The use of media to create and maintain a public presence has become a ubiquitous aspect of daily life. Such interactions should be used to enhance other aspects of life that have become heavily technology-driven, such as education. Enhancing Social Presence in Online Learning Environments is a critical scholarly publication that explores the different perspectives of public latency and the creation of electronic educational formats that mimic the experience of traditional classrooms. Featuring a wide range of coverage on topics that include active learning, teacher authority, and computer-mediated communication, this publication is geared toward educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of education.

This monograph provides a comprehensive research review of intelligent techniques for personalisation of e-learning systems. Special emphasis is given to intelligent tutoring systems as a particular class of e-learning systems, which support and improve the learning and teaching of domain-specific knowledge. A new approach to perform effective personalization based on Semantic web technologies achieved in a tutoring system is presented. This approach incorporates a recommender system based on collaborative tagging techniques that adapts to the interests and level of students' knowledge. These innovations are important contributions of this monograph. Theoretical models and techniques are illustrated on a real personalised tutoring system for teaching Java programming language. The monograph is directed to, students and researchers interested in the e-learning and personalization techniques.

Technology enhanced learning takes place in many different forms and contexts, including formal and informal settings, individual and collaborative learning, learning in the classroom, at home, at work, and outdoor in real life situations, as well as desktop-based learning and learning by using mobile devices. Environments range from desktop-based learning systems such as learning management systems, which present learners with learning material and activities, to mobile, pervasive, and ubiquitous learning environments which are used in real life settings and enable learners to learn from real learning objects. In each of these forms and contexts, adaptive and intelligent support has potential to contribute in making such learning environments more personalized, user-friendly, and effective in supporting learners in learning. Intelligent and Adaptive Learning Systems: Technology Enhanced Support for Learners and Teachers focuses on how intelligent support and adaptive features can be integrated in currently used learning systems and discusses how intelligent and adaptive learning systems can be improved in order to provide a better learning environment for learners. This book provides academics as well as professional practitioners innovative research work for enhancing learning environments with adaptively and intelligent support in different contexts and settings, ranging from provision of courses and assessment in formal desktop-based learning systems to learning environments that support collaborative, informal, ubiquitous learning.

Language teachers, social studies teachers, and school library media specialists will find this resource invaluable for providing lessons and activities in critical thinking for students in grades 7-12. It is filled with over 200 primary source Internet sites covering the Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Latin languages. Each Web site will help reinforce language skills while providing students with interactive lessons on the unique culture of the peoples who speak the language. The next best thing to visiting the country itself

For each of the 56 primary Web sites, a site summary is given describing its contents and usefulness to teachers and school library media specialists. Site subjects may include: a country's radio or news program; the history of a country and its visual arts, including museums; foods eaten by the people who speak this language and recipes on how to prepare them; ceremonies, customs, and sports enjoyed; geography of the countries who speak this language; and sites to help practice the language itself. Following are a list of questions and activities which students can prepare orally or in written form, and at least four more related Web sites are provided for further study. Using this book will not only help students increase their language skills, but it will also open up the entire culture, to enable students to experience it just as if they were visiting

Web-based school collaboration has attracted the sustained attention of educators, policy-makers, and governmental bodies around the world during the past decade. This book sheds new light on this topical but ever so complex issue. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, it presents the various models of available school twinning programs and explores the cultural, political, and economic factors that surround the recent enthusiasm regarding collaborative initiatives. Moreover, the book critically examines teachers' and students' experiences of web-based school collaboration. In particular, it develops a realistic perspective of the range of challenges they face and identifies the host of technological and non-technological issues that can shape participation in collaborative programs.

