This volume narrates and shares the often-unheard voices of students, parents, and educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through close analysis of their lived experiences, the book identifies key patterns, pitfalls, and lessons learnt from pandemic education. Drawing on contributions from all levels of the US education system, the book situates these myriad voices and perspectives within a prismatic theory framework in order to recognise how these views and experiences interconnect. Detailed narrative and phenomenological analysis also call attention to patterns of inequality, reduced social and emotional well-being, pressures on parents, and the role of communication, flexibility, and teacher-led innovation. Chapters are interchanged with interludes that showcase a lyrical and authentic approach to understanding the multiplicity of experience in the text. Providing a valuable contribution to the contemporary field of pandemic education research, this volume will be of interest to researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, online teaching and eLearning, and those involved with the digitalization of education at all levels. Those more broadly interested in educational research methods and the effects of home-schooling will also benefit.

Introduction to Problem-based Learning teaches students how to work with the problem-based learning method, which requires mainly self-directed learning. Particular attention is given to the necessary skills to apply this method effectively. Why Introduction to Problem-based Llearning? * comprehensible introduction in the problem-based learning method * enables students to experience the full potential of this concept * discusses the use of digital devices Introduction to Problem-based learning provides students with the necessary skills to operate within as well as outside problem-based groups. It discusses issues like: How do you take on a problem? How do you collaborate with others? How do you deal with cultural diversity? How do you lead a tutorial group? How can you organize your studies best? Special attention is given to the use of computers, tablets and internet in a problem-based environment.

Allow your children to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood with this practical guide that provides all the information, inspiration, and advice you need for creating a modern, quality homeschool education. Inspired by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau-"All good things are wild and free"-mother of five Ainsley Arment founded Wild + Free. This growing online community of mothers and families want their children to receive a quality education at home by challenging their intellectual abilities and nurturing their sense of curiosity, joy and awe-the essence of a positive childhood. The homeschool approach of past generations is gone-including the stigma of socially awkward kids, conservative clothes, and a classroom setting replicated in the home. The Wild + Free movement is focused on a love of nature, reading great books, pursuing interests and hobbies, making the entire world a classroom, and prolonging the wonder of childhood, an appealing philosophy that is unpacked in the pages of this book The Call of the Wild and Free offers advice, information, and positive encouragement for parents considering homeschooling, those currently in the trenches looking for inspiration, as well as parents, educators, and caregivers who want supplementary resources to enhance their kids' traditional educations.

The fourth edition of this book updates background information about the definition and supporting theories and updates the glossary with new terms related to distance education and instructional technology.

Giving your child a quality education experience for a life of happiness and purpose is possible--and it only takes four hours a day or less! We want our kids to have the best education, but less-than-ideal school environments and concern about our kids' specific needs have parents uncertain about traditional schooling. Trusted homeschool expert with 25 years of experience homeschooling her own eight children, Durenda Wilson offers a better way and promises that you already have what it takes to give your child a healthy, successful future. In The Four-Hour School Day, she unpacks the lifelong advantages of home education, both for the health of your family and your child's future. With inspiring stories about parents just like you, she demystifies homeschooling and addresses common fears like, what if I'm not qualified, how can I homeschool as a single parent, and what if I don't have enough time? Packed with encouragement and practical advice, this resource equips you with all the information you need to create a sustainable homeschooling plan customized to your child's needs. Wilson will help you to: Work with your child's interests and passions for an enjoyable learning experience Cultivate independent learning in your child so you have more time and your child develops more curiosity Navigate the different schooling stages your child will go through Find an engaged community so that you can start this adventure with all the support you need. Explore the rich and wonderful world of homeschooling because it's not only more doable than you think, but far more beneficial than you can imagine.

Part of the groundbreaking Connecting with e-Learning series, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning provides effective, working examples to engage learners with authentic tasks in online settings. As technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective teaching and learning opportunities, students and teachers are no longer content to accept familiar classroom or lecture-based pedagogies that rely on information delivery and little else. Situated and constructivist theories advocate that learning is best achieved in circumstances resembling the real-life application of knowledge. While there are multiple learning design models that share similar foundations, authentic e-learning tasks go beyond process to become complex, sustained activities that draw on realistic situations to produce realistic outcomes.

