Over the past decade there has been an explosion in the provision of computing facilities in schools for student use. However, there is concern that the development of these facilities has often given little regard to the ergonomics of the design for use by children, particularly adolescents. This paper reports on a study that investigated the…

Online discussions are an effective method used to enhance interactions among learners and the instructor. The study examined the differences in communication based on whether the discussions were instructor-moderated or peer-moderated and based on whether the classes consisted of undergraduate or graduate students. Results indicate that student…

The purpose of this study was to examine how a Web-based software program impacted lower elementary students' composition of personal narratives when using a supported paragraph activity. The subjects in this experiment were first and second grade students in a multi-age classroom in a low socio-economic urban community. The participants were…

The race is on to survive the competitive educational market which nearly everyone can now access with the click of a mouse. Many institutions are turning to DETs to tap into this market. The difficulty is evaluating the effectiveness of these tools and the education that is provided by them. Implementing a new DET is neither a simple matter nor a…

Rogers' diffusion of innovation model was used to examine the adoption and contribution of a web-based course management system at a college campus. This study surveyed 196 students. It was found that Rogers' model successfully explained the adoption of the innovation. The adoption of the innovation also led to increased interaction between…

The Reflective Tutorial Dialogue System (ReTuDiS) is a system for learner modelling historical text comprehension through reflective dialogue. The system infers learners' cognitive profiles and constructs their learner models. Based on the learner model the system plans the appropriate--personalized for learners--reflective tutorial dialogue in…

In this paper we describe the ways that SCoT, a Spoken Conversational Tutor, uses flexible and adaptive planning as well as multimodal task modeling to support the contextualization of learning in reflective dialogues. Past research on human tutoring has shown reflective discussions (discussions occurring after problem-solving) to be effective in…

To examine the impact of transitioning 4th grade reading comprehension assessments to the computer, 219 fourth graders were randomly assigned to take a one-hour reading comprehension assessment on paper, on a computer using scrolling text to navigate through passages, or on a computer using paging text to navigate through passages. This study…

Since 2002, Project WHIRL (Wireless Handhelds In Reflection on Learning) has investigated potential uses of handheld computers in K-12 science classrooms using a teacher-involved process of software development and field trials. Te project is a three-year research and development grant from the National Science Foundation, and it is a partnership…

Though it has been rightly said that what is wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology; there is no doubt that modern life is dominated by technology. There is universal recognition of the need to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education as we enter the era of globalization where the free flow of information via…

This research study investigated the potential of Internet technology to provide a dynamic and autonomous language-learning environment for adult distance language learners. The study focused on five essential characteristics of dynamic language learning and observed the online study activity of the students in relation to these. Learners were…

The acquisition of new vowel sounds is one of the most challenging tasks for the adult learner of a second language. It is also an aspect which requires a great deal of time and individual attention. Learners of English are particularly hampered by the irregular orthographic representation of vowel sounds. This paper reports on research in…

In response to the need for research on the contextualized use of CALL resources, the authors conducted a survey on instructor use of a popular online Spanish language learning resource to provide insight into how foreign language instructors' use of online resources are influenced by socio-institutional factors and instructor motivational factors…

The role of conceptual modeling in Educational Adaptive Hypermedia Applications (EAHA) is especially important. A conceptual model of an educational application depicts the instructional solution that is implemented, containing information about concepts that must be ac-quired by learners, tasks in which learners must be involved and resources…

Purpose: This report seeks to address the preliminary findings from a large-scale study of the different ways in which the asynchronous discussion forum (ADF) is being used in the online learning environment. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual approach is taken. Findings: The structural and functional variation of the ADF is depicted within…