Dale S. Niederhauser

The influence of leads on cognitive load and learning in a hypertext environment

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of leads (or hypertext node previews) on cognitive load and learning. Leads provided a brief summary of information in the linked node, which helped orient the reader to the linked information. Dependent variables included measures of cognitive load: self-report of mental effort, reading time, and event-related desynchronization percentage of alpha, beta and theta brain wave rhythms; and learning performance: a recall task, and tests of domain and structural knowledge. Results indicated that use of leads reduced brain wave activity that may reflect split attention and extraneous cognitive load, and improved domain and structural knowledge acquisition. Further, findings provide insights into differentiating the types of cognitive load apparent in hypertext-assisted learning environments. Use of EEG measures allowed examination of instantaneous cognitive load, which showed that leads may be influencing germane load-reducing mental burden associated with creating coherence between two linked node. The self-report of mental effort measure appears more closely associated with overall and intrinsic load.

Researching IT in Education.

Many regions around the world are experiencing a gradual paradigm shift away from information technology (IT) use that complements traditional teaching and towards embedded IT use in E-learning that is ubiquitous and pervasive. This has been conceptualized in this article using a framework depicting the affects of these shifts on learning environments that may change schooling and impact society. These trends provide new challenges for educational researchers at national and international levels, requiring attention to the interrelationships among the various components in an educational system. New evidence, which builds on earlier claims of an increasing digital divide between developing and developed countries, has shown that this phenomenon is much more complex than was previously thought. We suggest that a promising way to maximize the knowledge and impact of researching IT in education is to establish longitudinal programmatic research sustained through the establishment of E-learning observatories, which can bring together expertise across a range of disciplines. A major challenge in forming a clear and coherent strategy for researching IT in education lies in the fact that there are multiple stakeholders with differing aims, goals and objectives. Therefore, reciprocal relationships are needed in which practice informs research and research informs practice with support and guidance from policymakers.

Socio-Cultural Analysis of Two Cases of Distance Learning in Secondary Education

Virtual Schooling for primary and secondary students is becoming increasingly common across the United States. Although distance education has typically been used to address the needs of adult U.S. learners, its use with schoolchildren has been limited. The rapid development and diffusion of ICT has prompted advances in the use of distance education to serve these students educational needs—particularly those in remote rural settings. In this paper we analyse and contrast two case-studies that were gathered to inform researchers and practitioners of online schooling—a case in which two rural schools ‘coordinated’ the use of two-way interactive video to provide live synchronous learning, and a school ‘replacement’ model that provided an interactive online course for dispersed students with periodic live interactive synchronous learning sessions. Analysis drew on Cobb and his colleagues’ (2003) techniques to delineate communities of practice and Wenger’s (1998) work on boundary encounters, brokers, and boundary objects.

Understanding student pathways in context-rich problems

This paper describes the ways that students’ problem-solving behaviors evolve when solving multi-faceted, context-rich problems within a web-based learning environment. During the semester, groups of two or three students worked on five physics problems that required drawing on more than one concept and, hence, could not be readily solved with simple “plug-and-chug” strategies. The problems were presented to students in a data-rich, online problem-based learning environment that tracked which information items were selected by students as they attempted to solve the problem. The students also completed a variety of tasks, like entering an initial qualitative analysis of the problem into an online form. Students were not constrained to complete these tasks in any specific order. As they gained more experience in solving context-rich physics problems, student groups showed some progression towards expert-like behavior as they completed qualitative analysis earlier and were more selective in their perusal of informational resources. However, there was room for more improvement as approximately half of the groups still completed the qualitative analysis task towards the end of the problem-solving process rather than at the beginning of the task when it would have been most useful to their work.

Researching IT in education: EDUsummIT 2011: Researching IT in educ

Many regions around the world are experiencing a gradual paradigm shift away from information technology (IT) use that complements traditional teaching and towards embedded IT use in E-learning that is ubiquitous and pervasive. This has been conceptualized in this article using a framework depicting the affects of these shifts on learning environments that may change schooling and impact society. These trends provide new challenges for educational researchers at national and international levels, requiring attention to the interrelationships among the various components in an educational system. New evidence, which builds on earlier claims of an increasing digital divide between developing and developed countries, has shown that this phenomenon is much more complex than was previously thought. We suggest that a promising way to maximize the knowledge and impact of researching IT in education is to establish longitudinal programmatic research sustained through the establishment of E-learning observatories, which can bring together expertise across a range of disciplines. A major challenge in forming a clear and coherent strategy for researching IT in education lies in the fact that there are multiple stakeholders with differing aims, goals and objectives. Therefore, reciprocal relationships are needed in which practice informs research and research informs practice with support and guidance from policymakers.

FAD: Filtering, Analyzing, and Diagnosing Reading Difficulties

In developing and refining FAD, we borrowed from data-mining research techniques for sifting through and discovering patterns in large data sets (e.g., iden-tifying associations and relationships, data cluster-ing, and classification). These are among the dozens of techniques commonly used in disciplines such as statistics, cybernetics, and business (e.g., Ahmed, 2004). The FAD procedure is predicated on the idea that any coherent assessment data set contains sub-stantial latent information, which can be used to help ease assessment information overload and eventu-ally enhance accuracy and efficiency when making tentative diagnostic decisions.In light of established research and practice find-ings relative to literacy assessment and instruction (Afflerbach, 2007; Caldwell, 2008), we were guided by an approach to literacy assessment and instruction that (a) makes use of multiple sources of information such as the child’s home environment, the school setting, and the child; (b) engages the child in self-assessment of his or her reading and writing difficulties and partici-pation in determining his or her strengths and needs; and (c) considers initial reading and writing diagnoses as tentative, and subjects interpretation of assessment outcomes to refinement through continuous monitor-ing of and response to instruction.

Learning from Technology or Learning with Technology

“We focus on technology and ask whether its use is improving student achievement, but it is educational practices that determine how well students learn, and technology is not a process but a tool through which educational practices are mediated.”

The Making of an Online Masters Program in the North American Context

The department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University, USA offers a leading residential program of information communication technology (ICT) in teacher education. Based on the success of this program, in 2003, faculty members and instructional developers at Iowa State University Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching (http://www.ctlt.iastate.edu) created an online masters program in “Curriculum and Instructional Technology.” This graduate degree program was designed for teachers of kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) who were widely spread across the large mainly rural state of Iowa. This graduate program is described in this presentation as a distance education exemplary case in the context of North America. This program uses a cohort approach to graduate education and employs innovative technologies for its design and delivery. Program features, requirements, timeline, courses and outcomes are discussed.