How do children and adults learn to use computers? What developmental processes are involved in learning to use computers? This chapter reviews current understanding of these issues and presents empirical studies demonstrating how to advance that understanding. (Contains 2 figures.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how a management development programme based on situated learning theory resulted in change for individuals, organisational culture and performance. The case study illustrates how new understandings about learning in the workplace and in higher education points towards the need to take account of…

The World Wide Web is increasingly being used as a vehicle for flexible learning, where learning is seen to be free from time, geographical, and participation constraints. In addition to flexibility, the Web facilitates student-centered approaches, creating a motivating and active learning environment. The purpose of this study is to set up an…

A well-designed assessment strategy can motivate students, and help teachers and institutions to support deep learning. In contrast, inappropriate forms of assessment may promote surface learning, and will therefore fail to support the true goals of education. Recent theories of learning stress the value of dialogue, negotiation and feedback.…

Research on multimedia learning has produced a vast body of findings which, however, are not yet being integrated into a comprehensive framework of reference. For a considerable time, cognitive centered approaches have dominated the literature. Although motivational variables are now being taken into account, there is still a large gap in regard…

This paper examines part of a set of students who were followed during their first-term, first-year studies in formal definition-based real analysis at a British university. It explores the approaches to problems about convergence of sequences and series made by students who have a tendency to include visual imagery in their reasoning. We explore…

Raised in the "always on" world of interactive media, the Internet, and digital messaging technologies, today's student has different expectations and learning styles than previous generations. This net-centric generation values their ability to use the Web to create a self-paced, customized, on-demand learning path that includes multiple forms of…

Vocabulary learning theory suggests that productive recall should strengthen learning of new vocabulary items (Nation, 2001). CALL can provide both the opportunities for productive recall and the feedback to motivate repeated efforts to reproduce new items. The latter capability appears to give CALL some advantages over paper-based exercises, in…

A learning paradigm can transform the field of academic advising. Ten organizing principles answer the two core questions raised by a focus on learning. What should the student learn through advising? How might the learning take place? The first three organizing principles define a curriculum for academic advising and are based on the premise that…

Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres (1999) describe mental models as a set of personal opinions, perceptions, and views of the world. Developed over time, such values, beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge guide people in their everyday lives and are thought of as "truths." Mental models are powerful because they frame and influence the way educators…

Blended Learning, a learning facilitation that incorporates different modes of delivery, models of teaching, and learning styles, introduces multiple media to the dialog between the learner and the facilitator. This paper examines online communication as the link between established theory of learning and literature on e-learning in order to…

The influence of market forces on general education creates threats and opportunities that must be proactively addressed. This essay argues for understanding the rise of the marketplace and its influence on general education by exploring student consumerism as well as teaching and learning in a market-oriented environment. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper reports the use of a research-based, web-delivered, technology-and-science education context (the Generative Virtual Classroom) in which student-teachers can develop their ability to recognize, describe, analyse and theorize learning. Addressing well-recognized concerns about narrowly conceived, anachronistic and ineffective…

In this article, the author begins with an examination of economic racial inequalities by updating Bowen, Lago, and Furry's (1997) presentation and putting it within historical and modern contexts. The author then addresses literature documenting the historical context from which these circumstances derive to explain differences in financial…

Conflicts often arise in online professional communication class discussions as students discuss sensitive ethical issues relating to the workplace. When conflicts arise in an online class, the activity system of the class has to be kept in balance for the course to continue functioning effectively. Activity theory and distributed learning theory…