Search

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), such as ChatGPT, has taken the world by storm. ChatGPT attracted 1 million users in 5 days and 100 million users in 2 months since its launch in November 2022. In this first article of a two-part series, we discuss the overall dynamic frontier of GenAI, its potential uses and benefits in education, essential abilities in the age of GenAI, and the corresponding issues and concerns of this new technology. In the next article of this series, we will expand upon the discussion of the dynamic frontier of GenAI to examine various aspects related to GenAI in education in international contexts.

The adoption by the African Union of its Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection in 2014 represented a step forward to protect personal data and to ensure that data remain private and secure. This is especially important for students, who often have no autonomy in the educational technology they use. Students cannot choose why data and information is collected, nor how it is used. In this paper, the importance of data privacy in general is explored, along with a particular focus on educational data privacy. The legal implications for the protection of data privacy in Africa are then examined. In addition, the history and features of the African Union's Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection are reviewed. Finally, a summary regarding the areas that must be improved to ensure strong protection of data and privacy to support African students' educational needs is provided.

Open distance e-learning (ODeL) is an essential form of e-learning for students in South Africa. It allows expanded access to higher education for students from rural or socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the key features of ODeL is that students can complete coursework modules virtually, without the need to step onto a physical university campus. Students from rural areas are able to participate in higher education, something they otherwise would not have had access to without ODeL. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), including messaging apps like "WhatsApp," provide students with informal and formal learning opportunities, increase access to academic and community resources, and mitigate some Internet connectivity issues. Students are able to use "WhatsApp" to build connections with students and share class materials, without access to an Internet-connected computer. Using ICTs to enhance access to higher education is one way to bridge the wide socioeconomic gap in South Africa. This paper argues for additional non-Western research on socio-technical marginalization and access to ICTs for students enrolled at higher education institutions in South Africa.

This quantitative study examined self-efficacy as a factor in teachers' technology use and integration efforts in urban K-12 classroom settings of 327 Catholic school teachers in Southern California. This study employed an online survey that utilized the Technology Integration Confidence Scale (TICS) version 3, an instrument developed by the first author which is aligned to the ISTE (2017) Standards for Educators, and found that, on average, participating teachers had a fair level of confidence (i.e., they are fairly but not highly confident) in both using and integrating technology (M = 3.2, SD = 0.73). Accordingly, the study established participating teachers' level of confidence in using and applying technology through sustained continuous professional development intervention as a key implication that influenced teachers' self-efficacy in leveraging technology for professional practice.

While some research suggests South Korea has fallen behind other developed nations with regard to publishing and using serious games in the classroom, Korean interest in video games remains extremely high. Due to a number of cultural, social, and technological factors, esports was primed to become a significant force in Korean culture and received significant support from the Ministry of Culture. The Korean Ministry of Education, meanwhile, is resistant to adopting educational games as a part of its accepted pedagogy. This resistance has created a significant gap between the interest in video games as a learning tool and that of video games as an industry and career path in Korea. While a number of factors play a role in the languishing serious games market, based on evidence analyzed through educational gaming literature it is unlikely educational gaming will be able to significantly advance without the support of the primary governing body controlling educational policy.

Designing experiential learning activities requires an instructor to think about what they want the students to learn. Using importance-performance analysis can assist with the instructional design of the activities. This exploratory study used importance-performance analysis in an online introduction to criminology course. There is limited research on experiential learning in online courses as well as empirical data to assist with the instructional design of the experiential learning activities. The primary goal of this article is to demonstrate the use of importance- performance analysis to guide the instructional design of experiential learning activities. [Paper presented at the Special Interest Group on Online Teaching and Learning (SIG-OTL), American Educational Research Association (AERA) Centennial Annual Meeting (100th, Washington, D.C., April 8-12, 2016).]

Since Taiwans age-friendly city (AFC) program was launched in 2012, the central government has provided various resources to the countrys 22 local authorities, including budgetary support, policy advocacy, and consultation from a team of experts. This study examines stakeholder perspectives on the process, performance, and outcome of the AFC program. A 53-item questionnaire was developed based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline, including mechanisms and processes (20 items), outcome evaluations (23 items), and resource integration (10 items). There was a great difference found among scores between facilitators and experts for inter-exchange experience with local and international cities (40%) and monitor and revise indicators (37%) in mechanisms and processes, evaluate performance of indicators and action plans (37%) in outcome evaluations, and interaction between government and community (46%) and interaction between civil organization and senior society (39%) in resource integration. Clearly, facilitators showed overly optimistic assessments in AFC mechanisms and processes, outcome evaluation, and resource integration. The results showed disconnect between experts expectations versus actual practice conducted by facilitators. Implications of these findings are to integrate top down expectations with the realities of bottom up practice to design more realistic evaluations; continue to educate stakeholders about design, implementation and evaluation; and further integrate resources from government, civil organizations, and community.

