Technologies to Support Learning, Well-Being, and Communication

Collaborative Problem Solving in Finnish Pre-service Teacher Education: A Case Study

This chapter provides results from a case study utilising the ATC21STM assessment portal in the context of pre-service teacher education in Finland. The results from the portal are combined with a questionnaire regarding teamwork and collaboration dispositions. Twenty-four pre-service teachers completed both these measures. The students of this study were following two divergent teacher education programs that had different profiles in terms of their study contents and methods of studying. The participants of both groups tended to be highly disposed to collaborate and work in teams, and their collaborative problem solving skills can be described as very good. The participants’ measured soci…

Computational thinking in programming with Scratch in primary schools: A systematic review

Computer programming is being introduced in educational curricula, even at the primary school level. One goal of this implementation is to teach computational thinking (CT), which is potentially applicable in various computational problem-solving situations. However, the educational objective of CT in primary schools is somewhat unclear: curricula in various countries define learning objectives for topics, such as computer science, computing, programming or digital literacy but not for CT specifically. Additionally, there has been confusion in concretely and comprehensively defining and operationalising what to teach, learn and assess about CT in primary education even with popular programm…

Supporting and constraining factors in the development of university teaching experienced by teachers

Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers’ experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland’s multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e. from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at …

Sharing Perspectives in Virtual Interaction: Review of Methods of Analysis

The aim of this paper is to describe the methodological solutions made in the studies that are part of the SHAPE research project. The SHAPE project investigates the quality and nature of virtual interaction in a higher education context. The study aims to find out variables that mediate the process of collaboration, particularly the emerging processes of sharing and constructing perspectives in virtual interaction. For conducting these studies we have developed various methods and models of analysis in order to gain better understanding of the process of collaboration in virtual interaction. In this paper, we will make a review of some of the SHAPE analysis methods used in the series of ou…

Finnish pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their strategic learning skills and collaboration dispositions

To support the development of pupils’ 21st-century skills, teachers themselves must also be competent in these skills and learn them during pre-service teacher education. The aim of this study is to investigate what kind of profiles emerge among Finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ (N = 872) in terms of perceptions of their strategic learning skills and collaboration dispositions and what background variables explain membership of the profiles found. Latent profile analysis showed five student profiles corresponding to perceived strategic learning skills and collaboration dispositions. The most robust factor explaining the membership of the profiles was life satisfaction. Pre-service te…

A Participant Experience Method for Illustrating Individuals’ Experiences in the Course of an Evolving Virtual Learning Community

Early definitions of virtual learning communities often abstracted participants from their offline environments. However, often students’ virtual and physical environments are not essentially separated. Likewise, scholars should become more sensitive to and aware of their research principles and practices guiding studies in virtual settings and especially, in the intersections of on- and offline contexts. The participant experience method discussed in this paper, grants access also to the events outside the virtual learning context connecting various social settings and simultaneous events. However, the use of participant experience methods requires critical reflection during its various ph…

Cyber security exercise : Literature review to pedagogical methodology

This paper is a literature review, where we try to find out pedagogical principles has used in different virtual or simulated industry learning environments. The purpose is to use these findings to create in the future a new model for teaching in cyber security exercises. Cyber security exercises are the major service at JYVSECTEC - Jyväskylä Security Technology, cyber security research, training and development center in Finland [1]. JYVSECTEC Cyber security exercises are executed in real life simulation environment, RGCE (Realistic Global Cyber Environment) [1]. It provides the same functionality as the real Internet, but it is isolated from the real Internet and fully controlled by JYVSE…

Teachers' instructional planning for computer-supported collaborative learning: Macro-scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate collaborative learning

Abstract Technological tools challenge teachers' pedagogical activities. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education should help teachers integrate new pedagogical methods into their work. This study explores macro-level computer-supported collaborative learning scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate collaboration. Macro-scripts set up conditions in which favourable collaborative activities such as argumentation should occur. This case-study examines the difference between the “ideal” script and the “actual, realized” script to find out how collaboration differs between different groups. This study demonstrates that macro-scripts support collaboration by …

Multiplayer 3D Game in Supporting Team-Building Activities in a Work Organization

The aim of this study was to enhance and analyze communication and team-building activities in work teams that played a 3D multiplayer game. This paper reports the preliminary findings of the multi-methodological empirical study on players' perceived effects of the game play on team-building.

