ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Using Social Media to Support the Learning Needs of Future IS Security Professionals
Author: Neville, Karen
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Social Networks,Internet,Computer Security,College Seniors,Educational Games,Computer Games,Interpersonal Relationship,Student Evaluation,Information Management,Case Studies

The emergence of social media has forced educators to think differently about the way learning occurs. Students and practitioners alike are using new technologies to connect with peers/colleagues, share ideas, resources and experiences for extracurricular activities. The social business gaming platform considered in this study leverages the social networking concept (an activity that all students actively participate in) in an academic environment. The primary objective of this technology is to foster a sense of &quot;thinking outside the box&quot; and analytical ability through a medium that is widely accepted by students and graduates who have entered the workplace. Both the environment and problems are developed to adapt to suit any academic course from conducting research to proposing business solutions. This study was undertaken in order to develop information systems security (ISS) skillsets through the creation and facilitation of social business gaming, which allowed students to measure their performances of understanding as part of their on-going learning. The online business game required students to apply what they have learned to problem situations and to further develop their understanding of ISS topics. The problems posed required that the learners had to prove that they understood the material being taught in the traditional lecture and could apply what they had learned in an online environment. The on-going assessment component of the gaming network was used not just as an assessment for grades but also as a learning tool. This research focuses on a group of final year undergraduate students completing Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (IS). The online social game was utilised as part of the continual assessment process to evaluate group interaction, role-playing, competition and learning in an ISS assignment. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 2 footnotes.)
Game-Based Language Learning for Pre-School Children: A Design Perspective
Author: Meyer, Bente
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Preschool Education,Educational Games,Instructional Design,English (Second Language),Teaching Methods,Electronic Learning,Feedback (Response),Computer Games

During the last decade there has been a growing focus on preschool learning within education, especially with regard to the learning of basic literacies such as reading and writing. In addition to this many nation states increasingly focus on the basic literacy competences of the information society, ICT and English. This has, as suggested by for instance Scanlon and Buckingham (2007) boosted opportunities for the sale of educational material and hardware to children for home learning, but also for learning material that links content directly to the curriculum, to school work and to assessment. This paper will focus on the design of learning material for pre-school teaching and learning through the example of a game-based platform for learning English called Mingoville.com. Mingoville has been studied in connection with the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-11), where a number of games were followed into classroom environments across nations. Currently, the developers of Mingoville are working on a platform version that targets preschool learners and works on tablets as well as pcs and smartboards. The paper will discuss the implications of redesigning the platform for pre-school teaching and learning and how this affects game-based language teaching and learning with Mingoville. (Contains 3 figures and 2 footnotes.)
Children&apos;s Problem-Solving in Serious Games: The &quot;Fine-Tuning System (FTS)&quot; Elaborated
Author: Obikwelu, Chinedu
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Problem Solving,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Learning Strategies,Child Development,Educational Games,Experiential Learning,Feedback (Response),Problem Based Learning,Expertise,Cooperative Learning,Peer Teaching,Teaching Methods,Teacher Student Relationship,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Video Games

For a child to learn through Problem-Solving in Serious games, the game scaffolding mechanism has to be effective. Scaffolding is based on the Vygotzkian Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) concept which refers to the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. Scaffolds in serious games are learning stimulators. The effectiveness of these learning stimulators lies in the way they are managed or regulated. Scaffolds that are not regulated could lead to expertise-reversal effect or redundancy effect which inhibits learning. In the current classroom application of serious games, the game-based learning stimulators remain the same for everyone (&quot;blanket scaffolding&quot;)--the learning stimulators are not managed or regulated. In order to make scaffolding in serious games more effective for classroom use, the calibration of the game&apos;s learning stimulators has to be enabled--this would help in meeting the changing needs of the learners. The concept of fading which is critical to scaffolding is introduced to serious games, to facilitate the fine-tuning of the learning stimulators to the changing needs of the learners. This paper seeks to address the issues in the design and implementation of a Fine-Tuning System for serious games based on the fading concept. Also discussed in this paper are the factors to be considered in the implementation of the Fine-Tuning System in serious games. These include fading decisions; fading and learning rates; optimal scaffolding distance; classroom culture and collaborative learning. The adverse effects of neglecting fading such as expertise-reversal effect and redundancy effect are also discussed. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)
A Platform Independent Game Technology Model for Model Driven Serious Games Development
Author: Tang, Stephen
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Models,Engineering,Instructional Design,Computer Games,Information Technology,Computer Software,Computer Interfaces,Artificial Intelligence,Computer Networks,Educational Games,Educational Technology,Engineering Technology