STEM major students often enter colleges with a need to strengthen their foundational mathematics, such as trigonometry. We designed an innovative undergraduate course that aims to strengthen students' trigonometry knowledge application through programming mobile apps. We explored how students applied trigonometry concepts in developing their mobile apps and their overall experiences in this course. We found that the student-developed mobile apps included some combination of the following categories: quiz, game, and review guide for trigonometry learning, while trigonometry was applied in the mobile apps' codes and/or in the apps' content. Overall, students were very positive about their experiences of reviewing, revisiting, and utilizing trigonometry through programming mobile apps. The results suggest that the innovative curricular approach is promising in motivating students to apply foundational mathematics while solving design problems.

Peer feedback affords interaction and critical thinking opportunities for learners in online courses. However, various factors prevent learners from taking advantage of these promising benefits. This study explored learners' perceptions of the interpersonal factors in a role-playing peer-feedback activity, and examined the types of peer feedback that learners generated when playing a role. Participants were 16 graduate students engaged in an online role-playing peer-feedback activity. The results from survey responses revealed learners' positive interpersonal beliefs, including psychological safety and trust, toward the role-playing peer-feedback activity. In addition, more than sixty percent of the participants reported being more comfortable critiquing peers' work when playing a role. The content analysis of the peer-feedback entries indicated that learners were able to generate highly constructive feedback entries. In addition to adding supportive comments, those feedback entries identified problems, asked questions, and provided suggestions. The results show that role-play strategy has great potential to enhance learners' interpersonal beliefs in peer-feedback activity and their feedback quality.

360-degree video (or 360° video) is recorded in an omnidirectional form so that viewers can look in any direction while the video plays. Interest in the application of 360° video has been emerging along with the advancement of lower cost technologies and increase in online video content. Little is known about trends in the emerging research for 360° video. A scoping review was conducted through a systematic process to identify trends in peer-reviewed research journal articles. A sample of 12 articles were identified as meeting the research criteria. Findings illuminate the extent and nature of research on educational 360° video along with the benefits and drawbacks for learning. The results show how 360° video was used in nine different content areas to promote immersive learning through virtual reality. Learners indicated enjoyment with the experience of learning with 360° VR video, but the results were mixed regarding the impact on learning.

Despite the high demand of careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, the extent and access to focused K-12 STEM education varies across the country. K-12 school libraries with their democratization of resources including both high- and low-/no- tech equipment can fill gaps by implementing makerspaces in the school library to provide and promote STEM learning and inquiry. This paper explores the use of K-12 school library makerspaces for the purpose of implementing design learning as a way to integrate these subject areas and provide hands-on STEM learning opportunities for students through making. Librarians facilitate such initiatives and collaborate with content area teachers to meet students' needs for STEM.

Mobile learning has become increasingly popular in the past decade due to the unprecedented technological affordances achieved through the advancement of mobile computing, which makes ubiquitous and situated learning possible. At the same time, there have been research and implementation projects whose efforts centered on developing mobile learning experiences for various learners' profiles, accompanied by the development of models and frameworks for designing mobile learning experiences. This paper focuses on categorizing and synthesizing models and frameworks targeted specifically on mobile learning. A total of 17 papers were reviewed, and the models or frameworks were divided into five categories and discussed: 1) pedagogies and learning environment design; 2) platform/system design; 3) technology acceptance; 4) evaluation; and 5) psychological construct. This paper provides a review and synthesis of the models/frameworks. The categorization and analysis can also help inform evaluation, design, and development of curriculum and environments for meaningful mobile learning experiences for learners of various demographics.

Along with advancing mobile technologies and proliferating mobile devices and applications, mobile learning research has gained great momentum in recent years. While there have been review articles summarizing past research, studies identifying mobile learning research priorities based on experts' latest insights have been lacking. This study employed the Delphi method to obtain a consensus from experts about areas that are most in need of research in mobile learning. An international expert panel participated in a three-round Delphi process involving two cycles of online questionnaires and feedback reports. Participants responded to the question, "What should be the research priorities for the field of mobile learning over the next 5 years?" Ten research categories were identified and ranked in order of priority: 1) teaching and learning strategies; 2) affordances; 3) theory; 4) settings of learning; 5) evaluation/assessment; 6) learners; 7) mobile technologies and interface design; 8) context awareness and augmented reality; 9) infrastructure and management; and 10) country and digital divide. This study also reported expert-generated research statements for each research category and the importance of these research statements rated by the experts themselves. Selected research papers were summarized to help contextualize the discussions of research categories and statements.

