Learning Theory and Online Technologies offers a powerful overview of the current state of online learning, the foundations of its historical roots and growth, and a framework for distinguishing between the major approaches to online learning. It addresses pedagogy (how to design an effective online environment for learning), evaluation (how to know that students are learning), and history (how past research can guide successful online teaching and learning outcomes). An ideal textbook for undergraduate Education and Communication programs as well as Educational Technology Masters, Ph.D., and Certificate programs, Learning Theory and Online Technologies provides a synthesis of the key advances in online education learning theory and the key frameworks of research, and clearly links theory and research to successful learning practice. This revised second edition updates data on digital media adoption globally, adds a new chapter on connectivism as a learning theory, and updates the chapter on online collaborative learning, renaming the theory as collaborativism and considering the challenges that arise with the growth of artificial intelligence.

This book considers several aspects of providing quality education at a distance: Quality of systems that support online learning, quality support infrastructure, quality of technical access and support, materials distribution; issues in each of these areas are considered. It contains the papers presented at the working conference of Working Group 3.6 (Distance Education) of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP Geelong, Australia, Feb. 2003).

The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning

Edited by: Vivien Hodgson, Maarten de Laat, David McConnell and Thomas Ryberg

"This book brings together a wealth of new research that opens up the meaning of connectivity as embodied and promised in the term networked learning . Chapters explore how contexts, groups and environments can be connected rather than just learners; how messy, unexpected and emergent connections can be made rather than structured and predefined ones; and how technology connects us to learning and each other, but also shapes our identity. These exciting new perspectives ask us to look again at what we are connecting and to revel in new and emergent possibilities arising from the interplay of social actors, contexts, technologies, and learning."

"Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of British Columbia"

"Despite creating fundamentally new educational economics and greatly increasing access - teaching and learning in networks is a tricky business. These chapters illuminate the complex interactions amongst tools, pedagogy, educational institutions and personal net presences helping us design and redesign our own networks. In the process, they take (or extract) network theory from the practice of real teaching and learning contexts, making this collection an important contribution to Networked Learning."

"Terry Anderson, Athabasca University"

"What kinds of learning can social networking platforms really enable? Digging well beneath the hype, this book provides a timely, incisive analysis of why and how learning emerges (or fails to) in networked spaces. The editors do a fine job in guiding the reader through the rich array of theories and methods for tackling this question, and the diverse contexts in which networked learning is now being studied. This is a book for reflective practitioners as well as academics: the book's close attention to the political, pedagogical and organisational complexity of effective practice, and the lived experience of educators and learners, helps explain why networked learning has such disruptive potential but equally, why it draws resistance from the establishment."

"Simon Buckingham Shum, The Open University"

"The networked learning conference, a biannual institution since 1998, celebrates its 14th year in this volume. Here a range of studies, reflecting networked learning experiments across Europe and other global contexts, show important shifts away from a conservative tradition of e-learning research and unpeel dilemmas of promoting learning as an elusive practice in virtual environments. The authors point towards important futures in online learning research, where notions of knowledge, connectivity and community become increasingly elastic, and engagements slide across material and virtual domains in new practices whose emergence is increasingly difficult to apprehend."

""

"Tara Fenwick University of Stirling."

The chapters in this volume explore new and innovative ways of thinking about the nature of networked learning and its pedagogical values and beliefs. They pose a challenge to us to reflect on what we thought networked learning was 15 year ago, where it is today and where it is likely to be headed.

Each chapter brings a particular perspective to the themes of design, experience and practice of networked learning, the chosen focus of the book. The chapters in the book embrace a wide field of educational areas including those of higher education, informal learning, work-based learning, continuing professional development, academic staff development, and management learning.

The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning will prove indispensable reading for researchers, teachers, consultants, and instructional designers in higher and continuing education; for those involved in staff and educational development, and for those studying post graduate qualifications in learning and teaching.

This, the second volume in the Springer Book Series on Researching Networked Learning, is based on a selection of papers presented at the 2012 Networked Learning Conference held in Maastricht, The Netherlands."

