SpringerBriefs in Educational Communications and Technology – serie

This brief will examine and explore some tools and techniques that can be used to develop interfaces for learning environments. Interface design has been a topic in software engineering for many years. The advent of graphical user interfaces has created many remedies and challenges for the software engineer. In recent years with an increased emphasis in educational technology, instructional designers are also included in this arena. The interface can be a driver in terms of a learning environment’s ability to engage a student. It can also provide a point of information exchange and therefore learning between the student and the environment’s software. Thus, the issue of an interface is vital to the success of a learning environment. This brief will produce a variety of interfaces for various environments to allow the designer to contrast and compare them based upon the required purpose. The designer will have a toolkit filled with tools and techniques which will allow for interfacesthat will engage the student and facilitate their learning. The primary audiences are K-12 and post-secondary educators who desire to create digital media based educational materials.

This book presents a tool to determine e-learning readiness in workplace organizations. It offers a case study of the design and development process and outlines factors to be taken into account to determine e-learning readiness. It details the four objectives of this tool: to highlight specific parameters for determining e-learning readiness, to provide a systematic process to determine the readiness of an organization, to enable flexibility for the environmental context, and to capture the interrelatedness of the many areas in the organization. Next, it discusses the main element of the tool: surveys that are used to facilitate collection of data on organizational, learner and technology readiness. The book concludes with a look at practical ways of using the information gathered from the data produced.

This book examines the theoretical basis of one of the functional layers—the message layer—of an architectural theory of instructional design. The architectural theory (Gibbons, 2003; Gibbons & Rogers, 2009; Gibbons, 2014) identifies seven functions carried out during instruction that correspond with designable strata, or layers. The architectural theory proposes that for each layer there exists a specialized body of design languages, constructs, questions, tools, practices, processes, a professional community, and most especially, bodies of design theory. It also proposes that design knowledge from other design fields, many of which approach design from the same functional perspective, can be appropriated for the further development of knowledge within the instructional technology field. A robust literature from disparate fields supplies relevant theory for message layer design. This book builds the case for validationof the message layer by bringing together work from instructional theory, conversation theory, research in the  learning sciences, intelligent tutoring system research, and K-12 education. Within this literature, the authors demonstrate the existence of the message as a structural abstraction: an independently designable entity. They trace the development of the message construct historically, showing that it has remained remarkably stable over time, independent of changing psychological, educational, and technological conventions.

This monograph focuses on the design of personalized and adaptive online interactive learning environment (OILE) to enhance students’ learning in and about complex dynamic systems (CDS). Numerous studies show that students experience difficulties when learning in and about CDS. The difficulties are due to challenges originating from a) the structural complexity of CDS, (b) the production of dynamic behavior from the underlying systems structure, and (c) methods, techniques and tools employed in the analysis of such systems. Despite the fact that studies have uncovered such learning challenges, it is still not well understood how we may effectively address these challenges. In this monograph, the authors provide some answers as to how we may best improve our cognitive capabilities to meet these challenges by way of effective instructional methods, techniques, and tools and their implementation in the form of an OILE. The OILE developed for this purpose, builds on a five-step holistic instructional design framework; identification of instructional design models, identification of authentic learning material, identification of instructional methods, identification of instructional techniques, and design of the interface and implementation of the tool. In this OILE development, six well-documented instructional design models were considered; a four component instructional design, first principles of instruction, constructivists learning environment, task centered instruction, cognitive apprenticeship, and elaboration theory.

This book is about the ways in which experiments can be employed in the context of research on learning technologies and child–computer interaction (CCI). It is directed at researchers, supporting them to employ experimental studies while increasing their quality and rigor. The book provides a complete and comprehensive description on how to design, implement, and report experiments, with a focus on and examples from CCI and learning technology research. The topics covered include an introduction to CCI and learning technologies as interdisciplinary fields of research, how to design educational interfaces and visualizations that support experimental studies, the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of experiments, methodological decisions in designing and conducting experiments (e.g. devising hypotheses and selecting measures), and the reporting of results. As well, a brief introduction on how contemporary advances in data science, artificial intelligence, and sensor data have impacted learning technology and CCI research is presented. The book details three important issues that a learning technology and CCI researcher needs to be aware of: the importance of the context, ethical considerations, and working with children. The motivation behind and emphasis of this book is helping prospective CCI and learning technology researchers (a) to evaluate the circumstances that favor (or do not favor) the use of experiments, (b) to make the necessary methodological decisions about the type and features of the experiment, (c) to design the necessary “artifacts” (e.g., prototype systems, interfaces, materials, and procedures), (d) to operationalize and conduct experimental procedures to minimize potential bias, and (e) to report the results of their studies for successful dissemination in top-tier venues (such as journals and conferences).This book is an open access publication.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of cutting edge research studies on contemporary instructional design practices. Written for instructional designers, instructional technologists and researchers in the field, it provides state of the art, practically focused information and guidelines for designing curriculum and professional ID practice. The author compares professional instructional design practices with the competencies established by the International Board for Training, Performance, and Instruction to evaluate and investigate their effectiveness and increase the efficiency of the entire instructional design process.​

As colleges, universities and other learning institutions explore teaching and learning through online environments, online communities of practice may provide solutions to organizational and professional development needs. The purpose of this book is to develop a set of guidelines for creating a virtual community of practice for faculty teaching at a distance that can easily be implemented by faculty development professionals. Designing a virtual community of practice can be operationalized using the ADDIE model to guide the process. Based on an instructional systems design process, the ADDIE model emphasizes the five core elements of the instructional systems design process: analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate; often it serves as a project management tool or to provide a visual aid for organization of relevant tasks.

