The emerging three-dimensional (3D) virtual world (VW) technology offers great potential for teaching contemporary digital art and growing digital visual culture in 21st-century art education. Such online virtual worlds are built and conceptualized based on information visualization and visual metaphors. Recently, an increasing number of…

In the last decade, an important debate about the characteristics of today's students has arisen due to their intensive experience as users of ICT. The main belief is that frequent use of technologies in everyday life implies competent users able to transfer their digital skills to learning activities. However, empirical studies developed in…

In the Russian Federation and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, a focus of national education policy is to modernize the education system by integrating new technologies that have emerged within education in Western Europe and North America. The current promotion of one-to-one learning in Russian schools is one of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify student and staff experiences with online learning at higher education (HE) using the software Elluminate Live! Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a qualitative approach, focusing on the reflections of participants (student and teacher) collated over a 12 month period of piloting online…

Within the integration of technology into language education, special attention needs to be paid to languages for specific purposes (LSP), drawing on developments in computer-assisted language learning and applied linguistics, on the one hand, and on the pervasive use of technology in academic and professional communication, on the other. From a…

Demands for a more personalized approach to education as well as flexibility have spurred learners to seek alternatives to the traditional approach. As a result of technological advantages in society, the options for learning in and outside the classroom have broadened tremendously. The great option is "Virtual classroom". A virtual…

Though research in emerging technologies is vital to fulfilling their incredible potential for educational applications, it is often fraught with analytic challenges related to large datasets. This thesis explores these challenges in researching multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs). In a MUVE, users assume a persona and traverse a virtual space…

Online learning is creating new opportunities for thousands of students across the globe. Educators who embrace these reforms see this trend as a way to strengthen schools and meet students' individual needs. In this article, the authors describe how educators at Florida Virtual School embrace this learning environment to provide students with a…

The purpose of this study was to examine three e-learning technologies based on a pedagogical framework for virtual learning environments, and to explore how these technologies could be used to facilitate extended professional learning opportunities whereby K-12 educators could communicate, collaborate, and reflect on their practice. This…

The central purpose of this research was to assess student learning outcomes in the Algebra I credit recovery course offered at traditional schools in Louisiana and the Algebra I credit recovery course offered online by the Louisiana Virtual School (LVS). It was also conducted to assess the associations of gender, grade level, and socio-economic…

Purpose: Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) have become increasingly popular in educational settings and the role of 3D content is becoming more and more important. Still, there are many challenges in this area, such as lack of empirical studies that provide design for educational activities in 3D CVEs and lack of norms of how to support…

This paper is a review of literature on Web 2.0 uses in higher education from 2007-2009. The goals of this review were (1) to identify what Web 2.0 technologies were used in college level instruction, and (2) to examine any research evidence that Web 2.0 technologies could enhance teaching and learning. Conference proceedings from 2007 to 2009…

This study explores the instructional leadership skills required from online principals, as defined by one state's (Idaho) adaptation of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards (1996) as a requirement for professional certification. Specifically, this qualitative study examined six sets of paired online principals and…

The purpose of the present study was to explore ESL students' interactions in task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in Second Life, a virtual environment by which users can interact through representational figures. I investigated Low-Intermediate and High-Intermediate ESL students' interaction patterns before, during, and…

This dissertation presents three research articles in the area of preparing preservice teachers for Virtual Schooling (VS). The context of the dissertation is embedded in a Teacher Education Goes Into Virtual Schooling (TEGIVS) project under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. The first…