Seamless Learning Environments in Higher Education with Mobile Devices and Examples

The use of seamless learning environments that have the potential to support lifelong learning anytime and anywhere has become a reality. In this sense, many educational institutions have started to consider introducing seamless learning environments into their programs. The aim of this study is to analyze how various educational university programs implement the design elements for seamless learning environments with mobile devices. For that purpose, three cases involved in a Finnish teaching development project are explored by conducting semi-structured interviews with key participants. The themes of the interviews were related to the theoretical background for (mobile) seamless learning …

Preparing teacher-students for twenty-first-century learning practices (PREP 21) : a framework for enhancing collaborative problem-solving and strategic learning skills

With regard to the growing interest in developing teacher education to match the twenty-first-century skills, while many assumptions have been made, there has been less theoretical elaboration and empirical research on this topic. The aim of this article is to present our pedagogical framework for the twenty-first-century learning practices in teacher education. We will first review the current status of policy frameworks for the twenty-first-century learning skills. Based on our previous work and current understanding in the field of learning sciences, we will next elaborate the processes and strategies for collaborative problem-solving skills and strategic learning skills to specify curre…

What makes learning and understanding in virtual teams so difficult?

The ideas presented in this article are especially challenged by critical questions raised by the other authors in this special issue. One of the core questions throughout the different studies is whether participants in distributed learning groups are able to successfully work on a common task and achieve a type of interaction that leads them to educationally relevant higher-level discussion and learning. This article discusses the central findings of these studies in light of the recent research on computer-supported collaborative learning. At the beginning of the article, typical problems and challenges related to learning in virtual teams are described. In the end of the discussion, som…

Teachers' instructional scaffolding in an innovative information and communication technology-based history learning environment

Abstract The nature of the role assumed by the teacher is crucial in the promotion of successful learning and collaboration in Information and Communication Technologybased (ICT-based) environments. The aim of this study was to examine how teachers with different conceptions of their teacher roles use different types of instructional scaffolding while working in an innovative learning environment. Our further aim was finding out how instructional scaffolding is related to learning activities of different kinds. The study was carried out at two secondary schools with a shared network-based learning environment. The results showed that teachers with different conceptions of the teacher's role…

Developing design knowledge and a conceptual model for virtual reality learning environments

This chapter focuses on applying design science research for virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) design processes. Six selected case studies are presented in the context of VRLEs. The case selections were analyzed in terms of their contributions to design knowledge. The objective of this book chapter is twofold: 1) for researchers, the design knowledge contributions of case studies are highlighted for future reference, and 2) for developers and practitioners, design principles are presented for the development of VRLEs. The final outcome of the present study is a conceptual model describing the current design knowledge in the field of VRLEs and identifying the research gaps that sho…

Shared and personal learning spaces: Challenges for pedagogical design

Abstract The development of new tools for collaboration, such as social software, plays a crucial role in leisure time and work activities. The aim of this article is to summarize the research in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This is done particularly from the perspective of the blurred line between individual (personal) and group-level (shared) learning that the use of the new tools has forced us to re-think. First, individual and group-level perspectives to learning are discussed to make sense of the major notions of how learning is understood in CSCL research. Second, based on this theoretical grounding, it will be further elaborated what this means to th…

Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

In this chapter, we will present a review of theoretical and empirical analyses of Web-based collaboration processes used during a scripted university course. The results refer to a design-based study that involved first-year teacher-education students (N = 30) studying pedagogy over a period of three months. The intervention involved structuring the subjects’ collaborative actions with three different pedagogical scripts. According to the findings, the scripts guided students’ activities by helping them find resources for knowledge construction and work together through a series of steps. However, there were variations among groups in terms of quality of collaboration, and the students mos…

TEL@work: Toward integration of theory and practice

This paper examines technology-enhanced learning at work in the context of the integrative pedagogy model. The basic idea behind this model is to create learning environments whereby the four basic elements of professional expertise (ie, theoretical, practical, self-regulative and sociocultural knowledge) can be integrated. The paper illustrates two basic ways of applying the model in technology-enhanced learning at work. First, examples of how to make use of existing technologies, especially social media, to empower learning at work is presented, and second, an instance of the way the model is used in the design of specific technologies for enhancing collaborative learning in the work cont…

University Teachers as Developers of Technology-Enhanced Teaching—Do Beliefs Matter?

