The findings of the research literature about the necessity and contribution of Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) are not unequivocal and are sometimes contradictory. The study aimed to examine the interactive attributes in lessons with an IWB and the students' attitudes. Methodical structured observations of 26 science lessons were conducted in…

This paper examines the usage of institutional and non-institutional technologies to support learning and teaching in UK higher education. Previous work on disruptive technology and disruptive innovation has argued that users prefer simple and convenient technologies, and often repurpose technologies from designers' intentions; this paper…

An e-TextBook can serve as an interactive learning environment (ILE), facilitating more effective teaching and learning processes. In this paper, we propose the novel concept of an EPUB 3-based Hybrid e-TextBook, which allows for interaction between the digital and the physical world. In that regard, we first investigated the gap between the…

"Learning by doing" involves completing a practice activity through the method of inquiry. This study combined the predict-observe-explain (POE) inquiry method and hands-on doing processes to develop a cycle-mode POED (predict-observe-explain-do) model with an e-learning system to help students complete a practice activity using…

The learning of plants has garnered considerable attention in recent years, but students often lack the motivation to learn about the process of plant growth. Also, students are not able to apply what they have learned in class in the form of observation, since plant growth takes a long time. In this study, we use augmented reality (AR) technology…

This study tested an iPad application using a dichotomous key as a scaffolding tool to help students make more detailed observations as they identified various species of birds on display in a museum of natural science. The Mobile Dichotomous Key (MDK) iPad application was used by groups of fifth- and seventh-grade students. Analysis of the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) approach versus traditional instruction on students' ability to answer questions that required different cognitive skills, using the framework of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, including knowledge, comprehension, application,…

Our work is within the context of the ubiquitous discussion about adopting mobile devices to offer school-age students new learner-centric learning opportunities. Leveraging location-based context-aware mobile technology, based on the theoretical foundation of constructivist learning, we have developed "EduVenture," an integrated mobile…

This paper focuses on institutionally powered personal learning environments (iPLEs). The concept of the iPLE can be seen as a way universities can incorporate learner-centred approach into the architecture of their technology-enhanced learning environments. The aim of this paper is to pose that there are other ways to learn complementary to…

Teaching argumentation with appropriate activities and strategies would support a wide range of goals in science education. Though science labs have been suggested and employed for argumentation activities, such educational expenditures are likely to be beyond the means of most schools in under-resourced areas. Due to the lack of appropriate…

The ubiquity and educational potential of mobile applications are well acknowledged. This paper proposes six theory-based, pedagogical strategies to guide interaction design of mobile apps for young children. Also, to augment the capabilities of mobile devices, we used a humanoid robot integrated with a smartphone and developed an English-learning…

This article introduces StoryTech, a smart storytelling toy that offers children a mixed reality environment in which to tell imaginative stories. During usability testing, an empirical study was carried out with 90 child participants. The findings indicated that StoryTech creates a rich storytelling experience, especially for ages five and six.

We highlight ways to support interest-driven creation of digital media in Scratch, a visual-based programming language and community, within a high school programming workshop. We describe a collaborative approach, the programmers' collective, that builds on social models found in do-it-yourself and open source communities, but with scaffolding…

This paper describes an approach for supporting inquiry learning from source materials, realised and tested through a tool-kit. The approach is optimised for tasks that require a student to make interpretations across sets of resources, where opinions and justifications may be hard to articulate. We adopt a dialogue-based approach to learning…

Two investigations were conducted in this study. In the first experiment, the effects of two types of interactivity with a computer simulation were compared: experimentation versus observation interactivity. Experimentation interactivity allows students to use simulations to conduct virtual experiments, whereas observation interactivity allows…