The criticisms leveled at online education during the Covid-19 pandemic revealed not only a lack of understanding about how educational technology can be deployed effectively, but a lack of imagination. In this refreshing and insightful volume, Martin Weller provides new ways of thinking about educational technology through a wide range of metaphors. By using metaphors as a mental model, Weller enables educators to move beyond pragmatic concerns into more imaginative and playful uses of technology and to critically examine the appropriate implementation and adoption of ed tech.

In this lively and approachable volume based on his popular blog series, Martin Weller demonstrates a rich history of innovation and effective implementation of ed tech across higher education. From Bulletin Board Systems to blockchain, Weller follows the trajectory of education by focusing each chapter on a technology, theory, or concept that has influenced each year since 1994. Calling for both caution and enthusiasm, Weller advocates for a critical and research-based approach to new technologies, particularly in light of disinformation, the impact of social media on politics, and data surveillance trends. A concise and necessary retrospective, this book will be valuable to educators, ed tech practitioners, and higher education administrators, as well as students.

Metaphors show students how to make connections between the concrete and the abstract, prior knowledge and unfamiliar concepts, and language and image. But teachers must learn how to use metaphors and analogies strategically and for specific purposes, helping students discover and deconstruct effective comparisons. Metaphors & Analogies is filled with provocative illustrations of metaphors in action and practical tips.

This collection is directed towards anyone interested in the use of mobile learning for various applications. Readers will discover how to design learning materials for delivery on mobile technology and become familiar with the best practices of other educators, trainers, and researchers in the field as well as the most recent research initiatives in mobile learning. Businesses and governments can find out how to deliver timely information to staff using mobile devices. Professors and trainers can use this book as a textbook in courses on distance education, mobile learning, and educational technology. In fact, the book can be used by anyone interested in delivering education and training at a distance, but especially by graduate students of emerging technology in learning.

The ability to recognise, discuss and evaluate one’s educational beliefs and working practices in metaphoric terms has for several years been seen as a highly valuable tool for increasing self-awareness, facilitating learning (or teaching), and/or predicting behaviour. This is the first edited book solely devoted to the topic of researching elicited metaphor in education, and brings together key researchers from China, Poland, Puerto Rico, South America, UK and USA. The 12 chapters involve overviews and state-of-the-art articles, articles focussing on methodology and validation, as well as reflections on the effectiveness of techniques and research reports of recent empirical studies. The bulk of the articles relate to literacy (L1 and L2) and teacher education, but science education is also addressed. The book offers useful models for academics, professionals and PhD students in these areas, and provides solutions for improving the validity of elicited metaphor techniques in educational research.

This book brings together powerful ideas and new developments from internationally recognised scholars and classroom practitioners to provide theoretical and practical knowledge to inform progress in science education. This is achieved through a series of related chapters reporting research on analogy and metaphor in science education. Throughout the book, contributors not only highlight successful applications of analogies and metaphors, but also foreshadow exciting developments for research and practice. Themes include metaphor and analogy: best practice, as reasoning; for learning; applications in teacher development; in science education research; philosophical and theoretical foundations. Accordingly, the book is likely to appeal to a wide audience of science educators –classroom practitioners, student teachers, teacher educators and researchers.

Student misuse of mobile technology for off-task purposes has become an international phenomenon in college classrooms. When a student’s self-regulation of learning breaks down in the classroom, or when their task motivation begins to wane, turning toward their digital devices for leisure purposes is often the result. Although numerous studies have independently examined student digital distraction in the context of the college classroom, there remains a need to organize the field’s collective understanding of the phenomenon. Digital Distractions in the College Classroom explores the challenges that arise from student digital distraction along with potential solutions, including how mobile technology can be leveraged to improve student motivation, self-regulation of learning, and achievement. Addressing topics such as academic motivation and instructional design, this book is ideal for instructional designers, instructors, researchers, administrators, academicians, and students.

Of all the topics ever studied, surely one of the most compelling is human learning itself. What is the nature of the human mind? How do we understand and process new information? Where do new ideas come from? How is our very intelligence a product of society and culture? Computers, Cockroaches, and Ecosystems: Understanding Learning through Metaphor brings to light the great discoveries about human learning by illuminating key metaphors underlying the major learning perspectives. Such metaphors include, among others, the mind as computer, the mind as ecosystem, and the mind as cultural tools. These metaphors reveal the essence of different learning perspectives in a way that is accessible and engaging for teachers and students. Each metaphor is brought to life through stories ranging from the humorous to the profound. The book conveys scholarly ideas in a personal manner and will be a delight for teachers, university students, parents, business or military trainers, or anyone with an interest in learning.

An investigation of the metaphors that abound in education technology, and how they can be used. In 2020, seemingly overnight, technology took center stage in the delivery of not just some, but all education. The metaphors to describe this time leaned heavily on catastrophic terms: revolution, tsunami, and disruption. But why do apocalyptic metaphors abound in the field of education technology and what purpose do they serve? Martin Weller demonstrates that metaphors can enable educators to move beyond pragmatic concerns into more imaginative and playful uses of technology while cautioning against many of the existing metaphors that play into the adoption of technology that damages and limits the learner experience. Metaphors of Ed Tech is essential reading for anyone involved in education, but particularly for those still determining the impact and potential of the unprecedented pivot to online learning in 2020.

"Neither an academic tome nor a prescriptive 'how to' guide, The Theory and Practice of Online Learning is an illuminating collection of essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex field of distance education. Distance education has evolved significantly in its 150 years of existence. For most of this time, it was an individual pursuit defined by infrequent postal communication. But recently, three more developmental generations have emerged, supported by television and radio, teleconferencing, and computer conferencing. The early 21st century has produced a fifth generation, based on autonomous agents and intelligent, database-assisted learning, that has been referred to as Web 2.0. The second edition of "The Theory and Practice of Online Learning" features updates in each chapter, plus four new chapters on current distance education issues such as connectivism and social software innovations."--BOOK JACKET.