Abstract

This paper focusses on the need and benefit of using multimedia applications to cater to the needs of children with learning disabilities. The children with special educational needs  found in various schools may face difficulties in acquiring academic skills such as reading, spelling, writing, speaking, understanding, listening, thinking or arithmetic.

Multimedia approach to teaching is a strategy that comprises more than one instructional technique for teaching a particular unit. Different multimedia applications can be used to present disabled learners with visual, auditory or kinesthetic experiences thus helping them to adopt their own style of learning. The various educational media include audio media such as audio tape, recorders etc., visual media such as videotapes, television, computers, motion pictures etc., and realia such as models, kits, globes specimens etc certainly meets the needs of disabled learners with varied learning styles. The instructional media namely projected media such as slides, transparencies, projectors etc and non-projected media such as chalkboards, bulletin / magnetic boards, photographs, pictures, charts etc can benefit such learners as they provide a variety in learning. The educational media namely print media which include books, programmed texts, flash cards and electronic media or the non-print media which include CCTV, computers and other machines may help to overcome their learning problems to a large extent.

Innovative use of technology can help engage students with learning disorders to learn in an enjoyable and meaningful way. The information and communication technologies provide a number of learning opportunities in formal as well as non-formal educational settings. Computer-based education has a very important role to play as an advanced technological instruction as it employs different instructional techniques that encourages active learning and meets the diverse needs of the learners through the use of technology in education. Educational technologies like web-based learning provide a number of opportunities to the disabled learners like self-paced instruction, flexibility, self-correction etc. Various information and communication technologies can be used to teach the students the knowledge and skills they need in the 21st century. Different communication technologies such as Electronic learning, Mobile learning, Ubiquitous learning etc can be used to enrich, enliven or add variety to the learning of such educationally handicapped learners. Thus the variety and flexibility of different multimedia applications offer the opportunity to adapt any media-combination to cater to the needs of learning-disabled children.

Abstract

During the past two decades, the popularity of computer and video games has prompted games to be a source of study for educational applications (Dickey, 2007). The most distinguishing characteristic of games is their capability to engage and motivate their players (Kiili, 2005). Educators started to explore game-based learning by testing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games in the classrooms directly and by developing educational games through mimicking the constructions of some popular massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs). These educational explorations of games, however, all tended to highlight their educational purposes and content, which unintentionally diminished their ability to engage and motivate players. This paper suggests the concept of domain knowledge transparency (DKT). This concept indicates that instead of emphasizing the educational content and purposes, domain knowledge should be integrated into games naturally and invisibly to keep the nature of games fun and playful. In addition, the technologies used in modern games have pushed many computer games beyond the boundaries of game genres. Therefore, this article suggests the replacement of game genres with a feature list to identify a game. Finally, this article uses a popular Chinese game, Mai-fang-zi, to illustrate these two ideas.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TRALE (Technology-Rich Authentic Learning Environments) on children’s writing development by tracing the logical sequence of how TRALE fostered goal-directed behavior and planning that resulted in initiating and maintaining cognitive components until a written product was completed. The subjects were young African-American 3rd graders in a low-performing, low SES urban public school. Student essays were analyzed using Meyer’s (1975) prose analysis method applying rhetorical predicates and role relations.The multivariate and subsequent univariate tests indicated that bey the end of the school year theTRALE students’ essays became quantitatively and qualitatively superior (syntactically and rhetorically more coherent and complex) to products whose authors were instructed in a more traditional classroom.

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technology has demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of technical learning situations, yet little is known about its differential effects on learners with different levels of visual processing skill. This small-scale exploratory study tested VR through quasi-experimental methodology and a theoretical/conceptual framework based on supplantation theory, cognitive load theory, Dale’s Cone of media concreteness, communication theory, and Lowenfeld’s visual/haptic perceptual typology. The study compared the differential effects of VR and traditional still-image presentations of surgical operating room environments to students with high- and low-visual perceptual styles. Descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVAs were used to examine main and interaction effects on six learning performance and opinion variables. Several significant main effects and disordinal interactions suggested that communication channel noise and cognitive load may disrupt supplantation-concreteness benefits of VR, particularly for low- visual learners. Follow-up qualitative data suggested these overload issues may have dissipated when the VR presentation was moved into a classroom learning environment.

Abstract

In this paper the investigators focus on the relationship between ‘Information Literacy’ and ‘Institutional Climate Perception’ of post graduate students. The study was conducted on four hundred Post Graduate Students' from four districts of Kerala, India. Instruments used were; ‘Information Literacy Inventory’ and ‘Institutional Climate Perception Questionnaire’. The study revealed that there exists positive and significant relationship between ‘Information Literacy’ and ‘Institutional Climate Perception’. The study also proved that there is no significant difference in correlations between Institutional Climate Perception and Information Literacy for the comparable sub samples based on Gender and Locality of the Institution