For the forty-third time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with the…

One of the strengths of a virtual environment is the ability to immerse the occupant into an environment that would otherwise be impossible. The primary focus of the author's project in Second Life is to take advantage of this opportunity to explore novel approaches to medical education. Second Life can be used to model doctor-patient interaction,…

While educators teach their students about decision making in complex environments, managers have to deal with the complexity of large projects on a daily basis. To make better decisions it is assumed, that the latter would benefit from better understanding of complex phenomena, as do students as the professionals of the future. The goal of this…

Emerging 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life can offer students with opportunities to enhance learning using rich collaborative asynchronous media. Virtual worlds are believed to impact the future of higher education and therefore, universities across the world are immersing themselves inside virtual worlds to establish a unique learning and…

This dissertation introduces a new multimedia security system for the performance of object recognition and multimedia encryption in security and medical applications. The system embeds an enhancement and multimedia encryption process into the traditional recognition system in order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of object detection and…

Despite the speed at which Second Life has been adopted by universities and schools to teach courses, little educational research and theory addresses this multiplayer online "world." This case study explored undergraduate university instructors' teaching methods and tools within a virtual environment. It also considered whether instructors are…

Many researchers have advocated the use of games (and simulations) to enhance students' learning. Research has shown that in order to promote a deeper understanding of material, students ought to be engaged with what they are doing. However, there are limited interactive games for classroom teaching, especially within the operations management…

This mixed-methods investigation compared the effectiveness of three instructional approaches in achieving desired conceptual change among early childhood preservice teachers (n = 157). Each of the three treatments employed inquiry-based instruction on moon phases using data collected from: (1) the planetarium software program, Starry Night[TM],…

A robust finding in imitation literature is that people perform their actions more readily if they are congruent with the behavior of another person. These action congruency effects are typically explained by the idea that the observation of someone else acting automatically activates our motor system in a directly matching way. In the present…

This study sought to develop meaningful and engaging virtual cyberbullying scenarios in digital environments that reflect the educational needs of today's adolescents. In order to inform and script these scenarios, a threestage study was implemented with middle schools. This paper describes how data collected in each stage informed the…

The "Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education 2012-2017" reflects a collaborative effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC), the Centro Superior para la Enseñanza Virtual (CSEV), Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Control at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), and the Institute of Electrical…

The higher education system in Taiwan has increasingly adopted business simulation games (BSGs) in recent years. Previous BSG benefit research has shifted focus from learning performance to motivation due to mixed results. One recent study empirically investigated student perceptions on the continued use of BSGs; however, the counterpart of higher…

Purpose: Teaching advanced technical concepts in a computer science program to students of different technical backgrounds presents many challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed experimental pedagogy in teaching advanced computer science topics, such as computer networking, telecommunications and data structures using…

To strengthen the motivation of learners, the professional training sector is focusing more and more on game-based learning. In this context, the authors have become interested in the design of Learning Role-Play Game (LRPG) scenarios. The aim of this article is to improve the designers' confidence in the validity of the game-based learning…

As teachers negotiate the integration of new literacies in the classroom, one of their greatest resources may, in fact, be their students. In this essay, the use of dialogue between educators and a student is highlighted in order to demonstrate how classrooms are evolving in the area of new literacies. In regard to the integration of new…