New technologies and developments in media are transforming the way that individuals, groups and societies communicate, learn, work and govern. This new socio-technical reality requires participants to possess not only skills and abilities related to the use of technological tools, but also knowledge regarding the norms and practices of…

This paper contends that powerful techniques to manipulate data, enabled by technological and economic developments, can be easily co-opted to serve the restrictive frameworks of hyper-controlling, managerial accountability that characterise current cultures of summative assessment in education. In response to these challenges, research is…

Despite the fact that computer science (CS) is the driver of technological innovations across all disciplines and aspects of our lives, including participatory media, high school CS too commonly fails to incorporate the perspectives and concerns of low-income students of color. This article describes a partnership program -- Exploring Computer…

The expression of the self through multimodal texts is a central theme in education. While it has been suggested that new technologies act as important mediators in the relationship between texts and subjectivity, the mechanisms underlying such mediation has been a neglected topic of research. This paper considers the theoretical assumptions upon…

The paper discusses the effects of copy-and-paste on the rhetoric and politics of communication in digital environments, by examining direct and indirect (mis)quotation and referencing in "YouTube" video-exchanges and by providing further examples in one-to-one communication via "Facebook" and email. The forwarding of (snippets of) artefacts in…

What patterns of multimodal rhetoric characterizes the most successful texts meant for learning--inside or outside school? This article argues that the balance between cohesion and tension in the interplay between modes is an issue at the core of this challenging question. Texts meant for learning need both cohesion and tension in order to be both…

Drawing upon a social semiotic perspective, this article examines the argumentative discourse of "Media Bites" videos: http://griid.org/category/media-bites/. Each of these videos instructively exposes how the advertising discourse of various companies is articulated when promoting well-known products in their commercials. This article focuses on…

This article identifies how clicker use can support or augment existing principles of good teaching across different disciplines in higher education. While many of these principles will be familiar to instructors, the link between student response system (SRS) use and existing pedagogical methods is still often unclear, even for scholars who are…

As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching…

The literature on digital video in education emphasises the use of pre-fabricated, instructional-style video assets. Learning designs for supporting the use of these expert-generated video products have been developed. However, there has been a paucity of pedagogical frameworks for facilitating specific genres of learner-generated video projects.…

This article critiques learning design as a representation for sharing and developing practice, based on synthesis of three projects. Starting with the findings of the Mod4L Models of Practice project, it argues that the technical origins of learning design, and the consequent focus on structure and sequence, limit its usefulness for sharing…

The term "accessibility" is broadly used to describe the degree to which a service or product gives learners the "ability to access" functionality, services or materials. In recent years there has been a push towards accessibility in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) across all levels of education. However, accessibility represents a shifting…

This paper reports on the use and potentials of Learning Platform (LP) technologies for organising learning in English primary and secondary schools. It reports on the findings of qualitative research on the benefits of LPs based on data from case studies in 12 "early adopting" English primary and secondary schools. The paper reports findings on…

Virtual worlds have been linked with e-learning applications to create virtual learning environments (VLEs) for the past decade. However, while they can support many educational activities that extend both traditional on-campus teaching and distance learning, they are used primarily for learning content generated and managed by instructors. With…

This article frames and theorises the nature of adolescents' informal experiences in Web 2.0 environments to articulate their fit or misfit with current conceptions of school education and educational practices. Adolescents are increasingly active Web 2.0 users. However, the traditional research and education communities have been slow to respond…