Contextual learning is critical to equip learners to apply knowledge and skills and to solve problems in the real world. The purpose of this article is to describe the collaborative effort of a subject matter expert and instructional designer to implement a situated cognition model to contextualize a fully online cardiac rehabilitation course. The…

This article presents Edelson and Reiser's (2006) strategies as a framework for analyzing an instance of authentic practice in a managerial accounting course. Specifically, this article presents an analysis of a managerial accounting project design created to provide learning-by-doing via authentic practice. Students need more than to learn about…

This article describes an activity whose objective is for students to gain self-awareness related to the ways in which humans (consciously or not) alter their self-presentation depending upon the context, thereby maintaining different "faces." Also, this activity aims to highlight effectiveness related to different modes of nonverbal…

Based on a virtual conference, Glide'08 (Global Interaction in Design Education), that brought international design scholars together online, this special issue expands on the topics of cross-cultural communication and design and the technological affordances that support such interaction. The author discusses the need for global interaction in…

Forget the pills, hypnosis, and meditation. Losing weight or boosting self-confidence can be achieved by adopting an avatar and living in virtual reality, says Jeremy N. Bailenson, an assistant professor of communications at Stanford University. As the director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Mr. Bailenson has explored ways that…

In this article the author explores the construction of place within virtual worlds and, in particular, in video games that appeal widely to children and youths. With the notable exception of "edutainment" titles, gaming and education have traditionally been viewed as separate pursuits. Yet, after school, millions of children and teens spend…

Much of the literature theorising mobile learning emphasises the importance of context with physical and social contexts identified to date. Our work to design and implement authentic mobile simulation activities using SMS text messaging suggests that a third context may also be important. This is a virtual context, the learner-created cognitive…

When he conducted the Stanford prison experiment, Philip G. Zimbardo wanted to know who would win--good people or an evil situation--when they were brought into direct confrontation. The situation won; humanity lost. Out the window went the moral upbringings of the young men involved in the experiment, as well as their middle-class civility. Power…

Instructors teaching students about social inequality, especially sexism and racism, often face some degree of student resistance. Opposition is particularly strong when students are from a white, middle to upper class background. As Haddad and Lieberman (2002) remark, "Students from privileged backgrounds lack personal experience with structures…

This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of children using "drill-and-practice" literacy software at a primary school in the Western Cape, South Africa. The children's interactions with the software are analysed. The software has serious limitations which arise from the global political economy of the educational software…

Investigates some of the disjunctions between writing as it is taught in academic institutions and writing as it is employed in professional workplaces, especially in the areas of writing context, time pressure, collaboration, and consequences of writing. Considers how these disjunctions might be addressed in the writing classroom. (TB)

In this classroom simulation of a crime, students take on the challenge presented in the article To Catch a Thief. Students witnessing a surprising event learn to question the nature of how criminals get identified and generate ideas about how criminals can be better identified. A key component of the evidence is an unusual distinguishing…

Discusses the rapid growth of digital games, describes research at MIT that is exploring the potential of digital games for supporting learning, and offers hypotheses about the design of next-generation educational video and computer games. Highlights include simulations and games; and design principles, including context and using information to…