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The purpose of this study was to analyze how mobile technologies were incorporated and implemented in an outdoor learning activity. Two classes of primary school students participated in the experiment. Using activity theory as an analytical framework, it is found that underlying tensions provided rich insights into system dynamics and that technological affordances could be limited by mismatches between the Tools themselves, and between Tools and the ways that were used by learners or arranged by the instructor. The subtle human factors present in the use of technologies should be carefully considered. The influence of mobile devices on learner experiences in experiential learning is also thoroughly discussed.

This study investigated the effects of engaging students to collectively learn and work with knowledge in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment called Knowledge Forum on their views about knowledge building theory and practice. Participants were 24 teacher-education students who took a required course titled "Integrating Theory and Practice in Teaching." Data mainly came from (1) student discourse recorded in a Knowledge Forum database, (2) a survey that examined students' views about knowledge building, and (3) interviews with regard to students' perceived barriers to implementing knowledge building theory in teaching. Findings suggest that with sustained discourse to construct their collective understanding of the relationships between theory and practice in teaching for a semester, the participants were able to attain more informed and practical views about knowledge building theory. In addition, students' perceived barriers to implementing knowledge building in teaching were identified and strategies to help overcome these barriers discussed.

This paper studies the social talk of high school students in online discussion forums. On-task talk has generally been assessed as valuable discussion because it contributes directly to productive learning. Off-task conversation, on the other hand, is often regarded as useless and a waste of time. Should this social talk indeed be regarded as an off-task activity? Is social talk such as greeting, excusing, comforting and sharing personal feelings irrelevant to learning? This study analyzes threads and argues that social talk is interwoven with on-task talk. It is interesting to note that a substantial quantity of off-task messages served the latent function of guiding group discussion toward making progress in solving collaborative problems in a subtle and indirect manner. The power of "soft talk" embedded in off-task social conversation is explored and fully discussed.

Utilizing an integration of social-cognitivist and socio-cultural approaches, this study--comparing the interactive processes among peers and their mentor in two contrasting groups--was designed to explore the reasons why two learning groups, engaged in an inquiry-based learning project with comparatively sustained discussion, produced vastly differing results. Using discourse threads as the unit of analysis, together with the mentor's perceptions of group facilitation, the findings of this study highlighted the effect of group dynamics upon the mentor's facilitation. Group interaction with explicit and decisive discourse will result in a better understanding for the mentor of the group's zones of proximal development (different ZPDs), and will provide greater opportunity for effective group scaffolding.

This study designed a system and a flow of learning to motivate and guide students to conduct experiential learning with mobile technologies. Students from two classes of fifth-grade at an elementary school participated in the experiment. Thirty-four students from one class conducted learning with PDAs in school garden while thirty-two students from another class conducted in a condition without PDAS. The data shows the advantage of using mobile technologies for the acquisition of knowledge. Most of our hypotheses are confirmed in the study. These findings show just how important mobile technology is in helping to improve the learning achievement of experiential learning. Keywords: mobile technology, experiential learning, mobile learning, instructional design, 1. INTRODUCTION From the viewpoint of education, mobile technology can be viewed as a service or facility that supplies a learner with general electronic information and educational content, and aids [...]