This book examines networked science and the pedagogy of tele-proximity, a paradigm that integrates eLearning theories, information technology, and visual media competencies. The book conceptualises the idea of tele-proximity as a means to foster diversity and human-to-human contact online. It uses the lens of Social Physics and considers how to bridge the distance in eLearning, examining social connections, collective intelligence, and personal well-being. The book draws on qualitative and quantitative research in higher education to form fine-tuned eLearning networks that achieve demosophia, the core of democracy. It charts the progress of technology-enhanced learning approaches and shows the need for a sound pedagogical framework that is holistic and sustainable to promote mindful presence. Contributing to the literature on eLearning, this timely book will be of great interest to educational philosophers, policymakers, educators, researchers, and students in the field of distance education.

This book provides a scholarly investigation of the new era we have entered, in which platforms can replace or profoundly modify educational systems, and questions the role of educational policy in this new stage of platform-based digital technology. The contributors explore important questions around who controls these transformations, what form they are taking, what the balance between national education policies and Big Tech education solutions should be, as well as whether there should be a public platform in every education system that digitally expands learning, and what evidence there is that learning will be more efficient using these platforms. The first part provides a selection of empirical studies on the new digital educational policy, and an analysis of the real opportunities and concerns that governments face in this regard, while the second offers reflections on the processes of platformization and the role of the state in this new digital world. Uniquely examining the temporal evolution of these changes and taking a theoretical, political, and epistemological approach, it crucially opens pathways for dialogical and diverse critical thinking about profound problems and possibilities. Gathering purposeful thinking that creates space for design solutions and rethinking educational systems considering these new technological artefacts, it will appeal to researchers and specialists in the fields of educational technology and educational policy.

Employing a unique generational approach, this book critically assesses social media in educational contexts across all educational levels: from primary and secondary schools to further and higher education, proposing a schema for social media literacy (SML). Using research obtained from fieldwork observations conducted in online teaching groups, surveys, and in-depth interviews with teachers and educators on the topic of social media and education, chapters interrogate the historical relationship between educator and learner, and use the frame of expert methodology to understand what educators themselves consider important about social media and education relative to their sectors. Bringing together current literature from education, learning and media technologies, along with longstanding debates around technological influence, chapters also draw on audience and communication studies, psychology and arts and humanities at a time when many different disciplines are trying to understand what social media means to our society. This interdisciplinary volume will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates in the fields of technology in education, media literacy, and critical digital media. Practitioners involved in the sociology of education will also find the book of use.

This edited collection presents a Nordic perspective on intensified discussions concerning digitalization and digital competence in the current trends of educational work. Using a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, the book compares Nordic countries’ attitudes towards the digitalization of education and demonstrates the Nordic region’s position as digital front-runners in a European and a global context. The book provides up-to-date cases and future-oriented perspectives on digitalization and digital competence in educational work. Chapters use empirical data gained from policy documents, interviews, and questionnaires to present nuanced discussions, theoretical perspectives, and implications for the future of digitalization in education. Ultimately, this book’s reach far exceeds that of its Nordic contexts and will be of use to postgraduate students, researchers, and scholars across the globe involved with digital education, teacher education, and educational policy and politics more broadly.

This book offers a multimodal perspective on how to design meaningful learning experiences with digital technologies. Digital education is of increasing importance in today’s digital society and the editors bring together international thought-leaders and well-established academics across geographical regions to explore the topic. The book addresses the need to design learning with digital technologies, especially in a post-pandemic environment where blended learning has become ubiquitous. The book is organised around five themes: designing learning, digital learning designs, digital learning with embodied teaching, digital learning interactions, and digital multimodal literacies. The chapters focus on digital technologies as multimodal semiotic resources and the educational implication of each theme is drawn out from illustrative cases across contexts of learning. Essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students, this book offers state-of-the-art thinking on how educators can design new learning experiences for students through the meaningful and effective use of digital technologies. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book explores the integration of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT into higher education for instructional and communication purposes. The author emphasizes the responsibility of higher education institutions to equip students with advanced skills for writing with AI assistance, and prepare them for an increasingly AI-driven world. Offering numerous practical tips, the book demonstrates how universities can increase student success, and stem the rising cost of higher education by employing AI tools. The chapters discuss streamlining tasks such as grading, providing feedback, and handling administrative duties, to show how educators can be enabled to focus on more meaningful aspects of their work. The author also reflects on the philosophical and ethical considerations and potential pitfalls of relying on AI in higher education, including concerns about academic integrity and the importance of human input in the learning process. The author offers a responsible and informed approach to incorporating the new powerful tools into the academic landscape. This volume will be a key resource for higher education faculty and administrators seeking to navigate the complex intersection of AI and writing.

