E-learning is at an exciting point in its development; its potential in terms of research is great and its impact on institutional practices is fully recognised. This book defines e-learning as a field of research, highlighting the complex issues, activities and tensions that characterise the area. Written by a team of experienced researchers and commented upon by internationally recognised experts, this book engages researchers and practitioners in critical discussion and debate about the findings emerging from the field and the associated impact on practice. Key topics examined include: access and inclusion the social-cultural contexts of e-learning organisational structures, processes and identities technical aspects of learning research - using tools and resources approaches to learning and teaching practices and associated learning theories designing for e-learning and the management of educational resources professional roles and identities the evolution of e-assessment collaboration, motivation and educational evaluation. Contemporary Perspectives in E-Learning Research provides a synthesis of research, giving readers a grounding in contemporary e-learning scholarship whilst identifying the debates that make it such a lively and fast-moving area. A landmark text in an evolving field, this book will prove invaluable for all researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students who engage with e-learning.

Interactivity is at the very heart of open and flexible learning, and is evident at all level of engagement, whether between fellow students, students and tutors or students and online learning materials.
By actively engaging a student with learning materials, interactions help to enhance learning by consolidating knowledge and providing context, encouraging reflection, questioning and a deeper understanding of a subject.
This book will be a groundbreaking study into the quality of interactivity in online learning. A collection of research and innovative case material drawn from leading practitioners and academics from around the world, it will scrutinize the role and effectiveness of interactivity and tease out the practical implications for both online course designers and online teachers.

New technologies are dramatically changing the face of education and the nature of childhood itself. In Shift to the Future, Nicola Yelland examines the ways in which these technologies are reshaping the social, personal, and educational experiences of childhood, and explores the curricular revisions such changes demand. With a focus on the various information and communications technologies (ICTs) available to young students and the possibilities these ICTs offer for teaching and learning, Shift to the Future provides inspiring examples of teachers who have innovatively incorporated new technologies into their classrooms to engage their students in contemporary times.

To improve the cost effectiveness and sustainability of e-learning, many national and international initiatives are pioneering new ways in which educators can share their curricula with teachers and learners around the world. To enable this global sharing, educators must learn to design, manage and implement reusable electronic educational resources. This unique book outlines approaches to sharing and reusing resources for e-learning.
Drawing upon research by 30 prominent scholars from seven countries, the authors offer multiple perspectives from school, continuing and higher education as well as industry. It is essential reading for those implementing e-learning in education and corporate training, including teachers, trainers, academics, educational developers and support staff as well as senior managers.

User Design offers a fresh perspective on how front-line learners (users) can participate in the design of learning environments. The author challenges the universal assumption that front-line users must be relegated to the role of offering input, and that the actual design activity of learning systems must still be conducted only by experts. The book presents a new set of methods and strategies that show how the tools of professional designers can be effectively shared with broad groups of users and other participants in the process of creating their own learning.
Drawing on ideas from human computer interface design, stakeholder participation, critical theory, systems theory, change processes, learning theory, and basic design theories, this innovative work is organized around the major issues associated with user-design. Areas covered include:

• differences between user-design, stakeholder involvement, and user-centered design;
• historical perspectives and empirical research;
• user-design tools and ways of facilitating user-design;
• gaining leadership support in an organization; and
• conflicts that arise during user-design engagement.
  

Accessible to all audiences, User Design can serve as a strong companion volume to traditional instructional design texts, yet is comprehensive enough to be a stand-alone text in design courses. It will appeal to instructional designers, curriculum developers, training managers/designers, community organizers, adult educators, as well as anyone interested in the dynamics of power and emancipation in learning.

i User Design /i offers a fresh perspective on how front-line learners (users) can participate in the design of learning environments. Author Alison A. Carr-Chellman, Ph.D. challenges the universal assumption that front-line users must be relegated to the role of offering input, and that the actual design activity of learning systems must still be conducted only by experts. The book presents a new set of methods and strategies that show how the tools of professional designers can be effectively shared with broad groups of users and other participants in the process of creating their own learning. br br Drawing on ideas from human computer interface design, stakeholder participation, critical theory, systems theory, change processes, learning theory, and basic design theories, this innovative work is organized around the major issues associated with user-design. Areas covered include: br *differences between user-design, stakeholder involvement, and user-centered design; br *historical perspectives and empirical research; br *user-design tools and ways of facilitating user-design; br *gaining leadership support in an organization; and br *conflicts that arise during user-design engagement. br br Accessible to all audiences, i User Design /i can serve as a strong companion volume to traditional instructional design texts, yet is comprehensive enough to be a stand-alone text in design courses. It will appeal to instructional designers, curriculum developers, training managers/designers, community organizers, adult educators, as well as anyone interested in the dynamics of power and emancipation in learning.