First conceived as spaces stocked with D.I.Y. tools and materials for community members to join together in the activity of making, makerspaces have begun popping up in schools, libraries, universities and museums across the world. The maker mindset summarizes the ideology of the maker movement--a set of values predicated on making, sharing, learning and playing. Through a critical review of research and practices of makerspaces in the U.S., Singapore, China and Ghana, this paper explores the respective national discourses surrounding the maker movement and maker education. By revealing some of the ways that the values have been embraced, reinterpreted, remixed or rejected as the movement has gained global momentum, this paper intends to establish a greater appreciation for the diversity and complexity of the maker movement and maker education in the global context. Ultimately, this complex, multifaceted remixing reveals a deeper understanding of why the movement has been or may be embraced by diverse nations across the globe.

Since 2006, there has been an ever-increasing momentum in computational thinking educational policy initiatives (CTEPI) across the globe. In this paper, the representative CT educational policy initiatives viewed through the lens of international perspectives and cultural contexts were examined, compared and discussed. Reports, white papers, and policy documents were widely explored, selected through established criteria, and eventually analyzed by the research team. It was found that CTEPI has two characteristics--diverse CT terminology and diverse current status across the globe. Also, curriculum reform and enrichment programs represented two major approaches for CTEPI across the globe. Finally, four development trends emerged from an analysis of CT education policies and initiatives: collaboration and partnerships across sectors and national boundaries, rationales taking a broad perspective and referring to common themes, a redefinition of digital competence, and an emphasis on broadening access and interest.

This research explored how educators with limited programming experiences learned to design mobile apps through peer support and instructor guidance. Educators were positive about the sense of community in this online course. They also considered App Inventor a great web-based visual programming tool for developing useful and fully functioning mobile apps. They had great sense of empowerment through developing unique apps by using App Inventor. They felt their own design work and creative problem solving were inspired by the customized mobile apps shared by peers. The learning activities, including sharing customized apps, providing peer feedback, composing design proposals, and keeping design journals (blogging), complemented each other to support a positive sense of community and form a strong virtual community of learning mobile app design. This study helped reveal the educational value of mobile app design activities and the web-based visual programming tool, and the possibility of teaching/learning mobile app design online. The findings can also encourage educators to explore and experiment on the potential of incorporating these design learning activities in their respective settings, and to develop mobile apps for their diverse needs in teaching and learning.

This research applied a mixed-method design to explore how best to promote learning in authentic contexts in an online graduate course in instructional message design. The students used Twitter apps on their mobile devices to collect, share, and comment on authentic design examples found in their daily lives. The data sources included tweets (i.e., postings on Twitter), students' perceptions about mobile microblogging activities, and self-reported Twitter usage. Based on the tweet analysis, we found that the students appropriately applied the design principles and design terms in their critique of design examples. While the students were mainly engaged in assignment-relevant activities, they spontaneously generated social tweets as they related peers' authentic design examples to their own life experiences. Overall, they had positive perceptions toward the mobile microblogging activities. The students also indicated that the design examples shared by peers through mobile microblogging inspired their own message design work. We synthesized instructional design suggestions and challenges for educators interested in incorporating mobile microblogging in their instructional settings. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the opportunities for developing computational thinking in young learners. It includes a review of empirical studies on the educational technologies used to develop computational thinking in young learners, and analyses and descriptions of a selection of commercially available technologies for developing computational thinking in young learners. The challenges and implications of using these technologies also are discussed.

Effective online teaching requires instructors to develop knowledge and new skills conducive to creating meaningful and successful learning experiences for online students. This exploratory case study examined 34 prospective online instructors' reflections on their development of online teaching expertise at the end of a graduate course. We analyzed participants' written reflections for their developed understanding of online teaching. We presented and discussed three major themes: (1) Perceptions of online instructors' roles; (2) Development of pedagogical and technological knowledge; (3) Shifting from online learners' perspectives to online instructors' perspectives. These themes represented the major patterns revealed in the prospective online instructors' reflections, showing the areas of expertise they had developed in the class. We also provided implications for programs to develop online instructors and directions for future research.