Previous research has identified a well-established link between teachers' beliefs and the practical implications of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Until recently, there have been few studies ...

Uncertainty-reducing cooperation scripts in online learning environments

Online learning courses can create new interaction situations for participants who have not previously worked with each other. Initially, there is some degree of uncertainty between participants in these interaction situations. According to the uncertainty reduction theory, low uncertainty increases theamount of discourse and decreases information seeking. Thus, uncertainty may influence online discourseand learning. However, the relation of uncertainty reduction to learning outcomes has not yet been investigated systematically. Cooperation scripts may reduce uncertainty, and therefore enhance learning.A cooperation script, which aims to reduce uncertainty at a cognitive level, was chosen f…

Student agency analytics: learning analytics as a tool for analysing student agency in higher education

This paper presents a novel approach and a method of learning analytics to study student agency in higher education. Agency is a concept that holistically depicts important constituents of intentional, purposeful, and meaningful learning. Within workplace learning research, agency is seen at the core of expertise. However, in the higher education field, agency is an empirically less studied phenomenon with also lacking coherent conceptual base. Furthermore, tools for students and teachers need to be developed to support learners in their agency construction. We study student agency as a multidimensional phenomenon centring on student-experienced resources of their agency. We call the analyt…

Evolving Technologies for a Variety of Human Practices

Facilitating socio-cognitive and socio-emotional monitoring in collaborative learning with a regulation macro script – an exploratory study

This study examines student teachers’ collaborative learning by focusing on socio-cognitive and socio-emotional monitoring processes during more and less active script discussions as well as the near transfer of monitoring activities in the subsequent task work. The participants of this study were teacher education students whose collaborative learning was supported with a designed regulation macro script during a six weeks environmental science course. The script divided the group work into three phases, namely: the orientation phase, intermediate phase, and reflection phase. The script was put in use by prompting questions that were delivered to the students on tablets. Question prompts i…

Social Aspects of Collaborative Learning

Interaction and eEducation: What kind of support is needed to develop university teaching?

Higher education institutions are facing an on-going pressure to develop pedagogy which promotes high-quality learning, supports studying in various learning circumstances, and integrates technology. Flexible and meaningful learning possibilities which develop skills for the world of work, like active agency, collaboration and construction of knowledge through interaction with others, are needed in university education. To address these needs, a multidisciplinary network for developing university teaching was introduced at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland in 2011. Even though the main focus of the developmental work is based on the strategy of the university jointly shared among teacher…

Pre- and In-Service Teachers’ Teamwork Behaviour in Integrated Teacher Training

Teamwork and collaboration skills are regarded as essential proficiencies in the current worlds of work, study and everyday life. A relevant question is whether and how pre-service teachers have opportunities to begin acquiring professional collaboration skills during their studies. In the current study, Finnish pre- and in-service teachers participating in a joint training programme were engaged in reflection tasks to evaluate their teamwork behaviour during a challenging pedagogical design task in mixed teams. The aim of this study was to examine how pre- and in-service teachers perceived their teamwork practices while performing authentic training activities together. The participants re…

Innovation, Learning and Communities

Developing teachers' professional expertise through collaboration in an innovative ICT‐based learning environment

Recent research emphasizes the context‐specific nature of professional knowledge and expertise, implying that developing novel practices in authentic environments is a prerequisite for teachers' professional development. The aim of this study was to find out how teachers develop their practical knowledge and expertise through shared planning and to evaluate an innovative learning project carried out in an ICT‐based environment. Two secondary school teachers of history participated in this study. The data were gathered using a multi‐methodological approach (video recordings, interviews and questionnaires). The results are described in terms of the teachers' shared experiences and their incre…

“Anything taking shape?” : Capturing various layers of small group collaborative problem solving in an experiential geometry course in initial teacher education

