Although social-emotional learning is associated with long-term success in school and careers, it is often a missing link in U.S. public education. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the need for social-emotional supports for children. In this time of crisis, educators have also sought new ways to make connections and reimagined how students…

While there is increased interest in using movement and embodiment to support learning due to the rise in theories of embodied cognition and learning, additional work needs to be done to explore how we can make sense of students collectively developing their understanding within a mixed-reality environment. In this paper, we explore embodied…

This single case design study examined the effects of video modeling (VM) using an augmented reality iPad application on improving phonics skills of first-grade students who struggle with reading. Results indicated that all students made significant growth in their phonics performance and maintained the intervention gains for 5 weeks following the…

This dissertation investigates how embodied learning within a Mixed Reality (MR) environment supports young children's science learning, focusing on a honeybee system. To do so, I designed three types of activities within an MR environment to enable young children to assume different perspectives as they create embodied models of honeybees as…

Effective strategies to address academic performance are critical to students with disabilities in inclusive settings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using gesture-based instruction via Leap Motion-aided virtual reality (VR) technology to teach matching skills to school-aged students with autism spectrum disorder…

Purpose: This paper aims to show how collective embodiment with physical objects (i.e. props) support young children's learning through the construction of liminal blends that merge physical, virtual and conceptual resources in a mixed-reality (MR) environment. Design/methodology/approach: Building on Science through Technology Enhanced Play…

This article describes how a federally funded afterschool program serving an elementary-age population in a rural southern community used the creative affordances of Minecraft and a creative youth development (CYD) framework to support the local school district's character education program, The Leader in Me (LiM). On receipt of a 21st Century…

This article reports on an exploratory study on developing and adopting a 'Virtual Go Mode' feature embedded in a mobile vocabulary learning app, VocabGo, to enhance students' vocabulary learning engagement. Distinguished from other virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) applications, the Virtual Go Mode is designed for students to…

The aim of the 2018 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA) conference was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive…

Research into students' understanding of complex systems typically ignores young children because of misinterpretations of young children's competencies. Furthermore, studies that do recognize young children's competencies tend to focus on what children can do in isolation. As an alternative, we propose an approach to designing for young children…