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For the forty-third time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with the practice of instructional technology including instruction and training issues are contained in Volume 2. [For Volume 2, see ED617422.]

A novel course concept to enable master's degree students to acquire research skills is described as an experience report. A hybrid, inquiry-based format was developed to simulate each phase of writing and presenting a research paper at a scientific conference. Students self-organized into groups to conduct each phase of the research process to conduct a research project for a scientific topic, bionic computation. Weekly group meetings with the instructor were conducted via video conference. Students learned to formulate research questions, write abstracts, acquire experimental data and evaluate open-source libraries and tools to build their own experimental models. An in-house, mini-conference was held in person, in which each group held a presentation of their work. At the end of the semester, a retrospective was held to reflect on students' experiences and summarize the lessons they have learned. After the course, slight majority of the students stated that they could imagine writing a paper about their master's theses and taking part in a real conference. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]

These proceedings contain the papers of the 12th International Conference on Mobile Learning 2016, which was organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society, in Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal, April 9-11, 2016. The Mobile Learning 2016 Conference seeks to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of mobile learning research which illustrate developments in the field. Full papers presented in these proceedings include: (1) Mobile Devices and Spatial Enactments of Learning: iPads in Lower Secondary Schools (Bente Meyer); (2) NetEnquiry--A Competitive Mobile Learning Approach for the Banking Sector (Marc Beutner, Matthias Teine, Marcel Gebbe and Lara Melissa Fortmann); (3) M-Learning Challenges in Teaching Crosscutting Themes in the Education of Young People and Adults (Marcos Andrei Ota and Carlos Fernando de Araujo Jr); (4) Mobile Learning: Pedagogical Strategies for Using Applications in the Classroom (Anna Helena Silveira Sonego, Leticia Rocha Machado, Cristina Alba Wildt Torrezzan and Patricia Alejandra Behar); (5) Experiencing a Mobile Game and its Impact on Teachers' Attitudes towards Mobile Learning (Hagit Meishar-Tal and Miky Ronen); (6) Exploring Mobile Affordances in the Digital Classroom (David Parsons, Herbert Thomas and Jocelyn Wishart); (7) Design, Development and Evaluation of a Field Learning Video Blog (Otto Petrovic); (8) Development and Evaluation of a Classroom Interaction System (Bingyi Cao, Margarita Esponda-Argüero and Raúl Rojas); (9) Visual Environment for Designing Interactive Learning Scenarios with Augmented Reality (José Miguel Mota, Iván Ruiz-Rube, Juan Manuel Dodero and Mauro Figueiredo); and (10) The Development of an Interactive Mathematics App for Mobile Learning (Mauro Figueiredo, Beata Godejord and José Rodrigues). Short papers presented include: (1) Conceptualizing an M-Learning System for Seniors (Matthias Teine and Marc Beutner); (2) Sensimotor Distractions when Learning with Mobile Phones on-the Move (Soledad Castellano and Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez); (3) Personal Biometric Information from Wearable Technology Tracked and Followed Using an Eportfolio: A Case Study of eHealth literacy Development with Emerging Technology in Hong King Higher Education (Michele Notari, Tanja Sobko and Daniel Churchill); (4) An Initial Evaluation of Tablet Devices & What Are the Next Steps? (Tracey McKillen); (5) Information Literacy on the Go! Adding Mobile to an Age Old Challenge (Alice Schmidt Hanbidge, Nicole Sanderson and Tony Tin); (6) The Use of Digital Tools by Independent Music Teachers (Rena Upitis, Philip C. Abrami and Karen Boese); (7) Development of a Math Input Interface with Flick Operation for Mobile Devices (Yasuyuki Nakamura and Takahiro Nakahara); (8) Smartwatches as a Learning Tool: A Survey of Student Attitudes (Neil Davie and Tobias Hilber); and (9) The Adoption of Mobile Learning in a Traditional Training Environment: The C95-Challenge Project Experience (Nadia Catenazzi, Lorenzo Sommaruga, Kylene De Angelis and Giulio Gabbianelli). Reflection papers include the following; (1) Leadership for Nursing Work-Based Mobile Learning (Dorothy Fahlman); (2) Reflections on Ways forward for Addressing Ethical Concerns in Mobile Learning Research (Jocelyn Wishart); and (3) Mobile Learning: Extreme Outcomes of Everywhere, Anytime (Giuseppe Cosimo De Simone). Posters include: (1) Student Response Behavior to Six Types of Caller/Sender When Smartphones Receive a Call or Text Message during University Lectures (Kunihiro Chida, Yuuki Kato and Shogo Kato); and (2) Understanding the Use of Mobile Resources to Enhance Paralympic Boccia Teaching and Learning for Students with Cerebral Palsy (Fabiana Zioti, Giordano Clemente, Raphael de Paiva Gonçalves, Matheus Souza, Aracele Fassbinder and Ieda Mayumi Kawashita). Doctoral Consortium papers include: (1) Forms of the Materials Shared between a Teacher and a Pupil (Libor Klubal and Katerina Kostolányová); and (2) Mobile Touch Screen Devices as Compensation for the Teaching Materials at a Special Primary School (Vojtech Gybas and Katerina Kostolányová). Individual papers provide references, and an Author Index is provided.