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is widely recognized as a prominent 21st-century skill to be mastered. Until recently, research on CPS has often focused on problem solution by the individual; the interest in investigating how the theorized problem-solving constructs function as broader social units, such as pairs or small groups, is relatively recent. Capturing the complexity of CPS processes in group-level interaction is challenging. Therefore, a method of analysis capturing various layers of CPS was developed that aimed for a deeper understanding of CPS as a small-group enactment. In the study, small groups of teacher education students worked on two variations of open-ended CPS tasks…

Students’ collaboration dispositions across diverse skills of collaborative problem solving in a computer-based assessment environment

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) has been considered as one of the vital 21st century skills. To be successful in CPS requires not only CPS skills but also positive attitudes towards collaboration (i.e., collaboration dispositions). However, the relationship between CPS skills and collaboration dispositions has not been studied much, especially among early adolescent students. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dimensions of students' collaboration dispositions and their relationship to students' assessed CPS skills (i.e., social and cognitive skills of CPS, see Hesse et al., [2015]). Data were collected from 214 Finnish sixth-grade students (Meanage = 12.44, SDage = 0.32, f…

Educational Perspectives on Scripting CSCL

This chapter discusses different educational approaches to collaboration scripts. When carefully designed, scripts can push learners to that kind of situations in which meaningful interaction can take place. However, many conditions need to be met for this to happen in authentic classroom contexts. One of the biggest educational challenges in instructional design of computer-supported collaboration scripts is to better integrate them into wider social planes such as overall classroom activities. Scripts could also be considered as contextual and situated resources in collaborative learning environments. Furthermore, a challenge for future research is to explore how external scripts can be g…

Combining individual and group-level perspectives for studying collaborative knowledge construction in context

Abstract The aim of this article is to identify concepts and methods for studying collaboration in context. The article presents a two-level methodology designed to combine individual and group-level perspectives for the evaluation of collaborative knowledge construction in student groups. The group-level analysis is focused on the students' negotiation processes. A self-report questionnaire gives insight into students' short-term impressions, meaningful activities and personal meanings attached to different activities. Empirical examples of the analysis of a teacher student group illustrate the applicability of the methods used in investigating the mediating influence of context on collabo…

TEL@work: Toward integration of theory and practice

This paper examines technology-enhanced learning at work in the context of the integrative pedagogy model. The basic idea behind this model is to create learning environments whereby the four basic elements of professional expertise (ie, theoretical, practical, self-regulative and sociocultural knowledge) can be integrated. The paper illustrates two basic ways of applying the model in technology-enhanced learning at work. First, examples of how to make use of existing technologies, especially social media, to empower learning at work is presented, and second, an instance of the way the model is used in the design of specific technologies for enhancing collaborative learning in the work cont…

Digital competence across boundaries - beyond a common Nordic model of the digitalisation of K-12 schools?

This paper explores policy related to digital competence and the digitalisation of Nordic K-12 schools. Anchored in some key transnational policies on digital competence, it describes some current Nordic movements in the national policies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The concept of boundary objects is used as an analytical lens, for understanding digital competence as a plastic and temporal concept that can be used to discuss the multi-dimensional translation of this concept in these Nordic countries. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential to view digital competence as a unifying boundary object that, with its plasticity, temporality and n-dimensionality, can show sign…

Students’ agency profiles in relation to student-perceived teaching practices in university courses

This study addresses the gap in our understanding of the role of pedagogy in agency construction among higher education students. In the present study, profiles of students’ agency experiences were identified and analysed with respect to the students’ perceptions of teaching practices in their courses (i.e., student-centred learning activities, forms of instruction, and student-teacher roles). The Agency of University Students (AUS) Scale (Jääskelä et al., 2017) was used to assess the students’ experiences of their personal, relational, and participatory resources of agency. Agency profiles were found to be associated with students’ perceptions of teaching practices in the courses. The find…

Learning to collaborate: Designing collaboration in a 3-D game environment

To respond to learning needs, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) must provide instructional support. The particular focus of this paper is on designing collaboration in a 3-D virtual game environment intended to make learning more effective by promoting student opportunities for interaction. The empirical experiment eScape, which encourages learners to solve problems collaboratively, is also presented. eScape is a design experiment, comprising both the process of designing a collaborative game environment and an empirical study where data is collected using a variety of methods and analysed, after which the findings and conclusions serve as a basis for further design work. By …

