K-12 | Distance-Educator.com

Archive for the ‘K-12’ Category

YouTubing: Challenging Traditional Literacies and Encouraging Self-Organisation and Connecting in a Connectivist Approach to Learning in the K-12 System

This article argues that a new research trajectory in the Connectivism debate should be open to the K-12 system, and that education should consider the Web 2.0 application YouTube as a pedagogical tool in learning. We aim to show that YouTube facilitates students’ self-organised learning in informal and formal education. YouTube is potentially a meaningful […]

Learning in cyber-physical worlds

What lies in the space where the cyber world and physical world converge? A spectrum of blended augmented experiences and a fount of new opportunities for educational practice. The success of this projected convergence depends on the availability of affordable virtual reality hardware, such as wearable haptic and movement tracking devices, and the use of […]

Autonomy and Responsibility: Online Learning as a Solution for At-Risk High School Students

In this three-year, mixed methods case study, the benefits and challenges of online learning for at-risk high school students were examined. A key finding was that at-risk students identify the benefits and challenges of online learning to be the same. While students appreciate the opportunity to work ahead and study at their own pace, they […]

A Review of Research on Mobile Learning in Teacher Education

Mobile devices have become attractive learning devices for education. While the majority of the existing research has focused primarily on the value of mobile learning for students, researchers have recently started exploring its potentials within teacher development. The present qualitative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative research aimed to address trends and gaps observed in the […]

Diffusing Innovations: Adoption of Serious Educational Games by K-12 Science Teachers

Innovation is a term that has become widely used in education; especially as it pertains to technology infusion. Applying the corporate theory of diffusing innovation to educational practice is an innovation in itself. This mixed-methods study examined 38 teachers in a science educational gaming professional development program that provided baseline characteristics about personal technology use […]

Meta-theoretic Assumptions and Bibliometric Evidence Assessment on 3-D Virtual Worlds as Collaborative Learning Ecosystems

Computer-supported online 3-D virtual world environments have been waxed and waned in interest and representativeness for supporting collaborative- and simulation-based practices. In a post-modern societal framework that requires inexpensive solutions for high-risk situations, research efforts in virtual worlds have developed a basis for understanding the use of virtual reality for multidisciplinary scenarios such as distance […]

Revisiting the “Sleeping Giant” Metaphor: Is It Still Sleeping in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Is It Still Really a Giant?

In order to revisit Martorella’s metaphor of technology as a sleeping giant this paper analyzes data collected over multiple years in order to provide a portrait of how preservice teachers make sense of and choose (if at all) to integrate digital technologies within their internship classrooms. Findings indicate that in the Commonwealth of Virginia, within […]

What Does the Eye See? Reading Online Primary Source Photographs in History

This exploratory study looks at how a sample of preservice teachers and historians read visuals in the context of school history. The participants used eye tracking technology and think-aloud protocol, as they examined a series of online primary source photographs from a virtual exhibit. Voluntary participants (6 students and 2 professional historians) were recruited at […]

To See or Not to See: Effects of Online Access to Peer-Generated Questions on Performance

This study examined the effects on performance of online access to peer-generated questions during question-generation activities. Two eighth grade classes (N = 63) participated in six weekly question-generation sessions to support English learning. An online student question-generation learning system was adopted. In contrast to expectations based on the literature on observational learning and scaffolding, no […]

Designing for Learning Engagement in Remote Communities: Narratives from North of Sixty

There are multiple challenges to designing learning experiences for schools in remote communities, including technology and infrastructure limitations, high teacher and administrator turnover, and conflicting interests between local culture and school curricula. In this paper, we offer a brief history of educational initiatives in remote Arctic communities, focusing on: 1) the importance of traditional knowledge, […]

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