David McConnell – författare

How can we design networked e-learning courses to ensure students participate in them and engage in quality learning outcomes? What happens in an e-learning course that is designed to foster group work and a sense of ‘community’?How can we research e-learning practice in ways that will enhance the processes of learning and teaching?

This book outlines approaches to networked e-learning course design that are underpinned by a belief that students learn best in these contexts when they are organised in groups and communities. As such, the book is one of the first to provide a detailed analysis of what goes on in e-learning groups and communities.

But how do students react to working in e-learning groups and communities? What determines their willingness to adopt new forms of learning in order to participate in these new courses? What actually happens in an e-learning community, and what impact does this have on students and tutors? This book examines these key questions through a variety of research approaches aimed at exploring the experience of e-learners as they participate in successful e-groups and communities. It also offers ways in which learning outcomes may be achieved in these communities and outlines the specific skills that students would develop through e-learning.

E-learning Groups and Communities is essential reading for teachers, trainers, managers, researchers and students involved in e-learning courses as well as people interested in improving the quality of the learning experience.

The first international, cross-disciplinary book to explore and understand the lives of parents with intellectual disabilities, their children, and the systems and services they encounter Presents a unique, pan-disciplinary overview of this growing field of studyOffers a human rights approach to disability and family lifeInformed by the newly adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)Provides comprehensive research-based knowledge from leading figures in the field of intellectual disability

The first international, cross-disciplinary book to explore and understand the lives of parents with intellectual disabilities, their children, and the systems and services they encounter Presents a unique, pan-disciplinary overview of this growing field of studyOffers a human rights approach to disability and family lifeInformed by the newly adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)Provides comprehensive research-based knowledge from leading figures in the field of intellectual disability

This revised edition looks at how computers facilitate learning among groups of individuals. Taking account of the impact of the Internet and web-based learning, the text is aimed at those in the open and distance learning, education and training fields.

The Good Earth is the product of collaboration between the content rigor provided by Earth Science specialists and the results of research on learning. The Good Earth has been explicitly designed to be compatible with active learning teaching strategies in the college classroom. The structural elements of this text will allow the instructor to incorporate these student-centered teaching methods into their Earth Science course. The authors have tested the book’s content and pedagogy in large Earth Science classes for non-majors that are populated with mostly freshmen. Their experiences show that the materials and methods in The Good Earth can improve students’ learning, increase daily attendance, reduce attrition, and increase students’ enthusiasm in comparison with classes taught following a traditional lecture format. 

Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector. This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students' perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key rela

Based on a selection of the most relevant and high quality research papers from the 2010 Networked Learning Conference, this book is an indispensible resource for all researchers, instructional designers, program managers, and learning technologists interested in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning. The  book was an important catalyst for  the Springer  “Research in Networked Learning” Book Series edited by Vivien Hodgson and David McConnell. Details of  the “Research in Networked Learning” Book Series and current titles can be found at http://www.springer.com/series/11810This volume provides information on current trends and advances in research on networked learning, technology enhanced learning, and e-learning. Specifically, it provides cutting edge information in the areas of:Designing and Facilitating Learning in a Networked World Methodologies for Research in Networked Learning Learning in Social Networks Embedding Networked Learning in Public and Private Organizations Problem based Networked Learning Globalization and Multiculturalism in Networked Learning Networked Learning and International Development Participation and Alienation in Networked Learning

Based on a selection of research papers from the 2010 Networked Learning Conference, this book provides information on current trends and advances in research on networked learning, technology enhanced learning, and e-learning.

The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked LearningEdited by: Vivien Hodgson, Maarten de Laat, David McConnell and Thomas RybergThis 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 ColumbiaDespite creating fundamentally new educational economics and greatly increasing access - teaching and learningin 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 UniversityWhat 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 andorganisational 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 UniversityThe 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 Œe-learning¹ 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 Œcommunity¹ become increasingly elastic, and engagements slide across material and virtual domains in new practices whose emergence is increasingly difficult to apprehend.

The chapters in this book are based on research papers delivered at the 8th biennial Networked Learning Conference, NLC 2012. It includes numerous case studies furnishing practical tips for the implementation of networked learning.

Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector. This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students’ perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key relationships between teachers’ and learners’ intentions and experiences, the affordances of text-based communications technologies and processes of informed and intelligent educational change.