In Engineering Design education, huge numbers of students are a challenge in university teaching, especially since the students have an initially heterogeneous level of technical knowledge, which influences their acquisition of competences. In frontal classroom lectures, individual deficits can hardly be addressed and in self-study phases, students find it difficult to remedy these independently. Therefore, students with prior technical experience achieve better final module grades. This paper examines the extent to which heterogeneity in prior experience can be compensated by using an adaptive e-learning environment for the self-study time. For this purpose, students are provided with a prototypical implementation of an adaptive e-learning environment for the self-learning phase. The feedback of the users and their examination results are statistically evaluated with respect to the gain of knowledge. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]

Digital Study Assistants (DSA) are an emerging type of software that combines web-based software architectures, various data sources, and algorithms from artificial intelligence (AI) to assist learners in improving their learning-related behaviors. In this paper, we summarize the implementation and results of a field study with a DSA for hierarchical goal-setting (HGS) at the Bremen, Hannover, and Osnabrück universities from November 2021 to April 2022. The results show that 70% of students in the sample chose to get digital assistance for educational goal-setting, which is the highest interest rate among the nine assistance functions available. Of the 290 students who chose to use the assistant, only 10 completed the full assistive intervention, which equals only 3.4%. We conclude that we should improve the usability and user experience and reduce the interaction costs of the intervention.

Virtual exchange projects have become an effective pedagogical method to support students' development of intercultural language competence. High-immersion experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) may offer an environment which is conducive to developing such competence. This paper reports on a pilot study carried out with two groups of university students (N=30) in the Netherlands and Germany. The students, involved in a virtual exchange using VR headsets, completed three tasks collaboratively. The aim of the study was to investigate participants' perception regarding (1) their collaboration with foreign peers within the VR setting and (2) the perceived usefulness of the tool. The researchers employed questionnaires and conducted interviews and focus groups. The audio recording transcripts from the VR encounters and students' reflective journals provide further data to triangulate the results. This pilot study provides first results with regard to virtual exchanges carried out in high-immersion VR. [For the complete volume, "CALL for Widening Participation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2020 (28th, Online, August 20-21, 2020)," see ED610330.]

Social Virtual Reality (VR) applications enable real-time interpersonal conversation and allow users to perform activities together. They have the potential of changing the ways learners practise speaking a foreign language. Following a previous study (Jauregi Ondarra, Gruber, & Canto, 2020), we designed the present study to explore how presence, immersion, and interactivity affect overall social experience. Students from Germany and the Netherlands engaged in High-immersion VR (HiVR) virtual exchange sessions, using Spanish as a lingua franca at A2 level. International dyads carried out four interaction tasks in AltspaceVR, using head-mounted devices. To examine students' HiVR virtual exchange experiences, different sources of data were gathered: questionnaires, reflection diaries, recordings, and focus group interviews. The preliminary results, based on the surveys and reflection journals, show that students liked to use a social VR app to communicate in the target language with peers from other countries, as they felt completely immersed and co-present in the social interactive VR space. This might enhance engagement and lower anxiety levels. [For the complete volume, "CALL and Professionalisation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2021 (29th, Online, August 26-27, 2021)," see ED616972.]

Digital Study Assistants (DSA) aim to support individual learning processes by designing them appropriately and efficiently based on recommendations. In this paper we present a prototype of a DSA for students in higher education of three German universities. The digital data driven DSA is integrated into the local learning management system and consists of recommender modules with a certain kind of recommendation for a specific purpose, e.g., recommending Academic Contacts that fit an expressed academic interest. The modules implemented so far use a wide range of methods: Classic rule-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Neural Networks, that can detect complex features and patterns in large data sets. To evaluate the current prototype of the DSA we used a mixed methods design approach with concurrently collected user data and qualitative data. A first insight in the user data suggests that recommender modules providing personalized recommendations are more likely to be used by students. A focus group discussion with students confirmed these findings with the suggestion to make the DSA more personal, individual, interactive, supportive, and user-friendly. In conclusion we present ideas for the further development of the prototype based on these findings. [For the full proceedings, see ED621108.]

