Multimedia learning is innovative and has revolutionised the way we learn online. It is important to create a multimedia learning environment that stimulates active participation and effective learning. The significance of multimedia learning extends to include the cultivation of professional and personal experiences that reflect the reality of a…

This special report examines how K-12 professional development is taking a more digital and freewheeling approach to educator training. The report--which also features a webinar and online chat--shows how professional development programs are now blending face-to-face and online training, incorporating social networking tools, offering…

This article examines the affordances of virtual worlds for initiating a transformative learning experience for adults. In particular, it addresses the capacity of virtual worlds to allow creation of an alternate self which requires some level of personal self-reflection; provide atypical experiences that can initiate reflection; allow experience…

The authors describe a video-enhanced process for promoting teachers' transformative learning. The non-linear process includes awareness, immersive reflection, and dialogue. The desired result would be holistic change that can be evidenced through change in teaching practice. The article provides a rationale, theoretical support, and some selected…

Interest in game-based learning for K-12 is growing. Thus, helping teachers understand how to use these new pedagogies is important. This paper presents a cross-case study of the development of teacher professional development for the River City project, a games-based multi-user virtual environment science curriculum project for middle school…

The Grammar Gang blog has now passed its fourth anniversary as a borderless, non-proprietary language and learning online classroom. It gives wing to the aspirations of academic staff from four universities to explore language and learning across hemispheres. The Blog's recent birthday provides a timely opportunity to explore how this…

Interaction is crucial to student satisfaction in online courses. Adding synchronous components (virtual classroom technologies) to online courses can facilitate interaction. In this study, interaction within a synchronous virtual classroom was investigated by surveying 21 graduate students in an instructional technology program in the…

Chapters in this book include: (1) Adaptive Model for E-Learning in Secondary School (Todorka Glushkova); (2) Electronic- and Mobile-Learning in Electronics Courses Focused on FPGA (Giovanni Vito Persiano and Sergio Rapuano); (3) Promoting E-Learning in Distance Education Programs in an African Country (Kenneth Addah, Desmond Kpebu and Olivia A.…

The 2006-11 Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia at CNA conducted a rigorous evaluation of the Kentucky Virtual Schools hybrid algebra I curriculum. The curriculum combines traditional face-to-face instruction with an online program. This study used a two-cohort sample with 25 high schools in year 1 (SY 07/08: 13 treatment and 12 control)…

Online learning has seen an explosive growth at the K-12 level, however little research has used an experimental design approach to specifically examine the outcomes of delivery methods. This study examines what effect learning in an immersive learning environment (virtual world) has on student achievement and satisfaction with the lesson. To…

LOGO and turtle graphics were an influential movement in primary school mathematics education in the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, technology has moved forward, both in terms of its sophistication and pedagogical potential; and learner experiences, preferences and ways of thinking have changed dramatically. Based on the authors' previous work and a…

A major purpose of courses in intercultural communication is often to improve students' ability to perform well in situations with the potential to be both highly enlightening and highly difficult--in multicultural teams. This article reports the results of exercises in which members of a dysfunctional multicultural class were assigned to teams…

The authors added task-relevant sounds to a computer-mediated instructor in-the-loop virtual training for firefighter commanders in an attempt to raise the engagement and arousal of the users. Computer-mediated training for crew commanders should provide a sensory experience that is sufficiently intense to make the training viable and effective.…

Second Life (SL) has been gaining increased attention in Education since it was launched in 2003. Language educators explored SL mainly as a virtual learning environment where learners can interact with native speakers (e.g., Hislope, 2008; Wang, Song, Xia, & Yan, 2009). Although most studies concluded positively about using SL for language…

In 1992, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began its "Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program", the purpose of which was to explore educational alternatives for people who wanted to pursue an education via Internet technology. Part of this grant activity was a research award to the Babson College Survey Research Group to examine online learning in…