Current issues and limitations in using the internet for teaching and learning

This paper acknowledges the new educational possibilities provided by the Internet, as well as identifying its current limitations as an educational medium. Issues of concern in using the Internet include equity and access, infrastructure considerations, intellectual property, development methodologies, implications for the delivery and administration of education, and the relationship between the Internet and other new media in education, including audio/video tapes, computer aided learning software, videoconferencing and CD-ROM. While the Internet offers valuable opportunities to enhance all modes of teaching and learning, and it is likely that most of the current limitations of the Internet in this regard will be overcome in time, those developers currently pursuing or investigating the Internet as a teaching resource should be aware of the potential difficulties. This paper draws on the experiences of the author in conventional and distance university teaching, and in using the Internet as an aid to teaching and learning in engineering and technology, but the issues addressed apply generally to those using the Internet in education.

The future of mobile apps for teaching and learning

A new definition of m-learning has been presented in the first chapter. It was modified from a definition presented by Sharples, Taylor, and Vavoula in 2007. In Chapter 1, Crompton, Muilenburg, and Berge defined m-learning as "learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices" (Crompton, 2013, p. 4). This chapter departs from this definition and focuses on mobile applications (apps) and technologies in this context.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in virtual and real world learning environments

Selected ubiquitous technologies encourage collaborative participation between higher education students and educators within a virtual socially networked e-learning landscape. Multiple modes of teaching and learning, ranging from real world experiences, to text and digital images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system and a constructed virtual world in which the user's creative imagination transports them to the “other side” of their computer screens is discussed in this paper. These constructed environments support interaction between communities of learners and enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and engage in collaborative art learning. A narrative interpretative research approach was used to profile the 21st century higher education student learner, to investigate the lived experience and multiple art learning perspectives documented in student visual journal entries and art educator observations to ascertain if an e-technology rich augmented learning environment resulted in the establishment of more effective e-learning communities of practice.

Arts education partnerships in Australia: spaces and places for teaching and learning

The arts over the centuries have continued to pervade, direct and define our societies. In Australia, they are seen as an important and influential mechanism of pedagogies. In arts education students explore and express their identity and build understanding of their worlds through learning by doing and social interaction. This long-established position is endorsed by contemporary arts education pedagogies that encourage students to look, listen, learn, think, and work as artists in new places and spaces. The forthcoming Australian Curriculum: The Arts (dance, drama, media arts, music, and visual arts) will require consideration of the students’ own cultures and the cultures of their communities, region, and the wider world. Interaction between the students and the wider arts community are central to this approach. Using narrative inquiry, reflective practice, and document analysis as our methodologies, we describe ways of seeing, knowing, and learning between artists, students, schools, education authorities, and universities in the Australian state of Victoria. The authors contend that collaborative partnerships take many forms and provide opportunities for exploration of pedagogies that foster strong relationships between arts education and the arts industry.

The best of all worlds: Immersive interfaces for art education in virtual and real world teaching and learning environments

A narrative interpretative research methodology was used to investigate collaboration between higher education students and an art educator with the aim of establishing a community of learners. Located, Cloud based and graphically built 3D virtual, socially networked, e-learning environments were used to encourage synchronous and asynchronous student participation in authentic learning and collaborative art practice. Discussion focuses on art educator observations, student visual journal entries, their virtual exhibition of artworks on Deakin Art Education Island in Second Life and student evaluations of the unit Navigating the Visual World. It was concluded that immersion in an e-technology rich blended learning environment resulted in the establishment of an effective e-learning community of art.

An inquiry into the effectiveness of student generated MCQs as a method of assessment to improve teaching and learning

 In anticipation of helping students mature from passive to more active learners while engaging with the issues and concepts surrounding computer security, a student generated Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) learning strategy was designed and deployed as a replacement for an assessment task that was previously based on students providing solutions to a series of short-answer questions. To determine whether there was any educational value in students generating their own MCQs students were required to design MCQs. Prior to undertaking this assessment activity each participant completed a pre-test which consisted of 45 MCQs based on the topics of the assessment. Following the assessment activity the participants completed a post-test which consisted of the same MCQs as the pre-test. The pre and post test results as well as the post test and assessment activity results were tested for statistical significance. The results indicated that having students generate their own MCQs as a method of assessment did not have a negative effect on the learning experience. By providing a framework to the students based on the literature to support their engagement with the learning material, we believe the creation of well-structured MCQs resulted in a more advanced understanding of the relationships between the concepts of the learning material as compared with plainly answering a series of short-answer questions from a textbook. Further study is required to determine to what degree this learning strategy encouraged a deeper approach to learning.

Report on survey of directors (or equivalent) of Australian University Teaching and Learning Centres

This document reports on the results and findings of a national survey of Directors (or equivalent) of Teaching and Learning Centres at Australian universities. The respondent group included 31 out of the 38 Centres invited to participate, and was a highly representative sample of the generally recognised institutional groupings in Australian higher education. While there is wide variation in the characteristics of individual Centres, the richness of which can only be appreciated by exploring the results and findings in detail, a summary of the results is provided here in the form of a description of a mythical ‘average’ Australian university Teaching and Learning Centre.

Teaching and learning in the crucible: Actors with disabilities as experts preparing pre-service teachers to be inclusive educators

Dorothy Heathcote understood teaching and learning to take place in a kind of ‘crucible’ in which participants, who are both teachers and learners, contribute to the mix sometimes resulting in a radical transformation. This paper reports the ways Heathcote’s ideas have influenced both research and practice in the Teaching for Diversity workshop - a drama workshop that brings together pre-service teachers, teacher educators and actors from Fusion Theatre, a community-based theatre company for people with intellectual disabilities.

How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?

Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed on 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activitiessuch as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to creat opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through traditional approaches