This book posits the idea that networked learning is the one new paradigm in learning theory that has resulted from the introduction of digital and networked technologies. It sets out, in a single volume, a critical review of the main ideas and then articulates the case for adopting a networked learning perspective in a variety of educational settings. This book fills a gap in the literature on networked learning. Although there are several edited volumes in the field there is no other monograph makes the academic case and provides the academic context for networked learning. This volume accomplishes three main goals. First, it assists researchers and practitioners in acquainting themselves with the field. Second, it provides resources for reference and guidance to those not well acquainted with the field. Finally and most powerfully, it also allows for the consolidation of a field that is truly multidisciplinary in a way that maintains coherence and consistency.

The development of online learning environments has enhanced the availability of educational opportunities for students. By implementing effective curriculum strategies, this ensures proper quality and instruction in online settings. The Handbook of Research on Writing and Composing in the Age of MOOCs is a critical reference source that overviews the current state of larger scale online courses and the latest competencies for teaching writing online. Featuring comprehensive coverage across a range of perspectives on teaching in virtual classrooms, such as MOOC delivery models, digital participation, and user-centered instructional design, this book is ideal for educators, professionals, practitioners, academics, and researchers interested in the latest material on writing and composition strategies for online classrooms. Topics Covered: Critical Thinking Skills Digital Participation Discussion Board Forums Gender Considerations MOOC Delivery Models Students with Disabilities User-Centered Instructional Design Video Usage Writing Program Administrators

This volume addresses challenges that the field of English language teacher education has faced in the past several years. The global pandemic has caused extreme stress and has also served as a catalyst for new ways of teaching, learning, and leading. Educators have relied on their creativity and resiliency to identify new and innovative teaching practices and insights that inform the profession going forward. Contributors describe how teacher educators have responded to the specific needs and difficulties of educating teachers and teaching second language learners in challenging circumstances around the world and how these innovations can transform education going forward into the future. Paving the way to a revitalized profession, this book is essential reading for the current and future generations of TESOL scholars, graduate students, and professors.

Constructing Online Work-Based Learning Placements offers a step-by-step approach to understanding and applying the principles of design and delivery in online work-based learning (WBL) placements for students. A crucial component of employability strategies for higher education students, WBL placements are increasingly in need of adaptation to respond to today's rapidly expanding online work environments. This evidence-based book explores the emergent properties and additional value that online WBL placements provide to student learning and employability prospects, focusing on effective pedagogy, design, planning and implementation. The book also presents the Peer Enhanced e-Placement (PEEP), a pioneering, positively evaluated and award-winning online WBL placement model that is underpinned by pedagogical research and theory. The PEEP has been adapted and adopted by numerous higher education teams organising online WBL placements, and the case example included in these pages will guide readers through their own implementation and collaborations.

A volume in Teaching<~> Learning Indigenous, Intercultural Worldviews: International Perspectives on Social Justice and Human Rights Series Editor: Tonya Huber-Warring, St. Cloud State University, Minnesota The hybridity and dynamism of today's interconnected, interdependent and culturally diverse world pose challenges and opportunities for learning and communication. This book introduces an approach to facilitate global learning opportunities while facing these challenges. The approach is based on the cage painting metaphor for dialogic coconstruction of meaning and understanding of multiple perspectives. Resolving disorienting dilemmas or preconceptions requires a dialectic flow of thinking since the root of the problem may be situated deep within a person's beliefs and values. Such experiences might be transformative in their nature, involving: a change in the person's perspective; better understanding the culture of themselves and other people; reflection and bodymindful inquiry into one's worldview- third place learning. Misunderstandings are more prevalent when using technology-global reach-between people from distant locations or different cultures.To prepare people for these challenges, the authors offer a Web 2. 0-based instructional design blueprint. Depending on the context and content of the planned activities, the cage painting and global learning processes may be facilitated simultaneously or sequentially. The approach to improving intercultural/global communication and collaboration presented in this book has attracted the interest of educators in different disciplines as well as human resource leaders. This approach emerged from six years of studying ways in which authors and their colleagues from 25 different countries integrated global learning into classrooms in a range of discipline areas. In this book the authors explore the competences needed to communicate interculturally and to avoid the effects of preconceptions on communication and collaboration.

