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Fifth Generation computers should not simply be regarded as an enhancement of current computer technology: the intention is that a fresh approach should be taken to computer science and to the use of computers. The argument of this paper is that the fresh approach must encompass education and training, with implications that extend far beyond the simple use of computers. [This paper was first published in "Interactive Learning International," Vol. 3, no. 1, 1986, 4-7, by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]

A key goal of educational institutions around the world is to provide inclusive, equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all learners. Achieving this requires contextualized approaches to accommodate diverse global values and promote learning opportunities that best meet the needs and goals of all learners as individuals and members of different communities. Advances in learning analytics (LA), natural language processes (NLP), and artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI technologies, offer potential to aid educational decision making by supporting analytic insights and personalized recommendations. However, these technologies also raise serious risks for reinforcing or exacerbating existing inequalities; these dangers arise from multiple factors including biases represented in training datasets, the technologies' abilities to take autonomous decisions, and processes for tool development that do not centre the needs and concerns of historically marginalized groups. To ensure that Educational Decision Support Systems (EDSS), particularly AI‐powered ones, are equipped to promote equity, they must be created and evaluated holistically, considering their potential for both targeted and systemic impacts on all learners, especially members of historically marginalized groups. Adopting a socio‐technical and cultural perspective is crucial for designing, deploying, and evaluating AI‐EDSS that truly advance educational equity and inclusion. This editorial introduces the contributions of five papers for the special section on advancing equity and inclusion in educational practices with AI‐EDSS. These papers focus on (i) a review of biases in large language models (LLMs) applications offers practical guidelines for their evaluation to promote educational equity, (ii) techniques to mitigate disparities across countries and languages in LLMs representation of educationally relevant knowledge, (iii) implementing equitable and intersectionality‐aware machine learning applications in education, (iv) introducing a LA dashboard that aims to promote institutional equality, diversity, and inclusion, and (v) vulnerable student digital well‐being in AI‐EDSS. Together, these contributions underscore the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in developing and utilizing AI‐EDSS to not only foster a more inclusive and equitable educational landscape worldwide but also reveal a critical need for a broader contextualization of equity that incorporates the socio‐technical questions of what kinds of decisions AI is being used to support, for what purposes, and whose goals are prioritized in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational technology innovations leveraging large language models (LLMs) have shown the potential to automate the laborious process of generating and analysing textual content. While various innovations have been developed to automate a range of educational tasks (eg, question generation, feedback provision, and essay grading), there are concerns regarding the practicality and ethicality of these innovations. Such concerns may hinder future research and the adoption of LLMs‐based innovations in authentic educational contexts. To address this, we conducted a systematic scoping review of 118 peer‐reviewed papers published since 2017 to pinpoint the current state of research on using LLMs to automate and support educational tasks. The findings revealed 53 use cases for LLMs in automating education tasks, categorised into nine main categories: profiling/labelling, detection, grading, teaching support, prediction, knowledge representation, feedback, content generation, and recommendation. Additionally, we also identified several practical and ethical challenges, including low technological readiness, lack of replicability and transparency and insufficient privacy and beneficence considerations. The findings were summarised into three recommendations for future studies, including updating existing innovations with state‐of‐the‐art models (eg, GPT‐3/4), embracing the initiative of open‐sourcing models/systems, and adopting a human‐centred approach throughout the developmental process. As the intersection of AI and education is continuously evolving, the findings of this study can serve as an essential reference point for researchers, allowing them to leverage the strengths, learn from the limitations, and uncover potential research opportunities enabled by ChatGPT and other generative AI models. Practitioner notesWhat is currently known about this topic Generating and analysing text‐based content are time‐consuming and laborious tasks.Large language models are capable of efficiently analysing an unprecedented amount of textual content and completing complex natural language processing and generation tasks.Large language models have been increasingly used to develop educational technologies that aim to automate the generation and analysis of textual content, such as automated question generation and essay scoring.What this paper adds A comprehensive list of different educational tasks that could potentially benefit from LLMs‐based innovations through automation.A structured assessment of the practicality and ethicality of existing LLMs‐based innovations from seven important aspects using established frameworks.Three recommendations that could potentially support future studies to develop LLMs‐based innovations that are practical and ethical to implement in authentic educational contexts.Implications for practice and/or policy Updating existing innovations with state‐of‐the‐art models may further reduce the amount of manual effort required for adapting existing models to different educational tasks.The reporting standards of empirical research that aims to develop educational technologies using large language models need to be improved.Adopting a human‐centred approach throughout the developmental process could contribute to resolving the practical and ethical challenges of large language models in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Design (LD) research is oriented to support teachers in designing their teaching with the aim to provide a sound pedagogical background and to make effective use of resources and technologies. In spite of the significant number of LD approaches and tools proposed so far, their adoption is still very limited and this represents an unsolved challenge in the field of LD. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature about learning design tools, tackling the issue of adoption from two points of view: teachers' needs in relation to LD tools and methods and possible barriers to their adoption. The review includes only research papers where teachers' behaviours and opinions are directly explored and not purely theoretical papers. The search included five main academic databases in Technology‐Enhanced Learning (TEL) plus a search on Google about project reports; the resulting corpus included 423 papers: 26 of these, plus 3 reports were included in the final list for the analysis. The review provides a systematic overview of the knowledge developed in the LD field, focusing on a set of research gaps that need further exploration in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses how students design multimodal digital text when making digital stories in school. Drawing on the perspective of 'multiliteracies', multimodal analysis of video recordings was used to understand the data. Findings revealed that (a) multimodal digital text making requires particular digital and modal text‐making skills and knowledge, such as knowledge of photography, film, film editing, image searching, and audio recording; (b) students' prior knowledge was crucial for mastering the digital and modal affordances offered when making digital stories; and (c) making multimodal digital texts in school offers increased opportunities for students to perform and succeed in text making. These findings point to the need for schools to offer education that makes it possible for all students to gain knowledge and master skills needed for contemporary text making. Such knowledge goes beyond skills and practices needed when making paper‐based text, and borders on other disciplines such as art and technology. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Text making in the 21st century entails working in various modes, such as images, writing, and video, and is often performed with digital resources.Today's students must be competent in designing multimodal texts that are commonly associated with digital technology and multimedia.Students' modal choices when creating digital texts are influenced by prior experiences and knowledge of text‐making practices obtained outside school.What this paper adds This paper provides examples of the differing prerequisites of students designing a digital multimodal story.This paper offers insights into the particular digital and modal text‐making skills and knowledge necessary for students to become competent text makers.Multimodal digital texts activities in school offers increased opportunities for students to perform and succeed in text making.Implications for practice and/or policy The results of this study have implications for literacy practices as well what is included in the literacy curriculum. This study provides implications for education that intends to reduce inequalities in students' prerequisites concerning making digital multimodal texts, and examines the text‐making experiences, knowledge, and skills students already possess upon entering the classroom.Classroom‐based instruction and opportunities for digital creation can bridge the gap between student's informal text‐making activities and formal text‐making activities at school and help to close the digital divide among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While computing has been (re)introduced into the basic education curricula in various countries, its actual implementation appears to be inconsistent. There are schools in which computing education is commonplace, while the implementation seems to be lagging behind in others. There is emerging evidence that some teachers do not consider computing education relevant, meaningful and important and, thus, intentionally neglect its provision. This is problematic as understanding the principles of code and computing is crucial for agentic citizenship in the post‐digital era. This paper argues that one main reason for these teachers' reluctance is the economy‐driven discursive framing of computing education, which is in contrast with the socialization‐oriented manner in which teachers approach their work. To contribute to resolving this issue, the present paper introduces a transversal approach to computing education. It conceptualizes code as a sociomaterial text with social and societal histories and consequences. Theoretically and conceptually, the approach draws on the pedagogy of multiliteracies. The leading idea is that digital technologies are examined with students from functional and critical dimensions and through micro and macro perspectives. The use of wearable sports technologies, such as activity wristbands, are used as practical examples to put the theoretical ideas into context. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Computing has been (re)introduced in the curricula of basic education in various countries.Some teachers are found to be reluctant to teach computing in basic education.What this paper adds This paper introduces a transversal multiliteracies‐based approach for computing education.Implications for practice and policy Computing should be included in curricula and classrooms in a holistic manner that includes both functional and critical approaches to computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly adopted in educational contexts to provide personalized support to students and teachers. The unprecedented capacity of LLM‐based applications to understand and generate natural language can potentially improve instructional effectiveness and learning outcomes, but the integration of LLMs in education technology has renewed concerns over algorithmic bias, which may exacerbate educational inequalities. Building on prior work that mapped the traditional machine learning life cycle, we provide a framework of the LLM life cycle from the initial development of LLMs to customizing pre‐trained models for various applications in educational settings. We explain each step in the LLM life cycle and identify potential sources of bias that may arise in the context of education. We discuss why current measures of bias from traditional machine learning fail to transfer to LLM‐generated text (eg, tutoring conversations) because text encodings are high‐dimensional, there can be multiple correct responses, and tailoring responses may be pedagogically desirable rather than unfair. The proposed framework clarifies the complex nature of bias in LLM applications and provides practical guidance for their evaluation to promote educational equity. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic The life cycle of traditional machine learning (ML) applications which focus on predicting labels is well understood.Biases are known to enter in traditional ML applications at various points in the life cycle, and methods to measure and mitigate these biases have been developed and tested.Large language models (LLMs) and other forms of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are increasingly adopted in education technologies (EdTech), but current evaluation approaches are not specific to the domain of education.What this paper adds A holistic perspective of the LLM life cycle with domain‐specific examples in education to highlight opportunities and challenges for incorporating natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language generation (NLG) into EdTech.Potential sources of bias are identified in each step of the LLM life cycle and discussed in the context of education.A framework for understanding where to expect potential harms of LLMs for students, teachers, and other users of GenAI technology in education, which can guide approaches to bias measurement and mitigation.Implications for practice and/or policy Education practitioners and policymakers should be aware that biases can originate from a multitude of steps in the LLM life cycle, and the life cycle perspective offers them a heuristic for asking technology developers to explain each step to assess the risk of bias.Measuring the biases of systems that use LLMs in education is more complex than with traditional ML, in large part because the evaluation of natural language generation is highly context‐dependent (eg, what counts as good feedback on an assignment varies).EdTech developers can play an important role in collecting and curating datasets for the evaluation and benchmarking of LLM applications moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthropomorphic characteristics of artificial intelligence (AI) can provide a positive environment for self‐regulated learning (SRL). The factors affecting adolescents' SRL through AI technologies remain unclear. Limited AI and disciplinary knowledge may affect the students' motivations, as explained by self‐determination theory (SDT). In this study, we examine the mediating effects of needs satisfaction in SDT on the relationship between students' previous technical (AI) and disciplinary (English) knowledge and SRL, using an AI conversational chatbot. Data were collected from 323 9th Grade students through a questionnaire and a test. The students completed an AI basic unit and then learned English with a conversational chatbot for 5 days. Confidence intervals were calculated to investigate the mediating effects. We found that students' previous knowledge of English but not their AI knowledge directly affected their SRL with the chatbot, and that satisfying the need for autonomy and competence mediated the relationships between both knowledge (AI and English) and SRL, but relatedness did not. The self‐directed nature of SRL requires heavy cognitive learning and satisfying the need for autonomy and competence may more effectively engage young children in this type of learning. The findings also revealed that current chatbot technologies may not benefit students with relatively lower levels of English proficiency. We suggest that teachers can use conversational chatbots for knowledge consolidation purposes, but not in SRL explorations. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicArtificial intelligence (AI) technologies can potentially support students' self‐regulated learning (SRL) of disciplinary knowledge through chatbots.Needs satisfaction in Self‐determination theory (SDT) can explain the directive process required for SRL.Technical and disciplinary knowledge would affect SRL with technologies.What this paper addsThis study examines the mediating effects of needs satisfaction in SDT on the relationship between students' previous AI (technical) and English (disciplinary) knowledge and SRL, using an AI conversational chatbot.Students' previous knowledge of English but not their AI knowledge directly affected their SRL with the chatbot.Autonomy and competence were mediators, but relatedness was not.Implications for practice and/or policyTeachers should use chatbots for knowledge consolidation rather than exploration.Teachers should support students' competence and autonomy, as these were found to be the factors that directly predicted SRL.School leaders and teacher educators should include the mediating effects of needs satisfaction in professional development programmes for digital education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Learning styles (LS) have been used for classifying students by their preferences relative to taking information in, processing it and demonstrating their ability in the context of education. This paper investigates the role of LS in K‐12 education by considering the manner in which student LS are assessed and the extent to which they have informed K‐12 instruction. The paper illustrates the impact of LS on teachers, pedagogy, student engagement and assessment. The theoretical framework of LS theory is discussed. Furthermore, this paper identifies a gap in the literature regarding LS and assessment; specifically the development of assessments based on LS. The authors suggest adapting student assessment utilizing technology‐enhanced items (TEIs) developed based on students' LS may provide a more reliable measure of student ability. Implications for practice and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Young children from around the world are accessing the internet in ever increasing numbers. The rapid increase in internet activity by children aged 4–5 years in particular is due to the ease access enabled them by touchscreen internet‐enabled tablet technologies. With young children now online, often independently of adult supervision, the need for early childhood cyber‐safety education is becoming urgent. In this paper, we report the early findings from a project aimed at examining the development of cyber‐safety education for young children. We argue that cyber‐safety education for young children cannot be effectively developed without first considering young children's thinking about the internet. In this paper, we use Vygotsky's ideas about the development of mature concepts from the merging of everyday and scientific concepts. We identify the potential range of everyday concepts likely to form the basis of young children's thinking about the internet as a platform for cyber‐safety education in the early years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses new learning experiences of first year pattern technology students at a university of technology, in the context of selected characteristics of authentic learning theories. The paper contributes to existing knowledge by proposing a method that could be followed for design-based subjects in a vocational education setting. Students were competent when replicating demonstrated pattern making procedures, but struggled to transfer knowledge to different situations. Therefore, a project asked students to create their own pattern-making video tutorials in an effort to deepen authentic learning. Examining the learning activity and its results through action research reflection, the lecturer recognised authentic learning characteristics. For example, students grasped the work, displaying a range of original responses that presented more than one correct answer. By creating their own practice-based content, students were able to learn more in the same period, compared to other cohorts in past years. Students were better equipped to utilise this knowledge in later projects and tests, demonstrating deeper understanding and knowledge transfer to other environments. Ultimately active knowledge production deepened learners' motivation, engagement in the learning process, and increased performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 360‐degree video offers a novel visual experience for education. This immersive experience not only amplifies students' engagement and curiosity but also assists them in delving into and comprehending intricate concepts from a multitude of viewpoints. Given its novelty, there is a relative shortage of studies on 360‐degree video's overall effectiveness in education. This study conducted a meta‐analysis of 49 peer‐reviewed articles. Utilizing a random‐effects model to compute effect sizes (ES), the results showed that 360‐degree videos have a moderate impact on both learning (Hedges' g = 0.525) and non‐cognitive outcomes (Hedges' g = 0.527), with notable heterogeneity observed across the studies. Furthermore, the studies were coded to examine the moderating effects of their characteristics, such as the level of education, the field of education, the display types, experimental design, the sample size and the control treatment. The findings suggest a medium effect of 360‐degree videos on knowledge acquisition and a smaller effect on task performance. In terms of non‐cognitive outcomes, the least impact was noted in the domain of social and emotional qualities, while the most significant impact was in attitudes and beliefs. Based on these findings, the study proposed future research directions focusing on enhancing teaching strategies and improving research designs concerning the use of 360‐degree videos in educational contexts.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic 360‐degree videos in education are notable for their authenticity, flexibility and accessibility. They enhance learners' sense of presence, deepen understanding of subject matter and improve non‐cognitive skills. 