Using virtual reality in the classroom: preservice teachers’ perceptions of its use as a teaching and learning tool

Virtual reality (VR) platforms act as a potentially transformative tool in learning and teaching. The aim of this study was to examine pre-service teachers’ (PST) perceptions about VR, inclusive of their beliefs about its capacity to be used as a teaching and learning tool. A case-study, conducted at an urban university in Australia involved a sample of n = 41. Participants’ positive perceptions of VR in their teaching relate to its potential to engage learners, the immersive potential of the platform and the scope of VR to offer students experiences they might otherwise not have with other learning tools. Concerns expressed by PSTs include their relatively low self-efficacy to use VR in their teaching, monitoring-related matters, financial cost and implementing the technology in a safe and supportive way. There was a significant difference in PSTs’ amount of self-efficacy to teach using VR when compared to their overall confidence to use digital technologies. PSTs typically had greater awareness of the immersive and engagement potential of VR and less awareness about its potential to foster and promote collaborative learning. This paper contributes to an emerging discourse regarding the possible applications of VR in educational environments and particularly in relation teacher-educator contexts.     

The effects of formal learning and informal learning on job performance: the mediating role of the value of learning at work

Although research has widely recognized the relationships between formal and informal learning and job performance, empirical studies have not paid sufficient attention to these relationships. In addition, there is little understanding how individual perceptions toward learning influence the relationships between the aforementioned two types of learning and job performance. In the present study, it was proposed that formal and informal learning can influence job performance. Moreover, in the relationships between formal and informal learning and job performance, the value of learning at work was considered as a mediator. With a sample of employees from small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea, the research showed that formal and informal learning influences job performance through the value of learning at work. Based on the results of the study, several implications were discussed.     

Unintended Learning in Primary School Practical Science Lessons from Polanyi’s Perspective of Intellectual Passion

This study explored, from the perspective of intellectual passion developed by Michael Polanyi, the unintended learning that occurred in primary practical science lessons. We use the term ‘unintended’ learning to distinguish it from ‘intended’ learning that appears in teachers’ learning objectives. Data were collected using video and audio recordings of a sample of twenty-four whole class practical science lessons, taught by five teachers, in Korean primary schools with 10- to 12-year-old students. In addition, video and audio recordings were made for each small group of students working together in order to capture their activities and intra-group discourse. Pre-lesson interviews with the teachers were undertaken and audio-recorded to ascertain their intended learning objectives. Selected key vignettes, including unintended learning, were analysed from the perspective of intellectual passion developed by Polanyi. What we found in this study is that unintended learning could occur when students got interested in something in the first place and could maintain their interest. In addition, students could get conceptual knowledge when they tried to connect their experience to their related prior knowledge. It was also found that the processes of intended learning and of unintended learning were different. Intended learning was characterized by having been planned by the teacher who then sought to generate students’ interest in it. In contrast, unintended learning originated from students’ spontaneous interest and curiosity as a result of unplanned opportunities. Whilst teachers’ persuasive passion comes first in the process of intended learning, students’ heuristic passion comes first in the process of unintended learning. Based on these findings, we argue that teachers need to be more aware that unintended learning, on the part of individual students, can occur during their lesson and to be able to better use this opportunity so that this unintended learning can be shared by the whole class. Furthermore, we argue that teachers’ deliberate action and a more interactive classroom culture are necessary in order to allow students to develop, in addition to heuristic passion, persuasive passion towards their unintended learning.     

A simple form synthesis of linear time-variant digital filter via spectral decomposition of its impulse response

The paper describes a new technique to synthesize a finite impulse response of linear time-variant (LTV) digital filter. First, a finite impulse response is decomposed into a sum of products of two orthogonal sequences. The direct implementation of the decomposed impulse response leads to the parallel connection of linear time-invariant (LTI) digital filters, followed by time-varying multipliers. A simple filter structure is obtained by properly modifying the sequences to realize the parallel form structure as a cascade connection of first- or second-order recursive LTI filters. The structure is easy to implement on a computer and saves computation time. Numerical examples illustrating the technique are included.     

