Special Session : Assistive Technology for People with Sensory Impairments: A Hands-On Workshop

Organized by:

Dr. Marion HERSH
University of Glasgow
Scotland

Assistive technology is a generic or umbrella term that covers technologies, equipment, devices, apparatus, services, systems, processes and environmental modifications used by disabled and/or elderly people to overcome the social, infrastructural and other barriers to independence, full participation in society and carrying out activities safely and easily.

Assistive technology is a dynamic and growing interdiscplinary research area. However, its aims are largely practical, rather than theoretical. It is also very wide ranging, in terms of the technologies it draws on, the activities it supports and the end-users that can benefit from it. This session will consider four different types of assistive technology for people with vision and hearing impairments, drawing on presentations given at CVHI 09 in Wroclaw Poland.

CVHI, Conference on Assistive Technologies for People with Hearing and Vision Impairments, is very much a conference with a difference. It has a friendly, residential character and has been deliberately kept small to maximise the opportunities for contacts between participants. There is also a significant involvement of young researchers in all aspects of the conference, as well as bursaries for young and disabled researchers. This has led to the development of a CVHI network and a number of research collaborations.

The Comprehensive Assistive Technology (CAT) model will be used to link together the different assistive technologies presented in this session, as well as to provide tools to analyse them and show how they meet the needs of their users. The CAT model was developed by the session organiser together with Prof Mike Johnson in order to help structure assistive technology research, including the assessment of existing technologies and devices and the determination of gaps in provision and the need for new solutions.

The session will be organised as follows:
1. Brief overview of the CAT model and some of the analysis and technology development tools it provides.
2. Presentation of four different assistive technologies, drawing on papers given at CVHI 09. The topics covered will be wayfinding, sign language recognition, access to education and assistive communication.
3. Applying the CAT tools to analyse the different technologies and determine what further developments are required. Participants will work in groups and worksheets will be provided.
4. Discussion of results of the analysis by the session presenters.
5. Summing up by the session organiser.

Special Session on: New trends in e-learning

Organized By:

1- Ibrahiem M. M. El Emary, Ph.D
Faculty of Engineering, Al-Ahliyya-Amman University,Amman, Jordan
E-mail: omary57@hotmail.com

2- Mou'ath. A. Hourani, Ph.D
Faculty of Information Technology, Al-Ahliyya-Amman University,Amman, Jordan
E-mail : mouath.hourani@gmail.com

Objective

This special session is mainly oriented to collect best articles talking about: Understand the range of e-learning initiatives; understand the application of e-learning in different applications; Meet researchers, e-learning administrators, government officials, etc.; Understand new initiatives and trends in e-learning; and Learn about innovations in e-learning.

Topics include, but are not limited the following:

1- The application of e-learning in Corporate, Government, Health Care or Higher
Education domains
2- Implementation Examples and Issues
3- Instructional Design
4- Asynchronous Learning
5- Authoring Tools
6- Building E-Learning Architectures
7- Collaborative Learning
8- Developing an Organizational e-Learning Strategy
9- Developing, Integrating, and Delivering E-Learning Solutions
10- Infrastructure of E-Learning Environments
11- Intelligent E-Learning Technology
12- Organizational E-Learning Strategies
13- Pedagogical & Issues
14- Quality Management and Assessment in E-Learning
15- Research Perspectives for E-Learning

Reviewers of the session:

Kalyan Mondal, Electrical Engineering Dept, FDU, USA
Hong Zhao, Electrical Engineering Dept., FDU, USA
Zhiwei Mao, Electrical Engineering Dept., FDU, USA
Sherali Zeadally, Computer Science and IT Dept., UDC, USA
Andreas Maras, Electronic Engineering Dept., UOP, Greece
Milos Oravec. Slovak University of Technology, STUBA, Bratislava, Slovakia
Pavel Bezousek, University of Pardubice, UPCE, Czech Republic
Rolando A Carrasco, U-Newcastle, UK
David Larrabeiti, UC3M, Spain

Accepted Papers

• On The Development of Cost Estimation Technique Adopted for Distance Learning System
Ibrahiem M. M. El Emary, Mohammad F. Ababneh and Mohamed Al Wesah.
Al-Balqa Applied University & Al Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan

• Hybrid Learning Model
Khaled El-Zayyat, and Imad Al Ajarmeh
College of Computing and Digital Media, DePaul University, Chicago, USA

• A New Adopting Methodology to Enhance E-learning in Higher Education
Mohammad Salem Ajarma, Mou'ath Hourani, Said AbuSha’ar, Ibrahiem El Emary,
Al Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan

• A New Methodology (3A) for E-Learning in Higher Education
Mohammad Salem Ajarma, Said AbuSha’ar, Mou'ath Hourani, Ibrahiem El Emary,
Al Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan

• Knowledge management: an extracted view of learning management system used at AOU
Bayan Abu-Shawar
Arab Open University, AMMAN, Jordan

• m-Learning: Integrating e-Learning with Mobile Technology
Jehad Al-Sadi
Arab Open University, Jordan

• On the Implementation of an Advanced Online E-Grade System: Case Study of E-Learning System
Zoubir Hamici & Ibrahiem M. M. El Emary
Al Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan