The key idea of the book is that scientific and practical advances can be obtained if researchers working in traditions that have been assumed to be mutually incompatible make a real effort to engage in dialogue with each other, comparing and contrasting their understandings of a given phenomenon and how these different understandings can either complement or mutually elaborate on each other. This key idea applies to many fields, particularly in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as education and computer science. The book shows how we have achieved this by presenting our study of collaborative learning during the course of a four-year project. Through a series of five workshops involving dozens of researchers, the 37 editors and authors involved in this project studied and reported on collaborative learning, technology enhanced learning, and cooperative work. The authors share an interest in understanding group interactions, but approach this topic from a variety of traditional disciplinary homes and theoretical and methodological traditions. This allows the book to be of use to researchers in many different fields and with many different goals and agendas.

Distance learning has existed in some form for centuries, but modern technologies have allowed students and teachers to connect directly, no matter what their location, using the internet and mobile devices. Mobile Pedagogy and Perspectives on Teaching and Learning explores the tools and techniques that enable educators to leverage wireless applications and social networks to improve learning outcomes and provide creative ways to increase access to educational resources. This publication is designed to help educators and students at every level optimise the use of mobile learning resources to enhance educational experience and improve the effectiveness of the learning process regardless of physical location.

This book introduces new concepts and mechanisms regarding the usage of both social media interactions and artifacts for peer education in digital educational games. Digital games in general, and digital educational games in particular, represent an area with a high potential for interdisciplinary innovation, not only from an information technology standpoint, but also from social science, psychological and didactic perspectives. This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to educational games, which is centered on information technology and aims at: (1) improving digital management by focusing on the exchange of learning outcomes and solution assessment in a peer-to-peer network of learners; (2) achieving digital implementation by using forms of interaction to change the course of educational games; and (3) providing digital support by fostering group-formation processes in educational situations to increase both the effects of educational games and knowledge exchange at the individual level. In addition to a systematic analysis of the relationship between software architecture, educational games and social media applications, the book also presents the implemented IT systems' architectures and algorithmic solutions as well as the resulting applicable evaluation findings from the field of interactive multimedia learning.

Competencies in Organizational E-Learning: Concepts and Tools provides a comprehensive view of the way competencies can be used to drive organizational e-learning, including the main conceptual elements, competency gap analysis, advanced related computing topics, the application of semantic Web technologies, and the integration of competencies with current e-learning standards. ""Competencies in Organizational E-Learning: Concepts and Tools"" is the first book to address competencies as a key observable workplace behavior, driving learning and knowledge dissemination processes inside organizations. This book works as a guide for implementing or improving competency-based approaches to e-learning.

The proper exploitation of Web-based technologies towards building responsive environments is highly critical. Novel Developments in Web-Based Learning Technologies: Tools for Modern Teaching addresses diverse conceptual, social, and technical issues in the modern era's broad learning and teaching concepts. This significant reference provides professionals, researchers, and practitioners with up-to-date research in developing innovative and more effective learning systems by using Web-based technologies.

Problem-based Learning (PBL) has been the focus of many developments in teaching and learning facilitation in recent years. It has been claimed that PBL produces independent learners who are motivated, engaged in deep learning, work as a team, and develop effective strategies, skills and knowledge for life-long learning and professional work. ""Technology and Problem-Based Learning"" is aimed at educators who may be considering introducing PBL and need to know what it involves, its benefits and the practical details of how to implement it. ""Technology and Problem-Based Learning"" provides practical advice, grounded in research and experience to enable tutors to introduce PBL quickly and effectively. It also covers major issues including rationale for PBL, how to write effective problems, preparing students and tutors, being an effective facilitator, assessing students, dealing with problems, using IT.

Educational informatics represents the convergence of key aspects of information science, computing, and education while exploiting Web-based techniques and standards. This book provides a rigorous definition of and theoretical framework for educational informatics, while relating to the human aspects of educational information systems. Web-Based Learning Through Educational Informatics: Information Science Meets Educational Computing explores the role of information seeking and retrieval in the development of information systems to support personalized and autonomous learning by introducing key concepts from information science.

To meet the dynamic academic demands of twenty-first century digital learners, many institutions of higher learning are offering more online classes than ever before that are accessible to both traditional and non-traditional learners. As such, a growing demand for online courses implies that participating institutions provide faculty with appropriate professional development programs to ensure the design and delivery of quality online courses. The Handbook of Research on Virtual Training and Mentoring of Online Instructors is a critical scholarly resource that highlights the issues, challenges, and online engagement experiences to enhance effective teaching and learning in this learning environment. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as media literacy, professional development, and virtual learning environments, this book is geared towards educational administrators, educators, and instructional designers interested in quality online instruction.

