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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 study identifies the areas of autism therapy that can be enhanced by using a touch screen mobile computer (TSMC) device to facilitate autistic children's learning experience. At an affordable price range, the simple touch screen of a TSMC has an immediate cause and effect response that enables these students to be more independent during the learning process. These key factors make the TSMC an ideal supplement for autism therapy in the classroom and for skill reinforcement at home. However, to identify a correct starting point is crucial for the success of this research. Our study aims to explore the most effective application design areas using a TSMC as an instructional tool for autistic children. To determine this direction, four main steps were identified. These steps include reviewing current literature on autism deficits, evaluating the interaction design of the TSMC, analyzing existing TSMC applications currently available, and designing a prototype application for evaluation. This paper reports our model of information processing interruption in autism learning, our target zones of instruction based on the literature review of autism deficits, and introduces our implementation plan of the application design to enhance autism therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The field of second language acquisition has seen a plethora of research into language learning motivation and autonomy. However, graduate students of English have been rarely considered and little is known about their language learning. The present paper aims to examine the aforementioned individual difference variables with university students from various background contexts and explore the effects of the social context from which the learners originate on their learning of English as a foreign language. The study was carried out with 11 students, aged between 22 and 38, from two European universities including the following contexts of origin: China, Japan, Spain, and Hungary. Qualitative methodology was employed with structured interview as a means of data source. The analysis of the data indicated that graduate students possess significant learner autonomy, which also implies the presence of motivation. Different patterns emerged across the examined contexts as regards the students' informal learning environment preference, attribution of success, teacher expectations, and attitude towards autonomy. Pedagogical implications include the adoption of a student-centered approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]