Game-based learning (GBL) combines pedagogy and interactive entertainment to create a virtual learning environment in an effort to motivate and regain the interest of a new generation of &quot;digital native&quot; learners. However, this approach is impeded by the limited availability of suitable &quot;serious&quot; games and high-level design tools to enable domain experts to develop or customise serious games. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) goes some way to provide the techniques required to generate a wide variety of interoperable serious games software solutions whilst encapsulating and shielding the technicality of the full software development process. In this paper, we present our Game Technology Model (GTM) which models serious game software in a manner independent of any hardware or operating platform specifications for use in our Model Driven Serious Game Development Framework. (Contains 16 figures.)
Exploring the Acceptability of Online Learning for Continuous Professional Development at Kenya Medical Training Colleges
Author: Kyalo, Isaac William
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Foreign Countries,Faculty Development,Web Based Instruction,Medical Education,Instructional Effectiveness,Questionnaires,Medical School Faculty,Teacher Attitudes,Focus Groups,Accreditation (Institutions),Educational Benefits,Correlation,Educational Quality,Qualitative Research

This study explores the acceptance of online learning (OL) for continuous professional development among lecturers at Kenya Medical Training College in 2009. The large and multi-campus College faces logistical and cost challenges in ensuring that its 700 lecturing staff have access to continuous professional development. Online learning potentially provides an effective and efficient solution to this problem. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of the lecturers to assess the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of online learning, taking into account lecturers' experiences. Two focus group discussions were also held to assess the lecturers' views on issues relating to OL. We find that there is a high level of acceptability of the idea of undertaking further training using OL as user attitudes towards web-based training were positive. The benefits of OL over face-to-face learning for clinical training and the accreditation of OL courses are issues of ongoing concern to lecturers. Successful and large scale adoption of OL course requires promotion of their benefits in addition to clarification of the accreditation of the available courses. (Contains 3 tables.)
Escalating the use of Web 2.0 Technology in Secondary Schools in the United Kingdom: Barriers and Enablers beyond Teacher Training
Author: Hramiak, Alison
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preservice Teacher Education,Web 2.0 Technologies,Educational Technology,Technology Integration,Computer Uses in Education,Web Sites,Electronic Publishing,Preservice Teachers,Beginning Teachers,Diaries,Student Teacher Attitudes,Interviews,Teacher Attitudes,Secondary School Teachers,Teaching Methods,Action Research

This paper reports on research that took place at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), United Kingdom, over two years. The project formed the basis of an iterative, interpretive, action research study focussing on a particular set of participants--trainee teachers. The insights gained from the initial cycle fed into planning the second cycle, for which the action plan was modified and the research process repeated (Zuber-Skerritt 1992). The research project focuses on the use of Web 2.0 technology, specifically web logs, (or blogs) with trainee 
teachers, both during their university programme and during the first year of teaching as full-time newly qualified teachers. The purpose of this research was to add to a developing body of knowledge identifying whether technology used by trainee teachers during their training course can be cascaded into their practice once qualified. Participants from the two 
collaborating universities were introduced to blogs and blogging during their time at university, and encouraged to use it for themselves, and to also think about how it could be used in their own classrooms when they were teaching. Questionnaires were used to ascertain their thoughts on the use of blogs during training, and these were followed up with interviews with a number of the trainees to determine the cascading of this technology, once they had become newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and were teaching in schools. These interviews explored the reasons for enabling or inhibiting 
the use of blogs in their teaching in school. This paper presents the findings of the research and discusses the enablers and inhibitors that were identified in the light of current research findings. The research supports the view that developing innovative use of technology in the classroom is complex and experiences during training are not always transferred into 
practice. (Contains 1 table.)
An Intelligent Personalized e-Assessment Tool Developed and Implemented for a Greek Lyric Poetry Undergraduate Course
Author: Xanthou, Maria
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Greek,Poetry,Student Evaluation,Scores,Difficulty Level,Prediction,Questionnaires,Course Content,Undergraduate Students,Foreign Countries,Online Systems,Evaluation Methods,Knowledge Level,Electronic Learning

