Activity-based scenarios for and approaches to ubiquitous e-Learning

This paper presents scenarios for ubiquitous e-Learning in heterogeneous networks. It concludes by arguing for the development of a learning-focused analogue, activity-based e-Learning extensions (ABLE), of activity-based computing (ABC). The goal would be to offer the learning-support/performance-support equivalent of ABC’s support for human activities in a ubiquitous computing environment, relevant to areas that are hard to model today: informal on-the-job learning; peer-to-peer support and informal sharing of content in ad hoc work groups; formal and informal ways to capture and share knowledge-focused insights and processes; content and systems to aid reflection. Just as ABC supplements traditional computing approaches (in ABC, data- and application-oriented) to suit “multiple, parallel and mobile work activities” (Bardram et al. in Support for ABC in a personal computing operating system. CHI 2006 proceedings. Montréal, Québec, Canada, 22–27 April 2006, pp 211–220), so ABLE could supplement traditional e-Learning approaches (often largely content-focused, sometimes little more than page-turning) to suit those same work activities, and make e-Learning potentially more resilient to interruptions, more fun and more memorable.