Information acquisition and management has always had a profound impact on societal and organizational progression. This is due to higher education programs continuously expanding, students and academics being engaged in modern research, and the constant evaluating of current processes in education for optimization for the future. The Handbook of Research on Innovative Techniques, Trends, and Analysis for Optimized Research Methods is a comprehensive reference sources focused on the latest research methods currently facing educational technology and learners. While highlighting the innovative trends and methods, readers will learn valuable ways to conduct research and advance the understanding of ideas based on the results of their research. This publication is an important asset for teachers, researchers, practitioners, and graduate students looking to gain more knowledge on research trends and their applications.

The Internet of Toys (IoToys) is a developing market within our Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. This book examines the rise of internet-connected toys and aims to anticipate the opportunities and risks of IoToys before their widespread diffusion. Contributors to this volume each provide a critical analysis of the design, production, regulation, representation and consumption of internet-connected toys. In order to address the theoretical, methodological and policy questions that arise from the study of these new playthings, and contextualise the diverse opportunities and challenges that IoToys pose to educators, families and children themselves, the chapters engage with notions of mediatization, datafication, robotification, connected and post-digital play. This timely engagement with a key transformation in children's play will appeal to all readers interested in understanding the social uses and consequences of IoToys, and primarily to researchers and students in children and media, early childhood studies, media and communications, sociology, education, social psychology, law and design.

Integrating technological innovations into our daily lives has helped to modernize and improve the way we learn, the way we do business, the way we communicate with one another, and ultimately the way we live. But in these modern times, which some refer to as the "Electronic Gadgets and App Age," it has become difficult to know everything about the old and new electronic devices that continue to make the wheels of industry turn in society. New innovations appear and then just as quickly become antiquated and obsolete; technological advances from the past blend with the present and then, like ripples in a lake, fade in this fast-paced world. How can anyone hope to keep up with those changes? The breadth of knowledge required is dauting, but technology impacts the choices we make, for better or worse. Revolutionary Technologies: Educational Perspectives of Technology History covers what has been invented, who invented what, and how technology has made our lives more efficient, enjoyable, and meaningful.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on virtual reality, simulation and serious games for education and its chapters presented the best papers from the 4th Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (4th AESSSG) held in Turku, Finland, December 2018. The chapters of the book present a multi-facet view on different approaches to deal with challenges that surround the uptake of educational applications of virtual reality, simulations and serious games in school practices. The different approaches highlight challenges and potential solutions and provide future directions for virtual reality, simulation and serious games research, for the design of learning material and for implementation in classrooms. By doing so, the book is a useful resource for both students and scholars interested in research in this field, for designers of learning material, and for practitioners that want to embrace virtual reality, simulation and/or serious games in their education.

This book is an academic publication about the global development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and major MOOC platforms worldwide in the past decade, as well as the outlook of MOOCs in the future, with an emphasis on Greater China. The book also discusses the upsurge of the demand for online learning and MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic.The book is divided into three main parts - Part I: Overview of MOOCs introduces the origin and history of MOOCs and the development of MOOC platforms in Greater China and the global context; Part II: Key Issues discuss the MOOC policies, innovative pedagogy, technology, and ecosystems worldwide; and Part III: Beyond MOOCs probes into the roles and benefits of MOOCs in times of crises, as well as the outlook of MOOCs in the future. In terms of topic diversity, the book contains a comprehensive investigation of the past and latest MOOC developments, extracting and elaborating on relevant information regarding platforms, policies, pedagogy, technology, and ecosystems. Subsequently, in-depth analyses of MOOC data are utilized to deduce the current trends related to the MOOC movement and to extrapolate the likeliest direction of development for MOOCs in the years to come. The book can inform policymakers, education institutions, course instructors, platform developers, investors, researchers, and individual learners of MOOCs about critical information on the present and future of MOOC development, assisting them in making crucial decisions on what initiatives can optimize their advantages in the sector.