In this study of computer-mediated instruction (CMI) in a U.S. research university that is the site of nationally known innovations in this area, Jan Nespor traces the varying material and organizational entanglements of a constantly reconfiguring network of people, things, categories, and ideas that are sometimes loosely, sometimes tightly entangled in forms of CMI. He unfolds how the different forms and meanings of CMI policy and practice were constructed over time, across departments, and in relation to students7; academic trajectories. Tying together a range of issues usually separated in discussions of instructional technology and examining often slighted topics, such as the articulations of local and national practices, this book questions the common vocabulary for making sense of CMI and contributes to educational change theory by showing how CMI has evolved both from the top-down and the bottom-up.
"Technology and the Politics of Instruction "is distinctive in its multi-level approach and in the breadth of its conceptual frame. Departing from the mainstream research on instructional technology to focus on mundane and widespread forms of CMI2;PowerPoint slides, CD-ROMs, self-paced labs, and the like2;Nespor views these from multiple standpoints, not just what they mean for professors, but also for administrators and students. The effect is to displace the typical emphasis in CMI research from cutting-edge, high resource artifacts and systems (the importance of which is not questioned) to the politics and organizational processes that shape the uses of such things.
This book is intended primarily for scholars and students in the fields of educational and more broadlyorganizational change, the politics and sociology of education, curriculum theory, higher education, and educational administration, and will also interest instructional technologists and technology developers.

In this study of computer-mediated instruction (CMI) in a U.S. research university that is the site of nationally known innovations in this area, Jan Nespor traces the varying material and organizational entanglements of a constantly reconfiguring network of people, things, categories, and ideas that are sometimes loosely, sometimes tightly entangled in forms of CMI. He unfolds how the different forms and meanings of CMI policy and practice were constructed over time, across departments, and in relation to students' academic trajectories. Tying together a range of issues usually separated in discussions of instructional technology and examining often slighted topics, such as the articulations of local and national practices, this book questions the common vocabulary for making sense of CMI and contributes to educational change theory by showing how CMI has evolved both from the top-down and the bottom-up. Technology and the Politics of Instruction is distinctive in its multi-level approach and in the breadth of its conceptual frame. Departing from the mainstream research on instructional technology to focus on mundane and widespread forms of CMI-PowerPoint slides, CD-ROMs, self-paced labs, and the like-Nespor views these from multiple standpoints, not just what they mean for professors, but also for administrators and students. The effect is to displace the typical emphasis in CMI research from cutting-edge, high resource artifacts and systems (the importance of which is not questioned) to the politics and organizational processes that shape the uses of such things. This book is intended primarily for scholars and students in the fields of educational and more broadly organizational change, the politics and sociology of education, curriculum theory, higher education, and educational administration, and will also interest instructional technologists and technology developers.

This edition collection showcases the increasing intersections between drama and applied theatre, education, innovation and technology. It tunes in to the continuing conversation that has been a persistent if not prominent feature of our drama education since the advent of accessible computer based technologies. The chapters in this book consider how technology can be used as a potent tool in drama learning and how the learning is changing the technologies and in turn how learning is transforming the technology. This collection includes contributions from leading scholars in the field on a range of topics including digital storytelling and identity formation, applied drama and micro-blogging and the use of Second Life in drama learning. The chapters provide a potent collection for researchers and educators considering the role of technology in drama education spaces. This book was originally published as a special issue of RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance.

This is a comprehensive, practical guide to the most effective use of video and multimedia in open and distance learning. Illustrated throughout, it considers pedagogic design principles for the highest quality learning material, covering:

• what to teach on video and how to teach it
• when to choose and how to use other media for teaching
• a framework of pedagogic design principles for video and multimedia
• practical development advice for interactive multimedia.

With insights into the comprehensive process of designing, developing and managing distance learning materials, this book will appeal to those involved in course development, educational video, audiovision and interactive multimedia design, as well as to students of general video and multimedia production.

