Dr. Byron C Havard

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of sensors and wearables and the potential benefits for enhancing learning and human performance through instructional and non-instructional interventions. These devices change the dynamics of how individuals acquire, store, and retrieve information, virtually eliminating the disconnect between humans and computers. Wearables include a variety of body-borne sensory, communication, and computational components that may be worn on the body, under, over, or within clothing. Current trends in commercially available wearables include smartwatches, wristbands, smart jewelry, eyewear, headsets, and e-textiles. Wearables have been integrated into a wide variety of contexts for human performance support and improvement of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning. The contexts for wearable integration are vast including military, healthcare, business and industry, and primary through post-secondary educational environments. However, formal research regarding the efficacy of wearables in these environments is emerging with the majority comprised of proof-of-concept studies. Positive effects regarding learning outcomes in primary through post-secondary educational environments have been noted and a trend toward continued rigorous research in adult learning environments is warranted.

Wearable computers include a variety of body-borne sensory, communication, and computational components that may be worn on the body, under, over, or within clothing. These mechanisms have potential benefits for (a) human performance support, (b) cognitive and psychomotor learning, and (c) K-12 educational environments. This chapter begins with a historical overview of wearable computers and then provides the reader with a current and future perspective of their use across a variety of educational environments.

Wearable computers include a variety of body-borne sensory, communication, and computational components that may be worn on the body, under, over, or within clothing. These mechanisms have potential benefits for (a) human performance support, (b) cognitive and psychomotor learning, and (c)K-12 educational environments. This chapter begins with a historical overview of wearable computers and then provides the reader with a current and future perspective of their use across a variety of educational environments

The sheer volume of technological innovations with educational potential along with the myriad of instructional theories and models present quite the challenge for educators. A contemporary framework is needed to connect these components with learning theory and to ultimately serve as a guide to educators grappling with how to align the interrelated components of effective instruction when using educational technologies. The objective of this chapter is to present a viable contemporary framework to fulfill this need. The Adaptable Learning Theory Framework for Technology Enhanced Learning (AF-TEL) provides a framework based on the cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence tenets of the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2003) to achieve desired educational outcomes. Professional Development for STEM Teachers using Discovery Labs (PDSTDL) is a format of teacher professional development that integrates AF-TEL to address the critical need of preparing effective STEM teachers.

The field of education is in constant flux as new theories and practices emerge to engage students and improve the learning experience. Research advances help to make these improvements happen and are essential to the continued improvement of education. The Handbook of Research on Applied Learning Theory and Design in Modern Education provides international perspectives from education professors and researchers, cyberneticists, psychologists, and instructional designers on the processes and mechanisms of the global learning environment. Highlighting a compendium of trends, strategies, methodologies, technologies, and models of applied learning theory and design, this publication is well-suited to meet the research and practical needs of academics, researchers, teachers, and graduate students as well as curriculum and instructional design professionals.
The field of education is in constant flux as new theories and practices emerge to engage students and improve the learning experience. Research advances help to make these improvements happen and are essential to the continued improvement of education. The Handbook of Research on Applied Learning Theory and Design in Modern Education provides international perspectives from education professors and researchers, cyberneticists, psychologists, and instructional designers on the processes and mechanisms of the global learning environment. Highlighting a compendium of trends, strategies, methodologies, technologies, and models of applied learning theory and design, this publication is well-suited to meet the research and practical needs of academics, researchers, teachers, and graduate students as well as curriculum and instructional design professionals.

A structure for online discussion within a framework for deep learning provides three strategies for dynamic online discussion; flexible peer, structured topic, and collaborative task discussion. This article examines the discussion structure and the three separate roles demonstrated by the instructor in the promotion of deep learning through the use of online discussion. The roles of the instructor are critical in the implementation of discussion strategies and design of student tasks for significant learning in online collaborative environments. This article has theoretical and practical implications for instructors in designing and facilitating asynchronous and synchronous discussion.

What the five authors of this “written symposium” have tried to do is to give you a small window on their world in higher education. The vignettes are written by Australians and Americans discussing five different job responsibilities instructional designers have in higher education. By organizing the roles of instructional designers into five common positions at the university level, the authors hope to give a glimpse of some of the day-to-day opportunities and some of the demands of their careers in higher education. The chapter highlights the similarities and differences among these job positions in higher education from the perspective of two countries with diverse traditions.

This chapter illustrates a framework for Online Group Collaborative Learning based upon Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation and upon Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction. This chapter examined how an online project based learning approach affected students’ cognitive skills development and their motivation, and explored factors leading to successful collaborative projects. The findings indicated that in a project based online group environment unique characteristics exist for: leadership style and individual role, goal setting and project management, accountability and commitment, peer supportive relationships, individual accomplishment and group accomplishments, and mixed gender and race group preference.

A dynamic task-oriented online discussion model for deep learning in distance education is described and illustrated in this chapter. Information, methods, and cognition, three general learning processes, provide the foundation on which the model is based. Three types of online discussion are prescribed: flexible peer, structured topic, and collaborative task. The discussion types are paired with tasks encouraging students to build on their adoptive learning, promoting adaptive learning and challenging their cognitive abilities, resulting in deep learning. The online discussion model was applied during two semesters of an online multimedia design for instruction graduate-level course. The strategies for creating dynamic discussion serve to facilitate online interactions among diverse learners and assist in the design of assignments for effective interactions. The model proposed and the strategies for
dynamic task-oriented discussion provide an online learning environment in which students learn beyond the course goal.