This research explored how K-16 educators learned physical computing, and developed as maker-educators in an online graduate course. With peer support and instructor guidance, these educators designed maker projects using Scratch and Makey Makey, and developed educational maker proposals with plans of teaching the topics of their choice in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) through physical computing. Educators were positive about the real-world impact of their course maker projects and experiences, and highly valued the support and sense of maker community in this online course.

This research identifies six online course evaluation instruments used nationally or in statewide systems. We examined the characteristics (i.e., number of standards and criteria) and coded the criteria that guide the design of online courses. We discussed the focus of the instruments and their unique features.

Educational robotics has been adopted to create interactive and engaging learning environments to develop computational thinking (CT) in K-12 learners. This study systematically examined 22 peer-reviewed empirical research articles on the use of educational robotics to develop CT in young learners (pre-kindergarten to 6th grade) published between 2012 and 2021. The findings revealed that using robotics activities to develop CT has mostly been studied in the formal education settings with the duration of robotics curricular activities ranging from 80 minutes to 24 hours. The five CT skills studied most often include Sequencing, Conditionals, Loops, Debugging, and Algorithmic Thinking. The different versions of LEGO Mindstorms are the most frequently adopted robotic kits in the examined studies. The most frequently adopted learning and instructional strategies in the robotics activities include collaborative learning, project-based learning, and embodied learning. This paper identified and discussed developmentally appropriated CT skills, robotics kits, and pedagogical approaches suitable for supporting CT development in young learners. The findings can guide educators and instructional designers for future robotics activity design and development endeavors. This paper also identified gaps in the current research and recommended directions for advancing research in adopting robotics to develop CT in young learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this scoping review is to synthesize knowledge of gamified online course design processes and practices extracted from the peer-reviewed research literature. The scoping review followed a systematic process involving five main stages: (a) identifying research questions, (b) identifying relevant studies, (c) study selection, (d) charting the data, and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. A total of 58 studies, published from 2013 through 2021 were included in this review. Five focus areas of gamified online course design were identified that include gamification elements, activities, tools, frameworks, and user attributes. The well-known ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) framework was used as a conceptual lens through which gamified online course design processes were considered. This scoping review addresses a gap in the knowledge base by aggregating and interpreting current gamified online course design practices through the common language of a well-known instructional design framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide an overview of the current efforts in maker education, supported by a review of empirical studies. Our synthesis will inform the community about learning outcomes, potential and common issues, challenges, resources, and future research direction regarding maker education.

Post-secondary education is expected to substantially contribute to the cognitive growth and professional achievement of students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, there is limited understanding of how students studying STEM develop a professional identity. We used the lens of self-authorship to develop a model for STEM student professional identity development. We applied the model to frame our assessment of the relationship between the level of STEM students' perceptions of their professional identities and their educational experiences, learning preferences, and comfort with faculty interactions. We found a misalignment between students' perception of themselves as professionals and the expectations for their actions in professional situations. We also found that students engaged in learning activities similar to the activities of STEM professionals communicated higher levels of professional identity development. We provide implications for our research and directions for ongoing investigations.

Most studies on technology integration in mathematics education are focused on teachers' perceptions or students' academic achievement. However, it is necessary to learn how students perceive their learning in this environment. This basic qualitative study focuses on students' experiences with 1:1 computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in an Algebraic Reasoning classroom. One hundred high school students were invited to participate in this study, nine primarily male students volunteered to share their experiences. We found that students perceived the environment to (1) be user-friendly, (2) provide a enjoyable experience, (3) support their learning, (4) provide multiple ways to learn, (5) allow them to "see" the concepts, (6) make previous interactions accessible, and (7) provide passive feedback [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shipowners, whether chartering out ships or using ships to carry goods, want their ships to sail safely in accordance with conventions and regulations. Shipowners must constantly maintain and repair the structure, engine and marine equipment of ships to ensure their seaworthiness. All these rely on the assistance of ship classification societies (CLASSs). With their reputation of fairness and profession, CLASSs offer ship surveys and audits to assist shipowners in safely managing their ships. CLASSs also follow current and future shipping development trends and provide international maritime organizations (IMO) and flag states (FLAGs) with information to safely operate ships in an environmentally friendly manner, thereby fulfilling their social responsibility to protect those at sea and the marine environment. This study utilized the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to assess of criteria of CLASSs and also investigated the practices of Taiwanese shipowners. The results revealed that the top three criteria shipowners considered when assessing CLASSs were emergency technical support service and timely response to accidents, membership in international association of classification societies (IACS), and surveyors' adherence to the boarding schedule. A causal relationship diagram indicated CLASS technical ability as a cause dimension and shipowner operation cost as an effect dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied text mining methods to examine the abstracts of 2,997 international research articles published between 2000 and 2010 by six journals included in the Social Science Citation Index in the field of Educational Technology (EDTECH). A total of 19 clusters of research areas were identified, and these clusters were further analyzed in terms of productivity by country and by journal. The analysis revealed research areas with rising trends, stable status, and low attention. This study also identified areas of research emphasis by journal and research strength by country. A discussion of results through the lens of Critical Theory of Technology is also included. The authors hope to inform the EDTECH community about the trends of EDTECH research on topics and regions of research contributions. The authors also believe that such examination of trends can help facilitate fruitful discussions of directions for future research, and possible international collaboration across various geographical regions.