A Guide to Authentic e-Learning:

• develops the conceptual framework for authentic learning tasks in online environments
• provides practical guidance on design, implementation, and evaluation of authentic e-learning tasks
• includes case studies and examples of outcomes of using authentic e-learning tasks

Written for teaching professionals in Higher Education who teach online, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning offers concrete guidelines and examples for developing and implementing authentic e-learning tasks in ways that challenge students to maximize their learning. This essential book provides effective, working examples to engages learners with authentic tasks in online learning settings.

Part of the groundbreaking Connecting with e-Learning series, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning provides effective, working examples to engage learners with authentic tasks in online settings. As technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective teaching and learning opportunities, students and teachers are no longer content to accept familiar classroom or lecture-based pedagogies that rely on information delivery and little else. Situated and constructivist theories advocate that learning is best achieved in circumstances resembling the real-life application of knowledge. While there are multiple learning design models that share similar foundations, authentic e-learning tasks go beyond process to become complex, sustained activities that draw on realistic situations to produce realistic outcomes.

A Guide to Authentic e-Learning

• develops the conceptual framework for authentic learning tasks in online environments
• provides practical guidance on design, implementation, and evaluation of authentic e-learning tasks
• includes case studies and examples of outcomes of using authentic e-learning tasks

Written for teaching professionals in Higher Education who teach online, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning offers concrete guidelines and examples for developing and implementing authentic e-learning tasks in ways that challenge students to maximize their learning. This essential book provides effective, working examples to engages learners with authentic tasks in online learning settings.

Constructivist Instruction: Success or Failure? brings together leading thinkers from both sides of the hotly debated controversy about constructivist approaches to instruction. Although constructivist theories and practice now dominate the fields of the learning sciences, instructional technology, curriculum and teaching, and educational psychology, they have also been the subject of sharp criticism regarding sparse research support and adverse research findings. This volume presents:

• the evidence for and against constructivism;
• the challenges from information-processing theorists; and
• commentaries from leading researchers in areas such as text comprehension, technology, as well as math and science education, who discuss the constructivist framework from their perspectives.

Chapters present detailed views from both sides of the controversy. A distinctive feature of the book is the dialogue built into it between the different positions. Each chapter concludes with discussions in which two authors with opposing views raise questions about the chapter, followed by the author(s)' responses to those questions; for some chapters there are several cycles of questions and answers. These discussions, and concluding chapters by the editors, clarify, and occasionally narrow the differences between positions and identify needed research.

Winner of two Outstanding Book Awards from the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (Culture, Learning, & Technology and Systems Thinking & Change divisions)! Rapid advancements in our ability to collect, process, and analyze massive amounts of data along with the widespread use of online and blended learning platforms have enabled educators at all levels to gain new insights into how people learn. Responsible Analytics and Data Mining in Education addresses the thoughtful and purposeful navigation, evaluation, and implementation of these emerging forms of educational data analysis. Chapter authors from around the world explore how data analytics can be used to improve course and program quality; how the data and its interpretations may inadvertently impact students, faculty, and institutions; the quality and reliability of data, as well as the accuracy of data-based decisions; ethical implications surrounding the collection, distribution, and use of student-generated data; and more. This volume unpacks and explores this complex issue through a systematic framework whose dimensions address the issues that must be considered before implementation of a new initiative or program.

What do young people really do with digital media? Young People's Literacies in the Digital Age aims to debunk the common myths and assumptions that are associated with young people's relationship with digital media. In contrast to widespread notions of the empowered and enabled 'digital native', the book presents a more complex picture of young people's digital lives. Focusing on the notion of 'critical digital literacies' this book tackles a number of pressing questions that are often ignored in media hype and political panics over young people's digital media use, including: In what ways can digital media enhance, shape or constrain identity representation and communication? How do digital experiences map onto young people's everyday lives? What are young people's critical understandings of digital media and how did they develop these? What are the dominant understandings young people have of digital media and in whose interests do they work? These questions are addressed through the findings of a year of fieldwork with groups of young people aged 14 to 19 years. Over the course of eight chapters, the experiences and views of these young people are explored with reference to various academic literatures, such as digital literacies, media and communication studies, critical theory and youth studies. Starting with their early socialisation into the digital context, the book traces the continuities, contradictions and conflicts they encounter as part of their practices. Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this book develops a unique perspective on young people's digital lives.

