Learning from multimedia and hypermedia

Computer-based multimedia and hypermedia resources (e.g., the world wide web) have become one of the primary sources of academic information for a majority of pupils and students. In line with this expansion in the field of education, the scientific study of learning from multimedia and hypermedia has become a very active field of research. In this chapter we provide a short overview with regard to research on learning with multimedia and hypermedia. In two review sections, we describe the educational benefits of multiple representations and of learner control, as these are the two defining characteristics of hypermedia. In a third review section we describe recent scientific trends in the field of multimedia/hypermedia learning. In all three review sections we will point to relevant European work on multimedia/hypermedia carried out within the last 5 years, and often carried out within the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence. According to the interdisciplinary nature of the field this work might come not only from psychology, but also from technology or pedagogy. Comparing the different research activities on multimedia and hypermedia that have dominated the international scientific discourse in the last decade reveals some important differences. Most important, a gap seems to exist between researchers mainly interested in a “serious” educational use of multimedia/ hypermedia and researchers mainly interested in “serious” experimental research on learning with multimedia/hypermedia. Recent discussions about the pros and cons of “design-based research” or “use-inspired basic research” can be seen as a direct consequence of an increasing awareness of the tensions within these two different cultures of research on education

Educational Perspectives on Digital Communications Technologies

This paper examines key issues in how new technologies are impacting upon how we teach, learn and collaborate, and uses an educational research project called GRAIL (Graduate Researcher Academic Identity on-Line) under development to illustrate some fundamental issues in adopting new technologies. A significant challenge to the effective use of new technologies in education is the evolution of social practices around those technologies and the discrepancies between broader social uses of new technologies and how those same technologies can be used in educational contexts. The paper describes challenges to design along the dimensions of public/private and individual/collaborative and uses data from a series of project research studies to illustrate the nature of these challenges and possible solutions. The taking up of new technologies in new ways requires the evolution of social practices of use—these practices simultaneously reflect and change our culture, and the evolution of such processes takes time.This article is posted courtesy of Symposium Journals

Sustaining leadership learning : the tutor and mentor voice on NPQICL

Original article can be found at : http://www.informaworld.com/ Copyright Taylor & Francis [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a programme that supports children's centre leaders to develop their own leadership capability. This research highlights the effect the particular constructivist teaching and learning methodology has had on individual tutors' and mentors' professional development. By examining the challenges they encountered whilst delivering this programme in the first year of the national 'rollout', the study explores the impact of the delivery process on tutors' and mentors' practice and its future implications. Based on narrative inquiry into their experiences during the first year, the article identifies central issues in terms of sustaining the programme's philosophy and quality, whilst at the same time retaining its fundamental responsiveness. Its conclusions demonstrate how the design of the programme has influenced the professional identities of those involved and the sustainability of transformational change across regional provider teams.Peer reviewe