This book addresses the multiple components that are important for successful implementation of IT in education, including supporting student learning with technology.

The major focus of this Handbook is the design and potential of IT-based student learning environments. Offering the latest research in IT and the learning process, distance learning, and emerging technologies for education, these chapters address the critical issue of the potential for IT to improve K-12 education. A second important theme deals with the implementation of IT in educational practice. In these chapters, barriers and opportunities for IT implementation are studied from several perspectives. This Handbook provides an integrated and detailed overview of this complex field, making it an essential reference.

The major focus of this Handbook is the design and potential of IT-based student learning environments. Offering the latest research in IT and the learning process, distance learning, and emerging technologies for education, these chapters address the critical issue of the potential for IT to improve K-12 education. A second important theme deals with the implementation of IT in educational practice. In these chapters, barriers and opportunities for IT implementation are studied from several perspectives. This Handbook provides an integrated and detailed overview of this complex field, making it an essential reference.

This international handbook offers an in-depth study of the development of primary Technology (or Design and Technology) education worldwide. It is unique in that it focuses on the way in which the building blocks for this subject have been established– providing much needed research and information for those involved with secondary education and beyond to draw on. The inclusion of Technology education into primary curricula has gathered momentum for the last two decades as its importance and relevance to children’s lives has been realised by educators. This handbook offers a detailed insight into the many and varied ways in which countries have incorporated the subject into children’s primary school experiences, and issues that have arisen during its implementation. The authors all work in the field of primary technology education and have been actively involved in curriculum development and research in their own countries. The first part of the book is devoted to the introduction, the development and implementation of Technology education into the primary curricula of countries worldwide. Reasons for this movement, successes and barriers to development are discussed and speculation about the future of Technology education is reflected upon. The second part of the book relates to issues that have arisen as the subject has grown over the last twenty years, and consideration needs to be given to these if future successes are to be achieved. Classroom practice including designing and ICT, teacher education, enterprise, sustainability and indigenous technology are all reflected upon and support the notion of technology as a valued and valuable part of the primary curriculum This book should be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners, researchers, curriculum developers, policy makers and professional development providers who are involved with, and have an interest in, primary technology education worldwide.

This handbook aims to give readers a thorough understanding of past, current and future research and its application in the field of educational technology. From a research perspective the book allows readers to grasp the complex theories, strategies, concepts, and methods relating to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of educational technologies. The handbook contains insights based on past experiences as well as future visions and thus amounts to a comprehensive all round guide. It is targeted at researchers and practitioners working with educational technologies.

This book aims to provide an overview of theoretical and practical considerations in terms of self-directed multimodal learning within the university context. Multimodal learning is approached in terms of the levels of multimodality and specifically blended learning and the mixing of modes of delivery (contact and distance education). As such, this publication will provide a unique snapshot of multimodal practices within higher education through a self-directed learning epistemological lens. The book covers issues such as what self-directed multimodal learning entails, mapping of specific publications regarding blended learning, blended learning in mathematics, geography, natural science and computer literacy, comparative experiences in distance education as well as situated and culturally appropriate learning in multimodal contexts. This book provides a unique focus on multimodality in terms of learning and delivery within the context of self-directed learning. Therefore, the publication would not only advance the scholarship of blended and open distance learning in South Africa, but also the contribute to enriching the discourse regarding self-direction. From this book readers will get an impression of the latest trends in literature in terms of multimodal self-directed learning in South Africa as well as unique empirical work being done in this regard.

This book explores mobile learning as a form of learning particularly suited to our ever more mobile world, presenting a new conceptualisation of the value of mobile devices in education through the metaphor of lenses on learning. With a principal focus on mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), it draws on insights derived from MALL language, literacy and cultural projects to illustrate the possibilities inherent in all mobile learning. In its broad sweep the book takes in new and emerging technologies and tools from robots to holograms, virtual reality to augmented reality, and smart glasses to embeddable chips, considering their potential impact on education and, indeed, on human society and the planet as a whole. While not shying away from discussing the risks, it demonstrates that, handled appropriately, mobile, context-aware technologies allow educators to build on the personalised and collaborative learning facilitated by web 2.0 and social media, but simultaneously to go much further in promoting authentic learning experiences grounded in real-world encounters. In this way, teachers can better prepare students to face a global, mobile future, with all of its evolving possibilities and challenges.

In this book, the authors expertly examine the issue of adolescent well-being in the light of their exposure to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) at school and home. The authors discuss a new form of inequality especially noticeable among youth, which is, digital inequality/divide, created through rapid developments in ICT. They analyze the relation between digital divide and educational inequality among youth, describe patterns of social exclusion from technology and education, and discuss related policies in industrialized nations to see how well-being issues can be addressed in this context. Comparing results based on nationally representative and internationally comparative datasets across 28 countries, the authors ask how and why the benefits accruing from ICT are substantially greater for some adolescents, but apparently smaller for others and how such differences may be reduced. They provide policy suggestions that are broadly based in the fields of well-being, secondary education, and technology use. This book is of interest to researchers and students of quality of life and well-being studies and a wide range of social science and education disciplines, including the sociology of education, media sociology, sociology of childhood and adolescence, communication studies, and science and technology education.