Volume 12, Issue 1

ISSN 2146‐7242

Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology Volume 12 Issue 1 January 2013

Prof.Dr. Aytekin İşman Editor‐in‐Chief

Editors: Prof.Dr. Jerry WILLIS ‐ ST John Fisher University in Rochester, USA Prof.Dr. J. Ana Donaldson ‐ AECT President

Associate Editors: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Eric Zhi ‐ Feng Liu ‐ National Central University, Taiwan Fahme DABAJ, Ph.D. ‐ Eastern Mediterranean University, TRNC

TOJET Guest Editors for January 2013: Prof.Dr. J. Ana Donaldson ‐ AECT President Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vincent Ru‐Chu Shih, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology

TOJET 01.01.2013

THE TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

January 2013 Volume 12 - Issue 1

Prof. Dr. Aytekin İşman Editor-in-Chief

Editors Prof. Dr. Jerry Willis Prof. Dr. J. Ana Donaldson

Fahme Dabaj, Ph.D. Associate Editor

ISSN: 2146 - 7242

Indexed by Education Resources Information Center - ERIC TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

All rights reserved. No part of TOJET's articles may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrival system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in TURKEY

Contact Address: Prof. Dr. Aytekin İŞMAN TOJET, Editor in Chief Sakarya-Turkey

Message from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Colleagues,

Definition and analysis of technology, it’s history as well as its role in human life… to us that there is a relationship among technology, society, culture, organization, machines, technical operation, and technical phenomenon. Educators are increasingly using technology in all aspects of their profession (e.g., creating curricula, classroom instruction, work assignments).

This trend can be enhanced by educating the educator about cultural and cognitive aspects of technology and technikos, as well as the associated advantages and disadvantages related to educational and human development goals. Since the Renaissance, modern everyday attitudes tend to freely accept and use new technologies. Technology is usually comprehended in terms of hardware and the end experiences it produces (good or bad) or its material benefits (profitable or unprofitable), rather than understanding deeper relationships between technology, human nature, and culture. What produces technology—cultural organization, human values, research and development, and so on—is less obvious and less interesting than experiencing it’s products and benefits.

The guest editors of this issue are Prof. Dr. J. Ana Donaldson, Immediate Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vincent Ru-Chu Shih, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. We greatly appreciate the valuable contributions of the editorial board who have acted as reviewers for one or more submissions of this issue. TOJET's reviewers are drawn quite widely from all over the world with a concentration for this issue on the USA, Taiwan, and Turkey. Eight of the twenty articles published in this issue are accepted by the review process of the guest editors of this issue and the rest were accepted before.

TOJET is interested in academic articles on the issues of educational technology. The articles should talk about using educational technology in classroom, how educational technology impacts learning, and the perspectives of students, teachers, school administrators and communities on educational technology. These articles will help researchers to increase the quality of both theory and practice in the field of educational technology.

TOJET, Sakarya University-Turkey and University of Malaya-Malaysia will organize the 13th International Educational Technology Conference (IETC 2013) between May 13-15, 2013 at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The web page of IETC is “www.iet-c.net”. TOJET, Sakarya University and Kyonggi University will organize e-learning conference between July 15-17, 2013 in Korea. The web address is “http://www.id-ec.net”.

Call for Papers TOJET invites article contributions. Submitted articles should be about all aspects of educational technology and may address assessment, attitudes, beliefs, curriculum, equity, research, translating research into practice, learning theory, alternative conceptions, socio-cultural issues, special populations, and integration of subjects.

The articles should also discuss the perspectives of students, teachers, school administrators and communities. The articles should be original, unpublished, and not in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission to TOJET. All authors can submit their manuscripts to [email protected] for the next issues.

January 01, 2013 Editor

Prof. Dr. Aytekin İŞMAN Sakarya University

Message from the Guest Editors

Dear Colleagues,

It is with a great deal of scholarly anticipation that we present to you the latest issue of TOJET. In our ever changing world of innovative technology and learning, the field of Educational Technology continues to grow in importance from a global perspective. This issue represents a diverse range of contributions from scholars at universities in Turkey, Taiwan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Malaysia. Even though the contributors originate from different geographic locations there is a common theme in this issue focusing on how educational technology facilitates learning.

The available tools for learning are explored in several articles of interest. The subject of electronic textbooks within a K-12 setting is explored with a wealth of resources provided for further reader research. The integration of mobile-based email is discussed in another research study in relationship to English foreign language learners.