As communication resource technologies improve and adjust to the needs of the individual, the prevalence of distance learning increases, continuing the development of educational advancements. Second-Language Distance Learning and Teaching: Theoretical Perspectives and Didactic Ergonomics explores the construct of distance second language learning, its defined parameters, theoretical models, and model method validation. This reference work offers educators and practitioners a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective, while introducing the principles for understanding, designing, and running learning environments.

The growth of e-learning and distance education today creates an increasingly pressing need for research and writing on the pedagogy of e-learning. Teams are, or should be, an integral component of e-learning. ""Teaching and Learning with Virtual Teams"" develops this concept by investigating many issues around teams in the virtual and hybrid classroom, bringing a variety of current research and practice on the subject of virtual and collaborative teams in teaching and learning together in a single accessible source. The issues covered by this book include, but are not limited to, theoretical models, pedagogy of e-learning, virtual team design and management, collaborative learning, and strategies for effectiveness in teaching and learning. These issues are considered in virtual or online classes as well as an added pedagogical element in ""traditional"" classes.

This book looks at the value of integrating the arts and sciences in the school curriculum. It argues that this will help students further their understanding of analytical concepts through the use of creativity. The authors illustrate how schools can work towards presenting common practices, concepts, and content. Coverage features case studies and lessons learned from classrooms across the United States. The notion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) is an emerging discipline unique in its desire to provide a well-rounded approach to education. The chapters of this volume examine STEAM in a variety of settings, from kindergarten to higher education. Readers will learn about the practical considerations involved when introducing the arts and creativity into traditionally left brain processes. This includes best practices for creating and sustaining successful STEAM initiatives in any school, college, or university. For instance, one chapter discusses novel approaches to teach writing with the scientific method in order to help students better present their ideas. The authors also detail how the arts can engage more diverse learners, including students who are not traditionally interested in STEM subjects. They provide three concrete examples of classroom-tested inquiries: designing a prosthetic arm for a child, making a paleontology investigation, and taking a closer look at the arts within roller coaster engineering. This book is an invaluable resource for teachers and teacher trainers, university faculty, researchers, and school administrators. It will also be of interest to science, mathematics, engineering, computer science, information technology, arts and design and technology teachers.

This book describes and outlines the theoretical foundations of system simulation in teaching, and as a practical contribution to teaching-and-learning models. It presents various methodologies used in teaching, the goal being to solve real-life problems by creating simulation models and probability distributions that allow correlations to be drawn between a real model and a simulated model. Moreover, the book demonstrates the role of simulation in decision-making processes connected to teaching and learning.

This book explores the efficacy of game-based learning to develop university students' skills and competencies. While writing on game-based learning has previously emphasised the use of games developed specifically for educational purposes, this book fills an important gap in the literature by focusing on commercial games such as World of Warcraft and Minecraft. Underpinned by robust empirical evidence, the author demonstrates that the current negative perception of video games is ill-informed, and in fact these games can be important tools to develop graduate skills related to employability. Speaking to very current concerns about the employability of higher education graduates and the skills that university is intended to develop, this book also explores the attitudes to game-based learning as expressed by instructors, students and game developers.

Teaching Computational Creativity examines the new interdisciplinary pedagogies of today's coding-intensive interactive media and design curricula. Students, researchers and faculty will find a comprehensive overview of educational practices pertaining to innovation fields such as digital media, 3D printing, agile development, physical computing, games, dance, collaboration, teacher education and online learning. This volume fills an important gap in the literature on creative computation, as practitioners are rarely challenged to reflect on or share their teaching practices. How do we design effective inter-, multi-, cross- and trans-disciplinary pedagogy and curricula? Brought together here are essays on the pedagogies that produce the so-called 'unicorns' - graduates who can code and create. Here, the intertwining of (what many consider mutually exclusive) artistic sensitivities and computational skills plays an essential role, calling forth a new kind of undergraduate curriculum attuned to the interweaving of skillsets and theoretic knowledge needed to create and innovate with ever-changing technologies.