Blended learning provides the flexibility to accommodate the varied requirements of pedagogies, disciplines and levels of course, together with the needs of a wide variety of learners. However, anyone concerned with the integration of online tutoring to support students appropriately may need to reassess current practice. This book adopts a pragmatic and common-sense approach to blended learning by situating the use of online media within a well-grounded teaching and learning strategy. It provides practical ideas for the successful implementation of blended strategies, including good practice in both asynchronous and synchronous tutoring, appropriate assessment design for developing successful blended learners, and innovative approaches to professional development for distance tutors. It is illustrated with a wide variety of examples and comments from students and practitioners in both distance and campus-based environments in 13 different countries. Since the first edition was published in 2006, there has been great interest in Web 2.0 technologies and their potential for use in an educational environment. This second edition has therefore incorporated many new examples of good practice, making use of a combination of tried and tested tools as well as blogs and wikis for supporting students. There has also been a recent rise in the use of activity-based learning and interest in its potential for supporting students in distance and online environments. The new edition incorporates many new exemplars of learning activity design in Part Three, to illustrate approaches to the development of critical, independent learners.

The phenomenon of using Free and Open Source Software in education has increased significantly in the last decade. Free and Open Source Software for E-Learning: Issues, Successes and Challenges reviews open and free software used in e-learning, examines the pedagogy behind FOSS and how it is applied to e-learning, and discusses the best practices for FOSS through real world examples, providing guidelines for e-learning designers and instructors who use FOSS. This engaging compilation is ideal for those using FOSS programs to design, develop, and manage educational and training programs. It is also well suited for adoption in instructional technology related courses in advanced degree programs.

Reconceptualizing Libraries brings together cases and models developed by experts in the information and learning sciences to identify the potential for libraries to adapt and transform in the wake of new technologies for connected learning and discovery. Chapter authors explore the ways that the increased interest in the design research methods, digital media emphases, and technological infrastructure of the learning sciences can foster new collaborations and formats for education within physical library spaces. Models and case studies from a variety of library contexts demonstrate how library professionals can act as change agents and design partners and how patrons can engage with these evolving experiences. This is a timely and innovative volume for understanding how physical libraries can incorporate and thrive as educational resources using new developments in technology and in the learning sciences.

Featuring essays by an international array of literature scholars, this volume examines the challenges and opportunities of teaching literature at Open and Virtual Universities in a wide range of national, cultural and linguistic contexts. It presents cutting-edge explorations of seminal issues, including: literature pedagogy and curriculum building; canon and theory debates; the uses of hypertext and other digital tools for literary instruction; the writing and evaluation of educational material; and the teaching of digital literature. These issues are addressed from various critical and theoretical viewpoints, which reflect the contributors' long educational and administrative involvement with open and distance learning (ODL) in a rich diversity of cultural and academic frameworks. As the first scholarly attempt to bring together questions of literature pedagogy and issues in open and distance, online and blended learning, this book is an essential resource for literature instructors and administrators in ODL, e-learning and b-learning programs. It offers techniques enabling scholars in more traditional academic settings to make literature courses more effective and stimulating by using tools developed for distance learning. >

In April 2003, The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrated its tenth anniversary and this book has been produced in order to commemorate this landmark achievement. It represents a collaboration between key members of ALT and members of ALTs' sister organisations: SURF in Holland and ASCILITE in Australia. The aims of the book are to use the topic of "institutional implementation" to present a review of the impact of learning technology on tertiary education over the past few years; and to highlight and discuss key changes and developments that are shaping present and future activities and consider the implications for individual enthusiasts who work in the field of learning technology. The book outlines the context in which individual enthusiasts have operated and institutional implementation has occurred over the last ten years. Four key themes are highlighted throughout the book: * the individual enthusiast and their role in institutional implementation; * the institutional enthusiast and their role in local and global e-learning initiatives; * finding the evidence to justify enthusiasm and underpin implementation; * reinventing the individual enthusiast.

Distance education, for long the Cinderella of the educational spectrum, had emerged in the 1970s and early 1980s as a valued component of many national educational systems in both developed and developing countries. The foundation of the Open Universities, developments in communications technology and in audio-, video- and computer-based learning, a new sophistication in the design of print-based materials and better support systems for the student learning at a distance had all contributed to the availability and quality of distance education programmes. Originally published in 1988, this book chronicles this great change in distance education. It presents the best writings on the subject published during the previous ten years. The articles selected for this volume provided a new scholarly basis for the theory and practice of distance education. The editors have brought together contributions from many countries and present authoritative introductions to each of the nine sections. This book provided those in both developed and developing countries with a guideline to one of the most rapidly expanding areas of education at the time.