Building and Maintaining the Common Ground in Web-Based Interaction

In this paper, the main purpose is to explore how participants establish and maintain the common ground in the computer-based conferences. Previous studies assume that before the participants can reach the deeper level interaction and learning, they have to gain an adequate level of common ground (Dillenbourg, 1999; Baker et al., 1999; Veerman, 2000). Subjects were 68 pre-service teachers and 7 mentors from three universities who participated in the web-based conferencing course for eight weeks. The results assume that in deeper level discussions it is essential that participants, especially fellow students did give not only the evidence about their own understanding by using written feedba…

Collaborative processes during report writing of a science learning project: The nature of discourse as a function of task requirements

The aim of this article is to specify how different aspects of task assignments are related to different types of student discourse during the report writing phase of a science learning project. A group of four ninth-grade students of the Finnish comprehensive school (about 15-year-olds) participated in a project work involving laboratory experiments, reading literature, and analysing and reporting research findings. The empirical data were collected through videotaping and interviews in authentic classroom settings. The results indicated that construction of shared, high-level understanding was quite rare in this case of small group interaction. As one of the main reasons for this, we sugg…

Virtual Reality in Education : Focus on the Role of Emotions and Physiological Reactivity

Cognitive and emotional dimensions are often linked to each other in learning experiences. Moreover, emotions and engagement can lead to better outcomes at the cognitive level. Previous research has indicated that virtual reality (VR) provides a feeling of presence and immersion, which can trigger emotionally engaging learning situations. In this study, we explore the opportunities and challenges related to the use of VR in an educational context. The focus of this article is threefold: First, we explore interdisciplinary research literature related to the use of VR for educational purposes. Second, we introduce our VR pilot study in teacher education, applying three different kinds of VR a…

Pair interactions in online assessments of collaborative problem solving: case-based portraits

This exploratory case study focuses on how pairs of students can build a shared understanding and acquire collaborative problem-solving (CPS) practices during an online assessment of CPS skills, which is seen in the context of the CPS construct, in a symmetrical and asymmetrical task type. Even though CPS is widely recognised as a core twenty-first-century competency, its nature is not yet well understood. Also, until recently, most of studies have focused on the individual’s solution to a problem or on the skills individuals bring into a problem-solving space. This study extends from an individual- to group-level focus in CPS, emphasising the role and quality of the social aspects in CPS p…

Patterns of action transitions in online collaborative problem solving : A network analysis approach

AbstractIn today’s digital society, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and collaborative problem solving (CPS) have received increasing attention. CPS studies have often emphasized outcomes such as skill levels of CPS, whereas the action transitions in the paths to solve the problems related to these outcomes have been scarcely studied. The patterns within action transitions are able to capture the mutual influence of actions conducted by pairs and demonstrate the productivity of students’ CPS. The purpose of the study presented in this paper is to examine Finnish sixth graders’ (N = 166) patterns of action transitions during CPS in a computer-based assessment environment in w…

Teacher beliefs regarding learning, pedagogy, and the use of technology in higher education

This study examines university teachers’ beliefs about the role of technology in achieving the pedagogical aims of learning within teaching development initiatives at a Finnish university. The initiatives targeted technology adoption in teaching and learning and were enhanced within teacher groups, with support from a university level network program. Thematic interviews were conducted with the members of 11 initiative groups, covering 18 teachers from various disciplines. The qualitative content analysis revealed diverse belief groups. Technology was perceived as a tool for: the promotion of self-paced studying without explicit learning aims; active and interactive learning; integrative le…

Sharing and constructing perspectives in web-based conferencing

Abstract This study investigates the quality and nature of virtual interaction in a higher education context. The study aims to find out variables that mediate virtual interaction, particularly the emerging processes of sharing and constructing perspectives in web-based conferencing. The purpose of this paper is to report the results on different levels of web-based discussions with parallel findings on the amount of sharing perspectives. The findings of two empirical studies are compared, and thereby also the impact of the pedagogical model designed between these two studies is evaluated. Possible explanations for why some discussions reach higher levels and include more perspective sharin…

