This book introduces new concepts and mechanisms regarding the usage of both social media interactions and artifacts for peer education in digital educational games. Digital games in general, and digital educational games in particular, represent an area with a high potential for interdisciplinary innovation, not only from an information technology standpoint, but also from social science, psychological and didactic perspectives. This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to educational games, which is centered on information technology and aims at: (1) improving digital management by focusing on the exchange of learning outcomes and solution assessment in a peer-to-peer network of learners; (2) achieving digital implementation by using forms of interaction to change the course of educational games; and (3) providing digital support by fostering group-formation processes in educational situations to increase both the effects of educational games and knowledge exchange at the individual level. In addition to a systematic analysis of the relationship between software architecture, educational games and social media applications, the book also presents the implemented IT systems' architectures and algorithmic solutions as well as the resulting applicable evaluation findings from the field of interactive multimedia learning.

This text looks at the development and reusability of multimedia content in web-based learning systems. The author discusses the development of a component-based framework that enables developers to employ reusable software components enhanced with metadata. The text contains complete instructional visualizations in a rich learning context. Two activities for making stand-alone visualizations group-aware are addressed. No other work has addressed the issue of transparent collaboration based on instructional visualizations enhanced with metadata in such a way.

Multimedia environments suggest to us a new perception of the state of changes in and the integration of new technologies that can increase our ability to process information. Moreover, they are obliging us to change our idea of knowledge. These changes are reflected in the obvious synergetic convergence of different types of access, communication and information exchange. The multimedia learning environment should not represent a passive object that only contains or assembles information but should become, on one side, the communication medium of the pedagogical intentions of the professor/designer and, on the other side, the place where the learner reflects and where he or she can play with, test and access information and try to interpret it, manipulate it and build new knowledge. The situation created by such a new learning environments that give new powers to individuals, particularly with regard to accessing and handling diversified dimensions of information, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the field of education. The old static equilibrium, in which fixed roles are played by the teacher (including the teaching environment) and the learner, is shifting to dynamic eqUilibrium where the nature of information and its processing change, depending on the situation, the learning context and the individual's needs.

This text emerges out of the need to share information and knowledge on the research and practices of using multimedia in various educational settings. It discusses issues relating to planning, designing and development of interactive multimedia, offering research data.

Explores best practices in assisting students in understanding engineering concepts through interactive and virtual environments.

"Provides theory and research-based recommendations on information presentation techniques for multimedia and e-learning environments. Focuses on extensively researched principles and methodologies, offering comprehensive research and practical implications while providing concrete examples on adaptive multimedia learning."--Publisher description.

This book offers a primary focus on the meaning and importance of multimedia learning theory and is application in educator preparation. Integrating multimedia learning theory into preparing the next generation of educators for their role in the education of the next generation of students is presented as an important consideration for the future of our educational systems and society. As the use of digital technologies and Web 2.0 becomes more prevalent and the world becomes more infused with multimedia, it is important to ask to what extent, if at all, such developments change the forms and nature of knowledge. Teaching and learning in this digital, multimedia environment is increasingly challenged as the neomillennial generation enters schools and colleges having grown up with digital technologies defining their culture and shaping their cognitive and social interactions. Multimedia, for the neomillennial generation, is deeply embedded in their sensory and cognitive patterns; the neomillennials see and understand media in more sophisticated ways than their parents and the generations of society that preceded them.

Interactive multimedia is clearly a field of fundamental research, social, educational and economical importance, as it combines multiple disciplines for the development of multimedia systems that are capable to sense the environment and dynamically process, edit, adjust or generate new content. For this purpose, ideas, theories, methodologies and inventions are combined in order to form novel applications and systems. This book presents novel scientific research, proven methodologies and interdisciplinary case studies that exhibit advances under Interfaces and Interaction, Interactive Multimedia Learning, Teaching and Competence Diagnosis Systems, Interactive TV, Film and Multimedia Production and Video Processing. The chapters selected for this volume offer new perspectives in terms of strategies, tested practices and solutions that, beyond describing the state-of-the-art, may be utilised as a solid basis for the development of new interactive systems and applications.

Learning strategies for critical thinking are a vital part of today’s curriculum as students have few additional opportunities to learn these skills outside of school environments. Therefore, it is essential that educators be given practical strategies for improving their critical thinking skills as well as methods to effectively provide critical thinking skills to their students. The Research Anthology on Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Students is a vital reference source that helps to shift and advance the debate on how critical thinking should be taught and offers insights into the significance of critical thinking and its effective integration as a cornerstone of the educational system. Highlighting a range of topics such as discourse analysis, skill assessment and measurement, and critical analysis techniques, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for teachers/instructors, instructional designers, curriculum developers, education professionals, administrators, policymakers, researchers, and academicians.