Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning

The twenty-first century places new demands on student learning. New times call for new literacies. We witness keen interest in "serious games" and the use of games to enhance student learning. Against this backdrop, this paper examines issues related to bringing game-based learning into classrooms. It is argued that the construction of students' identity and sense of self are important but mostly overlooked educational goals. It is also noted that immersive games, by virtue of three associated learning characteristics—embodiment, embeddedness, and experience—are well-suited to supporting identity construction goals because they orient learning toward performance competencies that are intentional and possess a high degree of personal agency. We advocate a pedagogy that involves dialectic interplay between game-play experience and classroom-based discussion and reflection. These ideas are illustrated through a research project on National Education in Singapore. The game we have developed, Space Station Leonis, is a hybrid that comprises two modes of play: simulation mode and role playing scenario mode. We show how the game has been designed to help students develop a sense of who they are and what they stand for in a classroom learning environment that seeks to facilitate development of their identity in relation to being and becoming a Singapore citizen.

Recently, we have seen integration as a theme and purpose of educational media usage of its own right. The genuine value of integration is primarily characterized by improving the richness and directness of educational interactions. This article takes its starting point by looking at classroom activities. A good integration of interactive media in the classroom including groupware functions can already facilitate smooth "learning flows". Specific design principles can be extracted from the experience gathered in several recent projects, e.g. the "digital mimicry" principle refers to the extrapolation of expertise with conventional tools to similar computerized tools. The general issue of interoperability and connectivity includes aspects of software and hardware interfaces and even goes beyond technology in that it requires mental interfaces that allow users (teachers and learners) to realize and make use of the possible connections. These interfaces are conceived at design and provide implicit learning process support in the learning environment. In analogy to "business process modeling", there is also an explicit approach to integrating learning processes: The use of specific representations is to describe and potentially operationalize the orchestration of learning scenarios. In Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), the integration of media and group scales, e.g. between individual, classroom and community, relies essentially on mechanisms for handling emerging learning objects in terms of production, exchange, re-use and transformation. In the spirit of constructivist pedagogical approaches, we have to cope with "emerging learning objects" created by learners and learning groups in partly unanticipated ways. This assumption gives rise to specific new challenges for the indexing and retrieval of such learning objects (or products). Automatic indexing derived from the task-tool context and similarity based search allow for an asynchronous exchange of learning objects within larger anonymous learning communities. In this sense, objects of common interest may trigger social processes in learning communities.

Researchers in the learning sciences have explored a collaborative approach to developing innovations that fit into real classroom contexts. The co-design process relies on teachers' ongoing involvement with the design of educational innovations, which typically employ technology as a critical support for practice. To date, investigators have described the application and results of co-design, but they have not defined the process nor explored how it plays out over time. In this paper, we define co-design as a highly-facilitated, team-based process in which teachers, researchers, and developers work together in defined roles to design an educational innovation, realize the design in one or more prototypes, and evaluate each prototype's significance for addressing a concrete educational need. We suggest seven key process components and use data from a systematic set of interviews to illustrate the roles of teachers and researchers in co-design and describe how tensions in the process can unfold and be resolved over time.

China has become the second largest Internet-using country in the world, but the percentage of use by those aged above 50 is extremely low, at less than 3.5%. Although there have been many studies conducted on Internet support methods, they have focused on support for children and working adults, not for the elderly. In this paper, we first investigate senior citizens' anxiety and needs to use the Internet as well as difficulties and obstacles they often face. Next, to ease their anxieties and satisfy their needs, we propose a system called the Senior Internet Support & Learning Environment. Finally, we demonstrate the system's usability. The implications of the study are valuable: it is based on the conditions of China and highlights the differences faced in China in comparison to overseas studies. Moreover, the proposed environment can provide Internet developers with a better understanding of the situation of local senior citizens with respect to the Internet, as well as a framework for further implementing the development phase for narrowing the digital divide in China.