In order to meet the demands of postgraduate students who were time poor and unable to regularly attend face-to-face classes, one lecturer in the Faculty Law at the University of Wollongong (UOW) sought the assistance of a Learning Designer to redesign the Postgraduate Practical Legal Training (PLT) program into a flexible blended learning format,…

While most existing online learning environments cater for needs identified during the 1990s, a new generation of digital students has emerged in the developed world. Digital students are young adults who have grown up with digital technologies integrated as an everyday feature of their lives. Digital students use technology differently, fluidly…

The objectives of training activities as stated in the DoW are: 1. to organize training within the project for the participants to learn to use the necessary tools; 2. to support training activities of the partners when they deliver and take in use the tools and practices during extended pilots. The approach with regards to the first point is that…

This publication about pre-school nursery design illustrates major issues and ideas about these spaces and provides comprehensive guidance for the planners and designers of such spaces. The author presents examples of historical and contemporary kindergartens that demonstrate practical ways that educational theory can be incorporated into new…

Ideally, playgrounds should encourage development of gross and fine motor skills and present a stimulating play environment that provides children with manageable challenges. In order to provide these challenges, a balance must be found between risk and safety. Over the last few years there has been an increased interest in the use of soft…

This design guide offers guidance to science educators, architects, and others concerned with the provision of science accommodations in Ontario, Canada, either through new construction or the adaptation of existing buildings. The publication is not a blueprint for facilities nor an attempt to standardize all science programs and facilities; it is…

Does designing a large academic library Web site for an imaginary person seem a sensible thing to do? As a reference librarian and member of the Web team of the Gerstein Science Information Centre (Gerstein Library), that is exactly what this author set out to do in May 2005. She proposed that the best way to ensure that the Web site meets the…

The paper discusses three aspects central to the 10 year-old process of design, development and use of E-slate, a construction kit for educational software. These are: (1) the design of computational media for user empowerment, (2) the socially-grounded approach to the building of user communities and (3) the issue of long-term sustainability as…

Any programme of principal induction must find ways to respond to the diversity of its participants, in terms of their backgrounds and learning needs. New Zealand's national principal induction programme uses a self assessment of each principal's capability in the leadership of teaching and learning as one of its main sources of information about…

The speech, presented at the AGSOMD Conference (Adelaide, South Australia, October, 1970), describes a residential training facility for the retarded designed on the principles of small family-like groups and approximation of a normal living situation. (KW)

Conventional swimming pools have been built with the needs of competitive swimmers in mind. Planners in several European countries have greatly increased swimming pool attendance by designing "leisure pools," based primarily on the needs and behavior of recreationists. Design of these pools and their equipment requirements are discussed.…

This article addresses a pervasive need in the area of videoconference-supported distance language learning: task design. On the basis of Chapelle's (2001) criteria for CALL task appropriateness, this article proposes a set of criteria for evaluating videoconferencing-based tasks which examine such aspects of a task as practicality,…

Reported are results of a project carried out at the Swedish Institute for the Handicapped to determine needs of the visually impaired in the planning and adaptation of buildings and other forms of physical environment. Chapter 1 considers implications of impaired vision and includes definitions, statistics, and problems of the visually impaired…

Emphasizing more effective use of existing equipment, this article highlights distributed computing design considerations applicable to educational environments; identifies potential roles of networking in the provision of adequate teaching aids; presents a networking model; and describes the development of a distributed computing configuration at…

This discussion of the interrelationship of library buildings, library functions, and library management is illustrated by a description of problems encountered when the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library moved into a new building. Illustrative material is provided. (EJS)