数字智商及其能力图谱：国际进展与未来教育框架

新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速演进,人工智能、移动技术、物联网等新技术新应用方兴未艾,技术革新改变了人们的生活、生产方式和思维方式,同时对个体的素质能力提出了新的诉求,进而对未来教育学习框架提出了挑战。文章基于代表各社会阶段人类关注的价值焦点变化,系统梳理人类社会个体"三商"(智商、情商、数字智商)的发展脉络及关系,解析数字智商能力图谱、数字智商能力三级目标与数字智商能力的现实应用,构建适应数字智商发展的未来教育学习框架,以期为新时代数字化教育体系架构、路径规划与教学实施带来些许启示。     

Korean deaf adolescents' awareness of thematic and taxonomic relations among ordinary concepts represented by pictures and written words

Individuals' relative awareness of thematic and taxonomic relations is influenced by factors such as language and background knowledge. Relatively weak in Korean language skills and also having relatively limited social opportunities, Korean deaf adolescents might be different from hearing adolescents in how they make decisions in taxonomically and thematically associated entities represented by pictures and words. Experiment 1 indicated that deaf adolescents had longer reaction times than hearing adolescents in a forced-choice decision-making task. Both deaf and hearing adolescents had shorter reaction times and higher accuracies with pictures than with words, but deaf adolescents' differences were bigger than those of hearing adolescents. Experiment 2 further showed that deaf adolescents had lower accuracies than hearing adolescents in a priming task of living-nonliving categorization. Both deaf and hearing adolescents had shorter reaction times with taxonomic than with thematic categories, but deaf adolescents' difference was bigger than that of hearing adolescents. In conclusion, Korean deaf adolescents were aware of thematic and taxonomic relations less than hearing adolescents in general. They were more likely than hearing adolescents to show the advantage of pictures over words in their performance in conceptual activities and to prefer taxonomic to thematic associations for written words in Experiment 2.     

Mapping online social networks of Korean politicians

Korean politicians, particularly National Assembly members, have embraced the internet as a major means of communication for managing election campaigns and maintaining relationships with (potential) supporters during non-election periods. An increasing number of National Assembly members have become aware of the considerable influence that the internet has on their constituents, and thus, this study determines whether there are significant differences in online networks of National Assembly members and examines the relationship among National Assembly members and that between those members and their constituents to determine whether Twitter is used as a tool for communication as well as deliberation. The data were drawn from homepages, blogs, and Twitter pages of the members of the 18th National Assembly in April 2010. The results indicate that National Assembly members tended to have a more equal relationship in the Twitter network than in the homepage or blog network. More importantly, the members were linked mainly to fellow politicians in the same party, and thus, they used Twitter to communicate more with fellow politicians than with their constituents.     

Course evaluation: reconfigurations for learning with learning management systems

The introduction of online delivery platforms such as learning management systems (LMS) in tertiary education has changed the methods and modes of curriculum delivery and communication. While course evaluation methods have also changed from paper-based in-class-administered methods to largely online-administered methods, the data collection instruments have remained unchanged. This paper reports on a small exploratory study of two tertiary-level courses. The study investigated why design of the instruments and methods to administer surveys in the courses are ineffective measures against the intrinsic characteristics of online learning. It reviewed the students' response rates of the conventional evaluations for the courses over an eight-year period. It then compared a newly developed online evaluation and the conventional methods over a two-year period. The results showed the response rates with the new evaluation method increased by more than 80% from the average of the conventional evaluations (below 30%), and the students' written feedback was more detailed and comprehensive than in the conventional evaluations. The study demonstrated the possibility that the LMS-based learning evaluation can be effective and efficient in terms of the quality of students' participation and engagement in their learning, and for an integrated pedagogical approach in an online learning environment.     

Transformation of classroom spaces: traditional versus active learning classroom in colleges

Educational environment influences students’ learning attitudes, and the classroom conveys the educational philosophy. The traditional college classroom design is based on the educational space that first appeared in medieval universities. Since then classrooms have not changed except in their size. In an attempt to develop a different perspective of educational environment, a new design of classroom, the active learning classroom (ALC), was established at SoongSil University in Korea. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted for diagnosing the educational effects of students’ learning in the ALC and comparing the results with those obtained regarding the traditional classroom. The result proved the existence of a ‘golden zone’ and a ‘shadow zone’ in the traditional classroom, which discriminate students’ learning experiences depending on seating positions. On the contrary, the ALC did not produce such positional discrimination. Students perceived the ALC environment as more inspirational, especially in regards to active class participation. Students with more emphasis on academic achievement showed greater tendency to share information and to create new ideas in the ALC. However, in the traditional classroom setting, only students with high GPAs were more motivated to learn while the gap in learning attitudes was offset in the ALC setting. In-depth discussions about research findings were undertaken and four suggestions were provided in support of school administrators and relevant institutional personnel, faculty members, and researchers for future utilization of the ALC.     

A developmental study on a SPAT design model for mobile learning

Educational technology research and development - This paper explores another format for mobile learning (mLearning) content consisting of Still Pictures, Audio, and Text (SPAT; Rha, Instructional...