An old adage--the truly educated never graduate--has come to exemplify the rationale for the growth and expansion of professional continuing education (PCE) programs in the United States. This monograph is about the trends and best practices in professional continuing education. It explores how this area of higher and adult education, once the…

This article discusses the role of a multimedia learning environment in teaching foreign languages to engineering students. Arguing for a subject-specific and skills-oriented approach in teaching Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) in the university, it outlines possible targets and skills for a language course for engineers. The paper goes on…

Purpose--The purpose of this work is twofold. First, the vagueness of e-learning terminology is explored as a premise that the uncritical use of language reflects uncritical approaches to e-learning. North American practitioner literature is then reviewed to examine the way(s) in which e-learning vocabulary and metaphors reveal the attitudes and…

This paper addresses the influence of information technology in human resources management (HRM) and specifically on training policy through the experience of a Spanish telecommunications firm, "Telefonica". The characteristics of the training model designed by this firm to face new environments is considered and the technologies used,…

Purpose: To distinguish sustainable development education from environmental education and stress the importance of problem-based interdisciplinary learning to sustainable development education. Design/methodology/approach: A range of published works relating to sustainable development education are critiqued, an introduction to complexity theory…

School leaders can benefit by considering their faculty as adult learners in transformation while they are learning educational technology. In this article a Journey of Transformation model is presented to assist school leaders in meeting the challenges of the postinformation age. The model is grounded in transformational learning research and…

A system for "anchored discussion" is compared with a system for traditional forum discussion (Blackboard), and their collaborative and communicative affordances for the collaborative processing of academic texts are investigated. Results show that discussion in the system for anchored discussion is more directed at processing the meaning of texts…

Future CSCL technologies are described by the community as flexible, tailorable, negotiable, and appropriate for various collaborative settings, conditions and contexts. This paper describes the key design issues of a generic synchronous collaborative learning environment, called Omega+. In this approach, model-based genericity is applied to the…

This paper provides a reflective overview of the eight papers collected in this special issue of "Educational, Technology and Society" that is based on ICALT-2003. We provide a very brief description of the conference and then discuss the eight papers in the context of a focus on learning and a focus on systems. In the conclusion, we offer our…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the design of a context-aware service for synchronous support in web-based educational systems. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed service supports synchronous interaction among tutors and students, based on their current context, thus increasing the communication channels, the reasoning and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of a web-based constructivist learning environment, which was developed based on a course given to students in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM) on student learning. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, a web-based multimedia-mediated project was developed based on an Internet…

Stories are the most natural form of communication and learning among humans. In this paper, we describe how we have designed and implemented an case library of technology integration stories to support pre-service and in-service teachers learning how to integrate technologies into their teaching. The case library was built using the artificial…

Is computer usage appropriate for young children? The manner in which the computer is used can benefit the child, have no effect whatsoever, or actually be detrimental to the child's academic and personal growth. Specific conditions can be instituted to assure that young children benefit from their exposure to or interaction with technology. How…

This article draws on two projects funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation concerning the ways colleges and universities can support the legitimate sharing of digital learning resources for scholarly use. The 2001-03 Visual Image User Study (VIUS) assessed the scholarly needs of digital image users-faculty, staff, and students. That study led to…

The availability of multi-media technologies in education has made the option of independent learning increasingly attractive. Whilst independent learning presents learners with a more flexible learning context, it also presents new challenges in assessment in that the onus is placed upon the learners themselves to monitor and evaluate their own…