This book examines four distinct areas of education that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asian and African regions, and tackles the challenges and barriers that came as a result of the shift to online learning. Presenting perspectives from China, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the UAE, chapters frame research within the context of "innovation experiences" to explore transformative learning theory, and set out the ways in which leaders, educators, students, and parents adapted to learning during the pandemic. Foregrounding four central topics (challenges and barriers; teaching and learning; assessment; educational technology; and interactive learning environments), the volume provides globally relevant findings and implications for the effects of the pandemic on learning in these regions, and furthers the field of educational technology more broadly. Topics covered range from teaching and leading in the online learning environment to educational technology and the interactive learning space. Sharing innovative experiences to aid progression and share best practice for online learning moving forward, the book will be highly relevant to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of higher education, online and eLearning, and technology in education.

This book examines the significance and meaning of undergraduate online learning using a hermeneutic phenomenological study, asking what is lost when there is no face-to-face contact and exploring the essence of technology itself. Drawing on data from undergraduate students across various higher education institutions, including both interview recordings and written reports of their lived experiences, the author seeks to uncover the essence of the phenomenon by engaging with themes around the philosophy of technology and the purpose of post-secondary education, using Heidegger’s essay The Question Concerning Technology as a crucial interpretive lens. Rather than offering generalized conclusions, it presents a basis for further understanding of the experience of online learning and ultimately asks whether the efficiency afforded to undergraduates by online classes or degrees can ever replace what is learned in a classroom with other people. Providing a novel approach to the topic of online learning, which centers the concept of experience, and drawing links to current conditions and pedagogy in online higher education, it will appeal to scholars working across education and philosophy with interests in higher education, technology and education, phenomenology of education and philosophy of education.

These Proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 14th European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2015, hosted this year by the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK on 29-30 October 2015. The Conference and Programme Co-Chairs are Pro-fessor Amanda Jefferies and Dr Marija Cubric, both from the University of Hertfordshire. The conference will be opened with a keynote address by Professor Patrick McAndrew, Director, Institute of Educational Tech-nology, Open University, UK with a talk on "Innovating for learning: designing for the future of education." On the second day the keynote will be delivered by Professor John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton, UK on the subject of "Mobile Learning - No Longer Just e-Learning with Mobiles." ECEL provides a valuable platform for individuals to present their research findings, display their work in progress and discuss conceptual advances in many different branches of e-Learning. At the same time, it provides an important opportunity for members of the EL community to come together with peers, share knowledge and exchange ideas. With an initial submission of 169 abstracts, after the double blind, peer review process there are 86 academic papers,16 Phd Papers, 5 Work in Progress papers and 1 non academic papers in these Conference Proceedings. These papers reflect the truly global nature of research in the area with contributions from Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Chile, Cov-entry, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Republic of Kazakhstan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Uganda, UK, United Arab Emirates, UK and USA, Zimbabwe. A selection of papers - those agreed by a panel of reviewers and the editor will be published in a special conference edition of the EJEL (Electronic Journal of e-Learning www.ejel.org ).

Health Professionals' Education in the Age of Clinical Information Systems, Mobile Computing and Social Networks addresses the challenges posed by information and communication technology to health professionals' education, and the lessons learned from field experiences and research. This book is divided in three parts: "the changing landscape of information and communication technology in health care", in which it discusses how information and communication technology is transforming health care and the implications of these changes for health professions education; "experiences from the field", with real-life examples of health professionals' education in and for the digital era; and "evaluation of students and programs", addressing the use of technology to assess learners as well as the complexity of evaluating programs to enhance competence in an information technology-rich health care world Written by leading researchers from different parts of the world, the book is a valuable source for educators and professionals who are active or wish to be part of the health informatics field. - Brings an in-depth understanding and background on the challenges for education of the health professions brought by information and communication technology - Provides real-life examples on how technology is used in healthcare and how it can be used in education - Presents valuable information in a visually appealing format with tables and figures