Educational strategies have evolved over the years, due to research breakthroughs and the application of technology. By using the latest learning innovations, curriculum and instructional design can be enhanced and strengthened. The Handbook of Research on Driving STEM Learning With Educational Technologies is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the implementation and use of different techniques of instruction in modern classroom settings. Featuring exhaustive coverage on a variety of topics including data literacy, student motivation, and computer-aided assessment, this resource is an essential reference publication ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and professionals seeking current research on emerging uses of technology for STEM education.

This second edition is a practical, easy-to-read resource on web-based learning. The book ably and clearly equips readers with strategies for designing effective online courses, creating communities of web-based learners, and implementing and evaluating based on an instructional design framework. Case example, case studies, and discussion questions extend readers skills, inspire discussion, and encourage readers to explore the trends and issues related to online instructional design and delivery.

This book introduces readers to the current status of smart learning in China by providing extensive and accurate data from different contexts of smart learning. In particular, it investigates smart learning in smart cities, which extends the concept of smart learning to cover both formal and informal learning, and to support life-long learning. With digital technologies and the Internet becoming increasingly integrated into learning, the demand for smart learning has grown steadily, especially in smart city scenarios. As the need for life-long learning is on the rise, smart learning environments in cities should be equipped to meet people's demands. Smart learning/education is also one of the key applications of smart cities. Though the book's content mainly focuses on the educational technology field, research in cities and industries is also included. This book offers a valuable resource for graduate students in educational technology, smart learning environment and smart city researchers, cooperative university managers, and all others who are interested in smart learning industries.

Student engagement relies on the students and their willingness to participate in the learning process and can be enhanced through the application of various technologies within learning environments. However, strategies for implementing these technologies need research and development to be implemented effectively. The Handbook of Research on Fostering Student Engagement With Instructional Technology in Higher Education is a comprehensive academic publication that focuses on the engagement of learners with academics in higher education and especially how this engagement can be fostered with the integration of new technologies. Featuring an array of topics such as gamification, digital literacy, and social networking, this book is ideal for instructors, educators, administrators, curriculum developers, instructional designers, IT consultants, educational software developers, researchers, academicians, and students.

"The complementary areas of comparative, international and development education occupy a critical part of the landscape in educational policy debates in a global context. This volume brings together a distinguished group of international scholars and practitioners who focus on key policy issues in a variety of national settings throughout the regions of Asia/Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Latin America. The topics they address are critical for the future of education in a globalized context and include issues such as social justice, quality assurance, governance, access and equity, marketization, and the role of new media and technology among others. Representing both theoretical and practical approaches to these topics this volume illuminates the many challenges facing education for the twenty-first century learner"-- Provided by publisher.

Empowerment is the overarching idea used in this book. The term has a variety of meanings in different sociocultural and political contexts, including "self-strength, control, self-power, self-reliance, own choice, life of dignity in accordance with one's values, capable of fighting for one's rights, independence, own decision making, being free, awakening, and capability" (The World Bank, 2002, p. 10). However, the World Bank report observed that most definitions focus on issues of "gaining power and control over decisions and resources that determine the quality of one's life" (p. 10). This interpretation of empowerment provides a useful starting point for the development of the series of interconnected arguments explored here. Establishment of the basis for understanding, identifying and developing strategies through education necessary for individuals to be able to make choices that inf- ence the quality of their lives is the main aim of this book. There are a number of assumptions and boundaries that frame this analysis. First, the book focuses on "agents"; however, empowerment is often conceptualised in terms of relationships between agency and structure (e. g. , Alsop, Bertelsen, & H- land, 2006). Agency could be defined as "an actor's or group's ability to make purposeful choices - that is, the actor is able to envisage and purposively choose options" (p. 11).

There can be no doubt that mobile technologies are here to stay. Global mobile traffic grew 74 percent in 2015 alone, with 563 million devices and connections added -- most of them tablets and Smartphones. This growth has been 4000-fold in the past 10 years and 400 million-fold in the past 15 years (Cisco, 2016). Mobile technologies permeate the lives of 21st century citizens as mainstays of organizational and institutional day-to-day operations, commerce, and communication and as tools used to support individuals' personal, social, and career responsibilities. In both the corporate and educational worlds, e- and m-learning and marketing with mobile technologies are moving forward at breakneck speed with, in many cases, a blurring of traditional sector boundaries. As neither the technology nor the uses are static, exploring practices and policies that underpin this quickly shifting mobile technology context is crucial for ensuring its intelligent, purposeful, and equitable use. This edited book provides a venue for researchers to share their work on mobile learning with a focus on uses for mobiles in informal settings and PK-20 classrooms, language learning, mobile gaming, leadership and policy issues, and what mobile learning in the future may be. It assists researchers and educators to consider and answer questions such as: What is "mobilelearning" today? How can mobiles be used to enable learning? How is mobile learning crossing or connecting economic, social, and/or cultural sectors? How do specific cultural practices with media influence mobile learning (e.g., youth practices, educator practices, parent practices, community practices)? What are policy and leadership implications in supporting mobile learning? What policies, practices, and/or pedagogical approaches are necessary to move forward with mobiles in schools or universities? In what ways is mobile learning impacting education; including how students learn and teachers teach? What will/ should/might mobile learning look like in the future?

