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In recent years more and more people use their mobile phones daily for work or entertainment. The increasing use of mobile devices has led researchers to seek new ways of learning with their support, beyond the confines of formal education. The increasing computing power of mobile devices has contributed to the emergence of new, rapidly evolving technologies, with augmented reality (AR) applications being at the forefront of these developments. This article provides a literature review of AR applications for mobile devices related to informal education. It analyses their structural elements to examine if they exploit powerful features such as collaboration and content modification, as well as storytelling potentials. The findings show that most of these applications use those learning affordances only to a very limited extent, as they are mainly designed for individual usage, do not allow user-originated contribution to the digital material, and do not incorporate elements of any storytelling model.

Over the past decade, the assessment of the general educational value of computer programming and computational thinking has been constantly increasing and, as a result, they are introduced to increasingly younger ages. In parallel, educational programming environments are significantly progressing, providing a variety of options for different ages. This paper presents an overview of the modern learning programming environments for primary education and proposes a classification system with categories corresponding to the technological and educational dimensions of the area. The paper aims to support teachers in learning design for the interdisciplinary approach of programming and the development of computational thinking.

This paper presents empirical research results regarding the impact of Interaction Analysis (IA) graphs on groups of students collaborating through online blogging according to a "learning by design" scenario. The IA graphs used are of two categories; the first category summarizes quantitatively the activity of the users for each blog, hence permitting the comparison of the students' activity level in a group, while the second category allows the comparison among different groups. The statistical analysis of the students' interactions shows the significant impact of the graphs presence based on the number of posts and comments produced by the groups. Furthermore, the graphs of the first category (intra-group IA) have stronger impact than the graphs of the second (intergroup IA). The results support the general claim that interaction analysis is an important component of self-regulation in computer supported collaborative learning environments. In addition the research conclusion suggests that collaborative learning by design is an effective model especially when combined with interaction analysis tools.

Computer based Interaction Analysis (IA) for the support of the participants' self-regulation in technology based learning activities (individualised or social) is a new direction of research that has emerged during the last years. Its main purpose is to offer a cognitive and metacognitive support to learning environment participants (e.g. students, moderators, teachers) as well as to observers of those activities (e.g. teachers, researchers), who need to analyze and understand the complex cognitive and social phenomena that may occur. The core aim is to offer directly to human actors the means (usually via visualized representations of appropriate IA indicators) so as to be aware of and regulate their behaviour, either as individuals or as cognitive groups. The paper introduces this research direction, presenting its achievements via the features of IA tools, a synthesis of their actual usages, as well as a brief research roadmap regarding the design of these tools. Finally, a discussion on the perspectives of IA for self-regulation concludes the paper.

The paper presents a case study of the educational exploitation of group blogging for the implementation of a "learning by design" activity. More specifically, a group of students used a blog as a communication and information management tool in the University course of ICT-enhanced Geometry learning activities. The analysis of the designed learning activities, the blog content and log files, as well as the points of view of the students (via a questionnaire and a group interview) expressed upon completion of the activity gives significant findings supporting the researchers' initial hypotheses about the potential of blogs' educational applications. Blogs combined with a proper pedagogical approach such as "learning by design" enable teachers to offer high quality learning experiences to their students. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

A distance learning educational program for in-service teachers from disperse islands was implemented in Greece. The program was designed to create and sustain a learning community within which learning would be achieved in both a formal manner (by implementing electronically supported courses) and an informal manner (through interaction and collaboration). During the implementation of the program, a case study was produced which focused on the analysis of the learning community that was created. In this paper analysis results are presented indicating how the learning community was created and how it evolved. In order to thoroughly analyze the learning community, appropriate tools and methods of analysis were used and are presented. These tools were also used for self-regulation. The outcomes of this program demonstrated some positive results. (Contains 4 figures.)

NIKOLAOS K. TSELIOS (1) NIKOLAOS M. AVOURIS (1) ANGELIQUE DIMITRACOPOULOU (2) SOPHIA DASKALAKI (1) Experimental results of usability evaluation of a distance learning system are presented in this article. An […]

Byline: Angelique Dimitracopoulou, Vassilis Komis The aim of the paper is to present and discuss the main design concepts and principles, for a collaborative modelling environment for sciences addressed to young students 1116 years old. The main issues under discussion concern central design questions such as: what must the main modelling primitives be when addressing young students belonging to a wide range of cognitive possibilities? In what specific ways can we support students' reasoning offering multiple representations? How can we ensure flexible collaboration and how can we support related needs in a community level? Furthermore, how can we support self-regulation and metacognitive development for students and how can we support teachers when working in typical school conditions? This paper, which focuses on the design principles, briefly presents the derived developed tools and functionalities of a collaborative modelling environment (MODELLINGSPACE), while citing the main research results found during the design-development process.

Databases are general purpose modeling environments that enable problem solving using conceptual frameworks closer to the solver and the problem than the machine architecture. Databases design introduction in the curricula of secondary education programs raises educational research questions and research questions concern the didactics of the subject as well as the value of database design based learning activities.

The computer-supported collaborative problem solving technique is studied and a collaborative problem solving analysis framework is presented. The focus of the research is on the analysis of problem solving as an educational activity.

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