This study examines whether the Internet of Toys (IoToys) (de)limits children's make-believe play and whether the functionality and manipulatives offered by the IoToys serve as motivational pleasure (tactile, virtual and visual) for children to engage in make-believe play. Combining Piagetian and Vygotskian ideas of play as a unity of cognition…

There is a need to understand antecedents to US teens' use of information and communication technology (ICT). Research on the "digital divide" for access to ICT reports conflicting findings based on gender and demographic factors of parent income and education. This study expanded the "tool-will-skill" framework to examine how…

Despite the growing scholarly interest in educational computer games, research on popular online educational games is rare. Little is known about which online educational games are popular and to what extent, what kind of users are more interested in these games and how interest in the games is related to academic performance. To fill this gap,…

Recent advances in communication technologies enable potential provision of remote education for patients using computer-generated environments known as virtual worlds. Previous research has revealed highly variable levels of patient receptiveness to using information technologies for healthcare-related purposes. This preliminary study involved…

Field practice is an important part of training geography research talents. However, traditional teaching methods may not adequately manage, share and implement instruction resources and thus may limit the instructor's ability to conduct field instruction. A possible answer is found in the rapid development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI),…

The rapid development of the Internet along with increasing computer literacy has made it easy and tempting for digital natives to copy-paste someone's work. Plagiarism is now a burning issue in education, industry and even in the research community. In this study, the authors concentrate on plagiarism detection with particular focus on the…

Situational awareness and mashups are two key factors influencing the success of situational language teaching. However, traditional situational language teaching cannot smoothly conduct relevant learning activities in changing learning context. This study developed a situational mashups system for detecting users' context and proposed a research…

Students' non-posting behaviour in online discussions is often neglected in educational research. However, it can be a potential indicator of student learning. This study examined the relationships between motivation, peer feedback and students’ posting and non-posting behaviours in online discussions in a distance learning class. Fifty-seven…

In June 2010, a survey was carried out to explore access to digital technology, attitudes to digital technology and approaches to studying across the adult life span in students taking courses with the UK Open University. In total, 7000 people were surveyed, of whom more than 4000 responded. Nearly all these students had access to a computer and…

Although many developments have been made in the design and development of learning object repositories (LORs), the efficient use of such systems is still questionable. Without realising the functional use of such systems or considering the involvement of their dynamic users, these systems would probably become obsolete. This study includes both…

Facebook is a popular social networking site. It, like many other new technologies, has potential for teaching and learning because of its unique built-in functions that offer pedagogical, social and technological affordances. In this study, the Facebook group was used as a learning management system (LMS) in two courses for putting up…

Virtual worlds are an important tool in modern education practices as well as providing socialisation, entertainment and a laboratory for collaborative work. This paper focuses on the uses of virtual worlds for education and synthesises over 100 published academic papers, reports and educational websites from around the world. A taxonomy is then…

The impact of the Internet on our lives has been pervasive. People are increasingly turning to the social interaction available on the Internet to satisfy their needs, whether these are professional or personal. The Internet offers users fast access to social contacts such as online chat groups and discussion lists, helping us to make connections…

Literature review has found that despite the considerable attention focused on "digital natives", few studies have carefully investigated the characteristics of this group. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debate on digital natives by providing a "piece of evidence" on the digital competence status of a group…

The need, use, benefit and potential of e-portfolios have been analysed and discussed by a substantial body of researchers in the education community. However, the development and implementation approaches of e-portfolios to date have faced with various challenges and limitations. This paper presents a new approach of an e-portfolio system design…