If we intend to teach through educational media, we also have to teach about those media. This article explores the implications of this perspective for the use of computer games in the classroom. It seeks to explain why and how teachers might teach about computer games as a medium in their own right, just as they teach about film or television or…

Electronic game technologies can prepare novice learners for future learning of complex concepts. This paper describes the underlying instructional design, learning science, cognitive science, and game theory. A structural, or syntactic mapping (structure mapping), approach to game design can produce a game world relationally isomorphic to a…

This article outlines the characteristics and problems related to edutainment and of the associated research studies demonstrating that learning outcomes looks promising. The article suggests that we are moving towards a new generation of educational use of games that is more inclusive. This new generation relies on constructivist learning…

Games and gaming have always been an influential part of society and culture. Within the last 35 years, due to numerous technology innovations, electronic games in many formats have become ubiquitous in everyday life. This ubiquity has meant that games and gaming have permeated into many fields and disciplines for multiple purposes including…

Research on multimedia learning has produced a vast body of findings which, however, are not yet being integrated into a comprehensive framework of reference. For a considerable time, cognitive centered approaches have dominated the literature. Although motivational variables are now being taken into account, there is still a large gap in regard…

A review of the literature yields many intriguing applications of interactive multimedia technology that can be seen through a series of "snapshots" describing current projects and initiatives for deaf education. The five main categories chosen to represent these activities are: instructional design, communication bridges, skill development…

Emerging from e-learning, mobile learning is going to be a significant next wave of learning environments. This is an evolving research area and many issues regarding mobile learning have not yet been exhaustively covered. This article focuses on implementing m-learning modules using a simple case study. Most existing typical e-learning systems…

Assessment of learning is critical to the learners, teachers, and designers of learning environments. Current assessment techniques in web-based distance learning apply age-old techniques to a new medium and are not adequate for web-based distance learning environments (WBDLE). The goals of this article are to extend existing critiques of…

3D interactive virtual reality museum exhibits should be easy to use, entertaining, and informative. If the interface is intuitive, it will allow the user more time to learn the educational content of the exhibit. This research deals with interface issues concerning activating audio descriptions of images in such exhibits while the user is…

The World Wide Web (Web), the largest multimedia system in existence, has been heralded by many as the perfect tool for lifelong learning. One topic mentioned in this regard is science, since many adults have little prior knowledge about it and the field is constantly changing. Yet little empirical research has been done to examine how web…

This article describes the development of multimedia stories produced by ESL children using a children-as-designers approach. The rationale for the project was based on the use of technology to help second-language learning children express their culturally-diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Stories were produced by ten foreign-born…

This article presents an instructional program for collaborative construction of hypervideos. The instructional program integrates (a) hypervideo technology development, (b) assumptions on learning with hypervideo systems, and (c) the application of research on knowledge acquisition by writing texts or hypertexts to hypervideos. The aim of the…

This study focused on the read-aloud and attendant behaviors of learners working with an experimental computer-based program, which made use of speech recognition technology to provide reading practice with immediate feedback for beginning readers. The study drew on data from 13 participants, who used the software as part of their twice-weekly…

This quantitative study compared the instructional effects of two web-based animation strategies against static graphics by high and low prior knowledge participants. One strategy used animation to gain attention; the second to gain attention and provide elaboration. Participants were 111 college student volunteers. Two-way multiple analysis of…

With the intention of defining an initial research agenda for discipline-specific factors in the usability of e-learning websites, this article focuses on the example of foreign language learning. First, general notions and concepts of usability are analyzed, and the term "pedagogical usability" is proposed as a means of focusing on the close…