It is well known that schools and colleges often have budget limitations that can hamper the effectiveness of practical education. This article looks at how cheap, off-the-shelf components can be used to produce a simple DIY digital microscope, and how this provides novel opportunities to integrate biology, physics, design technology and computer…

With the developments in information and communication technologies, books which are fundamental information sources for students throughout their education and training process are being transformed into electronic book (e-book) formats. E-books provide interactive environments, and they are also updateable materials, which shows that, in time,…

This paper presents a genre-based conceptual framework for designing content for learning objects. Some content aggregation models are reviewed in order to stress the lack of such an approach. In this framework, learning objects are considered as multimodal macrogenres. These macrogenres are constituted of content objects which in fact are several…

The rapid changes in the field of technology are redefining the process of developing technology-enhanced educational materials as well as the roles of developers involved in the process.The purpose of this study was to learn from practitioners the roles and responsibilities of an instructional designer in developing new media enhanced…

This paper describes how the authors use a mixture of World Wide Web (WWW)-based functionalities and new didactics to teach educational technology students at the University of Twente (Netherlands) about the design of WWW-based learning environments. Topics discussed include: (1) the content of courses about the design of educational WWW…

Despite the fact that e-Learning exists for a relatively long time, it is still in its infancy. Current e-Learning systems on the market are limited to technical gadgets and organizational aspects of teaching, instead of supporting the learning. As a result the learner has become deindividualized and demoted to a noncritical homogenous user. One…

Discusses designers' need to design educational software for subversive use, recognizing that users fit the use of technology-based environments into contextually tuned "situated" learning environments. In this sense, good design is volatile design, or design which changes with contextual use. These ideas are illustrated with reference to a range…

Explores why "learning" and "object" have been combined in the field of instructional technology. Examines why current definitions of these terms are lacking when looked at from a standards and interoperability point of view. Suggests a new definition with a rationale to satisfy needs of technologists for precise, practical…

This paper presents an approach for developing flexible Hypermedia Learning Environments (HMLE) and applies this theoretical framework to the creation of a layered model of a hypermedia system, called HyperDisc, developed at the German Institute for Research on Distance Education. The first section introduces HMLE and suggests that existing…

This paper provides an overview of the variables critical to the success of an Internet site design. The site under development represents one aspect of dissemination for the Modeling Instruction with Modern Information and Communications Technologies: the MIMIC Project, a U.S. Department of Education Capacity Building Grant. The site focuses on…

This paper reports on ReMOTE (Research Methods Online Teaching Environment), a Robert Gordon University (Scotland) project focusing on the development of a World Wide Web (WWW) site devoted to the teaching of research methods. The aim of ReMOTE is to provide an infrastructure that allows direct links to specialist sources in order to enable the…

This paper reports on a study that observed students creating structured hypertext documents, and how they try to convey structural information, in order to formulate tentative guidelines/principles for the design of concept mapping tools or hypertext systems with an emphasis on the representation of structural knowledge, and to formulated…

This paper reports on the first phase of a research project undertaken by a team at the University of South Australia and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) to design and deliver educational applications of digital learning media and to identify criteria for assessment of the efficacy and quality of the use of such media from a…

This paper describes how student reactions shaped the design of a WWW (World Wide Web)-based course environment at the University of Twente (Netherlands), using the example of a first year course. The first section discusses the importance of user interface (re)design for WWW-based courses. The University's focus on student evaluations of…