iRead is an EU Project involving literacy games in Spanish, German, Greek, and English for L1 and L2 acquisition. Content is selected dynamically from a large database using linguistic rules based on the player profile. The teacher can view pupils' progress based on automated game sequences or assign games manually. This project strives to understand how teaching with new technology is incorporated into the classroom. The authors interviewed both teachers and children about their points of view and compared their answers at the end of the project. Results indicate that pupils had a much deeper understanding of their learning than was apparent from the teachers' point of view. [For the complete volume, "CALL for Widening Participation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2020 (28th, Online, August 20-21, 2020)," see ED610330.]

Empathy is widely perceived and understood as an unquestioned component of Intercultural Competence (IC). The authors see the ability to empathise with others and to see their point of view as an important condition for developing an ethnorelative viewpoint, and therefore consider it important to incorporate activities into the intercultural communication curriculum that addresses the affective side of IC (Calloway-Thomas, Arasaratnam-Smith, & Deardorff, 2017; Guntersdorfer & Golubeva, 2018). In their paper, the authors discuss the importance of meta-cognitive tasks by creating opportunities for students where they can describe, share, and evaluate emotions. Based on the recommendations made by O'Dowd (2016), Byram, Golubeva, Hui, and Wagner (2017) about designing and implementing virtual exchanges (VEs), the authors present a preliminary framework, i.e. a sequence of self-reflective meta-analysis tasks that they developed for the intercultural VE between students at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Germany and their peers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the United States. This framework can be adapted to a variety of online teaching contexts. [For the complete volume, see ED609298.]

While an extended stay abroad is generally assumed to be a valuable experience, some students are reluctant to take up the opportunity. To understand this phenomenon better, this study looks at students' concerns before they embark on their time abroad (to undertake a study placement, work placement, or a language assistantship) and looks at returning students' perceptions, to see the extent to which their initial concerns materialised. The research is based on two questionnaires distributed to over 800 participants at two universities (one in the UK, one in Germany). Besides quantitative data, qualitative responses give additional insights into the students' perceptions. The results show marked differences between the two cohorts and also produce evidence of a considerable shift in students' perceptions after their return: a high percentage of students noted that their anticipated concerns were not realised. The results of this study are useful in shedding some light on students' concerns and can inform student support and Year Abroad (YA) preparation. [For the complete volume, "Perspectives on the Year Abroad: A Selection of Papers from YAC2018," see ED603732.]

Aim/Purpose: Academics are often requested to create and teach courses for emerging technologies with perhaps no experience or guidance on how to do so. Background: A Framework to develop IT courses for emerging technologies was created and tested to assist academics; the framework was then tested by developing an IoT course. Methodology: A literature review was conducted to discover theories, models and methods that could be used in the creation of IT courses, followed by interviews with academics who had created many courses. The interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis process, and a Course Development Framework was created. Contribution: The framework was tested by using it to build and deliver an IoT course. The Framework could be used to support academics who have to create and develop courses for emerging technologies. Findings: By combining a learning theory such as constructivism, the ADDIE Instructional design model, ARCS-V Motivational model, and Bloom's Taxonomy, a Course Development Framework was constructed, which could be used to support academics who have to create courses for emerging technologies. Recommendations for Practitioners: The Course Development Framework could be used to develop other IT courses including online courses. Recommendations for Researchers: Future research could be conducted in the effectiveness of using the Course Development Framework to develop other courses including online courses. Impact on Society: Support academics to develop better IT courses for emerging technologies. Future Research: Research in the field of Brain Compatible Learning Principles and combining or using it with the Framework could provide further insights into advancements in course design and development. [This paper was published in: M. Jones (Ed.), "Proceedings of InSITE 2020: Informing Science and Information Technology Education Conference" (pp. 15-45). Informing Science Institute.]

This work-in-progress study focuses on the implementation of digital media into the Russian language classroom at secondary schools in the German-speaking countries of Austria, Germany, and the trilingual region South Tyrol. The data were collected in a mixed-methods procedure: quantitative data from online questionnaires and qualitative data from face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with teachers and learners of Russian. The data from the online-surveys were analysed with descriptive statistics and that of the interviews with qualitative content analysis. The results from the online-surveys illustrate the kinds of digital devices that are employed, the frequency of their use, and the purposes digital media are intended to fulfil in the Russian language classroom. Another finding concerns the teachers' digital literacy, suggesting that only half of the Russian teachers can create online language learning tasks. The paper closes with implications for pre- and inservice teacher education and future research. [For the complete proceedings, see ED600837.]

