The 2nd International Workshop on Personalization Approaches in Learning Environments (PALE) is held on July 17th, 2012, Montreal, Canada in conjunction with UMAP 2012 Conference.
Personalization approaches in learning environments can be addressed from different and complementary perspectives. PALE workshop aims to offer a fruitful crossroad where interrelated issues can be contrasted, such as pedagogic conversational agents, responsive open learning environments, and user modeling for all. The benefits of the personalization and adaptation of computer applications have been widely reported both in e-learning (the use of electronic media to teach, assess, or otherwise support learning) and b-learning (to combine traditional face-to-face instruction with electronic media - blended learning).
As discussed at PALE 2011, there are still open issues to be addressed in this field, such as the agents' embodiment, the modeling of the agent behavior for personalization purposes and its storage, personalization of the whole learning environment and its functionalities, finding an appropriate threshold between the learner control and expert guidance, tracking affective states, investigation of innovative learning scenarios, harmonization of educational and technological standards, automatic annotation for accessibility purposes in existing learning object repositories, as well as appropriate methodologies for the joint evaluation of personalization and accessibility.
PALE format moves away from the classic 'mini-conferences' approach and follows the Learning Cafe methodology to promote discussions on some of the open issues regarding personalization in learning environments. Two Learning Cafes will be set up. Each one consists in brief presentations of the key questions posed and small group discussions with participants randomly grouped in tables. Each table will be moderated by one expert in the topic under discussion and participants will change tables during the discussion with the aim to share ideas among the groups.
Submissions of original on-going works and previously unpublished research related to the Workshop Topics are requested.