Mechanisms of common ground in case-based web discussions in teacher education

Previous studies suggest that before participants in web-based conferencing can reach deeper level interaction and learning, they have to gain an adequate level of common ground in terms of shared mutual understanding, knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and presuppositions (Clark & Schaefer, 1989; Dillenbourg, 1999). In this paper, the purpose is to explore how participants establish and maintain common ground in order to reach deeper level interaction in case-based web discussions. The subjects in this study consisted of 68 preservice teachers and 7 mentors from 3 universities, who participated in a web-based conferencing course for 8 weeks. The written discussion data were analyzed by means…

Constructing Knowledge through a Role-Play in a Web-Based Learning Environment

This study aimed to find out how and on what level the students of two separate secondary schools shared and constructed knowledge on imperialism by interacting through historical role characters in a Web-based environment. Furthermore, the study aimed to find out how social and contextual features affected the nature of knowledge sharing and construction. The data about the history project were gathered by various means in order to validate the findings of the case study. The results demonstrated that the level of the Web-based messages remained quite low. Also the use of the Web-based environment in terms of shared knowledge construction was rather weak. In comparison, different instruct…

Insights into Finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ twenty-first century skills

This study focuses on Finnish pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their twenty-first century skills, especially their learning strategies, collaboration and teamwork, as well as knowledge and attitudes related to ICT in education. The target group consist of 263 first-year pre-service teachers from three universities. The results outline how pre-service teachers perceive their twenty-first century skills, the relationships between different areas of these skills, and the differences among pre-service teachers in terms of perceived skills. The results indicate that the pre-service teachers perceive themselves as skilled learners in terms of learning strategies used as well as collaboration …

Designing and analyzing collaboration in a scripted game for vocational education

This study attempts to combine the technological possibilities of 3D-game environments and collaborative learning scripts. The study is a design experiment (N=64) with multiple data collection and analysis (quantitative and qualitative) methods. The aims were twofold: The aim was to develop a game environment to simulate issues of work safety in a vocational context and to answer the following questions on the basis of an empirical study: (1) What kind of activities did the scripted game environment generate among the players? (2) How did the least and the most successful groups differ in this respect despite the same scripted game environment? Findings indicated that scripted game environm…

Assessing 4th Grade Students’ Computational Thinking through Scratch Programming Projects

Computational thinking (CT) has been introduced in primary schools worldwide. However, rich classroom-based evidence and research on how to assess and support students’ CT through programming are particularly scarce. This empirical study investigates 4th grade students’ (N = 57) CT in a comparatively comprehensive and fine-grained manner by assessing their Scratch projects (N = 325) with a framework that was revised from previous studies to aim towards enhancing CT. The results demonstrate in detail the various coding patterns and code constructs the students programmed in assorted projects throughout a programming course and the extent to which they had conceptual encounters with CT. Notab…

Analysing the mechanisms of common ground in collaborative web-based interaction

The ideas presented in this paper are challenged especially by the certain critical questions concerning web-based interaction and the qualitative analysis of such interaction and learning. The question arises whether the students from different contexts and countries are able to reach such interaction that would lead them to educationally relevant higher-level discussion and learning in web-based environments. Furthermore, as this field of study is fairly novel, there is a shortage of established methodologies for analysing computer-mediated communication and the complex phenomena it encompasses. In this presentation, we attempt to find new approaches to discover how people establish and m…

Internet-based learning environments for project-enhanced science learning

OpenDigi toimintamallin käsikirja : opettajat oppimistaitojen ja digipedagogiikan kehittäjäyhteisöissä

Yhteiskunnallisen muutoksen kiihtyessä on muuttuneisiin osaamistarpeisiin reagoitava myös koulutuksessa. Uudeksi kansalaistaidoksi ja ammatillisen osaamisen ytimeksi on nousemassa kyky uudistua ja sopeutua jat-kuvaan muutokseen. Suomalaisen koulutuksen laatu nojaa vahvasti akateemiseen opettajankoulutukseen. Yh-teiskunnallinen kehitys haastaa opettajankoulutusta ja kouluja tukemaan entistä vahvemmin ihmisten aktiivista roolia muutoksen tekijöinä ja siihen sopeutujina. Tutkintojen suorittamisen lisäksi koulutusjärjestelmän tulee antaa parempia valmiuksia aktiiviseen oppimiseen. Tämä edellyttää uudistumista koulutuksen kaikilla tasoilla. Koulutuksen muutos edellyttää oppilaitoksissa toimivien…

