mobile technologies, ontologies and Semantic Web technologies. It also argued the needs for the development of the semantic annotated learning objects and Semantic Web based learning objects repository for mobile devices to facilitate mobile learning. It further sets the first research step towards adapting and extending existing learning standards for mobile learning in order to develop a learning objects repository for mobile devices that will facilitate interoperability, sharability and reusability. 7. REFERENCES Attewell J (2005), Mobile technologies and learning: A technology update and m-learning project summary. www.LSDA.org.uk, Accessed on 12 December 2005. Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee. http://www.aicc.org/. Accessed on 14/12/2005 Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., & Lassila, O., 2001, “The Semantic Web”, Scientific American, May 2001, http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70- 84A9809EC588EF21 Bradley C., Haynes R., Boyle T.: Adult Multimedia Learning with PDAs - The User Experience, Proceedings of the mLearn 2005, South Africa, Oct 2005. Collett M., Stead G.: Meeting the Challenge: Producing M-Learning Materials for Young Adults with Numeracy and Literacy Needs, Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning, (p. 61-62), Birmingham, UK, June 2002 Colley J., Stead S.: Take a bite: producing accessible learning materials for mobile devices, Proceedings of the mLearn 2003, London, UK, May 2003. Gruber T. R., “A translation approach to portable ontologies”. Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199-220, 1993 Hall, B., & Snider, A. (2000) Glossary: The hottest buzz words in the industry. E- Schreiber, D. A., & Berge, Z. L. (1998). HandLeR project web site: http://www.eee.bham.ac.uk/handler/default.asp. Accessed on 14/12/2005 Hennessy, S., (1999). The potential of portable technologies for supporting graphing investigations – summary article. British Journal of Educational Technology, 30 (1), pp. 57-60. IMS Global Learning Consortium. http://www.imsproject.org/. Accessed on 14/12/2005 Klopfer, E, Squire, K and Jenkins, H (2002). Environmental Detectives: PDAs as a window into a virtual simulated world. Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education. Vaxjo, Sweden: IEEE Computer Society, 95-98 Kukulska -Hulme A.: Cognitive, Ergonomic and Affective Aspects of PDA Use for Learning, Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning , (p. 32-33), Birmingham, UK, June 2002

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