The development and use of computer mediated communications as a tool for teaching and learning has grown considerably in recent years. It has been developed to extend the conventional face-to-face tutorial environment and for distance-learning purposes, actively engaging students in productive learning situations. Here we document the findings of…

Digital video can play an important role in reconfiguring educational research methodology that challenges the perceived distinction between teachers and academics--the former normally positioned as "users" of research that has been designed, interpreted and theorised by the latter, usually the "producers" or academics [Triggs, P., & John, P.…

This paper, develops the concept of "epistemic frames" as a mechanism through which students can use experiences in video games, computer games, and other interactive learning environments to help them deal more effectively with situations outside of the original context of learning. Building on ideas of "islands of expertise" [Crowley, K., &…

This paper describes an empirical study of fun, usability, and learning in educational software. Twenty five children aged 7 and 8 from an English primary school participated. The study involved three software products that were designed to prepare children for government initiated science tests. Pre and post tests were used to measure the…

There have been few attempts to introduce frameworks that can help support tutors evaluate educational games and simulations that can be most effective in their particular learning context and subject area. The lack of a dedicated framework has produced a significant impediment for the uptake of games and simulations particularly in formal…

Using a mixed method approach of questionnaires, observations and field notes, the authors have studied a number of settings during the past two years which have focussed on the development of ICT capability through play. Some of these have involved children identified as disaffected or disadvantaged, whilst others have involved initial teacher…

Interactivity in the classroom is reported to promote a more active learning environment, facilitate the building of learning communities, provide greater feedback for lecturers, and help student motivation. Various definitions of interactivity exist in the literature, alternately focusing on the participants, structure and technology. The "PLS…

This paper explores current applications for handheld devices and questions which of these make full use of the unique attributes of handheld devices in order to facilitate learning in a pedagogically sensible manner. In order to do so, the paper presents a functional framework which analyses handheld application in relation to their use as well…

Despite recent British government moves to equip all Primary Schools with fast broadband connections to the Internet, it would seem that many schools as yet make little use of the increased capacity this affords other than to incorporate more and more rich multimedia in the form of interactive games or animated presentations to illustrate…

Does collaborative learning in asynchronous discussion groups result in enhancing academic discourse and knowledge construction? This general research question has been researched in a study involving 300 students, working during six months in 38 electronic discussion groups. The transcripts of the discussions were coded and analysed to test…

This study reports on the student experience of learning through writing in an undergraduate science subject. During their writing experience, 52 first year university science students used a writing database, bulletin board and word-processor. Using quantitative questionnaires developed from student learning research, this study investigates the…

This paper concerns the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in music classrooms, with the focus on the secondary school music curriculum in the United Kingdom. In particular, it reports on a study of learners in a UK school using software designed to support practical music skills. The paper begins by briefly raising and…

This study tested the effectiveness of audio-visual training in the discrimination of the phonetic feature of voicing on the recognition of written words by young children deemed to at risk of dyslexia (experiment 1) as well as on dyslexic children's phonological skills (experiment 2). In addition, the third experiment studied the effectiveness of…

We investigated whether the findings from worked-out example research on the effects of self-explanation prompts and on instructional explanations can be generalized to other example types--in this case: solved example problems. Whereas worked-out examples consist of a problem formulation, solution steps, and the final solution, solved example…

Previous research on IT fluency in connection with non-IT majors points at the increasing need for more ''realistic'' courses teaching the use of complex and domain-specific IT applications. That research also suggests certain desirable course design characteristics, of which one of the most important is the close integration of realistic case…