Blended and online learning skills are rapidly becoming essential for effective teaching and learning in universities and colleges. Covering theory where useful but maintaining an emphasis on practice, this book provides teachers and lecturers with an accessible introduction to e-learning.

Beginning by exploring the meaning of 'e-learning', it supports tutors in identifying how they plan to use technology to support courses that blend online and face-to-face interactions. Illustrated by a range of case of studies, the book covers:

• designing quality, appropriate effective and online learning
• efficient and sustainable e-learning activity
• providing appropriate feedback to learners
• devising student activities and sourcing learning resources
• managing online and offline interactions

Packed with practical advice and ideas, this book provides the core skills and knowledge that teachers in HE and FE need when starting out and further developing their teaching course design for blended and online learning.

Online Education is a comprehensive exploration of blended and fully online teaching platforms, addressing history, theory, research, planning, and practice. As colleges, universities, and schools around the world adopt large-scale technologies and traditional class models shift into seamless, digitally interactive environments, critical insights are needed into the implications for administration and pedagogy. Written by a major contributor to the field, this book contextualizes online education in the past and present before analyzing its fundamental changes to instruction, program integration, social interaction, content construction, networked media, policy, and more. A provocative concluding chapter speculates on the future of education as the sector becomes increasingly dependent on learning technologies.

Join your favorite hippo, Fiona, the adorable internet sensation from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, as she visits her zoo friends, finding out what makes each one special. Is it their speedy running? Their lovely singing? And what makes Fiona so special to all of her friends? Young readers will enjoy learning more about Fiona and her friends in this Level One I Can Read about the little hippo that has captured hearts around the world with her inspiring story and plucky personality. Fantastic Fiona is: An endearing animal book that's a perfect gift from parents and grandparents An inspiring story about what makes each of us unique and special A Level One I Can Read story geared for children just learning to read Created by New York Times bestselling artist Richard Cowdrey of Fiona the Hippo; A Very Fiona Christmas; Fiona, It's Bedtime; Legend of the Candy Cane; Bad Dog, Marley; and A Very Marley Christmas fame

This edited collection helps those teaching religion in higher education utilize technology to increase student learning both inside and outside of the classroom. Recent times have seen major technological shifts that have important implications for how religion is taught at a post-secondary level. Providing multiple perspectives on a range of topics-including social media use and interactive classroom learning -this book presents a series of original case studies and insights on how technology can be used in religion classes in higher education to improve student learning.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic posed multiple dilemmas for educators; the most immediate one, when schools closed their physical doors, was how to switch nimbly from classroom instruction to emergency remote teaching. But educators also face a related, ongoing challenge: how to meet the social and emotional needs of their learners when separated by distance, whether in the middle of a traumatic event or on an unremarkable day of schooling. In this essential volume of the SEL Solutions Series, online learning expert Stephanie Louise Moore shows how teachers can seamlessly integrate effective SEL practices into their online instruction, beginning with the all-important creation of a social learning community. Strategies and resources are provided throughout to help with every step, including: understanding the individual needs of diverse distanced learners; developing students' navigational and focusing skills in the digital learning environment; increasing the level of interaction in online lessons; building in flexibility and choice; and assessing learning in a remote context.

Student Engagement in the Digital University challenges mainstream conceptions and assumptions about students' engagement with digital resources in Higher Education. While engagement in online learning environments is often reduced to sets of transferable skills or typological categories, the authors propose that these experiences must be understood as embodied, socially situated, and taking place in complex networks of human and nonhuman actors. Using empirical data from a JISC-funded project on digital literacies, this book performs a sociomaterial analysis of student-technology interactions, complicating the optimistic and utopian narratives surrounding technology and education today and positing far-reaching implications for research, policy and practice.

The rationale for this textbook is to introduce educators and e-learning designers to pedagogical models that provide the framework for effective content organization for curriculum, as well as visual design principles that support development of interactive learning environments. The book reveals the application of pedagogical models to the design of e-learning environments by discussing theories and showing actual applications that have been developed for the Web.

Though written for children 12 and older, this is also the best biography for adults of St. Louis De Montfort, the \"Apostle of Mary, \" famous preacher and author of True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of the Rosary. Truly inspiring Impr. 211 pgs 20 Illus, PB