In recent years there has been a resurgence in the use of video in teaching and training contexts, due to technological advances that enable good quality moving pictures through CD-Rom, DVD and broadband Internet. This book offers advice and assistance to a growing group of teachers and trainers, technical and support staff in the most effective deployment of video and multimedia in open and distance learning.
A bridge between research and practice, "Designing Video and Multimedia for Open and Flexible Learning" discusses:
- what to teach on video and how to teach it
- when to choose and how to use other media for teaching
- a framework of pedagogic design principles for video and multimedia
- practical development advice for interactive multimedia
With insights into the comprehensive process of designing, developing and managing distance learning materials, this book will appeal to readers with varying interests and responsibilities, including course development, educational Video, Audiovision and interactive Multimedia design, as well as to students of general video and multimedia production.

This volume gives language teachers, software designers, and researchers who wish to use technology in second or foreign language education the information they need to absorb what has been achieved so far and to make sense of it. It is designed to enable the kind of critical reading of a substantial literature that leads to a balanced and detailed knowledge of the field." "Chapter by chapter, the book builds, through description, analysis, examples, and discussion, a detailed picture of modern CALL.
In this book, the label "CALL" is interpreted broadly to include technology-enhanced language learning, Web-enhanced language learning, and information and communication technologies for language learning. The work is distinguished by its attention to a range of languages rather than just English.
The authors first set the scene and introduce major areas of interest and growth in CALL, and then look in depth at seven important dimensions: design, evaluation, computer-mediated communication, theory, research, practice, and technology. Chapters on each of these topics include a description that reviews the recent literature, identifies themes, and presents representative projects that illustrate the dimension, followed by a discussion that provides in-depth analysis, and a conclusion offering suggestions for further work. Detailed references and links connect the description and discussion with original works and primary sources so the reader can follow up easily on areas of personal interest. Two concluding chapters discuss how the various dimensions might be brought together, the first from a practical point of view, the second with a view to the development of CALL as a whole.

"Web-Based Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice" explores the state of the art in the research and use of technology in education and training from a learning perspective. This edited book is divided into three major sections:
*Policy, Practice, and Implementation Issues -- an overview of policy issues, as well as tools and designs to facilitate implementation of Web-based learning;
*Theory and Research Issues -- a look at theoretical foundations of current and future Web-based learning; the section also includes empirical studies of Web-based learning; and
*Summary and Conclusions -- highlights key issues in each chapter and outlines a research and development agenda.
Within this framework the book addresses several important issues, including: the primacy of learning as a focus for technology; the need to integrate technology with high standards and content expectations; the paucity of and need to support the development of technology-based curriculum and tools;the need to integrate assessment in technology and improve assessment through the use of technology; and the need for theory-driven research and evaluation studies to increase our knowledge and efficacy.
"Web-Based Learning" is designed for professionals and graduate students in the educational technology, human performance, assessment and evaluation, vocational/technical, and educational psychology communities.

By clearly identifying the barriers that can still exist to the successful integration of ICT in schools this book aims to suggest ways in which these barriers may be overcome. Current and past policy and practice is examined and where barriers are identified, the book:

• provides suggested strategies for the removal of these barriers
• recommends how to avoid the obstacles in the first place
• includes action points and ideas to provide ways forward
• uses case studies and vignettes to focus on the positive benefits of ICT.

Optimistic and forward-looking, the book also explores how ICT, when effectively used, can help children learn and achieve to the best of their abilities. It is relevant for trainee and practising teachers, ICT co-ordinators and school managers in all key stages.

This volume brings together significant international research in technology education by focusing on contemporary postgraduate research, elaborating on the findings with the aim of making the content relevant to researchers, teachers and other potential researchers in the field. The book shares with readers what the research means for classroom teachers through understanding different motivations for teaching technology in schools and observing the model of learning supported by the research. Each chapter in the book includes references to the digital edition of the respective full thesis, allowing readers to consult the research in detail if necessary. This book continues the work done by 2017's Contemporary Research in Technology Education by the same editors.

One of the most significant developments in contemporary education is the view that knowing and understanding are anchored in cultural practices within communities. This shift coincides with technological advancements that have reoriented end-user computer interaction from individual work to communication, participation and collaboration. However, while daily interactions are increasingly engulfed in mobile and networked Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in-school learning interactions are, in comparison, technologically impoverished, creating the phenomenon known as the school-society digital disconnect. This volume argues that the theoretical and practical tools of scientists in both the social and educational sciences must be brought together in order to examine what types of interaction, knowledge construction, social organization and power structures: (a) occur spontaneously in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) communities or (b) can be created by design of TEL. This volume seeks to equip scholars and researchers within the fields of education, educational psychology, science communication, social welfare, information sciences, and instructional design, as well as practitioners and policy-makers, with empirical and theoretical insights, and evidence-based support for decisions providing learners and citizens with 21st century skills and knowledge, and supporting well-being in today's information-based networked society.

