Web 2.0 technologies, such as social networks, wikis, blogs, and virtual worlds provide a platform for collaborative working, facilitating sharing of resources and joint document production. They can act as a stimulus to promote active learning and provide an engaging and interactive environment for students, and as such align with the philosophy…

Using visual models is common in science and should become more common in classrooms. Our research group has developed and completed studies on the use of a visual modeling tool, the Concept Connector. This modeling tool consists of an online concept mapping Java applet that has automatic scoring functions we refer to as Robograder. The Concept…

Cooperative learning has been sufficiently studied to be accepted as an effective method of education. Student reception of cooperative learning, and therefore the degree of its success in a given situation, will depend on the mode of delivery. New technology for delivering courses totally online challenges many aspects of traditional education,…

Describes a project based on the collaboration of scientists, science educators, graduate and undergraduate students, and master teachers for the improvement of teaching introductory science courses. Uses action-based research teams (ABRTs) as the teaching tool to change the curriculum, which provides a mechanism for the implementation of changes…

New information and communications technologies and research in cognitive science have led to new ways to think about and implement learning environments. Among these new approaches to instruction and new methods to support learning and performance is an interest in and emphasis on complex subject matter (e.g., complex and dynamic systems…

For the thirty-first year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Orlando, Florida. This year's Proceedings has two sections--Section 1 includes research and development papers and…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…