The myths about e‐learning in higher education

Proponents have marketed e‐learning by focusing on its adoption as the right thing to do while disregarding, among other things, the concerns of the potential users, the adverse effects on users and the existing research on the use of e‐learning or related innovations. In this paper, the e‐learning‐adoption proponents are referred to as the technopositivists. It is argued that most of the technopositivists in the higher education context are driven by a personal agenda, with the aim of propagating a technopositivist ideology to stakeholders. The technopositivist ideology is defined as a ‘compulsive enthusiasm’ about e‐learning in higher education that is being created, propagated and channelled repeatedly by the people who are set to gain without giving the educators the time and opportunity to explore the dangers and rewards of e‐learning on teaching and learning. Ten myths on e‐learning that the technopositivists have used are presented with the aim of initiating effective and constructive dialogue, rather than merely criticising the efforts being made.     

The mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia

This paper reports the findings of two related studies that examined the mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia. In study one, dyslexic children were compared to children without special educational needs on tests that assessed arithmetic fact recall, place value understanding and counting speed. Study two used the same methodology, but matched the dyslexic children with the non‐dyslexic children on a number of factors, including intellectual ability. This excluded the possibility that confounding variables accounted for the differences between the groups in study one. Both studies indicated that the dyslexic children had slower and less accurate number fact recall than the non‐dyslexic children, but had unimpaired place value understanding. The results for counting speed were more equivocal, but there was a trend for the dyslexic children to be slower counters. The results suggest that dyslexia is not normally associated with a general mathematical impairment, but rather an uneven profile of skills. This profile can be explained in terms of the phonological processing weaknesses associated with dyslexia. The finding that dyslexic children have a specific difficulty recalling arithmetic facts suggests that a teaching programme that emphasises mental methods may disadvantage them.     

Uncovering the link between governance as an innovation process and socio-economic regime transition in cities

A major proportion of the world’s population will be located in cities by 2030. With cities globally facing challenges due to the social exclusion of significant proportions of their populace, new thinking is needed on ways to correlate the competing socio-economic goals of various actors. This study sought to uncover the link between governance in cities as an innovation process and socio-economic regime transition towards a more equitable urban society. To do so, we draw on transition management thinking to consider urban regime transitions evolving in a temporal and incremental manner and in a multi-level context. We sought expansion from a delimited focus on socio-technical regimes in transition management literature to incorporate the notion of urban socio-economic regimes. This involved integrating aspects of reflexive governance and politics in a city context with a basic ontology of complex social systems and their evolutionary dynamics that underlies transition management approaches. Our focus is on learning by doing and experimentation as well as participation of citizens with other key city actors in a radically new process of mutual learning that creates social inclusion. The juxtaposition of national, city and community level interactions and their impact on socio-economic regime transition brings into sharp relief the issue of spatial scale and a lack of consideration in transition approaches generally. The study findings reveal a spatial orientation for creating new urban forms of reflexive governance as an innovation process taking place in transition arenas that can trigger new pathways to socio-economic change.     

Improving research on computers in science learning

Although research in Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) currently lacks a well-developed literature and experimental foundation, the number of papers relating to CAI at the 1985 NARST convention at French Lick Springs increased substantially over those presented at the 1984 meeting. This commentary critiques some of those papers and suggests implications for the conduct of research on computers in science learning. The spirit of inquiry and the willingness to share ideas at the 1985 NARST meeting at French Lick Springs enhanced the quality of the meeting and made possible the gathering of papers and information that are the basis for this commentary. One team of authors (Choi & Gennaro, 1985) was so generous as to provide us with software they had developed for their study. The willingness to share was impressive and can facilitate research and development.     

A research strategy for the dynamic study of students' concepts and problem solving strategies using science software

Microcomputers and appropriate software have the potential to help students learn. They can also serve as appropriate media for investigating how students learn. In this article we describe a research strategy examining learning and behavior when students interacted with microcomputers and software. Results from two preliminary studies illustrate the strategy. A major feature of the strategy included recording students interacting with microcomputer software interfaced with a VCR. The VCR recorded the video output from a microcomputer and students' verbal commentary via microphone input. This technique allowed students' comments about their observations, perceptions, predictions, explanations, and decisions to be recorded simultaneously with their computer input and the display on the microcomputer monitor. The research strategy described can provide important information about cognitive and affective behaviors of students engaged in using instructional software. Research studies utilizing this strategy can enhance our understanding of how students develop and employ important concepts and scientific relationships, how students develop problem-solving skills and solve problems, and how they interact with instructional software. Results of such studies have important implications for teaching and for the design of instructional software.     

Children like it more but don’t learn more: Effects of esthetic visual design in educational games

Little is known about what design elements in digital learning games enhance learning; especially in the case of child audiences. This study examines the effects of a learning game’s visual design on perceived attractiveness and learning outcomes. We developed two visual designs for the game: one with supposedly high esthetic value and another with a low esthetic value. Participants (children between 9 and 11 years of age, N = 53) were randomly divided into two groups. Each group interacted with their assigned version for about 20 minutes and then evaluated its visual attractiveness without knowing about the other version. Then, they evaluated the attractiveness of the complementary version. As the next step, they evaluated both versions side-by-side. During the free-choice period, children could continue playing one of the game versions or a different game. They clearly preferred the high esthetic version in evaluations (d > 0.86) and in the free-choice period (62% preferred the high esthetic version of the target game), but this did not improve their learning outcomes (comprehension: d = –0.59; transfer: d = –0.16). Possible explanations of this effect are discussed in terms of cognitive load theory and cognitive-affective theory of learning from media.