Several articles focus on mathematical content issues related to the integration of technology to improve learning. A case study approach is used to investigate how the teaching of linear algebra is effected through technology and a 7th grade class is studied for the results from incorporating with the use of sketchpad geometry software for success and retention.

The balance of the research studies are focused on the impact of educational technology within a variety of applications and human interactions. The teacher-student interactions in a kindergarten robotics course are documented as part of a pilot study. A hybrid approach to facilitate learning within an introductory programming course is explored as well as a study measuring the effect of preservice teachers’ attitudes toward astronomy in included. The final article in this category looks at ICT strategies and tools for improving instruction supervision.

This issue represents a selection of the quality research that is being conducted by our colleagues on the impact of educational technology on learning. The studies are built on strong theoretical foundations with an understanding of best practices as described within the classroom and innovative learning environments. We hope that the information included in this issue continues to inform your own research and innovative applications.

January 01, 2013 Guest Editors

Prof. Dr. J. Ana Donaldson Immediate Past President AECT Contributing Faculty Walden University Retired – University of Northern Iowa

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vincent Ru-Chu Shih, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology

Editors Prof. Dr. Aytekin İŞMAN - Sakarya University, Turkey Prof. Dr. Jerry WILLIS - ST John Fisher University in Rochester, USA Prof. Dr. J. Ana Donaldson - AECT President

Associate Editor Assoc.Prof.Dr. Eric Zhi - Feng Liu - National Central University, Taiwan Fahme DABAJ, Ph.D. - Eastern Mediterranean University, TRNC

Editorial Board Prof.Dr. Adnan BAKİ - Karadeniz Teknik University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ahmet Pehlivan - Cyprus International University, TRNC Prof.Dr. Akif ERGIN - Başkent University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ali Al Mazari - Alfaisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prof.Dr. Ali Ekrem ÖZKUL - Anadolu University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ali Paşa AYAS - Karadeniz Teknik University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ali Rıza AKADENİZ - Karadeniz Teknik University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Antoinette J. MUNTJEWERFF - University of Amsterdam Prof.Dr. Arif ALTUN - Hacettepe University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Arvind SINGHAL - University of Texas, USA Prof.Dr. Asaf VAROL - Fırat University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Aytekin İŞMAN - Sakarya University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Brent G. WILSON - University of Colorado at Denver, USA Prof.Dr. Buket AKKOYUNLU - Hacettepe University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Chang-Shing Lee - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Charlotte N. (Lani) GUNAWARDENA - University of New Mexico, USA Prof.Dr. Chi - Jui Lien - National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Chih - Kai Chang - National University of Taiwan, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Chin-Min Hsiung - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Colin LATCHEM - Open Learning Consultant, Australia Prof.Dr. Colleen SEXTON - Governor State University, USA Prof.Dr. Demetrios G. Sampson - University of Piraeus, Greece Prof.Dr. Don M. FLOURNOY - Ohio University, USA Prof.Dr. Dongsik Kim - Hanyang University, South Korea Prof.Dr. Enver Tahir RIZA - Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Feng-chiao Chung - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Ferhan ODABAŞI - Anadolu University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Finland Cheng - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Fong Soon Fook - Uniiversiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia Prof.Dr. Francine Shuchat SHAW - New York University, USA Prof.Dr. Gianni Viardo VERCELLI - University of Genova, Italy Prof.Dr. Gwo - Dong Chen - National Central University Chung - Li, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Hafize KESER - Ankara University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Halil İbrahim YALIN - Gazi University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Hasan AMCA - Eastern Mediterranean University, TRNC Prof.Dr. Heli RUOKAMO - University of Lapland, Finland Prof.Dr. Henry H.H. Chen - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Hüseyin Ekiz - Sakarya University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ing. Giovanni ADORNI - University of Genova, Italy Prof.Dr. J. Ana Donaldson - AECT President Prof.Dr. J. Michael Spector - University of North Texas, USA Prof.Dr. Jerry WILLIS - ST John Fisher University in Rochester, USA Prof.Dr. Jie-Chi Yang - National central university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Kinshuk - Athabasca University, Canada Prof.Dr. Kiyoshi Nakabayashi - Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan Prof.Dr. Kumiko Aoki - The Open University of Japan, Japan Prof.Dr. Kuo - En Chang - National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Kuo - Hung Tseng - Meiho Institute of Technology, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Kuo - Robert Lai - Yuan - Ze University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Liu Meifeng - Beijing Normal University, China