Based on 55 semi-structured in-depth interviews, this book investigates 15 high-tech engineering co-op professionals' writing experience in the workplace. It shows how the digital age has had a marked impact on the engineers' methods of communication at work, and how on-the -job writing has affected engineers' technical competence, shaped their professional identities, challenged their views on Chinese and English writing, and hindered their success in the workplace. The book identifies three aspects of writing practice: engineers' linguistic and literacy challenges, the reasons behind these challenges, and coping strategies, which suggest that engineers are underprepared and lack necessary support in the workplace. Lastly, the study shows that engineers need to engage in technical literacy through on-the-job writing so that they can fully deal with workplace discourse and socialize with diverse professional groups. Since the sample group interviewed in this book is engineers who studied at universities in the United States and have a foot in the world of school and work as well as knowledge of both Eastern and Western cultures, the book appeals to teachers, students, engineers and scientists who are interested in scientific and technological writing. It is also valuable for educators who prepare scientists, engineers, and technical communicators for professional roles, as well as for communication practitioners who work with engineers.

This book focuses on designing and being a designer of immersive education. It introduces readers to the human experiences within immersive learning environments and contributes research evidence on the effectiveness of immersive technologies in K-12 and post-secondary contexts. Through the chapters, illustrative contextual examples and vignettes demonstrate immersive learning in real-world educational practice. Readers will be equipped to design engaging and culturally relevant immersive experiences for learning in a post-COVID world. Immersive Education: Designing for Learning brings researchers, designers, and educators together to offer pedagogical strategies and design guidelines. The originality lies in integrating theoretical and practical knowledge to design meaningful immersive experiences, with attention to sustainability, community, and creativity. Valuable insights are provided to support students and teachers as immersive learning designers and storytellers.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education world has had to adjust to remote learning. This new book provides important research on digital pedagogies and assessment to demonstrate how technology can be effectively employed for an effective global digital learning environment.

This new title brings together professional scientists and senior researchers to discuss the challenges today’s teachers and teacher-educators face in their practice. It also provides vital guidance to universities on how to develop faculty capacity to teach online. It addresses on-line learning and on-line teaching modes using the latest research, helping faculty members to design an effective digital teaching modes using evidence-based practices.

Based on the expanding prospect to respond to the rise of online enrollments and the decline of face-to face education, this new book provides an important overview of digital technology-enhanced education for the 21st century STEM teachers. It examines the modern aspects of online learning by adjusting teaching practices to reflect the growing role of digital technologies. The book also features student interaction and discussion of its core themes by providing a comprehensive understanding of the technological capabilities available to them and includes research-informed and evidence-based technology integration models and instructional strategies.

Readers of this reference book will learn how to adjust their practices to reflect the increasing role of digital technologies and will be encouraged to consider how digital education can prepare us all for a modern and completely new ‘information society.’ This new book is written for distance education courses for better managing online educational systems and provides readers with advanced information needed for e-learning programs in a manner that they will be capable of distinguishing among proper applications of distance education. This book is intended to support fair access to engaging digital-age education opportunities for instructional designers, faculty developers and STEM learners who take an active interest in improving online teaching.

This book presents how to keep working on education in contexts of crisis, such as emergencies, zones of conflict, wars and health pandemics such as COVID-19. Specifically, this work shows a number of strategies to support global learning and teaching in online settings. Particularly, it first presents how to facilitate knowledge sharing and raising awareness about a specific crisis, to increase people's safety, including educators and learners. The book then discusses various techniques, mechanisms and services that could be implemented to provide effective learning support for learners, especially in learning environments that they do not daily use, such as physical classrooms. Further, the work presents how to teach and support online educators, no matter if they are school teachers, university lecturers, youth social workers, vocational training facilitators or of any other kind. Finally, it describes worldwide case studies that have applied practical steps to keep education running during a crisis. This book provides readers with insights and guidelines on how to maintain learning undisrupted during contexts of crisis. It also provides basic and practical recommendations to the various stakeholders in educational contexts (students, content providers, technology services, policy makers, school teachers, university lecturers, academic managers, and others) about flexible, personalised and effective education in the context of crisis.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education provides a resource for researchers and practitioners in the area of computer-supported collaborative learning (also known as CSCL); particularly those working within a tertiary education environment. It includes articles of relevance to those interested in both theory and practice in this area. It answers such important current questions as: how can groups with shared goals work collaboratively using the new technologies? What problems can be expected, and what are the benefits? In what ways does online group work differ from face-to-face group work? And what implications are there for both educators and students seeking to work in this area?

