Facilitating Learning Interests Through Mobile Information Visualization Yuan Xun Gu Interactive and Digital Media Institute National University of Singapore Singapore yuanxun@nus.edu.sg Raymond Koon Chuan Koh Interactive and Digital Media Institute National University of Singapore Singapore raymondkoh@nus.edu.sg Vivian Hsueh-Hua Chen Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University Singapore chenhh@ntu.edu.sg Henry Been-Lirn Duh Interactive and Digital Media Institute National University of Singapore Singapore eledbl@nus.edu.sg Abstract—In this paper, a mobile approach for ambient learning is presented. As an example of the concept, modeling is done to deliver educational content on weather phenomenon to schoolchildren. Information visualization techniques are utilized to present an alternative approach of knowledge delivery that could be considered to be beyond conventional classroom based teachings. The concept is demonstrated with the ‘Interactive Weather Information System’ (IWIS) platform. During the user tests, the effectiveness of the proposed method on knowledge conveyance was evaluated. Usability tests showed that IWIS serves as a good stimulus to captivate the learning interests of the target user group (children from 10 to 12 years old). In addition, the new issues that surfaced could be used as design considerations or factors in subsequent research work in this area. Keyword: information visualization, mobile learning, visual cognition I. INTRODUCTION The emergence of computing devices has fronted a revolution in broadening the scopes of teaching and learning. The concept of learning in the 21st century extends into our daily lives through multimedia, Internet-based as well as mobile modes of learning [10]. Mobile devices have been widespread worldwide in recent times. In Singapore alone, the mobile penetration rate reached 134% in June 2009 and this figure exceeded the two other dominant telecommunication services, the fixed-line telephone (96.6%) and broadband Internet (118.5%) [9]. This growth is currently in a sustained trend, lending mobile learning an edge to exhibit its advantages in areas of the academia as well as the industry. With consideration to the potential user group size, mobile learning may only become more popular in the near future despite the few key challenges [3]. The effective delivery of abstract information is an important but challenging task in the design of effective mobile learning environments. A good example is the presentation of weather information. Weather information tends to be abstract and less interesting especially to children in primary schools. Its raw data can range from temperature, rainfall to more abstract forms such as air pressure and humidity that actually make better sense to those who are already familiar with the subject. More often, they could appear less apparent to children [1]. It is therefore not easy for children to comprehend the concepts without memorization of the texts, which would otherwise considerably reduce the ‘fun’ and interest in learning. Making use of information visualization facilitates the learning process by effectively reducing the associated complexities. Information visualization of raw weather data helps to address this problem by attempting to hide the complexity of the original abstract information and then presenting it in a visual form that can be easily understood with people’s natural visual capabilities [4] so that it may help increase children’s learning interests. An example on the application of a information visualization technique was discussed in [6], where authors proposed a method of visualizing weather information using textured patterns. This method could be effective for weather surveyors and professionals but it would however, still be overly complicated for children. This paper proposes a mobile learning tool that aims to deliver the chosen abstract educational content more 2010 10th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies 978-0-7695-4055-9/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2010.92 323