Prof.Dr. Marina Stock MCISAAC - Arizona State University, USA Prof.Dr. Mehmet Ali Dikermen - Middlesex University, UK Prof.Dr. Mehmet ÇAĞLAR - Near East University, TRNC Prof.Dr. Mehmet GÜROL - Fırat University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Mehmet KESİM - Anadolu University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Mei-Mei Chang - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Melissa Huı-Mei Fan - National central university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Min Jou - National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Ming - Puu Chen - National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Murat BARKAN - Yaşar University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Mustafa Şahin DÜNDAR - Sakarya University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Nabi Bux JUMANI - International Islamic University, Pakistan Prof.Dr. Nian - Shing Chen - National Sun Yat - Sen University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Paul Gibbs - Middlesex University, UK Prof.Dr. Petek AŞKAR - Hacettepe University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Rauf YILDIZ - Çanakkale 19 Mart University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Roger Hartley - University of Leeds, UK Prof.Dr. Rozhan Hj. Mohammed IDRUS - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia Prof.Dr. Saedah Siraj - University of Malaya, Malaysia Prof.Dr. Salih ÇEPNİ - Karadeniz Teknik University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Servet BAYRAM - Marmara University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Shan - Ju Lin - National Taiwan University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Sheng Quan Yu - Beijing Normal University, China Prof.Dr. Shi-Jer Lou - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Shu - Sheng Liaw - China Medical University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Shu-Hsuan Chang - National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Stefan AUFENANGER - University of Mainz, Germany Prof.Dr. Stephen J.H. Yang - National Central University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Sun Fuwan - China Open University, China Prof.Dr. Sunny S.J. Lin - National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Toshio Okamoto - University of Electro - Communications, Japan Prof.Dr. Toshiyuki Yamamoto - Japan Prof.Dr. Tzu - Chien Liu - National Central University, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Uğur DEMİRAY - Anadolu University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Ülkü KÖYMEN - Lefke European University, TRNC Prof.Dr. Vaseudev D.Kulkarni - Hutatma Rajjguru College, Rajguruunagar(Pune),(M.S.) INDIA Prof.Dr. Xibin Han - Tsinghua University, China Prof.Dr. Yau Hon Keung - City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Prof.Dr. Yavuz AKPINAR - Boğaziçi University, Turkey Prof.Dr. Yen-Hsyang Chu - National central university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Yuan - Chen Liu - National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Yuan-Kuang Guu - National pingtung university, Taiwan Prof.Dr. Zeki KAYA - Gazi University, Turkey

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Abdullah Kuzu - Anadolu University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ahmet Zeki SAKA - Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. C. Hakan AYDIN - Anadolu University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Chen - Chung Liu - National Central University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Cheng - Huang Yen - National Open University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ching - fan Chen - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ching Hui Alice Chen - Ming Chuan University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Chiung - sui Chang - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Danguole Rutkauskiene - Kauno Technology University, Lietvenia Assoc.Prof.Dr. David Tawei Ku - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Dimiter G. Velev - University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria Assoc.Prof.Dr. Eralp ALTUN - Ege University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Eric Meng - National pingtung university, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Eric Zhi Feng Liu - National central university, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ezendu ARIWA - London Metropolitan University, U.K. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Fahad N. AlFahad - King Saud University

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Fahriye ALTINAY - Near East University, TRNC Assoc.Prof.Dr. Galip AKAYDIN - Hacettepe University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Gurnam Kaur SIDHU - Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Assoc.Prof.Dr. Hao - Chiang Lin - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Hsin - Chih Lin - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Huey - Ching Jih - National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Hüseyin UZUNBOYLU - Near East University, TRNC Assoc.Prof.Dr. I - Wen Huang - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. I Tsun Chiang - National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ian Sanders - University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Assoc.Prof.Dr. Jie - Chi Yang - National Central University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. John I-Tsun Chiang - National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ju - Ling Shih - National University of Taiwan, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Koong Lin - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Kuo - Chang Ting - Ming - HSIN University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Kuo - Liang Ou - National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Larysa M. MYTSYK - Gogol State University, Ukraine Assoc.Prof.Dr. Li - An Ho - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Li Yawan - China Open University, China Assoc.Prof.Dr. Manoj Kumar SAXENA - Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Kangra, India Assoc.Prof.Dr. Mike Joy - University of Warwick, UK Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ming-Charng Jeng - National pingtung university, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Murat ATAİZİ - Anadolu University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nergüz Serin - Cyprus International University, TRNC Assoc.Prof.Dr. Norazah Mohd Suki - Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia Assoc.Prof.Dr. Oğuz Serin - Cyprus International University, TRNC Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ping - Kuen Chen - National Defense University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Popat S. TAMBADE - Prof. Ramkrishna More College, India Assoc.Prof.Dr. Prakash Khanale - Dnyanopasak College, INDIA Assoc.Prof.Dr. Pramela Krish - Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Assoc.Prof.Dr. Selahattin GELBAL - Hacettepe University, Turkey Assoc.Prof.Dr. Teressa FRANKLIN - Ohio University, USA Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tzu - Hua Wang - National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Wu - Yuin Hwang - National Central University, Taiwan Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ya-Ling Wu - National pingtung university, Taiwan Assoc.Prof Dr. Yahya O Mohamed Elhadj - AL Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University, Saudi Arabia Assoc.Prof Dr. Yavuz AKBULUT - Anadolu University Assoc.Prof.Dr. Zehra ALTINAY - Near East University, TRNC Assoc.Prof.Dr. Zhi - Feng Liu - National Central University, Taiwan