This book examines how today's technology, as it includes smartphones, computers, and the internet, shapes our physical health, cognitive and psychological development, and interactions with one another and the world around us. Technology has become a ubiquitous part of modern life, but its impact on our physical, psychological, and social health and development runs just as deep as does our dependence upon it. How is the development of babies' brains affected by their playing with their parents' smartphones and tablets? How have computers altered the way we process and learn information? How have texting and social networking sites such as Facebook changed the way in which we interact with others? Can online dating lead to meaningful real-world relationships? From Smartphones to Social Media investigates these questions and many complex issues related to technology. Readers will discover what researchers know about how the use of technology affects us through accessibly written, thematic chapters. The main text is complemented by a collection of case studies and interviews with a variety of experts, providing insight into how technology's positive and negative effects manifest in our everyday lives and what we can do to mediate the negative ones. Addresses a topic of interest and of increasing concern for researchers, parents, and educators Examines both the positive and negative effects of technology across many aspects of physical, psychological, and social health Provides real-world examples through case studies to illustrate key concepts discussed in the book Offers additional information through interviews with experts in an accessible Q&A format

Developments in digital technologies--and in understandings of how best to use them--have altered teaching and learning environments, and stand to do so even more rapidly in the future. Virtual Decisions: Digital Simulations for Teaching Reasoning in the Social Sciences and Humanities focuses on the special issues related to the use of digital technologies in teaching the complex nature of social decisions, with particular attention to the use of digital role-play simulations as a means to accomplish this. With the advent of new technologies for delivering multimedia simulations to students, and advanced graphics capabilities to create life-like decision environments, digital role-play simulations are increasingly available for K-12 and higher education teachers to use in the classroom. This book helps both users and developers make intelligent choices about the value added by using simulations, technology, and media to teach reasoning in social sciences and humanities classrooms. The book relies on a four-part framework for developing a digital multimedia-based simulation approach, which represents: a cross-disciplinary method to describing simulations; the students who are using them; the educational setting in which they are used; and a rubric for assessing learning. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part presents a review of the theory and research detailing why didactic approaches do not or cannot address specific learning goals, as well as a description of the theoretical framework for using and developing simulations. The second part includes chapters on specific digital simulations and how they fit with the theoretical framework. Virtual Decisions fills a significant gap in the existing literature of instructional technology and is of interest to instructors, primarily in the social sciences and humanities, who are potential users of the simulations. It is also a resource for graduate students and pre-service teachers studying simulation design.

Developments in digital technologies - and in understandings of how best to use them - have altered teaching and learning environments, and stand to do so even more rapidly in the future. Virtual Decisions: Digital Simulations for Teaching Reasoning in the Social Sciences and Humanities focuses on the special issues related to the use of digital technologies in teaching the complex nature of social decisions, with particular attention to the use of digital role-play simulations as a means to accomplish this. With the advent of new technologies for delivering multimedia simulations to students, and advanced graphics capabilities to create life-like decision environments, digital role-play simulations are increasingly available for K-12 and higher education teachers to use in the classroom. This book helps both users and developers make intelligent choices about the value added by using simulations, technology, and media to teach reasoning in social sciences and humanities classrooms. multimedia-based simulation approach, which represents: a cross-disciplinary method to describing simulations; the students who are using them; the educational setting in which they are used; and a rubric for assessing learning. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part presents a review of the theory and research detailing why didactic approaches do not or cannot address specific learning goals, as well as a description of the theoretical framework for using and developing simulations. The second part includes chapters on specific digital simulations and how they fit with the theoretical framework. All the simulations, either in the entirety or in preview, are available on the web at http: //decisionsim.atech.tufts.edu. Virtual Decisions fills a significant gap in the existing literature of instructional technology and is of interest to instructors, primarily in the social sciences and humanities, who are potential users of the simulations. It is also a resource for graduate students and pre-service teachers studying simulation design

This book sets out a framework for rethinking the three key areas of schooling that are most affected by technology's impact on education today: knowledge as curriculum, learning and pedagogy, and literacy across the curriculum. Carey Jewitt shows how all three are reshaped by the multimodal resources and facilities of new technologies, and points the way to rethinking teaching and learning in this environment.
The author proceeds practically through an exhaustive analysis of teaching and learning with technology-mediated materials such as CD-ROMs, web-sites, the internet, computer programming applications and computer games. She relates each in turn to the main curriculum topics of English, Mathematics and Science. Through this detailed scrutiny, the following questions emerge:
- How do the new technologies reshape knowledge as curriculum?
- How does the use of new technologies in the classroom reshape learning and pedagogy?
- As writing moves from page to screen, what is the impact on students' situated literary practices and how does it affect learning?
Through these questions this book demonstrates that mode, technology and curriculum knowledge are fundamentally connected, and describes how teacher and student roles in the classroom could be altered in response to new technologies. Carey Jewitt calls for a reconceptualization of literacy and reading as a "multimodal design" and demands that the need for new strategies and policies around literacy right across the board, and particularly in relation to assessment, should be seriously and urgently addressed.