The scope of this paper is to present the development of a web-based evaluation system that adjusts to the level of knowledge of each student. The underlying concept is to split the questions into pools (bins) of distinct difficulty at the same time assigning a different level of accuracy to each possible answer that the student may select. Given the weighted success score computed at each round, the system raises or lowers the level of the questions asked in the following round, thus adjusting the difficulty of the test according to the students' performance. Once the score of the student improves or declines, the system again adjusts the difficulty of the questions accordingly until convergence is achieved and the students' performance becomes stable. It is believed that the proposed evaluation system predicts the level of knowledge of the students in more correct ways compared with the traditional (non-adaptive) questionnaires, while giving the students the motivation to rerun the test until they become familiar with the course content. To illustrate the evaluation methodology proposed, an online system was developed and implemented for the evaluation of sixty-eight undergraduates attending a Greek Lyric Poetry course at the Department of Classics in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. The results of the evaluation process, with the observations made, both about the operation of the system in real conditions and the performance of the students, are also discussed in the paper. (Contains 2 tables and 9 figures.)
Using Action Research to Investigate Social Networking Technologies
Author: Worrall, Lisa
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Social Networks,Action Research,Investigations,Professional Continuing Education,Professional Development,Focus Groups,Research Methodology,Web 2.0 Technologies,Workshops,Construction Industry,Foreign Countries,Use Studies,Mass Media Use,Etiology,Qualitative Research

This article outlines the first cycle of an Action Research (AR) investigation into why professional learners are not using the Social Networking Technologies (SNTs) of their bespoke website. It presents the rationale of how this study came about, the ontological and epistemological stance of the authors and how this led to the particular choice of contextual based AR enquiry. This article includes reference to some of the most salient literature on AR and discusses the ethical and practical constraints that surround this type of research. The first cycle of AR findings are presented and identify a number of key areas where the website is failing; including a lack of speed in responding to learner queries, negative user perceptions of not &quot;owning&quot; the website, a lack of synchronous private chat rooms, user time constraints, negative user experiences of not being online simultaneously and of a broader failure in unifying school and university websites to promote wider social networking opportunities. In response to these findings, this article puts forward a table which includes an identification of the issues and themes, the methods utilised and how the findings were derived, reflections upon what they indicate, and an action strategy for implementation alongside questions for future research. This article concludes by stating that the action plan will be implemented and assessed in the next cycle of AR which is viewed by the authors as being part of a contextually valid, lifelong AR spiral process. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)
A Case Study on the Adoption and Use of Synchronous Virtual Classrooms
Author: Martin, Florence
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Virtual Classrooms,Case Studies,Synchronous Communication,Adoption (Ideas),Online Courses,Performance Factors,Instructional Innovation,Technology Uses in Education,Teacher Surveys,Interviews,Participant Satisfaction,Program Implementation,Technology Transfer,Courseware,Teaching Methods,Electronic Learning,College Faculty

This is a case study of faculty adoption and use of Horizon Wimba Virtual Classroom in online courses at a Southeastern University in the United States. The purpose of this case study was to explore faculty adoption and use of Horizon Wimba in their online courses. This inquiry is based on Yen et al. (2010) adoption factors (organizational, social, personal and technological) and the features of the virtual classroom. The research questions are 1) What factors and features influence faculty adoption of the Wimba Virtual Classroom? 2) How do faculty rate the Wimba Virtual Classroom using the characteristics of innovation? 3) How do faculty classify themselves using Roger's model of diffusion of innovation? 4) How do faculty use the Wimba Virtual Classroom in their teaching? Roger's diffusion of innovation was used as the theoretical framework for faculty adoption of virtual classroom. In the Fall of 2010, faculty were surveyed and interviewed about their decision to adopt and use Wimba. This case study provides meaningful information for administrators interested in promoting technology enhanced learning on their campuses and for faculty considering adoption. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)
Examining Online College Cyber Cheating Methods and Prevention Measures
Author: Moten, James, Jr.
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Distance Education,Cheating,Online Courses,Electronic Learning,Prevention,Plagiarism,College Students,Asynchronous Communication,Change Strategies,Behavior Problems,Student Behavior,Access to Information,Educational Practices,Literature Reviews

