This article examines the potential of mobile computing and Web 2.0 technology to support knowledge building in formal and informal settings. Desktop-based knowledge building tools have limited affordances of supporting one-to-one access, learning "in situ," and seamless integration in and out of school environments. In this initial…

Expert operative information is a prerequisite for any form of surgical training. However, the shortening of working hours has reduced surgical training time and learning opportunities. As a potential solution to this problem, multimedia programs have been designed to provide computer-based assistance to surgical trainees outside of the operating…

This paper reviews past research that focused on questions of culture in distance learning. Of specific interest are the studies that examined the influence of culture on students' learning and engagement in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs). The purpose of this review is three-fold: to present the state of knowledge concerning the questions…

Conventional teaching of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is highly teacher-centered, in line with traditional views of the teacher as "master". This article focuses on how modern teaching concepts and technologies can enhance the teaching of TCM in Hong Kong, a city noted for a culture where "East meets West." The project…

In this paper, we describe our path for designing an online community of practice for teachers in Singapore, from identifying the current status of professional development to designing an online platform where teachers can share vivid images of their teaching practices with other teachers. To identify current practices in professional…

As Japanese uses three writing systems (hiragana, katakana, and the ideograms known as kanji), and as materials in the target language include all three, it is a major challenge to learn to read and write quickly. This paper focuses on interactive multi-media methods of teaching Japanese reading which foster learner autonomy. As little has been…

The design of virtual learning environments for post-secondary instruction is rapidly increasing among public and private universities. While the quantity of online courses over the past 10 years has exponentially increased, the quality of these courses has not. As universities increase their online teaching activities, real concern about the best…

With the development of e-learning technology, many specifications of instructional design have been proposed to make learning activity sharable and reusable. With the specifications and sufficient learning resources, the researches further focus on how to provide learners more appropriate learning activities to improve their learning performance.…

The principle of equality states that it is bad for some people to be worse off than others. In the context of distance education, this principle is violated on those occasions where on-campus students have access, not only to all the resources available to distance education students, but also to face-to-face tutorials. This is because the…

The rapidly expanding range of options available for innovative e-learning approaches based on emerging technologies has given renewed importance to teaching and learning issues that have long been familiar to distance educators. These issues arise from the separation between learners, and between teacher and learners, which occurs when learning…

Working with the premise that information and communications technology (ICT) has the capacity to make or unmake so far as women's empowerment is concerned, this article looks at the ICT situation among female distance learners in both endowed and under-served parts of Ghana, to check the user differentials among the two contrasting groups through…

Past research has shown the variations of students' conceptions of learning, but little has been especially undertaken to address students' conceptions of web-based learning and to make comparisons between students' conceptions of learning in general and their conceptions of web-based learning in particular. By interviewing 83 Taiwanese college…

One-size-fits-all educational innovations do not work because they ignore contextual factors that determine an intervention's efficacy in a particular local situation. This paper presents a framework on how to design educational innovations for scalability through enhancing their adaptability for effective usage in a wide variety of settings. The…

This study compared the impact of proctoring on the final course grades of community college students enrolled in distance education mathematics courses. The goal was to determine whether distance education students who are evaluated entirely online, in environments that are not proctored, receive grades that differ from distance education…

Too often, when child care center directors turn their attention to enhancing management skills, or connecting with someone who understands the day-to-day demands of the job, they are pulled back to the immediate needs of running their programs. Directors, often masters of multitasking, are increasingly turning to web-based technology to manage…