Towards the Learning Experience Technology Usability framework

The availability of learning technology has increased over past decades; however, severe usability issues that cause adverse effects on the learning experience can be found in many available technologies. Learning solution usability is commonly evaluated by focusing on either technical or pedagogical usability and rarely both. This artificially separates the two important aspects of learning technology usability. This chapter provides a new framework for designing and evaluating learning solutions that synthesizes the above usability types to consider them a part of a complex and dynamic whole comprising of learning, technological design, content-related issues and context. The proposed Lea…

Pedagogical framework, design principles, recommendations and guidelines for a STEM learning environment design

Courage to learn and utilize ICT in teaching - building understanding of teachers who lack courage

Innovative use of information and communication technology in education is a topic that has received a lot of attention both in public and academic debate Innovative practices have been communicated and visions for sharing them have been around for years, however, the large scale adoption of such practices has not yet been achieved While highlighting and sharing best practices may be an inherently positively motivated attempt, teachers enthusiastically explaining their innovative ICT practices may be met with even resentful attitudes from colleagues Discussion focusing on praising innovative ICT teaching practices as good ideals may leave those teachers whose current teaching isn’t up to th…

Tieto- ja viestintätekniikka Keski-Suomen peruskouluissa vuonna 2016

Rewritten literary classic : Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Jane Austenin Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo on inspiroinut useita variaatioita Elizabeth Bennetin ja herra Darcyn klassisesta rakkaustarinasta. Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo ja zombit jatkaa omalla omintakeisella tavallaan pitkää Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo -variaatioiden sarjaa. Tarinaan on lisätty vaikutteita itämaisista taistelulajeista sekä kauhutarinoista tutut hitaasti etenevät zombit, jotka ovat muuttaneet Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo kirjan idylliset maalaismaisemat veriseksi taistelutantereeksi. Elizabeth Bennet ja herra Darcy saavatkin huomata, että heidän orastavan romanssinsa tiellä ovat paitsi heidän ylpeytensä ja ennakkoluulonsa toisiaan kohtaan myös lukematon määrä zombeja. Huolimatta siitä, että tar…

Implementation of Digital Portfolios in Early Childhood Education

Curricula, influenced by the digitalization, set requirements for early childhood education (ECE) settings to implement digital practices. However, ECE teachers are struggling to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and child-centered pedagogy, such as digital portfolios, successfully into practice. Previous research efforts have focused on analyzing the barriers of digital technology implementation. This study, in turn, takes a broader view and addresses the complex task of implementing digital practices into education by analyzing the factors that foster and challenge the implementation process. The results show that human related factors are considered the most foster…

Learning Experience Technology Usability Design framework

Using information and communication technology (ICT) for learning purposes has become more ingrained in curriculums and students’ lives over the past decades. Commonly, the lack of understanding about learning and pedagogy, and more specifically their contexts, will lead to creating learning software that utilize outdated pedagogy or are lacking in critical aspects of pedagogical design. This has created a need to find cost efficient ways to address the multidimensional usability issues found in learning technology. Creating an engaging and pedagogically robust learning product is a complicated task that requires easily accessible knowledge about both the technological and learning related …

Usability challenges in digital learning solutions

Usability is a key element in successful software. Ensuring the technical usability of a learning solution enables users to focus on their main task, learning. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the results of heuristic usability evaluations of digital learning solutions. Heuristic evaluations were conducted on 24 digital learning solutions from one country (Finland) and two country groups (Asian countries and Spanish speaking countries) concentrating on the usability of the user interface of each evaluated solution. The main results of this study indicate that a few heuristics cover the majority of all usability problems (UPs) observed in learning solutions, but these heuristics c…