This paper investigates learning related device usage of German and Indian students. For that purpose, an exploratory survey of students at the University of Hildesheim and the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce in Pune is executed. The aim of the research is to uncover basic patterns of overall device usage, studying behavior, employment of learning tools and assessment of e-learning. Collected data deliver a broad picture on students' needs with regard to e-learning support. Results show, students from Pune are engaged in e-learning more frequently than students from Hildesheim. For students from India, smartphones are the most important learning devices. For German students, laptops are more important. Although both groups are experienced in e-learning, the Indian students employ a wider range of resources. In addition, Indian students communicate more often with their peers and instructors via computer mediated communication channels than the Germans. Whereas German students talk about content related and organizational aspects of learning, Indians focus on content related topics when communicating with peers and instructors. [For the full proceedings, see ED621557.]

This paper presents one product of a research report about the promotion of resilience in the school setting in two public secondary schools, located in Mexico and Germany, and its relation with the pupils' multiculturalism. The paper focuses on the need of the results' analysis to identify the school actors' perceptions of the promotion of resilience at the secondary school, in contexts where pupils' cultural characteristics are highly diverse. The theoretical guidelines are linked to resilience research, especially research focusing on resilience in schools, as well as to studies on intercultural education. A mixed method was used; it is a dual comparison in two geographical, economic, political and cultural different national contexts, where the analysis unit was "the school". Research was conducted with secondary schools' principals, including the teaching staff, from both schools and with a first graders group on Telesecundaria 42, in Hidalgo, Mexico, and one group of the same grade from a Realschule in NRW, Germany. The results provide significant data that show a strong nexus between students' and teachers' perceptions of resilience development at the school. This article focuses on resilience promoting factors. It was concluded that positive emotional relationships between students and teachers build resilience and decrease risks of failure and dropout. [For the complete Volume 15 proceedings, see ED574185.]

These proceedings contain the papers of the 18th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2021), held virtually, due to an exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from October 13-15, 2021, and organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS). The CELDA conference aims to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a fast pace and affecting academia and professional practice in many ways. The CELDA 2021 Conference received 68 submissions from more than 21 countries. Out of the papers submitted, 34 were accepted as full papers for an acceptance rate of 50%; 16 were accepted as short papers, and 2 were accepted as reflection papers. In addition to the presentation of full, short and reflection papers, the conference also includes one keynote presentation from an internationally distinguished researcher: Dr. David Scaradozzi, Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

This paper discusses the animated web series "Lifeswap" as an example for "amateur online interculturism" and investigates its potential for intercultural language education. Drawing on Dervin's (2015) discussion on the "amateur interculturist", I suggest that online publications of personal encounters of intercultural interaction can be used to foster critical reflection in intercultural language education. To illustrate this idea, I first introduce the concept of "amateur online interculturism" and the approach of the makers of the "Lifeswap" series. I then focus on one episode to provide an example of the series and to show how humour and cultural stereotypes can be used constructively to explore tensions in intercultural interactions. The online comments I present in the last section highlight the harmonising effect of humour but indicate that pedagogical intervention is needed to problematise intercultural issues. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

The aim of this paper is to provide an objective overview of the impact of teacher salaries on the educational achievements of students. It is often debated about teacher salaries and improvement or jeopardizing their standard, but educational consequences that may ensue as a result of these intentions are rarely addressed. Teacher's role in student's achievement outcomes is unquestionable. There are many factors that have an impact on student achievement, but this paper will analyze only the impact of teacher's income on student's achievement. A hypothesis for further study has been set by collecting and analyzing pedagogical documentation on teacher salaries and student's educational achievements. Qualitative approach to statistical results of PISA study published in 2013 analyzes following categories: reading, mathematics and science, student's sense of belonging to school and student's personal opinion on does school prepare them for adult life. The study of these elements in selected countries gives us a concrete insight into their interrelationship. The comparative analysis compared the educational achievements of students with the level of teacher's salaries in the following countries: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland. The results of the research show that the level of teacher's income has an impact on student's achievements. The paper confirms the facts that the teaching profession is more popular as incomes increase and therefore attracts more motivated and skilled individuals. [This paper was published in the SGEM2014 Proceedings, ISBN-978-619-7105-24-7 / ISSN 2367-5659, September 1-9, 2014, Vol. 3, pp. 383-390.]

