TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AMBIENT LEARNING ENVIRONMENT - IMPORTANT AMBIENT FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING PROCESSES THAT CAN BE MANAGED BY TECHNOLOGY

For many years, research has addressed the influence of external factors on the learning process. Plato and Aristotle already described environmental elements that shape character and learning [1, 2]. In modern pedagogy, various studies found that environmental factors such as noise levels, lighting conditions and even temperature can promote or hinder the learning process [3, 4, 5]. The aim of this paper is to identify all known ambient factors that influence learning processes based on a literature review purposing the development of an ambient learning environment (ALE). The ALE is a technology-enriched room in which networked technical devices exist that automatically communicate with each other. This physical-technical holistic system creates a context-sensitive learning space including a management tool for adjusting the room components to create optimal conditions for the individual learning process. According to Mikulecky, the overreaching goal for such a smart learning environment (SLE) is to enable learning with the right resources, presented at the right time [6]. For the development of the ALE, the authors primarily consider ambient influencing factors that can be adapted through technical solutions. Therefore, a technically motivated literature review was conducted and the results were supplemented with information on their relevance to the ALE. In addition, design implications for the ALE are derived. As a holistic system, an ALE must be aware of all factors simultaneously, reconcile them with each other, and control them accordingly.