This paper argues that concepts derived from affordance theories are highly useful in understanding the role of online technologies in learning. However, it is suggested that the value of this approach is maximised when the focus is moved away from the inherent properties of the technologies to the opportunities for learning provided by the total…

This case study documents how a group of 14 academically at risk Primary 5 students (11 year olds) were engaged in academic related tasks in an after school program mediated by a "3-D Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)." Although there was no significant difference in the students' academic performance, they were found to be more engaged in the…

Recent appeal to the concept of design in composition studies benefits teaching writing in digital media. Yet the concept of design has not been developed enough to fully benefit composition instruction. This article develops an understanding of design as a matter of resolving wicked problems and makes a case for the advantages of this…

The new generation of incoming college students come complete with new technological skills and, seemingly, new expectations for learning. Yet how different are these students from the ones educators have encountered in the past? Under the auspices of Northern Arizona University's e-Learning Center, Paula Garcia and Jingjing Qin investigated the…

Research findings in recent years provide compelling evidence of the importance of encouraging student control over the learning process as a whole. The socially based tools and technologies of the Web 2.0 movement are capable of supporting informal conversation, reflexive dialogue and collaborative content generation, enabling access to a wide…

Enthusiasts for new social software do not always acknowledge that belonging to e-learning communities depends upon complex and often unresolved identity issues for learners. Drawing on the author's previous research on belonging in social learning, the paper presents a theory of identity congruence in social learning and brings to the foreground…

The global rise of Internet-based education is discussed in relation to models drawn from social studies and epidemiology. Experiential and data density models are highlighted, also the capacity for technological change, and phenomena observed in the spread of disease. The lesson of these illustrations is that even apparently permanent phenomena…

Virtual environments (VEs) are growing in popularity among educators and have unique potential for online learning. This paper describes the unique characteristics of VEs that make them an effective venue for online learning due to increased environmental presence. Unique characteristics of VEs include nature of visual stimuli, control of the…

The Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) and the field of philosophy of education seemed like a natural junction in this author's life. They provided a means by which he could begin to think about the relations between education and his own experiences as a student and teacher, and philosophy. Peters has been editor of…

This article explores Web 2.0 in interactive learning environments. Specifically, the article examines Web 2.0 as an interactive learning platform that holds potential, but is also limited by learning styles and cultural value preferences. The article explores the issue of control from both teacher and learner perspectives, and in particular the…

The impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the process and products of education is difficult to assess for a number of reasons. In brief, education is a complex system of interrelationships, of checks and balances. This context is not a neutral backdrop on which teaching and learning are played out. Rather, it may help, or…

In recent years, electronic games have assumed an important place in the lives of children and adolescents. Children acquire digital literacy informally, through play, and neither schools nor other educational institutions take sufficient account of this important aspect. We consider that multimedia design for training and education should combine…

Seeking understandings of the relationships children have with electronic environments is needed in order to continue to develop our understandings of what children are doing in those environments and why. This paper looks at the musical compositions of children in an electronic environment and attempts to demonstrate how those compositions are as…

"Impact" is possibly the most frequently evaluated construct associated with any kind of technological diffusion or adoption within educational settings. Seemingly endless research projects are funded to measure it and to validate the educational value we have become adept at inscribing into practically all novel technologies brought to…

Writing on contemporary culture and social life, sociologists and cultural theorists have been describing new or changing forms of movement, variously described as cultural "flows," "liquid life," or a "networked society." The change in such movements or mobilities of people, media, material goods, and other social phenomena, including the reach…