"Towards Learning and instruction in Web 3.0," which includes selected expanded papers from CELDA (Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age) 2010 (http: //www.celda-conf.org/) addresses the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes, innovative pedagogies, and technology-based educational applications in the digital age. The convergence of these two disciplines continues to increase and in turn, affects the academic and professional spheres in numerous ways. "Towards Learning and Instruction in Web 3.0 "addresses paradigms such as just-in-time learning, constructivism, student-centered learning and collaborative approaches which have emerged and are being supported by technological advancements such as simulations, virtual reality and multi-agents systems. This volume touches on both technological as well as psychological and pedagogical issues related to the developments of Web 3.0.

From the creators of the wildly popular book Ten Little Night Stars, comes Ten Little Fireflies, a board book that introduces little ones to numbers as they count down to bedtime. Ten Little Fireflies: Is perfect for little ones ages 0-4 Is an early learning concept book of numbers one to ten Has soothing rhymes making this the perfect bedtime read Easily wipes clean of little fingerprints and smudges This sweet counting book written by Deb Gruelle, the great grandniece of the creator of Raggedy Ann, features: Popular woodland animals like hedgehogs and owls Is perfect for baby gifts, birthday gifts, and holiday gift giving Fits into little hands

This book presents various video processing methodologies that are useful for distance education. The motivation is to devise new multimedia technologies that are suitable for better representation of instructional videos by exploiting the temporal redundancies present in the original video. This solves many of the issues related to the memory and bandwidth limitation of lecture videos. The various methods described in the book focus on a key-frame based approach which is used to time shrink, repackage and retarget instructional videos. All the methods need a preprocessing step of shot detection and recognition, which is separately given as a chapter. We find those frames which are well-written and distinct as key-frames. A super-resolution based image enhancement scheme is suggested for refining the key-frames for better legibility. These key-frames, along with the audio and a meta-data for the mutual linkage among various media components form a repackaged lecture video, which on a programmed playback, render an estimate of the original video but at a substantially compressed form. The book also presents a legibility retentive retargeting of this instructional media on mobile devices with limited display size. All these technologies contribute to the enhancement of the outreach of distance education programs. Distance education is now a big business with an annual turnover of over 10-12 billion dollars. We expect this to increase rapidly. Use of the proposed technology will help deliver educational videos to those who are less endowed in terms of network bandwidth availability and to those everywhere who are even on a move by delivering it effectively to mobile handsets (including PDAs). Thus, technology developers, practitioners, and content providers will find the material very useful.

Instructional quality can make or break the learning experience, especially in digital environments where the expressional nuances of interpersonal communication are lost. The most effective distance education instructors and experts are those who recognize the educational needs of students and are able to address those needs through creative use of the technological tools available to them. Identification, Evaluation, and Perceptions of Distance Education Experts explores the current and future trends, needs, and priorities that affect the development of distance education in a postmodern world. This premier reference work will be of significance to those interested in online learning, teaching and training, communication, and education across multiple sectors such as universities, colleges, schools, profit/non-profit e-organizations, and e-commerce.

Foundations of Embodied Learning advances learning, instruction, and the design of educational technologies by rethinking the learner as an integrated system of mind, body, and environment. Body-based processes-direct physical, social, and environmental interactions-are constantly mediating intellectual performance, sensory stimulation, communication abilities, and other conditions of learning. This book's coherent, evidence-based framework articulates principles of grounded and embodied learning for design and its implications for curriculum, classroom instruction, and student formative and summative assessment for scholars and graduate students of educational psychology, instructional design and technology, cognitive science, the learning sciences, and beyond.