Focuses on the process by which manually crafting interactive, hypertextual maps clarifies one's own understanding, communicates it to others, and enables collective intelligence. The authors see mapping software as visual tools for reading and writing in a networked age. In an information ocean, the challenge is to find meaningful patterns around which we can weave plausible narratives. Maps of concepts, discussions and arguments make the connections between ideas tangible - and critically, disputable. With 22 chapters from leading researchers and practitioners (5 of them new for this edition), the reader will find the current state-of-the-art in the field. Part 1 focuses on knowledge maps for learning and teaching in schools and universities, before Part 2 turns to knowledge maps for information analysis and knowledge management in professional communities, but with many cross-cutting themes: * reflective practitioners documenting the most effective ways to map * conceptual frameworks for evaluating representations * real world case studies showing added value for professionals * more experimental case studies from research and education * visual languages, many of which work on both paper and with software * knowledge cartography software, much of it freely available and open source * visit the companion website for extra resources: books.kmi.open.ac.uk/knowledge-cartography Knowledge Cartography will be of interest to learners, educators, and researchers in all disciplines, as well as policy analysts, scenario planners, knowledge managers and team facilitators. Practitioners will find new perspectives and tools to expand their repertoire, while researchers will find rich enough conceptual grounding for further scholarship.

The world of education is being radically altered with the change being driven by technology, openness, and unprecedented access to knowledge. Older correspondence-style methods of instructional delivery are passe and "classroom adapted to the web" approaches to learning are often ineffective and do little to harness the transformational potential of technology. E-Learning scenarios, mobile technologies, communication and information access, and personal learning environmentsare becoming mainstream and, as a result, control of the learning process is shifting away from institutions and into the hands of learners. This volumes promotes a forward-thinking agenda for research and scholarship that highlights new ideas, deep insights, and novel approaches to "unconstrained" learning.

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Whether utilizing electronic tools for K-12 classrooms, learning management systems in higher education institutions, or training and performance improvement for business organizations, technology maintains an important aspect in the delivery of education and training in both school and non-school settings. Cases on Educational Technology Planning, Design, and Implementation: A Project Management Perspective provides strategies for addressing the challenges and pitfalls faced when planning, designing, and implementing learning and educational technology projects. The case studies in this publication aim to provide instructors, practitioners in K-12 and higher education, business managers as well as students interested in implementing education technology projects.

Digital and social technologies are changing the education field. Interactive whiteboards and blackboards, e-books, and computer-mediated communication are accelerating the processes of the evolving classroom. These technologies continue to support problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills among students. Transforming K-12 Classrooms with Digital Technology brings together research and practices regarding digital and social technology integration in the K-12 classroom. By sharing practical and conceptual aspects of using digital and social technologies as tools for transforming K-12 learning environments, this reference source is essential for teachers, support staff, school and district administrators, college students, and researchers working teaching and learning in the digital era.

E-learning has become an important part of our educational life with the development of e-learning systems and platforms and the need for online and remote learning. ICT and computational intelligence techniques are being used to design more intelligent and adaptive systems. However, the art of designing good real-time e-learning systems is difficult as different aspects of learning need to be considered including challenges such as learning rates, involvement, knowledge, qualifications, as well as networking and security issues. The earlier concepts of standalone integrated virtual e-learning systems have been greatly enhanced with emerging technologies such as cloud computing, mobile computing, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), AI and machine learning, and AR/VT technologies. With this book, the editors and authors wish to help researchers, scholars, professionals, lecturers, instructors, developers, and designers understand the fundamental concepts, challenges, methodologies and technologies for the design of performant and reliable intelligent and adaptive real time e-learning systems and platforms. This edited volume covers state of the art topics including user modeling for e-learning systems and cloud, IOT, and mobile-based frameworks. It also considers security challenges and ethical conduct using Blockchain technology.

