Reflecting on Portfolio Development

This study adopted portfolio assessment as a means of deepening pre-service teachers’ understanding of teaching and learning. The ultimate goal of using the portfolio was to bring the program in line with the mission of the institute, the criteria of the NCATE and INTASC, and the standards of the Ohio State License. This study discusses the challenge of implementing a year-long portfolio assessment procedure, as well as investigating how the exit portfolio assessment plays a role in facilitating pre-service teachers’ professional growth in terms of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Results indicate that preservice teachers considered the capstone portfolio as a tool for reflection, which helped them improve critical thinking skills, self-assessment, and advancement. Also, the portfolio process helped teacher candidates develop a professional identity and promote teaching. Overall, there was growth and improvement in knowledge, skills, and dispositions toward teaching, the role of a teacher and learner, and using the web-based portfolio process.

Pictorial Pedagogy

For sighted people, pictures provide an important mechanism of communication; they are also a valuable learning resource. This paper discusses these issues in context to their use in developing and promoting online pictorial pedagogy through the medium of computers. As the size of an image collection grows, some form of picture repository is needed in order to store, manage, and retrieve images. In this context, the role of a digital object repository is discussed and a case study involving the use of a very large image collection is briefly described.

Application of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis and Optimisation Methods in Evaluation of Quality of Learning Objects

This paper analyses and presents the new scientific models and methods for the expert evaluation of quality of learning objects (LOs) paying special attention to LOs reusability level. Currently all existing approaches in the area are quite subjective and depend only on the experience of the decision-makers. The authors analyse several scientific methods and principles to minimise the subjectivity level in the expert evaluation of LOs quality. They are: (a) the principles of multi-criteria decision analysis for identification of quality criteria, (b) technological quality criteria classification principle, (c) fuzzy group decision making theory to obtain evaluation measures, (d) normalisation of the weights of criteria, and (e) scalarisation method for LOs quality optimisation. The authors demonstrate that the complex application of these approaches could significantly improve the quality of the expert evaluation of LOs and noticeably reduce the level of the expert evaluation subjectivity. The paper also presents the example of practical application of these approaches for evaluation of LOs for Mathematics subject.

The Reality of Virtual Reality

In order to improve teacher preparation courses offered online, a study of the use of Second Life virtual world for peer-teaching activities was conducted. The research period was over one year and the sampling group consisted of 25 Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) students. The methods practiced during the study follow the suggestions and implications given in previous research in hopes that an informed design would be the means to overcome the published limitations of Second Life. Despite this, the authors were not able to overcome previous difficulties, and did not find Second Life to be useful as a tool for classroom role-playing in online teacher-development courses. Virtual reality, however, has promise for facilitating teacher development; thus, further investigation is needed to find an appropriate virtual venue for this purpose.

Investigating Adolescent Bloggers from the Perspective of Creative Subculture

This study focuses on the phenomenon of adolescent bloggers’ creativity from adolescent peers’ viewpoints. The participants are five twelve- to eighteen-year-old adolescent bloggers who continue managing their blogs. Online questionnaire and semi-structure interviews have been conducted to get participants’ ratings on their perceptions of creativity about themselves and peers. The results suggest that (1) the definition of creativity among adolescent bloggers is novel, useful, and valuable; (2) creativity can be enhanced from doing learning activities and practicing; and, (3) blog serves as a place where adolescents can present their works and also communicate with peers.

Podcasts as Learner-Created Content in Higher Education

Using podcasts in higher education has caught more and more attention among educators and researchers, but there is still a strong need for research and academic publications to focus on certain issues, such as the role of the learners. Instead of lecturers (teachers, scientists, and experts), learners (students, trainees or pupils) produce a podcast with a specific content called learner-created content (LCC). This study aims to find out how students experienced the creating of content as learning material in the form of podcasts. The results are two-fold. First, using podcasts included four categories: (1) the development of meta-skills, (2) mobile learning, (3) support for content learning, and (4) facilitating student involvement. Second, the students saw podcasting as a study tool. The study proved authentic, internally and systemically valid and opened up logical generalizability. Some recommendations are given for a better educational use of podcasts in higher education.

The Relationship between Student Learning Styles and Motivation during Educational Video Game Play

Educational video games allow for a level of intrinsic motivation and engagement that is not found in other forms of learning. This study determines if students found educational video game play to be a motivating experience and if a relationship existed between student learning styles and levels of motivation. High school psychology students played two short online educational video games and, upon completion of the activity, their intrinsic motivation levels were determined using an evaluation questionnaire. The data, as determined by the evaluation questionnaire, revealed that students found playing educational video games to be intrinsically motivating. Further examination revealed no statistically significant differences between the student learning styles and the motivation experienced during educational video game play.

Videogame Performance (Not Always) Requires Intelligence

This study was designed to test whether videogame performance requires intelligence even when practice periods are much longer than previously reported (Quiroga, Herranz, Gómez-Abad, Kebir, Ruiz, & Colom, 2009a). The study involved 27 university female undergraduates. Intelligence was measured using several tests both before and after videogame practice. Participants played videogames one day per week for five weeks completing five blocks of trials each day. Total practice consisted of twenty five blocks of trials (250 trials). The main finding shows that performance for some videogames is systematically related to intelligence along the practice period, indicating that basic abilities underlying these videogames cannot be easily automated. However, for some videogames, the relationship to intelligence is greatly reduced along the practice period. Ways to challenge intelligence using videogames are proposed from these findings.

A Comparison of Student and Instructor Preferences for Design and Pedagogy Features in Postsecondary Online Courses

This study investigates the preferences of instructors and students for design and pedagogy features of online instruction at the post-secondary level. Participants included 60 instructors and 200 students at a comprehensive research university. Correlation coefficients of .95 on the design item rankings and .87 on the pedagogy item rankings were found between instructors and students. An independent sample T-test was conducted, resulting in a finding of significant difference between the preferences of instructors and students on 19 of 63 features. Additional findings included the high level of agreement on design and pedagogy features among all students as a group and subgroups (e.g., students earning regular university credit and those pursuing professional development goals.) An interesting finding was the concurrence in the low preferences by instructors and students. Both groups rated low those features pertaining to social networking and collaboration.

“Stay Out of the Way! My Kid is Video Blogging Through a Phone!”

The current trends in social network media, coupled with increasingly advanced and ubiquitous mobile technology point towards great potential for their use in learning support and an emerging possibility of “deconstructing digital divide.” This paper explores a mobile video blogging model embedded in a learning support community as a means of addressing learning needs among underperforming students of low socioeconomic status. In this study, various mobile video recording approaches were analyzed and some blogging strategies were linked to higher learning outcomes. Although a few challenges and issues were identified, the mobile video blogging community was generally found to be a viable learning support model for children in underserved communities.