This volume provides foreign language educators and classroom researchers with an introduction to online intercultural exchange, the activity of engaging foreign language learners in collaborative project work with partners from other cultures through the use of online communication tools such as email, discussion boards and videoconferencing. The authors use their extensive experience in both the practice and research of online exchange to present a clear overview of the pedagogical theory behind online exchange and its contribution to different aspects of foreign language learning, including communicative competence, intercultural awareness and learner autonomy. The chapters look at different ways of organising such projects, such as the Tandem and Cultura models, and also provide clear discussions on practical aspects of the area including task design, the choice of communication tools and the role of the teacher.

The Beginner's Bible Preschool Math Workbook will encourage young children ages 3 to 5 to grow in their faith and have fun while learning their numbers and number concepts, practicing fine motor skills, and more. A strong foundation in number sense directly impacts a child's success in math throughout their school career. The Beginner's Bible Preschool Math Workbook teaches number sense to your preschooler with a wide variety of fun educational activities! Parents will appreciate how The Beginner's Preschool Math Workbook: Provides preschool level practice of numbers and basic number sense Helps develop creativity and problem-solving skills Can be taken wherever you go-to church, to a friend's, or on the road Features activities designed to help children learn preschool math skills while also learning of God's love for them Children ages 3 to 5 will enjoy nearly 200 pages of educational activities: Writing numbers and number words Counting activities problem-solving comparisons and simple measurement Activities that promote number sense such as connect-the-dots, matching games, color-by-number, and more The simple, pencil-and-paper activities in The Beginner's Bible Preschool Math Workbook incorporate classic Bible stories and characters such as Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Moses, David and Goliath, the life of Jesus, and more. Get ready for your children to enjoy this interactive, Bible-story based approach to learning numbers!

In recent decades, community colleges and universities have struggled with less funding, increased competition, and shrinking enrollment. Borderless online degrees offer opportunities to make higher education more accessible and to make foreign study without having to travel abroad an option. Lower cost, high retention, and reduced time to graduate are all key selling points for these degrees. Global Demand for Borderless Online Degrees is an essential research publication that provides the benefits, risks, and solutions for entering the borderless online degree market and discusses novel online approaches that are cost-effective for higher education institutions and affordable for customers at home and abroad. This book describes innovative pedagogy in fused learning classrooms that builds relationship and promotes retention and student satisfaction. Featuring a wide range of topics such as community college, accreditation, and international education, this book is ideal for university presidents, provosts, rectors, chancellors, international educators, administrators, academicians, policymakers, researchers, and students.

The tough questions kids 8-12 ask about faith, Jesus, and Christianity are investigated and answered in this 365-day devotional that uses the historical facts and theological truths found in The Case for Christ to help young readers develop their faith and understand what it means to be a Christian. Each day's reading also includes reflection questions, helping kids think through what their faith personally means to them. Become an expert witness for Jesus! For kids who want to learn more about Christianity or simply have questions about the Bible, this devotional helps young readers understand why Jesus's ministry and miracles are true and why we can confidently believe in Jesus today. The Case for Christ Devotions for Kids: Includes 365 days of devotions for kids that use kid-friendly language, engaging illustrations, and clear examples to help kids understand faith and the proven truths that support Christianity Mixes inspirational prose with facts, research, and true stories Is based around material from the New York Times bestselling The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel In addition, The Case for Christ Devotions for Kids: Can be used for family devotion time Is ideal for boys and girls ages 8-12 Is a perfect way to encourage a child's spiritual development and engage them with the Bible Makes a great gift for Christmas, Easter, or at the start of a new year If you enjoyed The Case for Christ Devotions for Kids, don't forget to check out The Case for Christ for Young Readers, which directly adapts Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ for kids 8-12.

Digital Futures for Learning offers a methodological and pedagogical way forward for researchers and educators who want to work imaginatively with "what's next" in higher education and informal learning. Today's debates around technological transformations of social, cultural and educational spaces and practices need to be informed by a more critical understanding of how visions of the future of learning are made and used, and how they come to be seen as desirable, inevitable or impossible. Integrating innovative methods, key research findings, engaging theories and creative pedagogies across multiple disciplines, this book argues for and explores speculative approaches to researching and analysing post-compulsory and informal learning futures - where we are, where we might go and how to get there.