Search

This study reviews empirical research articles published in the field of technology-enhanced learning in the out-of-class contexts in primary schools between the years 2007 and 2016 and explores how the body of research has connected formal and informal learning experiences, referred to in the paper as bridging the gap. The review focuses on 43 selected experiments from 41 research papers, which are in detail examined and classified using the 3 criteria: (a) the Bloom's taxonomy for learning, (b) the intentionality to physical settings classification used to differentiate types of learning in various environments, and (c) the characteristics of seamless learning design. The findings confirm that technology can enhance learning in and out of classroom, especially by impacting student interest, motivation, and engagement. The close examination of the subset of studies with cognitive gains shows that they successfully bridged the gap between learning spaces and that such bridging positively correlates with the number of steps in the learning activity design. The successful bridging of the gap between learning spaces could further benefit from including more online social learning activities into the designed learning process and from involving teachers as cocreators of the learning process and resources.

This paper describes the design of a technology platform for supporting content-independent collaborative mobile learning in the classroom. The technical architecture provides mechanisms for assigning different content or materials to students and then guiding them to form groups with other students in which the combination and integration of their content satisfies some pre-assigned critera or goal. The uniqueness of this lies in the dynamic forming of collaborative groups rather than having fixed or preassigned groupings of students for doing collaborative work. We present the theoretical underpinnings of our approach, the initial design of the software and the iterative cycles of a Design-based Research (DBR) approach that tries out the continuously being-refined design with primary school students. Feedback and data collected from observing students' actual learning behaviors and motivations in the cycles were used to propose a new cycle of the system and user-interface redesign. Such school-based trials provided demonstrations of the platform in supporting two content-specific learning applications, namely in mathematics and Chinese language learning activities in a primary school setting. They show the enactment of collaborative scaffolding comprising peer, technological and teacher scaffolding in supporting the students' formation of groups, and their collaboration and learning.

Blended learning has become an increasingly popular form of e-learning, and is particularly suitable to the process of transitioning towards e-learning from traditional forms of learning and teaching. This paper describes the use of the blended e-learning model, which is based on a mixture of collaborative learning, problem-based learning (PBL) and independent learning, in a course "Teaching Methods in Information Science," given at the University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia. This model is realized as a combination of a face-to-face environment and online learning, using a proprietary learning management system (LMS) named adaptive hypermedia courseware (AHyCo). AHyCo is based on adaptive hypermedia and in addition to supporting learning and testing, introduces completely new constructivist and cognitivist elements to education. By supporting collaborative and project-oriented activities AHyCo promotes students' motivation for learning and establishes learning as an active and interactive process. This paper describes both the technology for, and the methodological approach to, course design and development which is aimed at supporting the evolution from traditional teaching to active learning, and raising interest in the topics of e-learning and Web courseware development among IT students. A survey conducted in the end of the course showed that students were satisfied with the pedagogical approach, and their academic achievements were also better than expected. Particularly important is that the dropout rate was greatly diminished, which could be related to students' satisfaction with the support they received from the instructor and the system. (Contains 1 table and 7 figures.)

Appropriate design of collaborative learning activities for students using mobile devices can be supported by different forms of scaffolding provided by peers, by the teacher or by the technology. Building on prior studies in mCSCL (mobile computer-supported collaborative learning), we developed Chinese-PP, a novel in-class mobile synchronous collaborative learning game for constructing Chinese characters from components, with the unique characteristic of spontaneous small group formations. In this paper, we propose a distributed scaffolding design framework to guide us in examining and refining/revising the interplay among various forms of scaffolding in the learning model across various design-based research (DBR) cycles of our study on Chinese-PP in a primary school in Singapore. We believe a generalized scaffolding design framework has the potential to inform technology-enhanced learning research with a structure to support the iterative process of enacting and redesigning the socio-techno-pedagogical frameworks developed by individual research projects., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.