Abstract:

The MENUET Project commenced in December 2008 and is due to be completed in November 2010.

The aim of this EU Leonardo da Vinci project is to develop arts and skills for teaching in the m-Learning era. Comprehensive guidelines that integrate learning drivers with enabling mobile technologies are being prepared in order to provide a logical framework for promoting and coordinating new m-learning practices adapted to the needs of learners and teachers. Relevant didactical concepts and methodologies in the field of mobile learning, computer technologies and applications are being developed to disseminate best practices in the use of ICT in environmental protection for sustainable development, with emphasis on mobile technologies in ODL, classroom learning and blended learning. The resulting product will constitute an integrated training and decision support tool aimed at providing end-user skills for the management of environment protection.

In order to accomplish the project aim, four main activities are being undertaken:
STUDY, DESIGN, TEST AND EVALUATION and DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS.

The STUDY activity involves studies on ICT and E-learning concepts, the production of a Guide to the production of interactive E-books, test methodologies and available hardware and software.

The design activity involves the production of four E-books covering the Basics of Web-Design (BWD), ODL Techniques, E-Commerce (EC) and Energy Saving and Environment Protection (EP). These E-books, currently under construction, include DHTML technologies, Internet Links, Text, Graphics, Audio, Animations, Video, Interaction, Excelets, MultiMedia Quizzes and Automatic Score Generation.

The TEST AND EVALUATION activities will take place in the second year of the project. A system of wireless networks will be set up at the universities involved in the project. Students and Tutors will use and evaluate the training materials.

The project outputs will be the four E-books, the results of the evaluation and a Step by Step Guide for Tutors on how to produce multimedia materials, tests and automatic score generators.

There is an urgent need now to make the current education and training systems better available, more effective, accurate, and flexible in order to enable true training on-demand services for the individuals and their work-organizations. The key to a successful resolution to this need lies in the effective usage of e-learning methods and methodologies, especially their latest evolution – m-learning, which can provide the necessary learning content anywhere, anytime and to anyone. However, being a new technology, it requires complex testing and good mastering skills from those who will apply it, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness of performance improvement and return on investment. In the framework of the project MENUET, the authors are studying relevant didactical concepts and methodologies from the fields of mobile learning, “eco-field” and related computer technologies and applications, in order to respond to the increasing need of specialists working in environment protection field for mobility and availability of information-on-demand.

Keywords:

Mobile E-learning, Multimedia, Envronmental Protection, Sustainable Development.