The use of mobile games in formal and informal learning environments: A review of the literature

Our purpose in this paper is to review studies that explored the impact of the use of mobile games in both formal and informal learning environments. Through a review of studies on mobile learning that have been published between 2000 and 2013, we aim to identify the ways in which researchers used mobile games in a variety of learning environments, and to synthesize current literature about the impact of the use of mobile games on student achievement and attitudes towards and learning. We first provide definitions of the constructs "mobile technologies," "mobile games," and "informal learning environments." Following that, we present the outcomes of our analysis by describing the purpose, the contexts, and the findings of each of the studies we reviewed. We then offer general conclusions that came out of our analysis and we offer some recommendations for future research. © 2014 © 2014 International Council for Educational Media

Student and in-service teachers’ acceptance of spatial hypermedia in their teaching: The case of HyperSea

The aim of this study was to use the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in order to investigate the factors that influence student and in-service teachers’ intention to use a spatial hypermedia application, the HyperSea, in their teaching. HyperSea is a modern hypermedia environment that takes advantage of space in order to display content nodes and social media pages that can be dragged from the Internet. In total, 257 student and in-service teachers completed a survey questionnaire, measuring their responses to four constructs in the TAM. The results of student teachers’ regression analysis showed that all components of the TAM were found to predict their intention to use HyperSea in their teaching. Perceived usefulness was the most important predictor in their attitude and intention. On the other hand, only attitude towards use had direct influence on teachers’ intention. In addition, perceived usefulness influenced teachers’ intention. Perceived ease of use in this study failed to emerge as a significant predictor of teachers’ attitude and perceived usefulness. The results showed that the TAM in general is useful model for predicting and exploring the factors that influence student and in-service teachers’ intention to use spatial hypermedia such as the HyperSea in their teaching in future. Results of the study are discussed in terms of increasing the intention of student and in service teachers to use spatial hypermedia in their teaching. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York

ASTRONOMY IN EDUCATION: SIMULATING SPACE RESEARCH EXPERIMENT IN THE CLASSROOM BY WRITING COMPUTER CODES

Science teachers' main concern is to motivate their students to actively participate in their lessons. Since students are usually excited about Astronomy, subjects of the Space Science can be used as educational tools to engage them in the learning process. In this framework, the European Space Agency (ESA) challenges student teams to enter the annual European Astro Pi contest. This contest gives the opportunity to young students to design and perform a space science experiment by building a computer program in Python language. Selected codes run on the International Space Station (ISS). In this paper, we present a project for secondary education inspired by the Astro Pi Challenge. We ask students to design a space experiment by using the microprocessor equipment provided by ESA. The case study of the project is to search for any Sun effects to the inner environment of ISS using the sensors of the Astro Pi. Students are asked to investigate possible variations in the interior (pressure, temperature, luminosity) during the light/dark circles. Students' simulations are tested in the terrestrial day/night circle. A previous student experience in writing code is not prerequisite. This activity focuses on developing transversal skills and competences of the involved students, such as scientific knowledge, cognitive and communication skills. These skills are crucial for the citizen of the 21th century. Students' reception, collaboration and performance to this activity are impressive. It seems that the project meets students' needs for further active involvement in the learning process

Student teachers' perceptions about the impact of internet usage on their learning and jobs

This study investigated student teachers' perceptions about the impact of internet usage on their learning and future jobs. The sample consisted of 448 student teachers from the Early Childhood and Primary Education Departments at the National University of Athens, in Greece. Student teachers' perceptions regarding the impact of internet usage on their learning and future jobs were, in general, positive. Most of the students believe that internet use in university study makes learning more interesting and effective, and that possessing internet skills will assist their future job prospects. This study has shown that the more the years of digital experience and the higher the frequency of internet usage, the more positive were students' perceptions regarding internet's impact on their learning and future jobs. More years of digital experience resulted in less perceived complexity. Implications of the findings for teacher training education programmes are also discussed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The use of augmented reality games in education: a review of the literature

This paper provides a review of the literature about the use of augmented reality in education and specifically in the context of formal and informal environments. It examines the research that has been conducted up to date on the use of those games through mobile technology devices such as mobile phones and tablets, both in primary and secondary education. The review of the relative literature was carried out in the period 2000 to early 2014 in ScienceDirect and ERIC. The outcomes of this review illustrated a set of studies that provide evidence of positive outcomes regarding student learning. These studies, which focused mainly on the natural sciences and took place within informal learning environments, used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The earliest study that was conducted about this topic used personal digital assistants, while the more recent one used smart (mobile) phones and tablets. The services of augmented reality focused on markers/quick response codes, virtual items, global positioning system services as well as on platforms for game creation. The findings of the literature review are discussed in relation to research approaches that are needed for augmented reality games to be played either in formal or informal learning environments. © 2016 International Council for Educational Media

Social Presence, Satisfaction, and Learning Outcomes in an Undergraduate Computer Programming Distance Course

This study investigated the social presence, satisfaction and learning outcomes of undergraduate students based on their participation in an emergency remote online course entitled “Educational Programming Environments” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instruction was delivered using a student-centered design and discovery learning to teach computer programming problem solving. Data were collected from 39 students who did not undertake prior preparation for engaging in distance education. Social presence, learning outcomes and satisfaction towards the course were measured by previous well-established scales, respectively. The students’ learning outcomes were evaluated through their code development. At the end of the course, the students filled out an online questionnaire which measured these three variables. The results of this study showed that all three variables were evaluated as satisfactory by the students. The results also indicated that social presence and code development were positively associated with satisfaction. Moreover, the results of the regression analysis indicated that social presence and code development were critical factors affecting students’ satisfaction. Together, these two factors explain 39.9% of the variance of satisfaction. Social presence alone contributed about 32.3% of this variance, suggesting that it may be very important in predicting satisfaction. This study could prove useful to instructors in understanding which factors may influence the design and implementation of distance learning in higher education. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Factors influencing student and in-service teachers’ satisfaction and intention to use a user-participatory cultural heritage platform

Nowadays, ICT is widely used by teachers in the teaching of cultural heritage. Although many researchers have studied different factors which affect ICT use in education, there is little research examining the factors that influence educators’ satisfaction and intention to use a specific cultural ICT system in their teaching. This study proposes a model to identify these factors, which can explain in-service and student teachers’ intention to use and satisfaction with Culture Gate—a User-Participatory Cultural Heritage Platform in educational environments. The proposed model was based on variables of TAM, TPB and IS success models. Data were obtained from 309 in-service and student teachers, and it was tested against the research model using the PLS approach of Structural Equation Modeling. The results mainly revealed that in-service and student teachers’ intention to use and satisfaction with a User-Participatory Cultural Heritage Platform can be explained to a substantial extent by their perceptions of the quality value (i.e. educational, technical, content and information quality) of the platform. The results have significant practical and theoretical implications for educators in terms of design and usage of a participatory cultural heritage platform for educational purposes. © 2020, Beijing Normal University