There is a lot of research going in in affective learning. To measure emotions you can either track sensor input, prompt the student for an emotion description, or reason on the student’s general input (via keyboard). A simple way to express emotions is to use emoticons. People using messengers also use emoticons intensively. Why not the same emoticons (for instance from ICQ) in an e-portfolio, or more generally in an e-learning environment. Though, emoticons can lead to distraction, they can also havce some advantages:

• They express in short a motivation state.
• The gesture to express emotions is shorter than typing text.
• Distraction can also have a positive impact: have a break, to bring the brain down.
• Assuming that being in good mood implies being successful, learners will want to show their emotion to fellow students.
• Assuming that being in a bad mood implies being unsuccessful, emoticons can inform others (teachers/fellow students) that help is needed.

Just my five pence thoughts.

The other day, I realised that the best place to learn is the waiting room at my doctor’s place. While being in the waiting queue you can read scientific papers:

• Nobody is disturbing you.
• While being our of office you yet don’t loose time and you can be highly productive.
• The longer you wait the more work you can do as no colleague is distracting you.

Do you know some other funny but efficient places?