This book examines research on creative thinking, both current and historical. It explores two dimensions of human thought (time and space) and two modes of thinking (conscious and unconscious) as well as both left and right brain functions and artistic and scientific creative activities. The book proposes a "Double Circulation" model of creative thinking and argues that imagery thinking, intuitive thinking and logical thinking are main parts of creative thinking and that dialectical thinking and horizontal-vertical thinking are the guides for highly complex problem-solving thoughts and strategies.The book focuses on education and psychology and also covers how to use ICT to promote students' creative thinking skills. Researchers will benefit from the "Double Circulation" model, which provides a new perspective on conducting creative thinking research. The book is also a valuable resource for graduate students in the fields of educational technology and psychology and for all readers who are interested in creative thinking.

Virtual schools are a result of widespread changes in knowledge about learning, in available technology and in society. Virtual schooling is growing in popularity and will continue to attract students because of the benefits it offers over traditional schooling. Stakeholders in virtual schools need information to guide their decisions. For the foreseeable future, virtual schools will continue to meet diverse student needs, and to evolve in response to further change. Development and Management of Virtual Schools: Issues and Trends brings together knowledge of virtual schools as a reference for scholars and other groups involved in virtual schools. The chapters review best practice from concept and development, through implementation and evaluation.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. Based partially on work presented at the 3rd Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (3rd AESSSG) held in Zhuhai, China as part of the 2016 ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Consortium and Applications in Industry (VRACI 2016), it includes a selection of the best papers from both. The book is divided into three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; special needs education; and humanity and social science education. A valuable resource for researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

In the field of computer aided language learning (CALL), there is a need for emphasizing the importance of the user. ""User-Centered Computer Aided Language Learning"" presents methodologies, strategies, and design approaches for building interfaces for a user-centered CALL environment, creating a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges of the field. ""User-Centered Computer Aided Language Learning"" acts as a guide to help educators, administrators, professionals and researchers find the basis of a framework for the development and management of CALL environments that are enriched with MAN domains and take into account interaction and activity, which go beyond the basic linguistic elements of the field.

In the past, interactivity has often been studied from the perspective of a particular subject area. Much effort has been expended on classifying and topologizing interactivity from the perspectives of media studies and information science. However, there is a lack of consolidated effort to relate these studies and to connect theoretical and empirical research with the practice of e-learning. Interactivity in E-Learning: Case Studies and Frameworks provides a comprehensive examination of interactivity, combining key perspectives from communication and media studies, distributed cognition, system affordances, user control, and social interaction. This new approach offers a holistic view of interactivity, which is useful for researchers working in the fields of communication and media, educational media, e-learning, and instructional technology.

Exploring online learning through the lens of synchronous and asynchronous instructional methods can be beneficial to the online instructor and to the course designer. Understanding the underlying theoretical foundation is essential to justify both types of instructional pedagogies. Learning theory as it applies to online environments encompasses myriad techniques and practices. Exploring Online Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous Instructional Methods is an essential scholarly book that provides relevant and detailed research on the applications of synchronous and asynchronous instructional pedagogies and discusses why they are critical to the design and implementation of contemporary online courses. Featuring an array of topics such as student engagement, adaptive learning, and online instruction, this book is ideal for online instructors, instructional designers, curriculum developers, course designers, academicians, administrators, e-learning professionals, researchers, and students.

This book addresses several pressing concerns of teachers and researchers who are looking for ways to integrate technology use in and out of their classrooms and assess its usefulness in the learning process. It provides an up-to-date examination of technology-supported pedagogy and language acquisition in a variety of Japanese as a foreign or second language contexts. It equips readers with practical pedagogical information, including methods of implementation and learning assessment, and ideas for how technology can be applied to achieve a wide range of learning objectives. The topics examined include cultural learning, identity construction, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, collaborative online learning, digital and 3D virtual reality games, online text analysis, and participation in online communities. In addition, different e-learning configurations such as flipped, online, and distance learning classrooms are explored. Studies examine various current technologies (e.g. blogs, synchronous/asynchronous telecollaboration, corpus analysis software, modern pronunciation tools) and will have both direct and indirect consequences for teaching and learning a second/foreign language with technology across all languages.