360‐degree videos have produced mixed results on learning and non‐cognitive outcomes. What this paper adds 360‐degree videos have a medium effect on students' learning outcomes (g = 0.0.525) and non‐cognitive outcomes (g = 0.0.527). Significant heterogeneity is observed in the effects of 360‐degree videos on both learning outcomes and non‐cognitive outcomes. In terms of non‐cognitive outcomes, 360‐degree videos have the smallest effect size in the social and emotional qualities domain. Identifying key moderators that influence the effectiveness of 360‐degree videos, including participants' education levels, field of application, sample sizes, display types, experimental designs and control treatment. Implications for practice and/or policy Enhance social and emotional learning with 360‐degree video, and aid in understanding and managing emotional experiences. Develop learning strategies that align with the unique characteristics of different subjects. Teacher‐assisted approaches are encouraged to support learning and teaching in formal educational settings with structured courses. Multimodal data can be collected for analysis in future research to explore the learning process. 360‐degree videos in education are notable for their authenticity, flexibility and accessibility. They enhance learners' sense of presence, deepen understanding of subject matter and improve non‐cognitive skills. 360‐degree videos have produced mixed results on learning and non‐cognitive outcomes. 360‐degree videos have a medium effect on students' learning outcomes (g = 0.0.525) and non‐cognitive outcomes (g = 0.0.527). Significant heterogeneity is observed in the effects of 360‐degree videos on both learning outcomes and non‐cognitive outcomes. In terms of non‐cognitive outcomes, 360‐degree videos have the smallest effect size in the social and emotional qualities domain. Identifying key moderators that influence the effectiveness of 360‐degree videos, including participants' education levels, field of application, sample sizes, display types, experimental designs and control treatment. Enhance social and emotional learning with 360‐degree video, and aid in understanding and managing emotional experiences. Develop learning strategies that align with the unique characteristics of different subjects. Teacher‐assisted approaches are encouraged to support learning and teaching in formal educational settings with structured courses. Multimodal data can be collected for analysis in future research to explore the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the popularity of automated writing evaluation (AWE) that has provoked an increased scholarly interest, synthesized research to comprehensively understand its pedagogical effects is still in paucity. To fill the gap, this study aims to meta‐analyse the overall effect of AWE on learners' writing skill development and whether the effect differs from how it has been used. From activity theory (AT) perspective, this study reported results based on a meta‐analysis of 33 valid effect sizes involving 2995 participants from 25 experimental and quasi‐experimental studies published during 2000–22. The results of the study showed that the overall effect was g = 0.429, 95% CI [0.266, 0.592], suggesting that AWE for writing skill development is more effective than traditional methods, such as traditional classroom interaction, teacher‐led interaction and peer interaction. Regarding AT‐related moderators for the overall effect, different moderator effects of educational levels, proficiency levels, sample size types, target language types, intervention durations, text genre types, human–computer interaction types, feedback types and program types were reported. Informed by the results obtained, this study also provided some insights into the pedagogical implications for practice. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic The facilitative effects and educational affordances of automated writing evaluation (AWE) for writing skill development have been well‐documented.Existing studies have been helpful in affording insights into the use of AWE for writing skill development.Few studies to date published have directly and quantitatively meta‐analyse the use of AWE for writing skill development.It is difficult to understand the effect size and potential AT‐related moderators of AWE for writing skill development.What this paper adds A thorough AT‐driven meta‐analysis of the publications on AWE for writing skill development was conducted.AWE is more effective than traditional methods for writing skill development with an effect size of g = 0.429.The pedagogical effect of AWE is affected by such moderators as educational levels, intervention durations, human–computer interaction types and feedback types.Implications for practice and/or policy Pedagogical potentials of AWE should be encouraged to explore among learners of different educational levels.When using AWE, a combination of human interaction with AWE is necessary.Researchers should understand how such factors as learner individual differences, writing assignment, AWE program and research design may impact the pedagogical effects of AWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online discussion is one of the frequently used learning activities in an e‐learning process. Learners can exchange opinions and thoughts with their peers through online discussion, stimulate their different viewpoints on the discussion topics, and enhance the learning effectiveness of e‐learning. However, most learners mainly take an effort on posting discussion content but easily ignore reading and understanding the contents of peers' discussions, thus reducing the discussion effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to develop an Instant Perspective Comparison System with a Gamified Incentive Mechanism (IPCS‐GIM) to promote learners' discussion awareness and motivation, thereby effectively enhancing their discussion participation, motivation, and effectiveness. A true‐experimental design was conducted in this research to examine the research questions. A total of 38 university students in Taiwan were randomly assigned to the experimental group using the IPCS‐GIM to assist online discussion and the control group using an instant perspective comparison system without a gamified incentive mechanism (IPCS‐NGIM) to assist online discussion to examine their difference in discussion effectiveness, participation, and motivation on a social‐scientific issue (SSI). The analytical results show that compared to the IPCS‐NGIM, the IPCS‐GIM could not only significantly enhance learners' discussion effectiveness in overall discussion effectiveness, complexity, and multiple perspectives, but also significantly enhance learners' discussion participation and motivation. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic An asynchronous online discussion that can allow learners to exchange opinions and thoughts with their peers, stimulate different viewpoints and enhance learning effectiveness is one of the frequently used learning activities in an e‐learning process. However, most learners mainly take an effort on posting discussion content but easily ignore reading and understanding the contents of peers' discussions, thus reducing the discussion effectiveness.An asynchronous online discussion may result in less enthusiastic discussions, learners may feel isolated due to the lack of immediate peer feedback, or they may not know what to contribute to a discussion topic.The lack of visual cues and immediate feedback is also one of the main factors affecting asynchronous online discussion effectiveness. In recent years, many studies have paid attention to promoting the discussion process and effectiveness by visualizing asynchronous online discussion content and interaction.What this paper adds This study uses gamified incentive mechanisms including a bonus point, title name, and leaderboard to develop a novel Instant Perspective Comparison System with a Gamified Incentive Mechanism (IPCS‐GIM) to promote learners' discussion effectiveness, participation, and motivation on social‐scientific issues (SSI) discussions.The result shows that compared to the Instant Perspective Comparison System without a Gamified Incentive Mechanism (IPCS‐NGIM), the IPCS‐GIM could not only significantly enhance learners' discussion effectiveness in overall discussion effectiveness, complexity, and multiple perspectives, but also significantly enhance learners' discussion participation and motivation.Implications for practice and/or policy Current research on the application of gamification design to asynchronous online discussions mainly focuses on enhancing learners' participation, engagement, and motivation, but there is a lack of research on the use of gamified incentive mechanisms to promote learners' reading of other peers' posts to achieve better quality discussions and enhance discussion effectiveness. This study fills the research gap.This study confirms that the proposed novel IPCS‐GIM can promote learners' discussion on reading other peers' posts, participation, and motivation to what extent due to its gamified incentive mechanisms, visualized discussion cues, and immediate feedback, thereby effectively enhancing learners' discussion effectiveness. This study broadens the horizon of the design of asynchronous online‐assisted discussion tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has been an effective pedagogy in the field of education. However, productive collaborative learning often does not occur spontaneously, and learners often have difficulties with collaborative knowledge building and socially shared regulation. To address this research gap, this study proposes an automatic knowledge graph construction approach based on deep neural network models. In total, 63 groups comprising 189 college students participated in this study and were assigned to three conditions, namely, the automatic activated and unactivated knowledge graph (AAUKG) condition, the automated activated knowledge graph (AAKG) condition, and the traditional online collaborative learning (TOCL) condition. The findings revealed that the AAUKG approach had more significant and positive impacts on collaborative knowledge building, group performance, social interaction, and socially shared regulation than the AAKG and TOCL approaches. This study provides substantial evidence of utilising both automatically activated and unactivated knowledge graphs to improve collaborative learning performance. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Knowledge graphs have been widely used in many fields for searches, recommendations, analytics, and automation.Researchers have explored how to construct knowledge graphs. However, few studies have automatically constructed knowledge graphs in the CSCL context.What this paper adds An automatic knowledge graph construction approach is proposed and validated in the CSCL context.The findings indicate that the AAUKG approach has more significant and positive impacts on collaborative knowledge building, group performance, social interaction, and socially shared regulation than the AAKG and TOCL approaches.Implications for practice and/or policy The AAUKG approach is an effective method for improving knowledge building and group performance in the CSCL context.Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to consider how knowledge graphs can be applied to facilitate collaborative learning efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality, as an excellent supportive instructional technology, has gained increasing attention from educators and professionals, where desktop‐based virtual reality (DVR) is broadly adopted due to its affordability and accessibility. However, when evaluating students' learning experiences such as flow experiences in DVR environments, most studies adopt a single construct (the total score of flow experience) rather than multiple constructs (enjoyment, engagement, concentration, presence and time distortion). This study implemented desktop‐based virtual reality for a STEM bridge designing program with a total of 254 undergraduates to investigate the relationship between self‐regulation skills, five dimensions of flow experience, learning satisfaction and continuous intention when engaging in a DVR learning environment. The results revealed that self‐regulated learning exerted a dominant impact on students' learning attitudes in DVR learning, in which students' flow experience had a significant mediating effect. Notably, although DVR exhibited poor time distortion, higher satisfaction and continuous intention were still predicted by the mentality of flow experience (ie, enjoyment, engagement, concentration and presence). The findings of this study contribute to the consideration of learning experiences and attitudes, which has insights for the future design of desktop‐based virtual reality environments and related instructional activities. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Students are different in self‐regulation skills, which influences their satisfaction and continuous intention in learning.Students' self‐regulation skills are one of the important variables in predicting their flow experience.A high level of flow experience contributes to a coherent and efficient learning experience within desktop‐based virtual reality (DVR) environments.What this paper adds Students' self‐regulation skills positively predicted their flow experience and satisfaction in DVR environments.The components of flow experience (enjoyment, concentration and presence) partially mediated the relationship between self‐regulation skills and satisfaction.Students' self‐regulation skills indirectly affect continuous intention by the enjoyment and engagement of flow experiences.Implications for practice and/or policy When delivering DVR‐based learning activities educators should be supportive of students with low levels of self‐regulation skills.Emphasis on promoting flow experiences such as enjoyment, engagement, concentration and presence in designing a DVR‐based classroom could enhance student satisfaction and continuous intention.Embedding scaffolding or feedback in DVR settings would support self‐regulated learning and subsequently improve student satisfaction and persistence through enhanced flow experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers recommend that parents look for five benchmarks as indicators of quality educational apps (ie, scaffolding, curriculum, development team, feedback, learning theory), yet results show that parents undervalue some of these benchmarks. The current study examined if a short video‐based intervention would enhance parents' value‐judgements of apps featuring the five educational benchmarks. In original and modified app experiments (n = 100; n = 101), parents of children 4–11 years old were randomly assigned to watch either a 9‐minute video that detailed how the five benchmarks augment learning, or a 2‐minute control video. Parents evaluated 10 simulated apps containing either benchmarks or buzzwords. The original app experiment shows that a brief intervention can help parents identify quality educational apps via the benchmarks, but the modified app experiment suggests it only works if developers are using specific keywords in app descriptions. Helping parents select quality educational apps is more complicated than simply telling them what to look for. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Parents have a main role in selecting apps and deciding on how often children use them; however, they have difficulty evaluating an app's educational potential in a market mixed with high‐ and low‐quality products that lacks a standard for including educational apps on the App Store.There are five research‐based benchmarks that are indicators of quality educational apps. These include apps created by an interdisciplinary development team, having a guiding curriculum with a clear purpose, including scaffolding and feedback, and being based on a learning theory. However, parents are not valuing all of these educational benchmarks equally.Educational videos disseminated via YouTube have become an established medium to enhance people's knowledge.Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning, which suggests that people learn better when there is both auditory and visual information given together, is a framework used to design educational videos.What this paper adds This study leveraged a useful, accessible medium (ie, educational YouTube videos) to make research on educational apps accessible enough such that it could influence parents' app selection.Parents of children aged 4–11 years‐old viewed either an educational intervention‐ or control‐video and assessed educational apps through measures that replicate how consumers evaluate apps on the App Store (ie, their willingness to download the app, how much they would pay, their rating, and ranking).Original and modified app experiments demonstrate that a brief, educational video designed using key features from Mayer's multimedia theory can improve parents' app selection.In the original app experiment, parents in the intervention group are valuing the guiding curriculum and development team benchmarks over others, which may be due to the structure of the intervention video (ie, worked‐examples immediately after pre‐training of benchmarks).In the modified app experiment, parents in the intervention group did not differ from the control group in their evaluations of the different benchmarks apart from rating the app with learning theory higher and ranking the guiding curriculum benchmark lower. The higher rating of learning theory may be a result of the language change in the simulated app to include more user‐friendly terms. The unexpected ranking result may be due to a limitation with the measure.Building on prior research on the educational benchmarks, these experiments show that parents are valuing them over buzzwords; however, even when shown an educational video, they are not valuing them all equally.Implications for practice and/or policy An educational video based on the five educational benchmarks could be used as a tool to easily disseminate knowledge to enhance parents' educational app selection.The experiments shed light on the complexity of knowledge dissemination to the public. While there is evidence for the use of research‐based educational videos to disseminate knowledge to parents when selecting educational apps, the App Store descriptions should include accessible language that makes the research‐based benchmarks easy to select.This study also provides suggestions for improving the development of educational videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Game-based education is a promising method for encouraging student learning. Although learning construction procurement and negotiation require hands-on practice, in most construction management courses at the college level, this subject is taught by using lectures and case studies. In this study, a construction procurement and negotiation game was developed, and paper-based and web-based versions were implemented. The game enables students to play the role of contractors or suppliers and generate profits by negotiating and procuring or selling reinforcing steel in a simulated market with a probabilistic nature. The experimental results indicate that playing both versions of the game increased student learning motivation, satisfaction and outcomes. Students awarded the web-based game higher assessment scores than they did for the paper-based game. Students playing either version of the game also achieved higher test scores than students who were taught using the traditional approach did. However, for students with work experience, playing the paper-based game resulted in higher scores than the web-based game scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The paper aims to clarify the relationship between organisational and educational use of microblogging. Although enterprise and education are very different sectors of activity and have diverse research traditions, this review argues that there is a benefit to be derived from comparing research work across the two settings. Design/methodology/approach The paper conducted a thematic analysis of research literature on microblogging for the two fields. The collection comprised around 30 papers on enterprise microblogging ( EMB), defined as use of microblogging primarily with internal organisational audiences behind the firewall. Twenty-five research papers on microblogging in higher education ( MIHE) made up the rest of the corpus. A generic framework of uses and risks of microblogging was produced and it is the main contribution of the paper. Findings The comparison of the literature on microblogging in the two sectors has led to the development and evaluation of a generic framework, which graphically presents its use and risks. The paper has introduced some ideas about how microblogging is used and they are potentially useful for the other context, for instance, the concept of awareness from the organisational literature. While the organisational literature has a major focus on risk, this appreciation is far less developed in the educational context; increasing such an emphasis would improve employability. Research limitations/implications Most of the research on EMB to date has been about uses of microblogging in large organisations, often information technology based. Research on MIHE has been experiments on the effect of microblogging in learning and classroom activities. Therefore, there is room to expand research beyond these settings. Practical implications The developed framework can be a useful guide for other researchers to explore issues around microblogging in different settings, such as educators using microblogging for research or use in other contexts. It is helpful to researchers to see how different theoretical concepts and research methods might be deployed in another context. The framework might also be used for comparing other technologies apart from Web 2.0/microblogging. Originality/value The paper has been the first review that we are aware of that has concentrated on the uses and risks of microblogging technologies in these particular contexts, organisation and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affect can significantly influence education/learning. Thus, understanding a learner's affect throughout the learning process is crucial for understanding motivation. In conventional education/learning research, learner motivation can be known through postevent self-reported questionnaires. With the advance of affective computing technology, researchers are able to objectively identify and measure a learner's affective status during the entire learning process in a real-time manner, and then they are able to understand the interrelationship between emotion, motivation and learning performance. There are over 100 papers in the ScienceDirect database with the keywords 'affective computing in education' or 'affective computing in learning,' which reveals that this emerging technology has been