Since 1983, the Instructional Theory Framework (ITF) (and its subsequent improvements) has guided instructional designers and researchers in designing and developing useful learner experiences (LX). For the past 40 years, the ITF was laser-focused on the selection of instructional methods, downplaying delivery methods (media) and management…

Education innovations often have a complicated set of assumptions about the contexts in which they are implemented, which may not be explicit. Education technology innovations in particular may have additional technical and cultural assumptions. As a result, education technology research and development efforts as well as scaling efforts can be…

When learners use computers, they typically look at the screen, type, use the mouse, talk, write, sketch and make gestures. This paper identifies technical, practical, ethical and methodological challenges associated with traditional methods for studying such interactions. It examines the potential of recent technologies for identifying learners'…

In this paper I conceptualize experiences with technology as an object of study for educational technology research and propose phenomenology as a highly suitable method for studying this construct. I begin by reviewing existing research focusing on the construct of experiences with technology and the approaches utilized for its study. To augment…

The following empirical study examines the acquisition of expertise. The model structures in the domain of empirical methodologies were examined in a time period of two semesters. At each measurement point (N = 5), the model structures of the reference groups were compared with those of the group of learners. The group of learners consisted of (N…

Although important, traditional basic-to-applied research methods have provided an insufficient basis for advancing the design and implementation of innovative collaborative learning environments. It is proposed that more progress may be accomplished through development research or design research. Development research protocols require intensive…

The conjoint retention hypothesis (CRH) claims that students recall more text information when they study geographic maps in addition to text than when they study text alone, because the maps are encoded spatially (Kulhavy, Lee, & Caterino, 1985). This claim was recently challenged by Griffin and Robinson (2000), who found no advantage for maps…

Few evidence-based instructional practices achieve large-scale use, often remaining only in the schools directly involved in their development. Research on scaling up effective educational practice often lacks sensitive measures of the practice's implementation and the required research protocol. This article describes how we used rate of…