Assist.Prof.Dr. Aaron L. DAVENPORT - Grand View College, USA Assist.Prof.Dr. Adile Aşkım KURT - Anadolu University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Andreja Istenic Starcic - University of Primorska, Slovenija Assist.Prof.Dr. ANITA G. WELCH - North Dakota State University, USA Assist.Prof.Dr. Betül ÖZKAN - University of Arizona, USA Assist.Prof.Dr. Chiu - Pin Lin - National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Chun - Ping Wu - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Chun - Yi Shen - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Chung-Yuan Hsu - National pingtung university, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Dale HAVILL - Dhofar University, Sultanate of Oman Assist.Prof.Dr. Erkan TEKİNARSLAN - Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Ferman Konukman - The College of Brockport, State University of New York, USA Assist.Prof.Dr. Filiz Varol - Fırat University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Guan - Ze Liao - National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Hasan ÇALIŞKAN - Anadolu University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Hasan KARAL - Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Hsiang chin - hsiao - Shih - Chien University, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Huei - Tse Hou - National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Hüseyin ÜNLÜ - Aksaray University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Hüseyin YARATAN - Eastern Mediterranean University, TRNC

Assist.Prof.Dr. Işıl KABAKCI - Anadolu University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Jagannath. K DANGE - Kuvempu University, India Assist.Prof.Dr. K. B. Praveena - University of Mysore, India Assist.Prof.Dr. Kanvaria Vinod Kumar - University of Delhi, India Assist.Prof.Dr. Marko Radovan - University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Assist.Prof.Dr. Min-Hsien Lee - National central university, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Mohammad Akram Mohammad Al-Zu'bi - Jordan Al Balqa Applied University, Jordan Assist.Prof.Dr. Muhammet DEMİRBİLEK - Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Mustafa Murat INCEOGLU - Ege University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Mübin KIYICI - Sakarya University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Ozcan Erkan AKGUN - Sakarya University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Pamela EWELL - Central College of IOWA, USA Assist.Prof.Dr. Pei-Hsuan Hsieh - National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Pey-Yan Liou - National central university, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Phaik Kin, CHEAH - Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak Assist.Prof.Dr. Ping - yeh Tsai - Tamkang University, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. S. Arulchelvan - Anna University, India Assist.Prof.Dr. Selma KOÇ Vonderwell - Cleveland State University, Cleveland Assist.Prof.Dr. Tsung - Yen Chuang - National University of Taiwan, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Vahid Motamedi - Tarbiat Moallem University, Iran Assist.Prof.Dr. Vincent Ru-Chu Shih - National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Yalın Kılıç TÜREL - Fırat University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Yu - Ju Lan - National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan Assist.Prof.Dr. Zerrin AYVAZ REİS - İstanbul University, Turkey Assist.Prof.Dr. Zülfü GENÇ - Fırat University, Turkey

Dr. Arnaud P. PREVOT - Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, USA Dr. Aytaç Göğüş - Sabancı University, Turkey Dr. Balakrishnan Muniandy - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia Dr. Brendan Tangney - Trinity College, Ireland Dr. Chin Hai Leng - University of Malaya, Malaysia Dr. Chin - Yeh Wang - National Central University, Taiwan Dr. Chun - Hsiang Chen - National Central University, Taiwan Dr. Farrah Dina Yusop - University of Malaya, Malaysia Dr. Hj. Issham Ismail - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia Dr. Hj. Mohd Arif Hj. Ismail - National University of Malaysia, Malaysia Dr. İsmail İPEK - Bilkent University, Turkey Dr. Jarkko Suhonen - University of Eastern Finland, Finland Dr. Li Ying - China Open University, China Dr. Norlidah Alias - University of Malaya, Malaysia Dr. Rosnaini Mahmud - Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Dr. Tam Shu Sim - University of Malaya, Malaysia Dr. Tiong Goh - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Dr. Vikrant Mishra - Shivalik College of Education, India