applied to education/learning. This study intends to categorize and summarize those measurements so as to realize their applicability, feasibility and trends. Finally, some challenges and suggestions are then raised for helping educational researchers when applying affective computing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we adopt an ecological perspective to reflect on how a specific Italian school cluster adapted to the challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic by focusing on how students experienced the interplay between continuity and change in school teaching and learning practices caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the study investigates how the school's physical/virtual learning system was (re)configured to provide new opportunities for learning to a thousand‐plus population of primary and secondary students, and how they reacted to the transition to distance learning in terms of participation, autonomy, motivation and engagement. The research adopts a mixed method approach, based on school management system data and a survey tool, and analyses the students' response to the emergency from the perspectives of the students themselves, their teachers and their parents. While these converged in positive evaluation of the experience, a number of lessons were learnt, such as the importance of building on favourable pre‐existing conditions and leveraging a solid shared school culture to promote a prompt reaction to the emergency. Significantly, students with an immigrant background displayed varying degrees of participation in online activities. Overall, for each of the three stakeholder groups surveyed, solid pre‐existing digital competence levels and close collaboration within the school community were the most important factors for non‐traumatic transition to distance learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic? Research on the relationship between the COVID‐19 pandemic and the effects on teaching and learning processes is constantly increasing.Most recently published studies focus on higher education, while very few investigate the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on K‐12 education.Very few papers have studied the interplay between change and continuity within an educational ecosystem in times of crisis.What this paper adds? This is one of the first studies to analyse the process of systematic transition from onsite learning to online learning within the Italian school system in response to the pandemic.This study employs a multiple perspective research approach to analyse Emergency Remote Education in a sizeable school cluster, with a specific focus on student response.Teachers, students and their families all saw solid pre‐existing digital competence and close school community collaboration as key factors facilitating rapid adjustment to the emergency.Implications for practice and policy Having a solid common school culture to rely on facilitates prompt emergency reaction.Encouraging the creation of professional communities of practice that comprise both expert and novice teachers can help prepare educators to deal with an educational emergency through adoption and appropriate use of technological solutions.Collaboration between school and families proves to be a key factor for dealing with emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning design is growing in importance but is not yet widely adopted by teachers. This paper describes the development of a scenario‐led learning design process, divided into two stages, which was implemented with over 500 teachers altogether from 15 European countries. Activity theory is used to explore the contradictions that arose when such changes were introduced into the established activity system of lesson planning. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from a small sample of participants including national coordinators (stage 1: n = 8; stage 2: n = 13) and teachers (stage 1: n = 13; stage 2: n = 23). These participants perceived that the scenario‐led learning design process, involving a wide range of stakeholders, was collaborative, supportive and innovative (compared to previous lesson planning practices). However, a number of contradictions were identifiable between: (1) the shift to collaborative learning design from teachers preparing their lessons alone; (2) the new tools and the existing rules of the national/regional education systems; (3) the time required to both understand and implement learning design, and the impact of competing demands. This paper discusses the challenges faced when attempting to scale‐up European school teachers' development of digital pedagogy. The structured (yet flexible) approach was welcomed and the tools promoted teacher reflection but, as commonly noted, the complexity and time‐constraints were major issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this paper is to describe the development of an interactive application that can be used in teaching English as a second language using children's stories in mobile devices. The aim of this experimental study has been to find out the potential of using the developed interactive mobile application in improving the learning skills such as vocabulary, pronunciation, listening and comprehension of the learners of the English language without the help of a teacher. The novelty of the research in this paper has been the use of a speech recognition engine on the mobile phone to identify spoken words of the learner in an attempt to teach correct pronunciation of words. The learning is interactive and it takes place entirely on a mobile phone. In this experimental study 37 voluntary students have participated. A Pre-Test and a Post-Test have been performed to find out the learning abilities of students. The results of the experimental study clearly indicated that English learning skills of young students had higher statistically significant improvements as a result of using the developed application in the experimental group. It can be concluded that the developed mobile application can be used as an educational tool in teaching English as a second language. Young students who may be interested in improving their listening, vocabulary, comprehension and pronunciation skills while learning English as a second language should find this mobile application enjoyable and useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposing eLearning objects on the Web of Data leads to sharing and reusing of educational resources and improves the interoperability of data on the Web. Furthermore, it enriches e-learning content, as it is connected to other valuable resources using the Linked Data principles. This paper describes a study performed on the Organic.Edunet repository, as an e-learning portal in an agricultural context. In this research, we experiment with exposing the Organic. Edunet metadata as Linked Open Data and interlinking its contents to several relevant datasets on the Web. An analysis of the metadata and of the interlinking results is presented in this paper as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile learning has been a very popular topic in the past several decades. As more patents in this field have been submitted, the analysis of patents has surfaced as an important mechanism to understand trends, uses, targeted audiences and other aspects in the mobile learning space. Based on the CNIPR, USPTO, and Espacenet databases, this paper provides an analysis of mobile learning from 1976, when the first patent in mobile learning emerged, to 2013. One hundred thirty patents were analyzed from two dimensions: the instructional dimension (including target audience, situation and purpose) and the patent dimension (including technology and style). It was found that 'students' was the most popular target audience; 'out of class for education' was the most utilized situation; 'provide more friendly peripheral service' was the primary purpose; 'wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies for learning, pervasive computing for learning, u-computing in learning' were the most utilized technologies; and 'system and method' was the most common style. Currently, patents in mobile learning are more inclined to provide personalized, contextualized, easily-retrievable, auto-updated and intelligent pushed learning content. Additionally, providing multipresentation, supporting seamless learning, adopting learner analysis, improving learner diversity and context awareness are becoming the characteristics of mobile learning patents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

e-Portfolios are a form of authentic assessment with formative functions that include showcasing and sharing learning artifacts, documenting reflective learning processes, connecting learning across various stages and enabling frequent feedback for improvements. This paper examines how e-portfolios take up these formative roles to support productive learning. Qualitative findings from interviews with selected first-year undergraduate students at a higher education institution in Hong Kong are reported concerning students' experiences of constructing e-portfolios as assessment tasks. As part of an institutional teaching and learning initiative, e-portfolios were incorporated into three core courses for first-year students. The findings reveal that several conditions necessary to foster productive learning were missing in students' experiences: strengthened formative role of e-portfolios through coherent assessment design; encouragement for students' pursuit of authentic tasks to develop learning interests; engagement of students in reflective and self-regulative learning as an essential learning process; provision of constructive feedback for sustained learning support; and support for students' autonomy through facilitation of collaborative knowledge building. By explicating how the lack of these conditions impeded students' active involvement in e-portfolio tasks and suggesting relevant strategies for teachers at the institution in question, this paper offers implications for harnessing information and communication technology ( ICT) to support students' productive learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the integration of digital technologies in higher education continues to increase, there is a need to understand how to best support university teachers as designers of technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) in order to support students to achieve academic success. In this study, we have examined the Faculty Pedagogical Developer Initiative at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, an innovative project to support a bottom‐up change process of teachers as designers of TEL, with the intent to strengthen the professional pedagogical development for the faculty. Data were collected from interviews and official documents. Actor–network theory was applied for the analysis. The results suggest that the initiative stimulated both practical implementation of digital technology in educational programmes and also spurred a debate about teachers as designers of TEL between these pedagogical developers and other teachers across different schools and subjects at KTH. However, there are important social, organisational and technical challenges that should be considered when developing support for university teachers as designers of TEL. This paper concludes that this process requires a deep understanding of four interrelated elements: information, technology, organisation and social arrangements. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Faculty interest in applying technology in innovative ways has evolved.Teachers are rarely involved as participatory designers in the TEL contexts.Collaboration among teachers in the TEL design process is an effective strategy.What this paper adds It uncovers dynamics of the bottom‐up change approach of university teachers as designers of TEL interventions.An insight into how the available technology plays a part in transforming teachers' practices.Deeper knowledge about the usefulness of actor‐network theory in empirical HE research.Implications for practice and/or policy There is a need for a critical perspective on supporting university teachers as designers of TEL.Bottom‐up approaches to the faculty pedagogical development in TEL should be continuously supported from the top.Bottom‐up initiatives should be driven by teachers who are recognised for their teacher excellence and trusted among the faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous models have been developed to help teachers efficiently and effectively design learning opportunities using new and emerging technologies. However, the literature to date makes little reference to the variation that exists within the models and frameworks as far as their scope, context, epistemological and pedagogical underpinnings and so on. In this paper, we critically contrast models of technology‐enhanced learning design in order to support educator selection of models, as well as to derive an overarching understanding of how learning design models may differ ontologically. A total of 21 models were selected from a systematic search of the technology‐enhanced learning design research literature. Findings indicated that technology‐enhanced learning design models can be differentiated according to whether they constitute a conceptual framework or a procedural method, their epistemological and pedagogical underpinnings, the level of granularity of the model, the extent to which contextual elements are considered, whether interactions between teachers and students are integral, whether guidance for selecting technologies is included and whether any sort of evaluation of the model has been conducted. The utility of each of these dimensions in terms of supporting technology‐enhanced learning design is considered, and the value more broadly of learning design models is critically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergent research indicates that electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can have a positive impact on the learning experience, but there are significant challenges—pedagogical and technological—which may limit their effectiveness. This paper contributes to research by providing further evidence about such challenges from the tutor perspective and offers suggestions about how institutions may address these issues. The paper draws upon 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with tutors in a range of subject areas, from Scottish further and higher education. Tutors were positive about the role that ePortfolios could play in the learning environment to encourage personal development and a more reflective approach to studies, assist student transition and, in some cases, support assessment. Concerns were raised, however, relating to moving paper-based assessed portfolios online, the legal issues of implementing an ePortfolio and the technical robustness and flexibility of systems. Barriers were identified regarding tutors' lack of understanding about personal development and reflection, and their role in the academic environment, initiative fatigue and lack of access to information technology. It was felt that these could be overcome, especially with long-term institutional commitment, significant staff development and the creation of tutor support networks. These findings should assist academics, staff developers and managers to implement an effective institutional ePortfolio solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses several articles on education in China, including one on the five modes of educational technology, one on the development of educational technology, and one on distance education.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate how audience response system ( ARS) technology may increase improvements in academic performance in higher education, using the first year of the Administration and Business Management degree course at the University of Seville ( Spain) as a case study. The experiment assesses whether the use of ARSs increases the likelihood that students will pass the final examinations in the subject of Principles of Economics. An econometric model is applied to a sample of 119 students in an intervention group, with a control group of 322. The statistically significant results show that at the very least, ARSs improve performance in the theoretical examination, albeit with certain limitations. It is concluded that ARSs should be used frequently to optimize outcomes, not just as a sporadic event during the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary schools do not have the same technical resources and capabilities as universities. They usually need to rely on ready-to-use tools to fulfill their information and communication technology ( ICT) structure. Social networking site ( SNS) has emerged as a practical solution to this need. However, few have collected empirical data on the application of SNS in a secondary school setting. This paper probes into the current condition of SNS usage among secondary school students using a sample of 851 students in Macau, a Special Administrative Region ( SAR) of China. Data in terms of access, profile and activities are collected. The activities on SNSs are analyzed by regression techniques to produce a prediction model relating perceived academic benefit and SNS activities. The model yields a strong positive relationship between that benefit and activities such as raising questions and engaging in study-related discussions. The model also yields a weak dependency on activities such as searching for information and entertainment. The paper also evaluates the actual academic utilization of a Facebook Group for one class of secondary school students for a period of one year. At the end of the year, various opinion parameters are measured, and improvements are observed in most parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research consisted of two studies to investigate how the Chinese rural educational system supported students' online learning and to determine the factors that influenced students' online learning quality (satisfaction and cognitive and social presence) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Study 1, based on interviews with three curriculum officers, seven principals and 30 course teachers, found that great efforts were made to realize digital equity and education for all students. The necessity of providing resources and support to teachers and students (facilitating conditions) was recognized, along with the importance of teachers' online course design and organization and the facilitation of discourse (teaching presence and social presence). Based on the findings of Study 1 and the literature review, a conceptual model of facilitating conditions and teaching presence reported to influence students' online learning quality was generated. In Study 2, 1,409 students from three rural primary schools were surveyed to test the conceptual model. The results indicated that facilitating conditions influenced students' online learning quality through enhanced technology self‐efficacy and perceived usefulness. Teaching presence directly and positively predicted students' online learning quality. This research highlights the importance of creating a learning community and providing technology access and support to ensure online learning opportunities and quality for rural students. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Chinese students from rural or migrant schools have fewer opportunities to access computers and the Internet, lower frequencies of online activity and technology self‐efficacy and less training and parental and teacher support.Providing support and resources to encourage and facilitate technology use among teachers and students in rural and underdeveloped schools is of great importance.Identifying the factors that contribute to online learning quality among rural school students to tackle the transition to online learning is necessary.What this paper adds The rural government and schools have made great efforts to ensure digital equity and education for all students, despite family conditions.Facilitating purposeful interactions and providing timely feedback is critical for effective learning in online teaching.Facilitating conditions represented by available support and resources and teaching presence influence students' online learning quality in rural areas.Implications for practice and/or policy Providing digital equipment and resources to all students is the first step towards distance learning.Providing opportunities to improve teachers' digital competency is critical for providing quality online instruction.Providing students timely assistance and useful and learner‐friendly technologies to enhance their satisfaction and social and cognitive presence is necessary.Online instructors should create a friendly online learning environment, facilitate active discussion and purposeful reflection and create opportunities to promote students' open communication, group cohesion and meaning construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital lifelong learning and more specifically digital peer learning (DPL) can play a major role to foster transformative agency in professions and occupations which are critically positioned for responding to acute societal needs. Yet so far, no published studies seem to have focused on this. This article aims at filling this gap with the help of a study in which online workshops and web forums were created for supporting homelessness practitioners in Finland to share and discuss scattered practical innovations and to generate advanced solutions to problems in their work. By these means, the study also generated data to see if transformative agency takes place among these professionals by means of DPL, how this happens, and with what results for the critical field of homelessness work. This study opens up a new agenda for research and development in lifelong learning in a digital era. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic As digital peer learning (DPL) can be largely organized by the learners themselves, it carries significant advantages for lifelong learning and work development: a close link to the field of practice and to clients' and stakeholders' needs, potentially a wide reach of practitioners, little institutional investment, and cost‐effectiveness.The application of DPL raises a number of challenges we summarize here as the spectator challenge, the challenge of drowning in details, and the discontinuity challenge.What this paper adds DPL literature lacks specific contributions on how it can support practitioners to identify and implement concrete solutions to pressing needs in society.This article shows that DPL may facilitate professional transformative agency in such a way that the two processes can intersect with one another and generate concrete and effective lifelong learning solutions for much needed developments in critical fields such as homelessness work.Implications for practice and/or policy Cultivating personally and professionally meaningful conflicts of motives evokes emotional involvement and potentially also learners' curiosity and cognitive engagement, opening an avenue to transcend the spectator stance.Experience and discursive elaboration of a conflict of motives directs learners to focus on the essential, thus providing an effective means for overcoming the risk of drowning in details. This can be facilitated by offering artifacts, metaphors, or models which may be taken up by practitioners in DPL as support or "second stimuli" to engage in transformative initiatives.To transcend the discontinuity challenge salient in many DPL processes, it is of particular importance to find ways to embed DPL and engage the learners in long‐term change efforts. Even relatively short online workshops and web forum discussions can gain momentum when efforts are made to establish links between past experiences and the future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the crossover between formal learning and learning in informal spaces supported by mobile technology, and proposes design principles for educators to carry out a science curriculum, namely Boundary Activity‐based Science Curriculum (BAbSC). The conceptualization of the boundary object, and the principles of boundary activity as the key elements to fuse the merits of learning in informal spaces with formal learning, are discussed and elaborated. The key elements of BAbSC are further articulated to provide the framework for curriculum design and development from a holistic perspective. The proposed principles and framework will reinforce the theoretical underpinnings of mobile technology‐enabled curriculum design and development, and can be used to guide teachers to implement curriculum in a more principle‐based and structured manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promise of using games for learning is that play- and learning-engagement would occur cohesively as a whole to compose a highly motivated learning experience. Yet the conceptualization of such an integrative process in the development of play-based learning engagement is lacking. In this analytical paper, we explored and conceptualized the nature and development of game-based learning engagement via an iterative, two-stage analytical process. The first stage was theory driven. The literatures on motives of play, game and cognitive engagement, and game-based learning were reviewed and analyzed. Theoretical discussions on how learning engagement is activated and sustained during gameplay were distilled. The second stage was data driven. An in situ, multiple-case study was conducted to further examine affective and cognitive facets of learning engagement in gaming. The finding suggested that game-based learning engagement is an integrated and continuing process that advances from affective engagement driven by optimal challenge, cognitive engagement situated in playfulness, to potentially game-action-based content engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is an increasing use of emerging technologies ( ETs) in higher education internationally and in South Africa in particular, there is little evidence that their use is transforming teaching and learning practice. Anecdotal evidence shows that there is a dichotomy between the technologies supported and used in higher education institutions ( HEIs) on one hand, and technologies owned and predominately in use among students. Thus, the gulf between technologies supported and used for teaching and the technologies used by students for learning has created pressure for educators to 'play catch-up,' resulting in a continuum of pedagogically ineffective to effective uses of ETs. This paper argues that pedagogically sound uses of ETs leverage the broader context of existing practices (cultural-historical context) to design learning activities that transform both the teaching and learning practices. The paper draws data from a national survey on uses of ETs among educators in higher education to propose a pedagogical model of use that has the potential to transform practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the changing nature of literacy, there is an urgent need to develop alternative ways of assessment in support of students' new literacy practices in the digital age. While emergent models of multimodal assessment are being developed in theoretical contexts, the study reported in this paper illustrates how multimodal theories can be realized in classroom practice. Seeking to address the needs of both literacy instruction and assessment, this study proposed a design rubric from the multiliteracies perspective to assess students' design of multimodal texts as a means to support assessable new literacy practices. Specifically, this research aimed to investigate how the design rubric as a formative assessment tool affects English learners' multimodal text production (in this case, presentation slides). The empirical results of this study reveal that the theory-driven design rubric was useful for enhancing the students' understanding and awareness of the multimodal nature of presentation slides and led to improvement in their multimodal text production. The findings have important implications for scaffolding students' multimodal literacy by using formative assessment as one of the instructional approaches in multiliteracies pedagogy. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic The advent of digital technology brings about a re-conceptualization of literacy., Today's students must be literate in both traditional printed texts and multimodal texts that are commonly associated with digital technology and multimedia., New literacy practices require teachers to develop new assessment practices., What this paper adds This paper offers valuable insights into literacy instruction and assessment., This paper presents a course design using action research that responds to the urgent need to develop alternative ways of assessment in support of students' new literacy practices in the digital age., This paper proposes a theory-driven design rubric from the multiliteracies perspective to assess learners' multimodal text production., Implications for practice and/or policy, Multimodal assessment allows teachers to help students build a metalanguage for understanding and describing multimodal texts., Literacy and language educators may consider adapting the proposed design rubric as a formative assessment tool to provide students with constructive feedback pertaining to the multimodality of texts., The proposed design rubric can also be used for peer review and self-assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese National Quality Course Plan is a large-scale project by the Ministry of Education, which has led to the production of more than 12 000 courses from some 700 universities since 2003. This paper describes in detail the purpose of the project and how it is organized at all levels, including how individual courses get selected at university level, provincial level and national level. The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the Chinese project and Open Educational Resources projects around the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare. The Chinese project is unique, not only because of its highly centralized organization and funding but also because its purpose is not just to produce open resources but to use the production of open resources to drive curriculum reform and quality improvement in Chinese higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of podcasting for educational purposes is growing fast in universities. There are several benefits of this asynchronous, direct communication and interaction between teacher and student. Nonetheless, the benefits, the pedagogical value of podcasting the traditional lecture format, have come into question. Furthermore, issues have been raised regarding lengthy and costly download times, and the fact that students need to make time to listen to them. For these reasons, using short 3-5-minute podcasts that summarise the lecture have been suggested. This paper explores how students interact with different types of podcasts. The study compares download and course evaluation data of a series of short-summary podcasts with full-lecture podcasts produced for the same university course. The findings show that students value full-lecture podcasts as highly as the short-summary podcasts, despite the fact that full-lecture podcasts are downloaded to a markedly lesser degree. The cause of this anomaly appears to lie in the different purposes that dictate podcast use. The paper concludes by noting that both full-lecture and short-summary podcasts serve as useful tools for student learning in university contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a common predicament faced by educational designers, that is, the lack of learning design tools for nontraditional pedagogies of learning. Because of this lack of alternatives, educational designers often use traditional design tools (such as task analysis) in contexts where nontraditional learning activities (such as collaborative projects) are desired. Because the learning goals of objectivist and alternative epistemologies differ, the designed instructional/learning activities do not match the original goals or desired learning outcomes. It is argued that learning design should be understood of as a quest for congruence between learning epistemologies and designs. This paper proposes an analytical framework to help identify the congruence or lack thereof of a learning design. The framework consists of: (1) the employed epistemology and desired learning outcome, (2) focus of analysis, (3) focus of design and (4) the design process. It is hoped that this framework will provide a lever for developing design tools that are more congruent with alternative pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notions of competency have dominated the computer education literature, and have underpinned Competency-Based Training (CBT) in information technology at all levels of education and training. The emergence of counter-narratives underpinned by the capability movement, have as yet had minimal impact on practice in computer education. New discourses in educational theory and practice which are founded on non-linear approaches to learning and teaching provide added impetus to engage in the competency/capability debate, and re-examine our approaches to computer education. This paper explores complexity theories and demonstrates how complexity's pedagogical implications can lead to new models for understanding computer learning and teaching. A new model for conceptualising end-user computer education is presented that was derived from a three-year action research initiative with pre-service teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term‘lifelong’, as applied to education or learning, has been in circulation for more than a quarter of a century. It has played an important role in policy discussions, as well as in studies of the sociology and economics of education. The relationship of this term to the rapidly changing world of information and educational technologies, and to the various conceptions of interaction that are central to these technologies, however, has been considered much less frequently. This paper seeks to shed light on the relationship between lifelong learning and the interactive technologies that have become associated specifically with the Semantic Web. It begins by presenting a fictional narrative to illustrate a lifelong learning scenario in the context of the services and resources that the Semantic Web will be capable of providing. It