This study investigated an innovative approach of program evaluation through analyses of student learning logs, demographic data, and end-of-course evaluation surveys in an online K-12 supplemental program. The results support the development of a program evaluation model for decision making on teaching and learning at the K-12 level. A case study was conducted with a total of 7,539 students (whose activities resulted in 23,854,527 learning logs in 883 courses). Clustering analysis was applied to reveal students' shared characteristics, and decision tree analysis was applied to predict student performance and satisfaction levels toward course and instructor. This study demonstrated how data mining can be incorporated into program evaluation in order to generate in-depth information for decision making. In addition, it explored potential EDM applications at the K-12 level that have already been broadly adopted in higher education institutions. (Contains 6 figures and 4 tables.)

This paper synthesis's three theoretical perspectives, including sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, and situated cognition, into a framework to guide the design and assessment of Web 2.0 practices in higher education. In addition, this paper presents a case study of Web 2.0 practices. Thirty-seven online graduate students participated in a small-group collaborative concept mapping activity using Web 2.0 applications (e.g. "Webspiration") to construct sophisticated understanding of instructional design processes. The analysis of this case focuses on different assessment strategies adopted to ensure students' successful participation in such technology-rich collaborative context. This case study concludes that a shared goal needs to be in place to establish a purpose of collaboration. The collaborative nature of learning afforded by Web 2.0 applications needs to be acknowledged through the award of grades. That is, both the processes and products of collaborative knowledge construction need to be assessed and formally graded at individual and group levels. This paper also suggests several potential assessment strategies that may enhance smoother Web 2.0 practices, and discusses some possible challenges associated with those strategies. (Contains 3 figures.)

The purpose of this study was to examine whether matching navigation mode of a learning environment with learners' preferred navigation mode would facilitate their learning in a web environment. Sixty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to treatments (linear vs. nonlinear navigation mode) and received four criterion tests designed to measure different educational objectives immediately after interacting with the instructional material about human heart. The results suggested that matching or mismatching navigation mode of the learning environment with learners' preference did not lead to significant differences in learning outcomes. However, there were significant differences in achievement between groups with different navigation mode preferences. Our findings indicated that students preferring nonlinear navigation had significantly higher achievement scores on higher levels of learning outcomes. Based on the results of the study, we discussed specific recommendations for instructional designers and the issue concerning matching/mismatching navigation modes with learning preferences. (Contains 3 tables and 7 figures.)

This phenomenological study explored 5 undergraduate students' experiences in a Web-based general science course through the lens of social cognitive theory. Thematic analysis was used to examine their self-regulated learning (SRL). Our findings revealed that the participants exerted a variety of SRL strategies in the Web-based learning environment (WBLE) with the facilitation from instructional elements and strategies: planning with the online calendar, monitoring progress with the online gradebook, and sustaining motivation with instructor's virtual presence via multimedia capability of the WBLE. They were also able to adapt to the WBLE by adjusting their study routines, note-taking strategies, and seeking help to succeed in this Web-based course. Design implications were provided based on our findings in this research. (Contains 1 table.)

This study investigated graduate students gender-specific preferences for certain website interface design features, intending to generate useful information for instructors in choosing and for website designers in creating educational websites. The features investigated in this study included colour value, major navigation buttons placement, and navigation mode. In this study, 56 graduate students in a north-eastern research university in the US volunteered to evaluate 30 pairs of web page screenshots or website prototypes, and to indicate on the questionnaires their preferences within each pair of prototype. Each participant's preferences for the three features were coded and categorised for chi-square tests of independence to determine the relationships between gender and the investigated design features. The findings of gender effects on graduate students preferences for the afore mentioned features were presented and discussed.