Chen Haishan - China Open University, China Chun Hung Lin - National central university, Taiwan I-Hen Tsai - National University of Tainan, Taiwan Sachin Sharma - Faridabad Institute of Technology, Faridabad

Table of Contents

Affordances of Interactive Whiteboards and Associated Pedagogical Practices: Perspectives of Teachers of 1 Science with Children Aged Five to Six Years Kung-Teck, WONG, Pauline Swee Choo, GOH, Rosma OSMAN

An Analysis of Teacher-Student Interaction Patterns in a Robotics Course for Kindergarten Children: A 9 Pilot Study Eric Zhi-Feng LIU, Chun-Hung LIN, Pey-Yan LIOU, Han-Chuan FENG, Huei-Tse HOU

Application of Interactive Multimedia Tools in Teaching Mathematics – Examples of Lessons from 19 Geometry Marina MILOVANOVIĆ, Jasmina OBRADOVIĆ, Aleksandar MILAJIĆ

Can an Electronic Textbooks be Part of K-12 Education?: Challenges, Technological Solutions and Open 32 Issues HeeJeong Jasmine LEE, Chris MESSOM, Kok-Lim Alvin YAU

Conjoint Analysis for Mobile Devices for Ubiquitous Learning in Higher Education: The Korean Case 45 Hyeongjik LEE, Won Bin Lee, Soo Cheon Kweon

Effect of Using Facebook to Assist English for Business Communication Course Instruction 52 Ru-Chu SHIH

Effectiveness of Facebook Based Learning to Enhance Creativity among Islamic Studies Students by 60 Employing Isman Instructional Design Model Norlidah ALIAS, Saedah SIRAJ, Mohd Khairul Azman Md DAUD, Zaharah HUSSIN

Exploring Online Learning at Primary Schools: Students’ Perspectives on Cyber Home Learning 68 System through Video Conferencing (CHLS-VC) June LEE, Seo Young YOON, Chung Hyun LEE

ICT Strategies and Tools for the Improvement of Instructional Supervision. The Virtual Supervision 77 Esteban Vázquez CANO, M.ª Luisa Sevillano GARCIA

Integration and Implementation of Web Simulators in Experimental E-Learning: An Application for 88 Capacity Auctions Francisco Javier OTAMENDI, Luis Miguel DONCEL

Investigating the Factors Affecting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage of Turkish 102 Students in Pisa 2009 Sedat GÜMÜŞ

Quality of Blended Learning Within the Scope of the Bologna Process 108 Angélica MONTEIRO, Carlinda LEITE, Lurdes LIMA

Teaching the Diagonalization Concept in Linear Algebra with Technology: A Case Study at Galatasaray 119 University Ayşegül YILDIZ ULUS

The Effect of Learning Geometry Topics of 7th Grade in Primary Education with Dynamic Geometer’s 131 Sketchpad Geometry Software to Success and Retention Cenk KEŞAN, Sevdane ÇALIŞKAN

The Effect of Media on Preservice Science Teachers’ Attitudes toward Astronomy and Achievement in 139 Astronomy Class Behzat BEKTAŞLI

Toward a Distance Education Based Strategy for Internationalization of the Curriculum in Higher 147 Education of Iran Kourosh Fathi VAJARGAH, Mehrnoosh KHOSHNOODIFAR

Using a Hybrid Approach to Facilitate Learning Introductory Programming 161 Ünal ÇAKIROĞLU

Using Mobile-based Email for English Foreign Language Learners 178 Mohammad Akram mohammad ALZU'BI, Muhannad Rushdi Nimer SABHA

Using Peer Feedback to Improve Learning via Online Peer Assessment 187 Eric Zhi-Feng LIU, Chun-Yi LEE

Views of ICT Teachers about the Introduction of ICT in Primary Education in Greece 200 Tziafetas KONSTANTINOS, Avgerinos ANDREAS, Tsampika KARAKIZA

AFFORDANCES OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS AND ASSOCIATED PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES: PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHERS OF SCIENCE WITH CHILDREN AGED FIVE TO SIX YEARS

Dr. Kung-Teck, WONG Sultan Idris Education University, 35900, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia.