Open-source development has been around for decades, with software developers co-creating tools and information systems for widespread use. With the development of open-source software such as learning objects, interactive articles, and educational games, the open-source values and practices have slowly been adopted by those in education sectors. Open-Source Technologies for Maximizing the Creation, Deployment, and Use of Digital Resources and Information highlights the global importance of open-source technologies in higher and general education. Written for those working in education and professional training, this collection of research explores a variety of issues related to open-source in education, such as its practical underpinnings, requisite cultural competence in global open-source, strategies for employing open-source in online learning and research, the design of an open-source networking laboratory, and other endeavors.

This special edition of the Educational Communications and Technology Yearbook Series bears a title of "Learning Environment and Design: Current and Future Impact". It provides a timely forum to share theoretical and practical insights in both the local and international contexts in response to the fact that new media and technologies have infiltrated and shaped the learning environments from mere physical spaces into multifaceted possibilities, impacting the ways individuals teach and learn. Designs of learning environments to harness technologies appropriately to engage learners better, as well as the roles of learners and educators play in this changing learning environment, are examples of important global issues in the discourse of the contemporary educational developments. Having gathered a diverse collection of research papers written by scholars and practitioners in the fields of education, communication and humanities across Asia, Australasia, Europe and the United States, this book gives readers a cross-cultural background on the developments of technological designs and educational practices, investigating areas in redefining of quality education; online learning and blended learning; new media in education; gamification, AI, and innovative learning technologies. Aimed to catalyze knowledge exchanges and provide fresh views on interdisciplinary research, the book sheds light on how emerging technologies can be adapted in the fields of education and communication, so as to facilitate the current and future designs of learning environments to improve learners' performances.

This volume includes contributions based on selected full papers presented at the 11th Pan-Hellenic and International Conference "ICT in Education", held in Greece in 2018. The volume includes papers covering technical, pedagogical, organizational, instructional, as well as policy aspects of ICT in Education and e-Learning. Special emphasis is given to applied research relevant to the educational practice guided by the educational realities in schools, colleges, universities and informal learning organizations. This volume encompasses current trends, perspectives, and approaches determining e-Learning and ICT integration in practice, including learning and teaching, curriculum and instructional design, learning media and environments, teacher education and professional development. It is based on research work originally presented at the conference, but the call for chapters was open and disseminated to the international community attracting also international contributions.

Research on students' media use outside of education is just slowly taking off. Influences of information and communication technologies (ICT) on human information processing are widely assumed and particularly effects of dis- and misinformation are a current threat to democracies. Today, higher education competes with a very diverse (online) media landscape and domain-specific content from sources of varying quality, ranging from high-quality videographed lectures by top-level university lecturers, popular-scientific video talks, collaborative wikis, anonymous forum comments or blog posts to YouTube remixes of discipline factoids and unverified twitter feeds. Self-organizing learners need more knowledge, skills, and awareness on how to critically evaluate quality and select trustworthy sources, how to process information, and what cognitive, affective, attitudinal, behavioral, and neurological effects it can have on them in the long term. The PLATO program takes on the ambitious goal of uniting strands of research from various disciplines to address these questions through fundamental analyses of human information processing when learning with the Internet. This innovative interdisciplinary approach includes elements of ICT innovations and risks, learning analytics and large-scale computational modelling aimed to provide us with a better understanding of how to effectively and autonomously acquire reliable knowledge in the Information Age, how to design ICTs, and shape social and human-machine interactions for successful learning. This volume will be of interest to researchers in the fields of educational sciences, educational measurement and applied branches of the involved disciplines, including linguistics, mathematics, media studies, sociology of knowledge, philosophy of mind, business, ethics, and educational technology.

