In this article we look at the links between early years pedagogy and the use of digital game-based learning. Early years education is a distinctive phase of the education system in many countries, generally covering the age range from 3-6 or 7 years. In the United Kingdom, it tends to bridge preschool and the first two years in primary school.…

From 2004-2007, the University of Memphis carried out the NSF-funded Tri-P-LETS (Three P Learning Environment for Teachers and Students) project to improve local high-school computer science curricula. The project reached a total of 58 classrooms in eleven high schools emphasizing problem solving skills, programming concepts as opposed to syntax,…

This article reports MyCaseSpace, a Web-based program used to present clinical cases to students in health-related professions to test their critical thinking skills. The creator of MyCaseSpace, David Segal, an assistant professor in the College of Health and Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida, has created various characters to…

Virtual worlds enable students to learn through seeing, knowing, and doing within visually rich and mentally engaging spaces. Rather than reading about events, students become part of the events through the adoption of a pre-set persona. Along with visual feedback that guides the players' activities and the development of visual skills, visual…

Optimization of a chromatographic separation within the time constraints of a laboratory session is practically impossible. However, by employing a HPLC simulator, experiments can be designed that allow students to develop an appreciation of the complexities involved in optimization procedures. In the present exercise, a HPLC simulator from "JCE…

Research indicates that people more easily understand abstractions when they are preceded by concrete representations (Lawson 2002). This article describes how educators can use science representations to help students form lasting understandings of abstract concepts. A spectrum illustrating some commonly used representation types and their level…

Relational thinking plays a central role in human cognition. However, it is not known how children and adults acquire relational concepts and come to represent them in a form that is useful for the purposes of relational thinking (i.e., as structures that can be dynamically bound to arguments). The authors present a theory of how a psychologically…

This paper describes a computational exercise at undergraduate level that demonstrates the employment of Monte Carlo simulation to study the conformational statistics of flexible polymer chains, and to predict solution properties. Three simple chain models, including excluded volume interactions, have been implemented in a public-domain computer…

The interactive nature of computer simulation allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the laws of charged particle optics. Here, the use of commercially available optical design programs is described as a tool to aid in solving charged particle optics problems. We describe simple and practical demonstrations of basic electrostatic…

"Second Life" is a popular example of an immersive, three-dimensional, virtual world. Inhabitants of "Second Life" often describe their experiences in-world as having great social presence. Certainly there is a good deal of potential for education and training to occur in multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), if designed properly, especially…

In this article, a prototype Greek text to Greek Sign Language (GSL) conversion system is presented. The system is integrated into an educational platform that addresses the needs of teaching GSL grammar and was developed within the SYNENNOESE project (Efthimiou "et al." 2004a. Developing an e-learning platform for the Greek sign…

Corporate training professionals led the explosion of e-learning solutions in the 1990s. Yet in 2008, as new generations of technology-savvy, computer games-oriented employees are entering the workforce, corporate training departments are far behind universities in exploring the use of virtual worlds like Second Life or Protosphere as platforms…

Participation in learning communities, and the construction of knowledge in communities of practice, are important considerations in the use of 3D immersive worlds. This article describes the creation of this type of learning environment in AETZone, an immersive virtual environment in use within graduate programs at Appalachian State University…

East Carolina University recently hosted the first Virtual Worlds in Education Conference, a meeting held entirely in Second Life. The conference provided 135 faculty and administrators from around the world the ability to communicate and share their experiences on teaching, learning, and technology support in an online, multi-user virtual…

Anne M. Hewitt, Susan Spencer, Danielle Mirliss, and Riad Twal report on a collaborative team initiative to create a virtual world emergency preparedness simulation that focuses on crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC). CERC is a key competency for students enrolled in Seton Hall University's (SHU) Master of Healthcare Administration…