Pauline Swee Choo, GOH Sultan Idris Education University, 35900, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia.

Rosma OSMAN Sultan Idris Education University, 35900, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT The integration of information and communication technology into early year’s classrooms is increasingly important for engaging and motivating digital learners. One of the more promising recent revolutions in educational technology that encourages learner’s involvement is interactive whiteboard (IWB). Many schools have accepted IWB as core teaching technology for teaching young children. Yet there has been little research that looks into it especially for teaching science in early year’s education. This paper reports on selected preliminary findings from a recent study which highlighted a number of affordances, practices and challenges related to teaching science for children aged five to six years using IWBs. A phenomenological perspective was adopted in this study. In-depth interviews with teachers to explore their individual experiences and perspectives about the uses of IWBs were recorded. Data were collected and analysed according to a qualitative approach. The preliminary analysis of the data summary across the seven case studies revealed that the teachers used IWBs in a wide range of ways with the intention of bringing contemporary content into the classroom and leading to the learning of investigative science. Promoting authenticity and connectedness, multimodality and versatility, and efficiency were the most frequently mentioned by participating teachers. This study also illustrates the disruptive effects of conventional classrooms setting, low technical support and insufficient training towards the process of implementation of IWBs.

INTRODUCTION Technologies are widely used in a world of education today, both in higher education through to preschool education. Forms of technology resourcing in the classroom have been revolutionized since the use of personal computers. In the second revolutionary teaching tool, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are becoming increasingly more prevalent in primary classrooms. Across the world, 750,000 IWBs had been installed in classrooms by 2007 and over three million were forecast to be installed by 2010 (White, 2007). In the late 1990’s, primary schools in United Kingdom began using this technology (Higgins, Beauchamp, & Miller 2007). There is a growing amount of research that suggests that the use of IWBs improves teaching and learning for science (Hennessy, Deaney, Ruthven, & Winterbottom, 2007; Higgins, Beachamp & Miller, 2007; Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; Preston & Mowbrary 2008). According to Becta, in its role as an advisory body in educational technologies for British schools, there are four identified advantages for students: increased enjoyment and motivation, greater opportunities for participation and collaboration, decreased need for note-taking through the capacity to print from the screen, and the potential to cater for different learning styles (Becta, 2004). Furthermore, teachers using IWBs in the classrooms believe that the learner is able to retain the concepts rapidly and provide an apprehensive approach towards science. Multimodal representation styles are essential when explaining specific scientific concepts and ideas.

According to Clarke (2004), the United Kingdom government has already invested heavily (approximately 50 million pounds) in the installation of IWBs in schools with the purpose of imparting an impact on teaching and learning. Somekh et al. (2007) noted that IWBs are well adapted to whole-class teaching, particularly in terms of enlivening formal expositions, including demonstrations of practical procedures and explanations of complex concepts. Teachers and students can use IWBs to bring together information communication and technology (ICT) tools that support learners’ production of drawings, tables, graphs, written text, and verbal and video accounts.

Since 2003, IWBs have made a rapid penetration into Australian schools. The Australia Government has come to an understanding that ICT permeates most students’ daily lives and social milieu. Prior to the extensive encouragement from Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relation (DEEWR) and related ICT organization, many preschools and primary schools in Australia have replaced conventional classroom tools with IWBs. In 2009, the push to incorporate and integrate technology in classroom teaching Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 1

TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

from all levels became much stronger in the Australian education system after the introduction of the Strategic ICT Advisory Service (SICTAS) project. In 2010, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the Federal Government had allocated forty million dollars for teachers’ professional development in ICT, as part of the Australian Government’s $2.2 billion Digital Education Revolution (Gillard, 2010).

THE STUDY No doubt, many international researchers have noted that the use of IWBs is growing rapidly and becoming one of the most important educational technology tools in the digital generation. They believe that IWBs can contribute positive effects on learning and are presenting many opportunities for teachers (Hennessy et al., 2007; Murcia & Sheffield, 2010; White, 2007; Preston & Mowbrary 2008). However, there is little Australian research that looks into their use and explores pedagogical approaches needed to enhance young children learning in science classrooms where interactivity requires a new approach to pedagogy. In response to this situation, a research study was conducted to observe the affordances of IWBs and their initial practices for young learners. Given current recognition of the value of IWBs, as well as the investment costs that IWBs represent for schools, it seems a worthwhile topic of enquiry and fruitful to explore.