then proceeds to isolate a number of general characteristics of lifelong learning as they are manifest in this scenario and in recent literature on the subject. The paper then explores how emergent, interactive technologies of the Semantic Web have the general potential to address many of the characteristics of lifelong learning, and hold out the promise of satisfying a wide variety of lifelong learning needs. It will conclude by considering some of the outstanding challenges presented by lifelong learning contexts, and mention some of the limitations of advanced technologies used to address these needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching portfolios have become increasingly important to university teachers. Portfolio requirements for the appointment or promotion of academic staff recognize that the assessment of teaching practice requires more depth and detail than a candidate's academic CV generally affords. The focus of this study is the electronic teaching portfolios, developed for purposes of promotion, in a vocational higher education context. Data were obtained from candidates' eportfolios, from precourse and end-of-course surveys, as well as from eportfolio assessors' formative and summative feedback. The analysis of the data reveals tensions arising from portfolio building in the particular context of vocational higher education. The nature of the vocational field impacts not only on teaching and learning practice, but on how academic staff choose to present their practice in an eportfolio. The paper argues that the constraints and enablements of context, including the disciplinary context, as well as the possibilities and limitations of agency, will strongly influence the purposes of eportfolio development and the extent to which university teachers can exercise agency in the creation of an eportfolio in a 'high stakes' context. The findings can help university appointments and promotions committees, as well as educational developers, to better understand these enablements and constraints in order to inform policy and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges facing education systems in general and the South African education system in particular is how to understand ways that teachers change from nonusers of technologies to becoming transformative teachers with technology. Despite numerous initiatives, not limited to training, workshops and so forth, to bring about sustained and wide-spread teacher change, transmission/delivery-based pedagogies and chalk-and-talk methods continue to dominate. While policy directives and professional development programmes aim to effect change in teachers' practice, they tend to fail to create sustainable change in teachers' practice of using emerging technologies (ETs). This paper reports on a study that sought to understand how teachers change their pedagogy of teaching with ETs. Using a Design-Based Research approach, the paper reports on the teachers' pedagogical change framework (Teaching Change Frame -TCF) as a diagnostic tool for locating and mapping how teachers' change. The TCF maps teachers' existing pedagogies and ET uses, and designs a pathway of a change process to effect the desired change. The TCF was tested and refined using data from 325 teachers drawn from rural, resource-constrained schools, urban, well-resourced schools and from preservice teaching students in a decontextualized environment. Following three iterations it was found that teachers' use of ETs in regulated, restrictive ways correlate with transmission pedagogies, unregulated, dispersed ways correlate with transformative pedagogies. The use of TCF not only located teaching pedagogies but also provide different pathways to ensure sustainable change. Findings emphasize the need for teachers to encourage learners to build/create/construct with ETs and for increased interaction in fostering nonregulated dispersed use of ETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine students' acceptance of and intention to use Learning Management Systems (LMSs) for university education in Turkey using extended Technology Acceptance Model (e‐TAM). TAM has been widely used in various fields of technology acceptance in the last years and is found to be highly useful for the determination of the factors influencing the intention to use and adopt e‐learning platforms at universities. However, studies in this field have not converged around a uniform version of TAM. Almost all studies used different factors, samples or technologies to study behavioral intention. In this study, the most commonly used factors are compiled in one model. Results show that intention to use a LMS is affected from perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and social norm. At the same time, perceived usefulness is affected from perceived ease of use, social norm and user interface design and perceived ease of use is affected from user interface design and computer self‐efficacy. Practitioners NotesWhat is already known about this topic E‐TAM is successfully applied to various e‐learning platforms (such as Moodle, Blackboard, IWiLL web‐based learning system, gadgets and etc.) to examine students' acceptance and intention to use.According to the literature, the external variables are various, and social norm, user interface design and computer self‐efficacy are most commonly used or suggested factors.What this paper adds In this study, most common factors, which were not used altogether in one framework in other studies, are used to discover the behavioral intention to use a learning management System (LMS).The model is applied to two different sample groups by taking into consideration adoption issues.The proposed model of this study is analyzed by SEM technique to confirm the path and to find the best model fitting values.Implications for practice and/or policy Using this model the learning environment will improve and it will attract students more that will increase their intention to use LMS.This study would help universities to increase LMS usage by considering social norms, user interface design and computer self‐efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning design is a research field which studies how to best support teachers as designers of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) situations. Although substantial work has been done in the articulation of the learning design process, little is known about how learning designs are experienced by students and teachers, especially in the context of schools. This paper empirically examines if a teacher inquiry model, as a tool for systematic research by teachers into their own practice, facilitates the connection between the design and data‐informed reflection on TEL interventions in two school communities. High school teachers participated in a learning design professional development program supported by a web‐based community platform integrating a teacher inquiry tool (TILE). A multiple case study was conducted aimed at understanding: (a) current teacher practice and (b) teacher involvement in inquiry cycles of design and classroom implementations with technologies. Multiple data sources were used over a one year period including focus groups transcripts, teacher interview protocols, digital artifacts, and questionnaires. Sharing teacher‐led inquiries together with learning analytics was perceived as being useful for connecting pedagogical intentions with the evaluation of their enactment with learners, and this differed from their current practice. Teachers' reflections about their designs focused on the time management of learning activities and their familiarity with the enactment and analytics tools. Results inform how technology can support teacher‐led inquiry and collective reflective practice in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous research publications have mentioned the need to prepare teachers to design and enact technologically enhanced learning experiences for students, thus increasing their academic performance and their engagement when learning. This paper addresses the crucial issue of how to train pre‐service and novice teachers effectively to become good designers of Moodle‐based units of learning (UoLs), and to improve their critical thinking skills when engaging in peer‐review sessions. A teacher training professional development approach for teachers that requires trainees to elicit, depict, reflect on, share design ideas, and co‐create small UoLs in a Moodle learning management system is proposed. The training process follows the phases of the Think–Pair–Share learning strategy, and makes use of the features of the CADMOS graphic learning design editor that allows designers to see a preview of their unit of learning in Moodle. The findings of an evaluation study with 28 trainees showed that the proposed approach was easy to follow, and led to the creation of good‐quality, re‐usable designs for Moodle‐based UoLs and enhanced trainees' design thinking skills. Transformations in the way in which the newly minted learning designers thought, acted, and reflected were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of advanced information and communication technologies into the field of education has made the design and deployment of courses and instructional units more and more complicated. In order to support such complex task, methods and techniques have been proposed in the last years for the standardization, formalization and modelling of learning scenarios. Thus, several Visual Instructional Design Languages (VIDL) have been developed, with few of them giving an adequate and complete support for group learning processes. In this paper, we outline a domain‐specific language (DSL) for the modelling of collaborative learning scenarios. This DSL is called Learn‐CIAN. This notation has been validated by a sample of the students of Computer Science and Education degrees such that we could obtain a first view about the understandability and acceptance of this language from potential final users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scotland's rich heritage in the field of science and engineering and recent curricular developments led to major investment in education to equip pupils with improved scientific knowledge and skills. However, due to its abstract and conceptual nature, learning science can be challenging. Literature supports the role of multimedia technology in addressing the difficulties associated with science learning. This paper reports on a two-phase investigation that explored the impact of multimedia resources situated in a national e-learning portal to (1) assist generalist and specialist science teachers' teaching practices and (2) stimulate pupils' interest, encourage engagement and improve overall science learning experiences. Our research also investigated how portal resources facilitated and/or acted as barriers for teaching and learning. Findings from our research affirm that multimedia technology has transformed science learning; with these resources accessible through a national portal, radically different learning experiences ensued. These findings raise serious implications for teacher education and professional development in ensuring that teachers acquire sound science content and pedagogical knowledge as well as practical strategies for utilising technology-rich environments, as this is likely to become the norm. Harnessing the fullest potential that information and communication technology, multimedia and e-learning portals can offer starts by addressing these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]