Using social media can create a rich learning environment that crosses all content areas. The key to creating this environment is for instructors and designers to match appropriate social media software with the intended learning outcome. This article describes an instructional design strategy that helps educators create learning activities that…

Enhanced ways of thinking about learners, learning, and communication in the 21st century across content areas coupled with technologies that can extend the outreach beyond text, time, and geography can accelerate learning and retention in higher education, professional organizations, and learning environments. However, many assumptions about…

To determine if and how using immersive virtual platforms might further educational purposes, the report examines three graduate, teacher-education, online courses that were conducted in part in Second Life (SL). By studying students' SL-related debriefings and assignments, by considering the type, format, and scheduling of SL events, and by…

Describes an instructional design process, Learning Environment Design (LED), as being geared to the design of flexible and user-centered learning resources by distinguishing between content and strategy. LED as a possible successor to instructional systems design is discussed, and the potential of LED for restructuring schools is considered.…

Raised in the "always on" world of interactive media, the Internet, and digital messaging technologies, today's student has different expectations and learning styles than previous generations. This net-centric generation values their ability to use the Web to create a self-paced, customized, on-demand learning path that includes multiple forms of…

To facilitate the integration of technology into the learning environment, the Office of Instructional Computing at the State University of New York at Stony Brook engages students as peer mentors and as technology mentors to faculty. Examines the two mentoring relationships, the design of the programs, and the pros and cons of such programs. (PEN)

Collaborating with an Internet provider and a school-to-work program at the State University of New York at Albany, the Center for Urban Youth and Technology developed a design model for introducing inner-city teachers and students to hypermedia. Their CyberHood Cooperative Learning Project teaches HTML, and the CyberHood Construction Program…

Provides an overview of research on the effectiveness of microcomputer applications with at-risk students and suggests that many findings in the literature are questionable because of flaws in research methodology. Issues relating to measurement, learning environment, computer utilization, gender, and socioeconomic status are addressed, and…

This article contains a description of a network-based Learning Environment Organizer entitled LEO, which takes its impetus from the Assimilation Theory of meaningful learning. LEO represents a new approach to computer-mediated augmentation of face-to-face, or hybrid courses, and a different approach to distance learning course delivery. LEO…