This study contributes to the literature in a number of ways. Firstly, although contemporary research contains many claims about the value of IWBs and its pedagogical practises, little of this research has been with early childhood education. Yet IWBs have many features that seem to have important synergies for teachers dealing with young children, especially for teaching science. Secondly, although studies have been conducted on the use of IWBs in the UK, the use of this technology is just beginning in Australia especially for teaching Science for children aged five and six years, therefore, the findings derived from those analyses might not adequately reflect Australian schools environments. Furthermore, some findings were anecdotal, inconclusive and, at times, contradictory. Thus, it is vital to address this gap and to have empirical evidence which clarifies the issues pertaining to the use of IWBs in early childhood classrooms.

The study was focused on a single academic subject, science as not only is science providing authentic contexts and meaningful purposes for literacy learning, it is also providing opportunities to develop a wider range of literacies such as using science as a tool for discovery and contributing to problem solving. Furthermore, based on the South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability (SACSA) Framework, science subject in which educational technologies are frequently employed. Yet studies that focus specifically on IWBs use in science are currently limited in Australian context.

The lack of information regarding IWB’s pedagogy and pedagogical practices could lead to teachers of science delivering knowledge insufficiently and ineffectively enough to encourage teachers to use IWBs in teaching and learning. Individuals in DEEWR, especially curriculum designers and teacher educators need to gear up their action towards digital native as they are expected to include IWB technologies in their daily lessons (Harlow, Cowie & Heazlewood., 2010). It has been researched and studied that the mere introduction of the IWBs does not in itself have a transformative effect on classroom teaching and learning and may indeed reinforce familiar patterns of teacher-pupil interaction in whole class teaching (Smith, Hardman & Higgins, 2006; Underwood et al., 2010).

RESEARCH CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY As mentioned above, IWBs are a relatively new teaching tool in Australian preschools and junior primary schools. In order to ascertain the affordances of IWBs, and the pedagogical practices and drawbacks of using IWBs in science classrooms for children aged five and six years, a small-scale case study approach drawing on a phenomenological perspective was taken. Drawing on multiple recommendations from academic colleagues, subject advisors and Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS), the researchers identified seven teachers who were considered to be successful in terms of the quality of their teaching and who had knowledge of the South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA).

The researchers carried out the in-depth interviews with those teachers in five junior primary schools located in metropolitan Adelaide from February to June 2011. All participating teachers are female and their teaching ranged from 10 to 25 years. They had IWBs in their classrooms, had taught Science for children aged five to six years and have been using IWBs for more than 3 years. Thus, they were believed to have some familiarity and skills with IWBs use. All participating teachers used either SMART BoardTM or ACTIVboardsTM in their teaching and learning.

In this study, the researchers conducted interviews with some predetermined questions that aimed to explore affordances, pedagogical practices and barriers related to teaching science for children aged five to six years

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using IWBs. However, the exact wording of the questions was flexible as there were follow-up questions to interesting statements from the subjects. The semi-structured interview questions developed were based largely on, and supported by, a review of the literature in the similar field. All relevant data was transcribed, using conventions of standard spelling and punctuation to represent interpreted speech. Some follow-up interviews were carried out to ensure the depth of the data.

Discussion of common themes and overall findings Pedagogical Practices In the SACSA Framework, science is organised into four conceptual strands (earth, space, energy systems, life systems and matter), each with its characteristic scientific knowledge and ideas and based on earth and space science, physics, biology and chemistry respectively. All participating teachers noted that IWBs were suitable for all four conceptual strands underlying SACSA Framework. The PrimaryConnections 5Es teaching and learning model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) can be engaged by using IWBs. Based on the participating teachers’ use of IWBs, the researchers have summarised the way of pedagogic practices among teachers: Supported Didactic, Integrated Interactive Activities and Guided Assessment.