Academic dishonesty in the online cheating environment of distance education learning has gained traction in the past decade. By a few simple keystrokes, students&apos; can find a wide array of online services for hire to write research papers, complete homework assignments, or enroll on behalf of the student on record to take the entire online course. While institutions in higher education have seen online learning as a vehicle to increase student enrollments adding to their bottom line, the number of Internet cheating companies to support academic dishonesty has also increased sustainability. Challenges dealing with academic dishonesty in the online area have become more rampant, leaving faculty and college administrators at odds how to prevent such behavior in both traditional and online classes. Finding new tactical tools to prevent cheating but more importantly providing students with an ethical and moral framework why academic dishonesty jeopardizes their future as a productive member of society.
&quot;The Evolution of e-Learning in the Context of 3D Virtual Worlds&quot;
Author: Kotsilieris, Theodore
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Electronic Learning,Educational Development,Virtual Classrooms,Distance Education,Learning Theories,Courseware,Database Management Systems,Computer Software Evaluation,Usability,Human Factors Engineering,Learning Activities,Computer Simulation,Case Studies,Teaching Methods,Instructional Innovation,Open Source Technology,Information Technology,Qualitative Research

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer new approaches towards knowledge acquisition and collaboration through distance learning processes. Web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) have transformed the way that education is conducted nowadays. At the same time, the adoption of Virtual Worlds in the educational process is of great importance, not only for the researchers in the field of Web-based Education, but also for the educational community that is interested in applying ICT in education. The main motivation for studying the potential of Virtual Worlds applications in education stems from the capabilities they offer to create a cyberspace where users can interact with other participants (through their avatars) or objects, creating new experiences that are not often feasible in the real world. Within this context, the fundamentals of learning theories have to be analyzed, in order to study their impact on e-learning and Virtual Learning Environments design. The currently available Virtual-World platforms are being presented and qualitatively assessed. Subsequently we focus on Sloodle, which bridges the characteristics of the Moodle LMS with the Open Simulator 3D virtual world functionality. (Contains 2 tables and 16 figures.)
Scaffolding Pre-Service Teachers Representing Their Learning Journeys with ePortfolios
Author: Masters, Jennifer
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Preservice Teachers,Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Learning,Teacher Education Programs,Learning Processes,Learning Activities,Instructional Development,Teaching Methods,Courseware,Program Descriptions,Action Research

The term &quot;scaffolding&quot; is often used loosely to describe a broad range of interventions or devices for learners and in many instances the actual nature of the scaffold is unclear. In the true sense, for &quot;scaffolding&quot; to take place the activity needs to be for the learner&apos;s own intentions, i.e. a task that he or she sets for themselves. The scaffold must also operate within the learner&apos;s Zone of Proximal Development, working at the learner&apos;s level of comprehension and drawing the learning into new areas of exploration. A final characteristic of scaffolding is that the scaffold is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes more competent. The study described in this paper draws on concepts of scaffolding to support beginning pre-service teachers to establish an eportfolio for their course. The students use the eportfolio  environment &quot;PebblePad&quot; to store resources and reflect on experiences as they journey through their course. This paper describes and reflects on the processes and artefacts used to scaffold the first year pre-service teachers as they conceptualise and frame their learning journey eportfolios. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)
International Social Work Field Placement or Volunteer Tourism? Developing an Asset-Based Justice-Learning Field Experience
Author: Sossou, Marie-Antoinette
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Social Work,Placement,Tourism,Volunteers,Foreign Countries,Field Experience Programs,Justice,Counselor Training,Program Descriptions,Service Learning,Learning Experience,College Students,Culturally Relevant Education,Community Development

This paper examines a developing model for building an international social 
work placement that meets the needs of the host agency and community first. 
The paper addresses the challenges for social work departments to develop a 
strong learning environment while also keeping primary the needs of the host 
community and agency.