In this book Adam Banks uses the concept of the Digital Divide as a metonym for America's larger racial divide, in an attempt to figure out what meaningful access for African Americans to technologies and the larger American society can or should mean. He argues that African American rhetorical traditions--the traditions of struggle for justice and equitable participation in American society--exhibit complex and nuanced ways of understanding the difficulties inherent in the attempt to navigate through the seemingly impossible contradictions of gaining meaningful access to technological systems with the good they seem to make possible, and at the same time resisting the exploitative impulses that such systems always seem to present. Banks examines moments in these rhetorical traditions of appeals, warnings, demands, and debates to make explicit the connections between technological issues and African Americans' equal and just participation in American society. He shows that the big questions we must ask of our technologies are exactly the same questions leaders and lay people from Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to slave quilters to Critical Race Theorists to pseudonymous chatters across cyberspace have been asking all along. According to Banks the central ethical questions for the field of rhetoric and composition are technology access and the ability to address questions of race and racism. He uses this book to imagine what writing instruction, technology theory, literacy instruction, and rhetorical education can look like for all of us in a new century. Just as Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground is a call for a new orientation among those who study and profess African American rhetoric, it is also a call for those in the fields that make up mainstream English Studies to change their perspectives as well. This volume is intended for researchers, professionals, and students in Rhetoric and Composition, Technical Communication, the History of Science and Society, and African American Studies.

This volume presents research findings on the use of technology to support learning and reasoning in collaborative contexts. Featuring a variety of theoretical perspectives, ranging from sociocultural to social psychological to information processing views, Collaborative Learning, Reasoning, and Technology includes an international group of authors well known for their contributions to research on technology learning environments. Two themes are central: the use of technology as a scaffold for learning, and the use of technology to promote argumentation and reasoning. Collaboration among peers is a key element in both of these strands. These foci highlight, respectively, a key element in the design of technology-based learning environments and a key outcome that can result from online instruction/learning. As a whole, the volume addresses some of the core issues in using technology to support collaborative learning, reasoning, and argumentation.

This book explores language teacher development in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environments and discusses approaches, tasks and resources that can guide language teachers to develop their skills and strategies for technology-enhanced language teaching (TELT). It looks at key aspects of CALL in terms of pedagogy and technology and proposes a model of CALL teacher development, which incorporates essential elements of teacher learning in CALL. Further, the author presents practical tasks and tips on how to develop knowledge and skills for the use of digital technologies in language teaching and suggests ideas to improve language teacher training and development.

CALL Research Perspectives creates a foundation for the study and practice of computer-assisted language learning and provides an overview of ways to conceptualize and to conduct research in CALL. Its core assumptions are that all approaches to research have a place, and that researchers, teachers, and students all have a role to play in the study of computer-enhanced language learning. This is not a how-to-do-research text. Written by top researchers in the field, it offers an open-ended view of what educators need to know and be able to do to answer questions that they have. It is intended to be easy to read, to provide resources for readers to explore the ideas further, and to be non-prescriptive in presenting suggestions for CALL research. The text explores problems with current CALL research and suggests ways that teachers and other researchers can avoid such problems; presents both commonly known and less explored theories that provide a foundation for CALL and language research; and addresses other issues and ideas that affect research outcomes. An outstanding feature of CALL Research Perspectives is that it complements not only other CALL texts but also research texts of all kinds. The issues found in each chapter parallel the issues in other research texts, making this text useful for addressing the needs of teachers and researchers at different levels and in different contexts. In addition, the consistent format throughout makes it accessible to readers with a variety of backgrounds. Each chapter includes an introduction, a review of relevant literature, a set of examples and/or suggestions for conducting research in CALL, and conclusions. The consistent format is intended for ease of use, but the content of chapters varies according to the author. This is intentional; it is a strength of the book that readers can hear the voices of the authors and listen to their understandings of the perspectives presented. It is the editors' hope that they will be inspired to seek out other voices as well.