The Design and Development of Educational Immersive Environments: From Theory to Classroom Deployment

Computer game technology is poised to make a significant impact on the way our youngsters will learn. Our youngsters are ‘Digital Natives’, immersed in digital technologies, especially computer games. They expect to utilize these technologies in learning contexts. This expectation, and our response as educators, may change classroom practice and inform curriculum developments. This chapter approaches these issues ‘head on’. Starting from a review of the current educational issues, an evaluation of educational theory and instructional design principles, a new theoretical approach to the construction of “Educational Immersive Environments” (EIEs) is proposed. Elements of this approach are applied to development of an EIE to support Literacy Education in UK Primary Schools. An evaluation of a trial within a UK Primary School is discussed. Conclusions from both the theoretical development and the evaluation suggest how future teacher-practitioners may embrace both the technology and our approach to develop their own learning resources

A survey of epistemology and its implications for an organisational information and knowledge management model

This is a theoretical chapter which aims to integrate various epistemologies from the philosophical, knowledge management, cognitive science, and educational perspectives. From a survey of knowledgerelated literature, this chapter collates diverse views of knowledge. This is followed by categorising as well as ascribing attributes (effability, codifiability, perceptual/conceptual, social/personal) to the different types of knowledge. The authors develop a novel Organisational Information and Knowledge Management Model which seeks to clarify the distinctions between information and knowledge by introducing novel information and knowledge conversions (information-nothing, information-information, information-knowledge, knowledge-information, knowledge-knowledge) and providing mechanisms for individual knowledge creation and information sharing (between individual-individual, individual-group, group-group) as well as Communities of Practice within an organisation. © 2011, IGI Global

Understanding children's private speech and self- regulation learning in Web 2.0: Updates of Vygotsky through Piaget and future recommendations

Web 2.0 offers the Zeitgeist to update seminal research concerning children's Private Speech (PS) and Self-Regulation Learning (SRL) for application in social networks. Contemporary literature holds a body of research from the Vygotsky through Piaget to constructive theories that can be applied to theoretical foundations of Web 3.0 designs. Specifically, the purpose of the present chapter is to be present an index based on valuable and effective research concerning the subject matter in which a historical overview of both PS and SRL have demonstrated significant complexities and the most significant critiques that exist in the literature. The chapter does not mean to include detailed research methodology and results but, instead, to be used as an indexing review of PS and SRL for possible theoretical foundations in applications in the expanding world of social media. Finally, the conclusion provides a reflection on the future of our children's PS and SRL and what we should do next to enhance these concepts