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.

This book presents the status quo of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education, with a focus on China and the 17 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia (the "17+1" cooperation mechanism, as an incubator for pragmatic trans-regions cooperation platform, created by China and the 17 CEECs). With recent advances in ICT in China and the CEECs, it has assumed increasingly important roles in education, including the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning, as well as the promotion of equity in education. The significant contribution of ICT in education is an enabler to achieving the goals of the "17+1 cooperation" mechanism between China and the CEECs, which has attracted considerable attention worldwide, given fresh impetus to cooperation between the two parties, and opened a new chapter in China-CEEC cooperation. The contributors, all of whom hail from these 18 countries, describe the state-of-the-art of ICT in education in their respective country, and focus on three major aspects, namely: the country profile, general status of education development, and ICT in education. In turn, leading experts in educational informatization research compare the situations in different countries. Taken together, the papers offer valuable insights for policymakers and educators on how to integrate ICT into educational processes, and on inter-regional cooperation with regard to ICT in education.

This book focuses on teaching and learning with mobile technologies, with a particular emphasis on school and teacher education contexts. It explains a robust, highly-acclaimed contemporary mobile pedagogical framework (iPAC) that focuses on three distinct mobile pedagogies: personalisation, authenticity and collaboration. The book shows how mobile pedagogical practice can benefit from use of this framework. It offers numerous cutting-edge research resources and examples that supplement theoretical discussions. It considers directions for future research and practice. Readers will gain insights into the potential of current and emerging learning technologies in school and teacher education.

Over the past decade, integrated STEM education research has emerged as an international concern, creating around it an imperative for technological and disciplinary innovation and a global resurgence of interest in teaching and learning to code at the K-16 levels. At the same time, issues of democratization, equity, power and access, including recent decolonizing efforts in public education, are also beginning to be acknowledged as legitimate issues in STEM education. Taking a reflexive approach to the intersection of these concerns, this book presents a collection of papers making new theoretical advances addressing two broad themes: Transdisciplinary Approaches in STEM Education and Bodies, Hegemony and Decolonization in STEM Education. Within each theme, praxis is of central concern including analyses of teaching and learning that re-imagines disciplinary boundaries and domains, the relationship between Art and STEM, and the design of learning technologies, spaces and environments. In addition to graduate research seminars at the Masters and PhD levels in Learning Sciences, Science Education, Educational Technology and STEM education, this book could also serve as a textbook for graduate and pre-service teacher education courses.

This book addresses the contributions of design thinking to higher education and explores the benefits and challenges of design thinking discourses and practices in interdisciplinary contexts. With a particular focus on Australia, the USA and UK, the book examines the value and drawbacks of employing design thinking in different disciplines and contexts, and also considers its future.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th IFIP WG 11.8 World Conference on Information Security Education, WISE 14, held virtually in June 2021. The 8 papers presented together with a special chapter showcasing the history of WISE and two workshop papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 19 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: a roadmap for building resilience; innovation in curricula; teaching methods and tools; and end-user security.

Teachers' active online participation and engagement with students are critical factors to the success of online courses. Essentials of Online Teaching is a standards-based, straightforward guide to teaching online in higher education, high school and vocational training, or corporate learning environments. This brief but powerful book encourages immediate application of concepts with the help of real-world examples, technical insights, and professional advice. The guide includes: a practical approach informed by, but not about, relevant learning theories; clear models and examples from a wide variety of online courses; teachers' reflections about their online practice; a checklist of standards to help guide teaching decisions; and an accompanying website (www.essentialsofonlineteaching.com) with additional resources. Essentials of Online Teaching addresses key instructional challenges in online teaching and presents the reader with practical solutions for each phase of a course-preparation, beginning, middle, and end.

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 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.

At all educational levels, innovation is progressively becoming an intrinsic aspect of learning. The proliferation of mobile devices and sensor-based technologies increased the possibilities for learning and pushed it into institutions. One major challenge accompanying the growth in online education is that many teacher educators find themselves under pressure and underprepared to teach online courses. As online education continues to grow, curriculum and training that prepares teachers for online course design and delivery are critical. Mobile and Sensor-Based Technologies in Higher Education explores how mobile and sensor-based technologies are shaping higher education and creating a roadmap for harnessing artificial intelligence, online learning, distance learning, and other modern technologies to aid education. Covering key topics such as assessment, inclusive education, and social distancing, this reference work is ideal for policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

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.

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.

* Explores the emergent movement away from transmission based to coaching based learning * Champions education as a dialogic process between learners and coaches * Strives for a training model in which the motivated learner embraces challenges and learns to assess his/her own level, * Includes data and examples from schools in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Science is unique among the disciplines since it is inherently hands-on. However, the hands-on nature of science instruction also makes it uniquely challenging when teaching in virtual environments. How do we, as science teachers, deliver high-quality experiences in an online environment that leads to age/grade-level appropriate science content knowledge and literacy, but also collaborative experiences in the inquiry process and the nature of science? The expansion of online environments for education poses logistical and pedagogical challenges for early childhood and elementary science teachers and early learners. Despite digital media becoming more available and ubiquitous and increases in online spaces for teaching and learning (Killham et al., 2014; Wong et al., 2018), PreK-12 teachers consistently report feeling underprepared or overwhelmed by online learning environments (Molnar et al., 2021; Seaman et al., 2018). This is coupled with persistent challenges related to elementary teachers' lack of confidence and low science teaching self-efficacy (Brigido, Borrachero, Bermejo, & Mellado, 2013; Gunning & Mensah, 2011). Teaching and Learning Online: Science for Elementary Grade Levels comprises three distinct sections: Frameworks, Teacher's Journeys, and Lesson Plans. Each section explores the current trends and the unique challenges facing elementary teachers and students when teaching and learning science in online environments. All three sections include alignment with Next Generation Science Standards, tips and advice from the authors, online resources, and discussion questions to foster individual reflection as well as small group/classwide discussion. Teacher's Journeys and Lesson Plan sections use the 5E model (Bybee et al., 2006; Duran & Duran, 2004). Ideal for undergraduate teacher candidates, graduate students, teacher educators, classroom teachers, parents, and administrators, this book addresses why and how teachers use online environments to teach science content and work with elementary students through a research-based foundation.

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.

Elementary Online Learning offers school- and district-level leaders and administrators a field-tested approach to developing formal and interdisciplinary online education, in-house and from scratch, for grades K-5. While it is possible today to purchase off-the-shelf online platforms from for-profit companies, many elementary schools have the option of creating their own programs, curricula, and instructional strategies that are deliberately tailored to the strengths and needs of their own communities. This book provides practical and effective approaches to cohesive, data-driven program design, synchronous and asynchronous teaching, professional development, family partnerships, and much more. Each chapter is full of research-based ideas, recommendations, and prompts that will help schools yield online education that is interdisciplinary, socially just, and student-driven.