Over the past decades a new form of professionalism has emerged, characterized by factors of fluidity, instability and continual change, leading to the necessitation of new forms of professional development that support agile and flexible expansion of professional practice. At the same time, the digitization of work has had a profound effect on professional practice. This digitization opens up opportunities for new forms of professional learning mediated by technologies through networked learning. Networked learning is believed to lead to a more efficient flow of complex knowledge and routine information within the organization, stimulate innovative behaviour, and result in a higher job satisfaction. In this respect, networked learning can be perceived as an important perspective on both professional and organizational development. This volume provides examples of Networked Professional Learning, it questions the impact of this emerging form of learning on the academy, and it interrogates the impact on teachers of the future. It features three sections that explore networked professional learning from different perspectives: questioning what legitimate forms of networked professional learning are across a broad sampling of professions, how new forms of professional learning impact institutions of higher education, and the value creation that Networked Learning offers professionals in broader educational, economic, and social contexts. The book is of interest to researchers in the area of professional and digital learning, higher education managers, organizational HR professionals, policy makers and students of technology enhanced learning.

In this book, we put forward a holistic conceptual framework for implementing Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) in higher education. Unlike previous SoLT studies, which usually focus on a specific aspect, here various aspects are integrated into a holistic framework. Further, it identifies three main stakeholders, namely, the higher education institution, teaching staff, and students. These stakeholders are in turn connected by four interlocking themes: staff professional development, enhancement of student learning experiences, assessment, and digital technologies. Presenting chapters that address these four themes, this book supports the advancement of SoLT in higher education in relation to existing theories and emerging practices. By helping academics and leaders in higher education to implement SoLT for the improvement of student learning and teaching practices, it also makes a valuable contribution to the field of teacher education.

This book presents a challenging and multi-faceted research project that required state-of-the-art methodological approaches. The project involved analyzing data collected from 10,000 research articles published in ten leading journals in the area of educational technology over 20 years, from January 1994 to December 2014; advanced analytic approaches such as latent semantic analysis; and expert insights and interpretations of the subject matter. It captures the trends in a number of research streams within the discipline of educational technology and identifies the point in time when a massive change took place. This is a significant achievement given that, in epistemology and philosophy of science, there have always been discussions of paradigm shifts, but researchers have always identified them qualitatively. This is the first work to identify a paradigm shift using rigorous quantitative methods. The analysis procedure involved big data and sophisticated analysis, which supported the identification of clusters at several breakpoints from which the richest set was selected in order to provide the most detailed analysis. This comprehensive analysis also shows what has been published and by whom in those ten top-tier journals. This work makes a highly significant contribution to the field of learning technologies and provides the groundwork and a significant data source for other scholars, both new and experienced, to build on and expand in their work.

Technology use has become increasingly popular in education. Due to cultural influences and access issues, advances in digital teaching and learning in Chinese education have been slow; however, certain regions have been able to successfully integrate technology into their curriculum and instruction techniques. Digital Transformation and Innovation in Chinese Education is an essential reference source featuring the latest scholarly research on utilizing technology in Chinese learning and instruction, and it provides insights to classroom transformations within the context of Chinese culture. Including coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives such as MOOCs, blended learning, and e-learning, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on technological innovation in Chinese education.

Learning Analytics become the key for Personalised Learning and Teaching thanks to the storage, categorisation and smart retrieval of Big Data. Thousands of user data can be tracked online via Learning Management Systems, instant messaging channels, social networks and other ways of communication. Always with the explicit authorisation from the end user, being a student, a teacher, a manager or a persona in a different role, an instructional designer can design a way to produce a practical dashboard that helps him improve that very user's performance, interaction, motivation or just grading. This book provides a thorough approach on how education, as such, from teaching to learning through management, is improved by a smart analysis of available data, making visible and useful behaviours, predictions and patterns that are hinder to the regular eye without the process of massive data.

