The project "Making voice and Presence a Virtual Realistic Experience" is funded by "HessenHub - Network digital university teaching Hessen". At the Center for Foreign Language and Occupational Competencies (German: ZfbK) at the University of Giessen, a teaching concept for student teacher training was developed that includes…

Serious games have a great potential to help people developing new skills or improving previously existing ones. Deaf and blind community face considerable challenges and difficulties regarding to the acquisition of skills in literacy. The design of serious games to meet the needs of the target groups where the deaf and blind people are struggling…

A key benefit in intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (iCALL) is that it allows complex linguistic phenomena to be incorporated into digital learning platforms, either for the autonomous learner or to complement classroom teaching. The present paper describes (1) complex phonological/ morphophonemic alternations of Irish, which are…

Virtual reality applications for blind people in smartphones were used to make virtual visits in advance to unknown spaces; these need to include a set of cognitive and sensitive interfaces that allow users to use their other sensory capabilities to understand information about their environment and facilitate the interaction with the application,…

This paper provides a detailed description of how a smart spaces laboratory has been used for assessing learners' performance in various educational contexts. The paper shares the authors' experiences from using sensor-generated data in a number of learning scenarios. In particular the paper describes how a smart learning environment is created…

This study examines the salient multimodal approaches for communicative competence and learners' reactions through storytelling tasks with three different modes: a silent movie clip, a movie clip with only sound effects, and a movie clip with sound effects and dialogue. In order to measure different multimodal effects and to define better delivery…

Testing learners' English proficiency is central to university English classes in Japan. This study developed and implemented a set of parallel online receptive aural and visual vocabulary tests that would predict learners' English proficiency. The tests shared the same target words and choices--the main difference was the presentation of the…

In this paper we present the initial stages of a project entitled Minority Language Applications (Mi.L.A) which aims to facilitate material for children with autism in a multilingual setting using interactive multimedia that increase both the awareness as well as the access to information for patients who need it. Pilot testing the applications…

The number of visually impaired people is increasing year by year. Although attention has been given to the needs of people with disabilities, most of the discussion has focused on social welfare, while talk about assistive technology for people with disabilities is rare. The blind need training courses for reconstruction and rehabilitation.…

This study is based on Second Language Acquisition through blended learning and explores the application of new educational technologies in the development of distance education. In particular, the paper focuses on ways to enhance oral, aural, and intercultural skills through learners' engagement, develop authentic social interaction and…

Although ubiquitous learning enhances students' access to learning materials, it is crucial to find out which media delivery modes produce the best results for English listening comprehension. The present study examined the effect of media delivery mode (sound and text vs. sound) on English listening comprehension and cognitive load. Participants…

A quasi-experimental action research with a pretest-posttest same subject design was implemented to determine if there is a different effect of the flash card method and the multisensory approach on kindergarteners' achievement in sight word recognition, and which method is more effective if there is any difference. Instrumentation for pretest and…

New technologies have enabled students to become active participants in computational simulations of dynamic and complex systems (called Participatory Simulations), providing a "first-person"perspective on complex systems. However, most existing Participatory Simulations have targeted older children, teens, and adults assuming that such concepts…

This experiment examined the accuracy with which newborn infants orient their heads toward a sound positioned off midline within hemifields. The study also evaluated newborns' ability to update the angle of their head turn to match a change in localization of an ongoing sound. Alert newborns were held in a supine position and presented a sound at…

The effects of pure tone stimulation on ongoing motor activity of infants 1 to 4 days of age were studied using a passive, contactless monitoring device. Stimuli were pure tone bursts of 0.5, 1, and 4 kHz presented free field at an approximate level of 70 dB A. Signal trials consisted of 500 ms tone bursts, with rise/fall time equal to 10 ms, and…