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This study investigated the effect of a touch-typing course on the spelling and narrative-writing skills on the computer of elementary school students. Data of 207 students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 were analysed using a pretest-posttest design. Students in the experimental group (n = 154) followed a touch-typing course, and those in the control group (n = 53) did not. The experimental group showed more progress in typing, spelling, and narrative-writing skills on the computer than the control group. It can be concluded that the touch-typing course had a positive effect, not only on typing skills but also on spelling and narrative-writing skills on the computer.

This paper proposes an innovative idea for providing affordable, sustainable, and meaningful education for students in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The authors show how a Digital Learning Environment (DLE) can play a central role in community development. The authors develop and validate an approach for introduction of an ICT education program for Higher Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS) improvement, building capacity and infrastructure in a LDC using the DLE tool. The proposed "Learning by construction" approach, as a mechanism for the effective integration of ICT in the educational process following Bloom's Taxonomy as a general framework for learning using the DLE is described. It combines sound educational approaches such as cognitive apprenticeship and situated learning with industrial design models to create an interdisciplinary solution that potentially results in job creators, not job seekers. Since there are many infrastructure-deprived educational institutions, financially struggling students, especially in LDCs, the proposed approach is a viable way to provide systematic training in HOCS and Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for these students. The authors discuss how education itself also plays a role in the introduction of DLE. The overall learning system has not yet been extensively validated by data since there is no learning environment working accordingly. The validity of this approach and its soundness is discussed by describing an introduction plan.

The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occurrence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interaction, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the verbal interactions of student dyads in three collaborative learning environments: an environment with face-to-face interaction, an environment with face-to-face interaction around the computer, and an environment with interaction mediated by computers. Quantitative analyses were undertaken to determine the types of interaction that occurred in the three learning environments and the incidence of interactions beneficial for learning, and some examples were provided to illustrate tins. The results showed most of the interactions in all three of the learning environments to be cognitive in nature. More regulative interactions occurred when a computer was involved. Interactions beneficial for learning occurred more often in the environments involving face-to-face interaction than in the learning environment involving computer mediated interaction.

Online collaborative learning allows discussion to occur at greater depth where knowledge can be constructed remotely. However students were found to construct knowledge at low-level where they discussed by sharing and comparing opinions; those are inadequate for new knowledge creation. As such, this research attempted to investigate the students' behaviour and their strategies to construct knowledge during online collaborative discussions. Using the combination of content analysis and sequential analysis technique, this research found that groups those being able to construct high-level knowledge tend to negotiate on shared information. Argumentation is also found to contribute for successful knowledge construction at higher-level. This study suggests triggering argumentation and emphasizing on problem-solving tasks for better knowledge construction sustainability.

In this study the effects of two different interactive learning tasks, in which simple games were included were described with respect to student motivation and deep strategy use. The research involved 235 students from four elementary schools in The Netherlands. One group of students (N = 128) constructed their own memory "drag and drop" game, whereas the other group (N = 107) played an existing "drag and drop" memory game. Analyses of covariance demonstrated a significant difference between the two conditions both on intrinsic motivation and deep strategy use. The large effect sizes for both motivation and deep strategy use were in favour of the construction condition. The results suggest that constructing a game might be a better way to enhance student motivation and deep learning than playing an existing game. Despite the promising results, the low level of complexity of the games used is a study limitation. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is compared with face-to-face (FTF) learning in schools. Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) discusses about the collaborative and cooperative learning. The performance scores of CMC and FTF are analyzed.

The regulation of learning activities in individual, 3D and computer supported learning contexts is discussed.

This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on the spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer of elementary school students. Data of 207 students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 were analysed using a pretest–posttest design. Students in the experimental group (n = 154) followed a touch‐typing course, and those in the control group (n = 53) did not. The experimental group showed more progress in typing, spelling, and narrative‐writing skills on the computer than the control group. It can be concluded that the touch‐typing course had a positive effect, not only on typing skills but also on spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer. Lay Description: What is known Typing skills are important for the quality of the typewritten text output.In touch‐typing with automaticity of transcription, workting‐memory load is decreased.Studies on the effect of a touch‐typing course are rare. What this paper adds This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on spelling and narrative writing.We used a design with an experimental (with typing‐course) and a control group (no course)The experimental group showed more improvement in typing, spelling and narrative writing. Implications for practitioners It is important for the quality of student's text output to learn how to touch‐typeTouch‐typing can be learned in a teacher-directed course, containing 15 training sessions of 1.5 hours eachPractice of 20 minutes a day is necessary [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online collaborative learning allows discussion to occur at greater depth where knowledge can be constructed remotely. However students were found to construct knowledge at low-level where they discussed by sharing and comparing opinions; those are inadequate for new knowledge creation. As such, this research attempted to investigate the students' behaviour and their strategies to construct knowledge during online collaborative discussions. Using the combination of content analysis and sequential analysis technique, this research found that groups those being able to construct high-level knowledge tend to negotiate on shared information. Argumentation is also found to contribute for successful knowledge construction at higher-level. This study suggests triggering argumentation and emphasizing on problem-solving tasks for better knowledge construction sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an innovative idea for providing affordable, sustainable, and meaningful education for students in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The authors show how a Digital Learning Environment (DLE) can play a central role in community development. The authors develop and validate an approach for introduction of an ICT education program for Higher Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS) improvement, building capacity and infrastructure in a LDC using the DLE tool. The proposed "Learning by construction" approach, as a mechanism for the effective integration of ICT in the educational process following Bloom's Taxonomy as a general framework for learning using the DLE is described. It combines sound educational approaches such as cognitive apprenticeship and situated learning with industrial design models to create an interdisciplinary solution that potentially results in job creators, not job seekers. Since there are many infrastructure-deprived educational institutions, financially struggling students, especially in LDCs, the proposed approach is a viable way to provide systematic training in HOCS and Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for these students. The authors discuss how education itself also plays a role in the introduction of DLE. The overall learning system has not yet been extensively validated by data since there is no learning environment working accordingly. The validity of this approach and its soundness is discussed by describing an introduction plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]