This book brings together contributions on learner autonomy from a myriad of contexts to advance our understanding of what autonomous language learning looks like with digital tools, and how this understanding is shaped by and can shape different socio-institutional, curricular, and instructional support. To this end, the individual contributions in the book highlight practice-oriented, empirically-based research on technology-mediated learner autonomy and its pedagogical implications. They address how technology can support learner autonomy as process by leveraging the affordances available in social media, virtual exchange, self-access, or learning in the wild (Hutchins, 1995). The rapid evolution and adoption of technology in all aspects of our lives has pushed issues related to learner and teacher autonomy centre stage in the language education landscape. This book tackles emergent challenges from different perspectives and diverse learning ecologies with a focus on social and educational (in)equality. Specifically, to this effect, the chapters consider digital affordances of virtual exchange, gaming, and apps in technology-mediated language learning and teaching ranging from instructed and semi-instructed to self-instructed contexts. The volume foregrounds the concepts of critical digital literacy and social justice in relation to language learner and teacher autonomy and illustrates how this approach may contribute to institutional objectives for equality, diversity and inclusion in higher education around the world and will be useful for researchers and teachers alike.

A core text for Intro to Educational Technology courses. With its hallmark ASSURE technology integration model and classroom cases, this renowned text places readers squarely in the classroom while providing a framework that teaches them to apply what they learn about computers, multimedia, Internet, distance learning, and audio/visual technologies to the 21st Century classroom instruction. Filled with examples drawn from authentic elementary and secondary education situations, this text paints a vivid picture of technology and media enhancing and supporting teaching and learning. The ASSURE cases are supported by video, guided reflection prompts, and lesson plans that demonstrate strong technology integration and lesson planning. In addition to preparing educators with best practices to incorporate technology and media to meet the needs of 21st Century learners, the book includes strong coverage of copyright concerns, free and inexpensive media resources, as well as learning theory and instructional models. The tenth edition updates reflect the accelerating trend toward digitizing information and school use of technologies, especially in the Web 2.0 era. The tenth edition also addresses the interaction among the roles of teachers, technology coordinators, and school media specialists, all complementary and interdependent teams within the school.

This book explores emerging practices in distance education that have been facilitated by the development of educational technology. The volume examines core themes in distance education including online education at scale, embodiment in online environments, connectivity in online education and the personalisation of learning experiences within online education. The first section of the book examines online teaching tools, and explores how they are being used to enhance and promote student learning. The second looks at some of the broader challenges encountered by online teachers and those responsible for designing online learning material. While this volume will be of significant interest to distance learning universities and colleges, it will also be a valuable resource to traditional Higher Education Institutions, who are increasingly searching for innovative ways to reach and teach their students. This edited collection will be of value to scholars of online education as well as practitioners and policy makers looking to enrich their notions of online pedagogy.

This book delves into two divergent, yet parallel themes; first is an examination of how educators can design the experiences of learning, with a focus on the learner and the end results of education; and second, how educators learn to design educational products, processes and experiences. The book seeks to understand how to design how learning occurs, both in the instructional design studio and as learning occurs throughout the world. This will change the area's semantics; at a deeper level, it will change its orientation from instructors and information to learners; and it will change how educators take advantage of new and old technologies. This book is the result of a research symposium sponsored by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology [AECT].

This open access collection examines how higher education responds to the demands of the automation economy and the fourth industrial revolution. Considering significant trends in how people are learning, coupled with the ways in which different higher education institutions and education stakeholders are implementing adaptations, it looks at new programs and technological advances that are changing how and why we teach and learn. The book addresses trends in liberal arts integration of STEM innovations, the changing role of libraries in the digital age, global trends in youth mobility, and the development of lifelong learning programs. This is coupled with case study assessments of the various ways China, Singapore, South Africa and Costa Rica are preparing their populations for significant shifts in labour market demands - shifts that are already underway. Offering examples of new frameworks in which collaboration between government, industry, and higher education institutions can prevent lagging behind in this fast changing environment, this book is a key read for anyone wanting to understand how the world should respond to the radical technological shifts underway on the frontline of higher education.