There is a general notion that adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children. Adult learners include working adults with family responsibilities, older workers who may not feel confident about returning to school and people who are currently in the workforce and who need to upgrade skills and knowledge. The combination of synchronous and asynchronous transmission with face to face instruction allow for the implementation of a new Blended Collaborative Learning Environment, which is flexible in terms of location, time, and pace of adult learners. Blended Learning Environments for Adults: Evaluations and Frameworks demonstrates the view that Information and Communication Technologies should not be considered as a neutral teaching medium, but instead be implemented under pedagogical conditions; aiming at the development of critical thinking through their creative integration into the social and cultural context. This comprehensive collection brings a group of scholars in order to build up a pedagogical approach and analytical implementation steps and directions for designing and implementing Blended Learning Collaborative Environments for adults.

This text addresses methods of evaluating technology in education and covers such topics as: how we know if technology works; collaborative learning; learner-centred design; multiple stakeholder needs; and that data that influence educational technology policy.

This book explores trends in learning and knowledge analytics in open education, as explored in proceedings papers from AECT-LKAOE 2015 International Research Symposium. The chapters investigate various issues surrounding open education in all disciplines, such as learning design in open-ended learning environments, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), learning analytics studies and applications, and technology and new media. The chapter authors provide guidance for how to design and develop most effective, efficient, and appealing instruction as well as suggesting learning strategies relevant to the open education era.

Today we are seeing a new form of blended learning: not only is technology enhancing the learning environment but formal and informal learning are combining and there is self- and peer-assessment of results. Open learning cultures are challenging the old and long-practiced methods used by educators and transforming learning into a more student-driven and independent activity, which uses online tools such as blogs, wikis or podcasts to connect resources, students and teachers in a novel way.

While in higher education institutions most assessments are still tied to formal learning scenarios, teachers are more and more bound to recognize their students' informal learning processes and networks. This book will help teachers, lecturers and students to better understand how open learning landscapes work, how to define quality and create assessments in such environments, and how to apply these new measures.

To this end, Ehlers first elaborates the technological background for more collaborative, distributed, informal, and self-guided learning. He covers the rise of social media for learning and shows how an architecture of participation can change learning activities. These new paradigms are then applied to learning and education to outline what open learning landscapes look like. Here he highlights the shift from knowledge transfer to competence development, the increase in lifelong learning, and the importance of informal learning, user generated content, and open educational resources. He then shows how to manage quality by presenting a step by step guide to developing customized quality concepts for open learning landscapes. Finally, several methods dealing with assessment in these new environments are presented, including guidelines, templates and use cases to exemplify the approaches.

Overall, Ehlers argues for assessment as an integral part of learning processes, with quality assurance as a method of stimulating a quality culture and continuous quality development rather than as a simple controlling exercise.

Despite the considerable, growing interest in online education, most studies have focused only on the students' perspective. Merely a handful of studies have attempted to address the teachers' perspectives and little has been published on the online teaching experience itself. Expectations and Demands in Online Teaching: Practical Experiences offers a better understanding of how teachers experience the online environment by exploring various dimensions of online teaching, including class preparation, process effectiveness and quality, and technology utilization. The book assists educational institution administrators supporting online education improve their understanding of how teachers experience online teaching, and of the issues these teachers face in their teaching.

The 2008 volume of the 33-year-old Educational Media and Technology Yearbook series continues the legacy of its predecessors. It highlights the major trends of the previous year, with a focus on instructional technology education. It features the winning paper of AECT's ECT Foundation's Qualitative Inquiry Award. It discusses advances in the school and library media worlds. It profiles an outstanding individual in the field: Barbara Lockee (Professor, Virginia Tech). It identifies instructional technology-related organizations and graduate programs across North America. And it concludes with a mediagraphy of journals, books, ERIC documents, journal articles, and nonprint resources. As a repository of so much valuable data and information, it is, quite simply, a volume every media and technology professional will be proud to own.