The Educational Media and Technology Yearbook has become a standard reference in many libraries and professional collections. Examined in relation to its comp- ion volumes of the past, it provides a valuable historical record of current ideas and developments in the ?eld. Part I, "Trends and Issues," presents an array of chapters that develop some of the current themes listed above, in addition to others. Part II, "Library and Information Science," concentrates upon chapters of special relevance to K-12 education, library science education, school learning resources, and various types of library and media centers-school, public, and academic among others. In Part III, "Leadership Pro?les," authors provide biographical sketches of the careers of instructional technology leaders. Part IV, "Organizations and Associations in North America," and Part V, "Graduate Programs in North America," are, resp- tively, directories of instructional technology-related organizations and institutions of higher learning offering degrees in related ?elds. Finally, Part VI, the "Medi- raphy," presents an annotated listing of selected current publications related to the ?eld. For a number of years we have worked together as editors and the sixth with Dr. Michael Orey as the senior editor. Last year as the senior editor, Orey decided to try and come up with a list of the top programs rather than just the list of all the programs. This has proven to be problematic. First of all, bias exists when we are rating a ?eld in which our program is within those to be rated.

This book investigates e-learning practices at American and Australian institutes of higher learning, their status quo, best-practice examples, and remaining issues. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, it combines three studies - two using quantitative methods and a third using qualitative methods - in order to gauge the status quo of e-learning. The first study addresses the dominant cultural dimensions, revealing that the main explanation for the results may be the fact that most suppliers of the Australian university's e-learning system had an East Asian cultural background and predominantly traditional perspectives on learning. In Study 2, the findings indicate that the levels of e-learning practice at the Australian and US universities surveyed were above average, although the American university was ranked higher in terms of e-learning practices. In turn, Study 3 investigates current problems in e-learning practice on the basis of four aspects - pedagogy, culture, technology and e-practice - and determines that cultural sensitivity and effective cultural practices show room for improvement, while key technological challenges and issues like faculty polices, quality, LMS, and online support need to be overcome. In general, the outcomes suggest that it is essential for the Australian university surveyed to further develop and update its e-learning system, especially in terms of e-practice, using the same technologies that pioneering countries like America are employing. Indeed, the combination of adopting patterns successfully used in other countries, and adjusting them to the Australian culture, represents the best strategy for educational decision and policy makers. This book provides the basis for designing a culture-sensitive framework for higher education e-learning practice in American and Australian contexts. Moreover, students' and teachers' experiences with e-learning in a comparative higher education context can help higher education instructors and university managers to understand how e-learning relates to, and can be integrated with, other experiences of learning and teaching.

Technology has broadened learning opportunities for students in the modern age. No longer limited by proximity and location, learners can utilize online education environments to attain their advanced degrees. Optimizing Open and Distance Learning in Higher Education Institutions is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on the development of e-learning programs and other technologies in university settings. Highlighting numerous topics such as quality assurance, learning measurement, and skill training, this book is ideally designed for administrators, teachers, academics, researchers, and professionals interested in emerging trends for open and distance education.

This book focuses on developing methods for constructing learning paths in terms of "learning resources" (learning contents), "learning approaches" (learning method), and "learning quality" (learning performance) to support learning. This book defines different teaching approaches for learning activities and organizes them into a learning path which indicates the learning sequence. This book introduces how to automatically generate well-structured learning resources for different students. Also, this book introduces a method about how to generate adaptive learning approach to learn learning resources for different students. Finally, this book introduces a method to monitor and control learning quality. The adaptive learning path expresses well-structured learning contents, using which approach to access those learning contents, and in which sequence to carry out the learning process. The learning path comes with a monitoring tool to control the learning progress, which helps to make students having a balanced development on different knowledge and abilities. Researchers who worked in E-learning area, both education and computer sciences people.Educators who worked in educational institutes, such as Universities, Schools, etc. They would like to use or study E-learning tools/technologies/methods in their own work.And technicians who run/design educational websites will understand the appeal of this work.

This volume provides a contemporary glance at the drastically expanding field of delivering large-scale education to unprecedented numbers of learners. It compiles papers presented at the CELDA (Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age) conference, which has a goal of continuing to address these challenges and promote the effective use of new tools and technologies to support teaching, learning and assessment. Given the emerging global trend to exploit the potential of existing digital technologies to improve the teaching, learning and assessment experiences for all learners in real-life contexts, this topic is a unifying theme for this volume. The book showcases how emerging educational technologies and innovative practices have been used to address core global educational challenges. It provides state-of-the-art insights and case studies of exploiting innovative learning technologies, including Massive Open Online Courses and educational data analytics, to address key global challenges spanning from online Teacher Education to large-scale coding competence development. This volume will be of interest to academics and professional practitioners working in the area of digital technology integration in teaching, learning and assessment, as well as those interested in specific conference themes (e.g., designing and assessing learning in online environments, assessing learning in complex domains) and presenters, invited speakers, and participants of the CELDA conference.