The present educational design research involved analysing Finnish upper secondary school students' participation in the improvement of their psychosocial and technology-enhanced physical learning environment (LE). It examined which LE characteristics students considered important when redesigning their LE, and whether they felt that their ideas…

To date, learning spaces in higher education have been designed with little engagement on the part of their most important users: students and teachers. In this paper, we present the results of research carried out in a UK university. The research aimed to understand how students and teachers conceptualise learning spaces when they are given the…

This paper presents research findings and design strategies that illustrate how digital technology can be applied as a tool for "hybrid" placemaking in ways that would not be possible in purely digital or physical spaces. Digital technology has revolutionised the way people learn and gather new information. This trend has challenged the…

This paper centres around a discussion of the design and rebuild of a secondary school in Birmingham (England) as part of the Building Schools of the Future (BSF) Programme. The BSF Programme was influenced by a vision of future schooling in which learning environments are transformed by the integration of ICT into teaching and learning practices.…

Inconsistency in the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) has led to dissatisfaction amongst students and is an issue across the Higher Education sector. This paper outlines research undertaken in one faculty within one university to ascertain staff and student views on minimum standards within the VLE; how the VLE could reduce student…

On the basis of the Research Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education under the title "Design, production and evaluation of a 2.0 learning environment for faculty training in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)" (EDU2009-08 893), experts have used the external competence coefficient to evaluate the…

Across the mouth of the Tauranga Harbour lies a piece of paradise, Te Moutere o Matakana--Matakana Island. It is blessed with an ocean beach with white sand and a mean surf break, tidal flats, wetlands, fertile pasture, and a native and exotic forest. It is home to a maori language nest for the local children--Te Kohanga Reo o te Moutere o…

Integrating Information Technology Communications in the classroom has been an important part of pre-service teacher education for over a decade. The advent of virtual worlds provides the pre-service teacher with an opportunity to study teaching and learning in a highly immersive 3D computer-based environment. Virtual worlds also provide a place…

Many of the communities interested in learning and teaching technologies within higher education now accept the view that a conception of personal learning environments provides the most realistic and workable perspective of learners' interactions with and use of technology. This view may not be reflected in the behaviour of those parts of a…

This paper reports on a project in which students' interactions with learning environments are investigated from the perspective of the spatial factors. Our research examines a significant dimension generated under the interrelationship between the subject and the virtual space, by establishing that spatial dimensions may determine the level of…

In 2003, Deakin University implemented a centralised learning management system (LMS) under the banner of Deakin Studies Online (DSO), as well as implementing policies requiring all its units of study to have at least a basic online presence from 2004. Given the scope of the university's commitment to online education, it was considered essential…

Purpose: Today's technology supports the design of more and more sophisticated interactive learning environments. This paper aims to argue that such design should develop from first principles. Design/methodology/approach: In the paper by first principles is meant: learning theory and principles of course design. These principles are briefly…

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…

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…

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their…