This paper outlines the design, development, and preliminary usability study of a system comprising (1) a web-based Indigenous lesson-creation interface and (2) an accompanying mobile app for studying the lessons. The Nisotak project was developed in response to the need for the preservation of Indigenous languages and to support reconciliation…

Second language teaching and learning has experienced a change towards the use of mobile technologies inside and outside the classroom. The goal of this article is twofold: to compare and evaluate three different commercial English language learning apps (Duolingo, Babbel, and Busuu) that cover the four skills (speaking, writing, listening, and…

This research examined the effect that a relatively new Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) device, specifically an interactive tabletop, has on elementary students' attitudes toward collaborative technologies, mathematical achievement, and the gender gap in mathematics. Prior research has shown many positive effects of CSCL…

The integration of external tools in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) aims at enriching the learning activities that educational practitioners may design and enact. This paper presents GLUE!, an architecture that enables the lightweight integration of multiple existing external tools in multiple existing VLEs. GLUE! fosters this integration by…

The progress registered in the use of video games as educational tools has not yet been successfully transferred to the classroom. In an attempt to close this gap, a framework was developed that assists in the design and classroom integration of educational games. The framework addresses both the educational dimension and the ludic dimension. The…

While adaptive collaboration support has become the focus of increasingly intense research efforts in the CSCL domain, scarce, however, remain the research-based evidence on pedagogically useful ideas on what and how to adapt during the collaborative learning activity. Based principally on two studies, this work presents a compilation of…

This research applies Socio-Cultural theory and Distributed Cognition/Activity theory to conceptualize the design of collaborative learning activities in large shared digital spaces. The paper begins by providing a summary of previous work in the creation of a technology platform for large shared digital spaces. It then details how Socio-Cultural…

In the field of electricity markets, the development of training tools for engineers has been extremely useful. A novel experimental economics approach based on a computational Web platform of an electricity market is proposed here for the practical teaching of electrical engineering students. The approach is designed to diminish the gap that…

In this paper, we present a framework for the development of collaborative design games that can be employed in participatory design sessions with students for the design of educational applications. The framework is inspired by idea generation theory and the design games literature, and guides the development of board games which, through the use…

Mobile devices are changing the way people work and communicate. Most of the innovative devices offer the opportunity to integrate augmented reality in mobile applications, permitting the combination of the real world with virtual information. This feature can be particularly useful to enhance informal and formal didactic actions based on student…

The basis for individual students' instructional support by teachers is an individual diagnosis of one's learning advances and difficulties. Even though sophisticated diagnostic tools exist, it remains an open question how diagnosis and learning can be merged into a consistent pedagogical method to support both teachers and students with feedback…

This paper discusses the development of LearnWeb2.0, a search and collaboration environment for supporting searching, organizing, and sharing distributed resources, and our pedagogical setup based on the multiliteracies approach. In LearnWeb2.0, collaborative and active learning is supported through project-focused search and aggregation, with…

Collaboration becomes an essential competency in the current knowledge society. In this study, a collaborative learning environment was designed to facilitate students in group collaboration. Instructional support strategies of friendship and meaningful learning tasks were applied to promote collaboration. Scaffolding strategies such as writing…

Since a large variety of digital games have been used in many fields for educational purposes, their real functions in learning have caught much attention as well. This study first defines learning characteristics of problem-solving digital games and their corresponding cognitive levels, then designs and develops a problem-solving game in…

The comprehension of interdependent complex systems, which is part of state and national standards, is an enormous challenge for learners. In traditional physiology teaching materials, which structure the human body into decoupled subsystems (e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular) isolated in separate chapters, there is a ubiquitous absence of…