This brief describes the evolutionary and global impact of the techno-social transformation on learning technologies in terms of emerging pedagogical frameworks and applications. it provides examples of such applications in higher education, K-12, and the workplace, across the globe. The transformation and diffusion of ICT into an ever-present and accessible phenomenon is fundamentally shaping human activity and culture, changing human identity, and redefining globalization. Global activities have widened, intensified, and accelerated as a result of ICT integration generating a new awareness of the world as a techno-social environment. This emergent global environment is introducing unprecedented socio-economic opportunities; however, it is also bringing new risks and challenges, particularly as this relates to learning technologies, most especially in higher education contexts.

This book outlines key issues for addressing the grand challenges posed to educators, developers, and researchers interested in the intersection of simulations and science education. To achieve this, the authors explore the use of computer simulations as instructional scaffolds that provide strategies and support when students are faced with the need to acquire new skills or knowledge. The monograph aims to provide insight into what research has reported on navigating the complex process of inquiry- and problem-based science education and whether computer simulations as instructional scaffolds support specific aims of such pedagogical approaches for students.

This brief examines and explores the reuse of learning objects to enhance students' learning experiences. The author details the difficulties of reusing learning objects, or the Reusability Paradox, and how to create more flexible learning objects. The brief also proposes a methodology to minimize limitations and therefore maximize a learning object's utility across a number of fields.

​This book focuses on rethinking creativity for 21st century education. The specific emphasis examines the way that creativity spans disciplines, through a set of common thinking skills that the most accomplished thinkers in any field use. These seven transdisciplinary thinking skills are rooted in historical exemplars of creativity across disciplines. We examine these skills in more detail, chapter by chapter, to offer examples of what each skill looks like in disciplines ranging from art to science, or music to math, and beyond. This set of thinking skills reflects the way that creativity may look different across fields, yet there are common paths of creative thinking that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Beyond this each chapter also considers applications for such skills in 21st century educational contexts, with an eye toward creative teaching and technology. In all of this, the book weaves together broad cultural examples of creativity and the seven transdisciplinary skills, alongside specific application-based examples from technology and teacher education.

This brief discusses and explains how an educator can use various tools (Use Case, IPO diagrams, flowcharts, entity-relationship diagrams, information mapping) to help visualize how a learning environment will work. Such tools were originally developed for use by software engineers but as the complexity of learning environments has increased with various interfaces and processing, both educators and students have developed a need to understand the design and development of visualization tools. The primary audiences for this text are K-12 and post-secondary educators and instructional designers who want to use tools that will allow them to develop effective learning environments in an efficient manner.  Undergraduate and graduate students in an educational technology class can also employ these tools and techniques to develop their own materials.

In this collection of beautifully written essays, Mishra, Henriksen, and the Deep-play Research Group challenge myths about technology and creativity, debate time-honored instructional practices, and play with new ideas for schools to care for and nurture, rather than constrain, creativity. These essays are provocative … refreshing, [and] insightful —Dr. Yong Zhao, Foundation Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas and Fellow, Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University, Australia. What is creativity? Why is it important? What does it look like across different disciplines and contexts? What role does technology play, if any, in the creative process? And finally, what do creativity and technology have to do with education? These are the questions that underlie the collection of articles in this book. These essays provide a broad analytic frame for thinking about creativity, technology and education and describe classroom examples as well as strategies for evaluating creative artifacts and creative environments. All of these are grounded in specific examples from across a wide range of disciplines and contexts—art, mathematics, engineering, computer science, graphic design, architecture, science to name just a few. The final essays take a broader perspective on creativity and technology focusing both on our highly inter-connected YouTube world but also possibilities for the future. Creativity, Technology & Education: Exploring their Convergence is a vital resource for educators and practitioners as they seek to incorporate creative work and thoughtful pedagogy in their personal and professional lives.

This innovative brief provides guidance on promoting reflection in situated learning by incorporating mindfulness strategies, tapping into a surge of research interest in exploring mindfulness as an instructional strategy associated with positive learning outcomes. It illustrates the benefits of continuous reflection within situated learning and how mindfulness can be incorporated before, during, and after the learning experience to enhance the reflective experience. Critically, the authors present a new conceptual model that synthesizes theories and methods from three different areas of study—mindfulness, situated learning, and reflection— to provide a new perspective and instructional approach that has great potential to positively impact outcomes in situated learning.Among the other topics covered:• Strategies for reflection in situated learning.• Strategies for reflection-in-action in situated learning.• Mindfulness strategies for situated learning.• A conceptual model incorporating mindfulness to enhance reflection.Enhancing Reflection within Situated Learning is an exciting and pioneering resource that offers practical guidance to educators and instructional designers interested in incorporating methods and approaches for integrating mindfulness and reflection across instructional environments.