E‐learning at work: theoretical underpinnings and pedagogical challenges

PurposeFirst, to explore the application of e‐learning as a medium for workplace learning, as a form of adult learning and organisational learning from a theoretical point of view, second, to review empirical studies on recent solutions to pedagogical problems encountered in workplace learning in general and in e‐learning in particular, and finally, to consider the challenges facing the further development of e‐learning solutions targeted at the workplace.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews theories of adult learning, workplace learning and organisational learning and brings out main pedagogical implications of these theories from an e‐learning point of view. Some empirical studies…

Teknologia yksin ja yhdessä oppimisen tukena

[Johdanto] Tieto- ja viestintäteknologisiin sovelluksiin oppimisen tukena on historian saatossa liittynyt yhtäältä monenlaisia lupauksia, mutta toisaalta myös haasteita ja pettymyksiä (Järvelä, Häkkinen & Lehtinen, 2006). Teknologian kehityksen rinnalla murroksessa ovat olleet myös käsitykset ja teoriat oppimisesta. Oppimisen prosesseihin, tuloksiin ja opetusteknologian vaikutuksiin kohdistuva tutkimus on laajentunut huomattavasti viimeisen parin vuosikymmenen aikana. Teknologian tukemien oppimisympäristöjen ajatellaan parhaimmillaan toimivan yksilön ajattelun ja yhteisöllisen toiminnan tukena (Roschelle, 2013). [Jatkuu, ks. artikkeli] nonPeerReviewed

From the Editor in Chief: Tensions in Human-Technology Research

Learning Outcomes in HMD-VR: a Literature Review

While the educational technology has developed to the point that Extended Reality (XR), including immersive Virtual Reality (VR) can be used in education, the learning outcomes of these technologies in the large scale is still quite unknown. This literature review aims to take a comprehensive look to the field of immersive VR in to find out where the learning outcomes of HMD-VR stands out, and how they compare to other technologies and methods. The main result of this paper is that while HMD-based Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLEs) may not be superior compared to other technologies such as desktop-based VR environments regarding direct learning outcomes, a clear indication toward…

Joint attention behaviour in remote collaborative problem solving : exploring different attentional levels in dyadic interaction

AbstractThe current article describes an exploratory study that focussed on joint attention behaviour—the basis of interaction predicting productive collaboration—to better understand collaborative problem solving, particularly its social aspects during remote dyadic interaction. The study considered joint attention behaviour as a socio-linguistic phenomenon and relied on detailed qualitative interaction analysis on event-related measures of multiple observational data (i.e. log files, eye-tracking data). The aim was to illustrate and exemplify how the diverse attentional levels of joint attention behaviour (i.e. monitoring, common, mutual and shared attention) delineated by Siposova and Ca…

Epistemic cooperation scripts in online learning environments: Fostering learning by reducing uncertainty in discourse?

Using online learning environments in higher education offers innovative possibilities to support collaborative learning. However, online learning creates new kinds of problems for participants who have not previously worked with each other. One of these problems is uncertainty which occurs when participants do not know each other. According to the uncertainty reduction theory, low uncertainty level increases the amount of discourse and decreases the amount of information seeking. Therefore, uncertainty may influence online discourse and learning. This study investigates the effects of an epistemic cooperation script with respect to the amount of discourse, information seeking and learning …

Collaborative Learning and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

A focus on purely individual cognition has set a stage to social construction of knowledge. New learning environments, in many cases supported by computer technology, are often based on collaborating and sharing expertise. As a result research on Computer Supported Collaborative learning (CSCL) environments is a significant and growing field, which actively seeks new methods to resolve the challenges of human learning across diverse levels of interaction in a modern information society. In this chapter we will discuss the concept of collaborative learning and the issues involved in using information and communication technology to support collaborative learning. We begin with the definition…

From the Editor in Chief: Tensions in Human-Technology Research

From the Editor in Chief: Innovation, Learning, and Communities