UK Children Go Online

UK Children Go Online : "The project explores the nature and meaning of children's internet use and maps emerging patterns of attitudes and practices across diverse contexts and social groups in the UK. It is part of the ESRC's e-Society Programme and is based at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science."

Second Life Teaches Life Lessons

Much has been researched lately about the use of “gaming” in schools and now many college professors are taking advantage of Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world and are using the massively multi-user online game (MMO) to teach classes in a world where the students create anything they dream about and create avatars that can do anything they imagine. They ‘sky is not the limit’ in Second Life; by allowing students to interact through an additional medium rather than just "inside the classroom" students now have the opportunity to play in a virtual playground.

Adding the virtual world to face-to-face delivery extends the learning beyond the classroom walls, allows student to participate in the digital world and provides students the opportunity to socialize and interact while tackling some of society’s bigger issues.

Classroom Instruction has moved beyond the use of educational videos into a new educational digital world. Second Life has so many possibilities for use across the curriculums; it’ll be exciting to watch the evolution of ‘online gaming’ in education

Social Software & Online Learning Design

Online Learning Design That Fosters Student Support, Self-Regulation, And Retention

Campus-Wide Information Systems : The International Journal of Learning and Technology, (2005) Volume: 22 Number: 2



Authors

Mercedes Fisher, PhD.
Derek E. Baird, M.A.

Purpose: Investigating the social structure in online environments helps us design for and facilitate student (user) support and retention. Provides data showing how design and use of social media networking technologies provided collaborative learning opportunities for online students.

Design / Methodology / Approach: A study of computer-mediated groups that utilized social networking technologies and a web-based collaborative model in an online learning program. Participants were put into groups and observed as they used both online dialogue (synchronous and asynchronous) and social media technologies, such as blogs, as tools to support their learning.

Findings: The integration of web-based learning communities and collaborative group assignments into the course design has a positive influence on retention in online environments.

Research limitations / implications: The research was limited to the online student population at Pepperdine University, and did not include data or research from similar online programs at other universities. Future research should include data collected from students outside the U.S. to find out what role cultural mores, attitudes, and gender play in online learning.

Practical Implications: Provides curriculum design strategies that foster community, utilize social / participatory media, and support online student learning and retention through effective course design.

Originality / value: Current research on distance learning curriculum has focused on the instructor’s perspective. We feel that research from the student’s perspective can also yield some valuable insights for online course design.



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