Presentation at the PLE conference 2014.

1. Tapping into your personal
curiosity:
Personal Learning Environments and Inquiry-Based Learning
Dr. Alexander Mikroyannidis
Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University

2. Part I
1. What is Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL)?
2. The weSPOT IBL model
3. The weSPOT toolkit
Part II
1. Hands-on session:
try the weSPOT toolkit
2. Q&A
Agenda

3. Source:

4. Meaningful contextualization of scientific concepts
by relating them to personal experiences.
Learners take the role of an explorer and scientist
as they try to solve issues they came across and
that made them wonder, thus tapping into their
personal feelings of curiosity.
Learners learn to investigate, collaborate, be
creative, use their personal characteristics and
identity.
What is Inquiry Based Learning?

5. The weSPOT IBL model
The weSPOT inquiry-based learning model consists of six
phases that mirror the phases that researchers need to go
through in order to conduct their research.
Each phase consists of a number of activities.
The weSPOT IBL model is based on:
• The steps required for good research as described in
scientific literature (Crawford & Stucki, 1990; Hunt
& Colander, 2010).
• Existing inquiry models (see D2.1 State of the art analysis:
http://wespot.net/en/public-deliverables).

7. Students/learners decide
on a topic or area of
interest and try to
formulate the questions
or hypotheses that they
would like to pursue.
Problem / topic

8. The process of defining
an unclear concept so
as to make the concept
clearly distinguishable
or measurable and to
understand it in terms of
empirical observations.
Operationalisation

9. Learners select means of
gathering data — a survey, an
experiment, an observational
study, use of existing sources,
or a combination etc. The
research conclusions will be
only as good as the gathered
data, so collecting should be
done in a very rigorous
manner and recording the
data is essential.
Data collection

10. Inspecting, cleaning,
transforming and modelling
data with the goal of
highlighting useful
information, suggesting
conclusions, and supporting
decision-making.
Data Analysis

11. Summarizing the steps one has
followed and discussing the
finding takes place at this stage.
The discussion should relate the
obtained conclusions to the
existing body of research suggest
where current assumptions may
be modified because of new
evidence and possibly identify
unanswered questions for further
study.
Interpretation

12. Research is not complete
until it is written up and its
results shared, not only with
other scientists or fellow
inquiry participants who may
build upon it to further
advance the science, but also
with those who may benefit
from it, who may use it, and
who have a stake in it.
Communication

13. The weSPOT toolkit

14. A widget-based architecture enables the
personalisation of the inquiry environment,
allowing teachers and students to build their
inquiries out of mash-ups of inquiry components.
Students can connect with their peers and form
groups in order to build, share and perform
inquiries collaboratively.
Personal & Social Inquiry

15. Inquiries are
structured according
to the weSPOT IBL
model.
Students interact with
inquiry components
(widgets), each of
them tailored for a
particular inquiry-
related task, e.g. data
collection, data
analysis, hypothesis
forming, reflection,
etc.

16. End of Part I
Questions?

17. Part II
Hands-on session:
Try the weSPOT toolkit

18. Try the weSPOT toolkit
The weSPOT inquiry space:
http://inquiry.wespot.net
The weSPOT Personal Inquiry Manager for
Android devices:
http://bit.ly/wespot-pim

19. Questionnaire:
http://bit.ly/wespot-ple2014
Evaluate the weSPOT toolkit

20. Thank you!
Explore Tallinn & enjoy the
rest of the conference!