STVALL: Hybrid TV for Interactive Language and Content Learning

Abstract

Hybrid television refers to the merging of the Internet and television via a multi-user platform. This technology is used in the STVALL project, providing an educational platform for interactive and adaptive (individual and group) learning. A focus has been the design of specific content activities in the form of learning pills fed into the authoring tool, which stores and distributes them from its knowledge base. The content is classified according to five major subject areas in Education (Science and Nature, Literature and Art, Geography and History, Entertainment and Sports, and Language) and four language levels: Adult (over 12 years of age) / Children (0-12): A1/A2/B1/B2, based on the Common European Framework. Different tags are also assigned for content taxonomy based on the type of content (e.g., monologic vs. dialogic, narrative vs. instructions, etc). Upon interaction with the program, users build a content and language level profile that the system stores and “remembers” for their next session (singleor groupbased). The system has been pre-tested with some groups of adults and children. Some key findings point to users’ language levels as a major contributing factor towards the degree of use and motivation with the system whereas group interactivity seems to motivate users more than the single user mode. In sum, because the system is still under development, some ideas for future improvements can be found in users’ responses to a post-task survey (for instance, integrating expert-mediated writing and speaking activities). Keywords— Hybrid TV, Interactivity, Learning pills, Language, Content, Education _________________________________________________________________________________