Technology for Gifted Students

This chapter proposes that software design using software with programming capabilities, such as Classroom Suite, is a good activity for gifted students to increase their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills while designing appropriate learning activities for all students, including those with disabilities. The chapter describes design techniques that gifted students can apply during the development, offers as an example the design process for one of the authors' own Classroom Suite instructional games, and concludes with a description of several other games designed by the authors as further examples of the kinds of instructional software that gifted students can develop for students with disabilities using Classroom Suite.

Pathfinder

Designers of instructional software use gamification to help motivate and engage learners. Typically focusing on gamifying a single task, designers aim to provide a straightforward path through learning. In contrast, video games frequently provide optional secondary tasks using collectibles. Collectibles-like coins-are secondary, non-essential goals that encourage players to selectively take on additional challenges and engage more with a game. While research supports the idea that by increasing engagement learning can be improved, exactly how collectibles-an extremely common element in games-might be employed in gamified learning and how it might affect the play experience is underexplored. We present the results of a study comparing a gamified photo-editing training game that uses collectibles to one without collectibles. Our results show that learners choose to engage more when collectibles are present, and that this has a positive effect on software skills applied to a representative out-of-game challenge. Our findings provide a nuanced view of the tradeoffs in motivation and experience when collectibles are used.

Effectiveness of Augmented Reality in Online Distance Learning at the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of augmented reality in online distance learning at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out in an instructional software authoring tools course for in-structional technology department students to develop academic achievement and instructional software design skills. To achieve this, augmented reality was used, which allowed the learning process to be completed via online dis-tance learning. Forty students were selected to participate by purposeful sampling. The results show that augmented reality was more effective in supporting academic achievement as well as skills acquisition in the virtual classrooms compared to the virtual classrooms that did not use augmented reality in online distance learning. In general, augmented reality or one of its (fixed, animated) patterns can be used to effectively learn in online distance learning during pandemic periods. As well as augmented reality that can use location-aware or vision-based maybe have a good potential in online dis-tance learning within the pandemic. As such the teachers must be prepared to employ all patterns of augmented reality in traditional online distance learn-ing or during the pandemics to achieve the need for 21st-century skills. Con-ducting more research is required in online distance learning by using aug-mented reality with another sample and different content general, augmented reality or one of its (fixed, animated) patterns can be used to effectively learn in online distance learning during pandemic periods.