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In this project report, the authors describe the five transformations that a primary school in Singapore underwent as it adopted an inquiry pedagogy and curriculum along with a 1:1 deployment of smartphones. Based on the students' end-of-year test scores, not only did the students learn the prescribed content, but also they developed key 21st century skills. Taken together, the transformations have engendered a cultural change at Nan Chiau Primary School. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile technology can help extend children's learning spaces and enrich the learning experiences in their everyday lives where they move from one context to another, switching locations, social groups, technologies, and topics. When students have ubiquitous access to mobile devices with full connectivity, the in-situ use of the mobile devices in different contexts may allow students to make connections to what they learn in the classroom with their daily life experiences outside the classroom. This article proposes mobile technology-supported seamless learning to illustrate how learning occurs seamlessly across time and places mediated by mobile devices. The authors' approaches to nurturing a seamless learning environment are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the notion of Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Building (RCKB) in classroom settings. RCKB seeks to harness the collective intelligence of groups to learn faster, envision new possibilities, and to reveal latent knowledge in a dynamic live setting. It is characterized by the notion of rapid cycles of knowledge building activities in a face-to-face setting. The authors propose nine principles for the design of collaborative learning activities in the classroom that foster RCKB, five of which are adapted from Scardamalia's knowledge building principles (Scardamalia, 2002). The context of their work is design research on introducing RCKB in a classroom with the use of a network technology called GroupScribbles. The technology enables collaborative generation, collection, and aggregation of ideas, and empowers teachers to design new collaborative and group learning activities in a classroom setting. The authors present two actual classroom lessons with collaboration activities which demonstrate some of the design principles at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues that arise when learning sciences is linked to the education of teachers. Learning sciences allow teachers to realize and understand that learning is a complex experience and that a multi-disciplinary viewpoint to understand learning would not preoccupy the mind on instructional approaches in a changing environment of teaching and learning. Moreover, learning sciences are capable of devising design processes that helps in the translation of theories into practice. Linking learning sciences to teacher education allows teachers to create and develop teacher's capacity in an educational environment and be able to adopt and use effectively information technology innovations.

The article discusses issues surrounding facilitating inter-collaborations in the Learning Sciences. The field of the Learning Sciences is by its fundamental origins interdisciplinary in nature. It attempts to understand learning, or rather "how we learn," and this question requires multiple perspectives and fields of understanding. Researchers from multiple disciplines, such as education, computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and others, have been interested in this issue. The social constructivist orientation to learning underpins the Learning Sciences, and notions of communities of learners and practice are prevalent. Increasingly, researchers in Instructional Systems Design and the Learning Sciences are finding convergence in their work, as issues of similar concern arise, especially on current notions of situated learning and authenticity. One important issue in bringing together individuals from different communities is to foster trust and mutuality. In order to enter into that trust, an individual needs to develop situationally adequate strategies for mindful appropriation of the other--such as listening, recognizing verbal and non-verbal cues, identifying roles via which others function in their contexts, and the assumptions which underlie other communities.

The article focuses on the aspect of learning on the Internet in terms of digital ecology. The Internet provides solution to several problems of education and distance learning. When students are connected online through the Web, they get to know various sources of information. On the contrary in a classroom, students are confined to the same traditional way of teaching. They are exposed to new gates of acquiring information. Students learn to work with others and achieve goals collectively. Earlier interpersonal and social processes were not possible but the technological infrastructure of Internet has solved this problem too. There are certain online communities of learning which have a common area of interest. These communities help in preserving the interests, knowledge, and culture of those students who have similar interests.

The article offers news briefs regarding learning sciences. Learning sciences emerged 15 years ago with the aim of developing and improving the theories of learning and to change its content to deeper meaning. The "Educational Technology," published special issues regarding that arise from the learning sciences field. The learning sciences research is already recognized in the United States and is also being developed and promoted in the Asia-Pacific. A strategy on how learning sciences could have an impact on schools is discussed presenting issues that must be presented in schools.