Supporting Context-Aware Collaborative Learning Activities by CAFCLA - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 59

between them to achieve the objectives of the activity. Their performance follows
the rules set by the teacher at all times.
Once CAFCLA users have been defined, the way in which contextual informa-
tion is organized is described. According to AmI premises, CAFCLA emphasizes
on technological transparency and ease of use for both students and teachers. Con-
textual information is closely related to the environment where the activity takes
place, so any place or item can provide relevant information to be used in the
learning process. Thus, teachers are able to describe any place or item relevant to
the activity regardless of size and location. In order to better structure contextual
information, three description levels have been defined, so that the information
can be provided with the granularity required by the activity.

− Scenario: It represents the physical space where the activity will be deployed.

To better illustrate the explanation a botanical garden has been chosen to dep-
loy a collaborative learning activity. This scenario consists of an outdoor
enclosure where different species of trees, shrubs and flowers grow. Further-
more, in the center of the enclosure there is a greenhouse where multiple
flower species grow. In this case the scenario is the botanical garden and it
could be divided into two sub-environments: the first one that includes all the
study to be performed in the greenhouse (indoor plants), and the second,
which would cover the rest of the botanical garden, including all the growth
area of outdoor plants.

− Area of interest: Different areas that determine spaces in which a relevant part

of the activity will take place. These areas include a physical space where one
or several goals of the activity should be reached. The teacher is responsible
for identifying, locating and making relevant contextual characterization into
them. The areas of interest provide contextual information to the students in
the way that the design made by the teacher shows. Continuing the example
of the botanical garden, in the external environment three different species of
trees grow: pine, oak and poplar. In this case the teacher can create four areas
of interest: three individual areas covering spaces where trees grow and a
fourth area which is the greenhouse. For each of them, the teacher defines the
physical space that it delimits. It also includes a description of each area,
based on the design of the activity, that is given to students.

− Object of interest: in the same way that the environments in which the scena-

rio is divided in different areas of interest, within these areas can be included
several specific objects that are interesting to the learning activity. Teachers
follow the same procedure as in previous cases, since they are responsible for
identifying, locating and characterizing these objects. In the example of the
botanical garden there may be multiple objects of interest within each of the
areas of interest. For example, in the greenhouse grow a wide variety of flow-
ers, and each kind may be an object of interest so teachers are able to identify,
place and characterize each one into the greenhouse.