Repeated surveys have shown that all students at our university have smartphones and use them regularly both at home and in the university. Excessive regular use of anything, including digital devices, can lead to addiction which has promoted researchers to classify and label smartphone addiction as "nomophobia". Using a self-assessment survey developed at Iowa State University this papers evaluates whether nomophobia is a problem at the institution and to what extent. A non-representative sample of 104 students showed that a small minority (<3%) could be classified as having severe nomophobia and almost 40% as moderately nomophobic. The remaining students were classed as mildly nomophobic with absolutely zero students being categorized as not nomophobic. This creates a potential risk for any teacher-led activities, such as mobile learning, which encourage further use of mobile devices. It is therefore recommended that this situation be monitored and that the issue of nomophobia be included in future programs teaching digital literacy. Further research using qualitative methods is recommended to gain more accurate data and a deeper insight into how students are using their smartphones and how aware they are of the dangers of nomophobia. [For the complete proceedings, see ED579190.]

This paper focuses on mobile device usage of students in higher education. While more and more students embrace mobile devices in their daily life, institutions attempt to profit from those devices for educational purposes. It is therefore crucial for institutional development to identify students' needs and how mobile devices may facilitate these needs. This longitudinal study with N = 172 students compares the use of e-Readers and tablets for learning at a higher education institution. While e-Readers offer inexpensive solutions for reading texts, tablets provide a much wider range of applications, such as communicating with other students, accessing learning management systems, or conducting research online. Findings indicate that students evaluate tablets as a more useful device for learning. Interestingly, students using tablets also start to include more and more mobile learning technologies into their learning strategies. [For full proceedings, see ED571332.]

High achievers with low self-efficacy in science lack interest in choosing science studies and careers. Wide-ranging knowledge of specific working life skills in science-related careers can help students identify their own strengths in science. This improves their self-efficacy beliefs in science and further promotes interest in pursuing science studies and careers. The purpose of this paper is to examine lower secondary school students' knowledge of specific working life skills. The participants in this study were 215 British, 144 Finnish and 154 German students, aged 12-14 years. Using open-ended questions and content analysis, we examined students' perceptions of working life skills needed in science-related careers. The results reveal that the students have a great deal of knowledge about working life skills, but it is often stereotypical. Students frequently mentioned sector-specific knowledge and personal attributes, but skills related to career development, organization, time and society skills were often omitted. Some variation exists between the countries. The British students linked careers in science with a great deal of thinking skills, whereas the Finnish students emphasized sector-specific knowledge. The German students described the careers more with personal attributes than in the other two countries. We conclude that the students need learning experiences including presentation of working life skills such as interacting with professionals and their real work-life problems, open-ended inquiries and balanced team working. These experiences increase students' awareness and perceived relevance of careers and working life skills, help identifying and promoting own strengths and self-efficacy and encourage choosing science-related careers. [For the complete volume, "Bridging Research and Practice in Science Education: Selected Papers from the ESERA 2017 Conference. Contributions from Science Education Research. Volume 6," see ED615249.]

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the International Conference on e-Learning (EL) 2019, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, in Porto, Portugal, July 17-19, 2019. The EL 2019 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within e-Learning. This conference covers both technical as well as the non-technical aspects of e-Learning. The conference accepted submissions in the following seven main areas: (1) Organisational Strategy and Management Issues; (2) Technological Issues; (3) e-Learning Curriculum Development Issues; (4) Instructional Design Issues; (5) e-Learning Delivery Issues; (6) e-Learning Research Methods and Approaches; and (7) e-Skills and Information Literacy for Learning. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

Both teachers and students of language learning are keen to make use of new technologies to enhance their learning. At the latest, the launch of the Apple Watch has made the general public aware of the smartwatch and the possibilities, at least according to the marketing hype, that these wearable computers offer. The sales of smartwatches are predicted to increase rapidly in the next years and many of the adopters of this technology will undoubtedly be students or teachers. Based on a non-representative sample of higher education students this paper explores student attitudes towards the use of smartwatches as learning tools. It also offers a new definition of a smartwatch and provides an overview of the types of educational smartwatch apps already available. The analysis of the questionnaires show that both smartwatch owners and non-owners are not overly convinced that smartwatches can be used for educational purposes. As the questionnaire was purely quantitative it is however impossible to discuss how the participants have so far experienced smartwatches, if at all. A further study using qualitative methods is therefore recommended to provide further insight into how and why students are using smartwatches, if at all, to aid with their studies. The predicted growth in smartwatch ownership means it would be prudent to examine the possibilities offered by these devices whilst their use can still be shaped by educators. [For the full proceedings, see ED571335.]