Supported Didactic Participating teachers noted that they use IWBs to capture and spark children’s interest, stimulate their curiosity, and elicit children’s existing beliefs about the topic or scientific concepts. With the good size and visual capacity of IWBs, it provides clear explanations for younger children. In this stage, conceptual development and scaffolding activities were very limited. This accorded with the research literature offered by Glover, Miller and Averis (2007). Teachers treated IWBs as ordinary screen or whiteboard substitute. IWBs merely present standard information, such as a pre-prepared sequence of slides or pages on IWBs which were “presented” to the class. The use of other presentational software such as PowerPoint was common during this stage. This was more about teacher centredness of IWBs use. Any interaction was internal and remained under the control of the teachers. IWBs can be used for presenting slides, pre-loaded web pages and scanned materials for explanation purposes. Virtual demonstrations, documentaries and real life action, such as the recent earthquake in Japan could attract children’s attention. One teacher argued that, “…diagrams, images, photos and other related materials can be imported or captured using the interactive software camera tool and… presented it as lesson introduction to young children…IWBs are really awesome”.

Integrated Interactive Activities This is the most frequently mentioned way related to the use of IWBs. This pedagogic practice usually marks progression from the supported didactic stage where IWBs are used to challenge children to think by using a variety of stimuli such as verbal, visual and kinaesthetic. Young children have the opportunity to interact with the board, by writing on it or drag and drop, or responding to discussion centred on the material shown on the board. Participating teachers reported that the rate of interaction between teacher and children tends to increase when an IWB is used, although this does not necessarily lead to improvements in attainment.

Teachers normally employ authoritative interactivity practice in their integrated interactive activities. “Authoritative interaction with ICT is characterised by the incorporation into the teachers’ planning of fixed questions with specific answers” (Beauchamp and Kennewell, 2010, p.763). A teacher pointed out that “…I’m always asking my children to move prepared images to the suggested answers on IWB to complete matching, sorting or labelling activities”.

Teachers also noted that having explanations via IWBs was very different from projecting lessons to the ordinary screen or board. They have the opportunity to interact with children while conducting lessons via technology. A teacher shared her views by commenting that “…losing contact with the young children while teaching always occur when we are using other ICT teaching tools, but …with IWBs, I still can navigate and conduct activities via interactive board without going to the desktop computer that is placed far away from the front of the classroom…and sure, this provides opportunities to have more interaction with kids …IWBs definitely quicken the pace of the lessons”.

Guided Assessment In most Australian education for young children, the IWBs are a very new phenomenon. Underlying these stages, teachers are often categorised in the infusion stage (Burden, 2002). Thus, opportunity to develop complete assessment procedures that use the IWBs could be limited. But overall, the interviewed teachers showed their enthusiasm in many ways to incorporate assessment with the IWBs as they believed that the affordances of IWBs could provide a good channel to assess their children easily and effectively either in the

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form of diagnostic, formative or summative procedures. They noted that assessment via engagement, exploration, explanation and elaboration can be done with IWBs.

Moreover, IWBs can contribute hugely to plenaries. With the help from teachers, young children can present their art work in front of the classroom by scanning the images or taking photos and projecting them on the interactive board for further discussions. This will encourage them to review and reflect on what they have done. Comment and correction can be done on the spot and any noted comments on the entire art work can be saved for future references. A teacher shared her views by commenting that, “…when doing group work, I will take a photograph or talk to children…or do a mind-map with them, and I will scan and discuss it on the board”.

Practical Pedagogical Benefits Promoting authenticity and connectedness Studies have proven that authentic tasks can provide real world relevance and high impact towards effective learning among young children (Betcher & Lee, 2009). IWBs can promote task authenticity especially when teachers connect IWBs with online news sites, You Tube, Google Maps, and so on. These practices enable fluid access to online real life science contexts which could be annotated at the board with the interactive tools. One enthusiastic adopter of the IWBs said, “…my job as a teacher…is to prepare children for the world to be”. This accorded with the findings by Hennessy et al. (2007). Hennessy et al. (2007) revealed that the IWBs created a fluid space where interactive communication allowed the teacher and students to explore science with the latest information and knowledge.

Virtual demonstrations, documentaries and real life action are definitely able to provide huge learning space. One of the teacher commented, “…I can look for information easily, with a range of resources, it brings the science classroom to life and it enriches the classroom discussions and scientific language used”. Her view was echoed by another teacher who explained “…I can minimise the slides and can go to the video that interested children instantly”. For example, a science teacher did a lesson on “Weather Symbol Detectives”, and a child asked her, “What’s the symbol for today’s weather?” With the authenticity and connectedness feature in IWBs, she instantly linked it with the current weather forecast websites (such as www.weather.com.au) and by having that, her young children are able to understand it easily. She said; “…evidence-based explanations are very vital in teaching science for young children”.

One respondent made the following comment, “before having IWBs, I had to go to the library to find the resources and spend my own money… it was lots of hard work”. “Google Earth and You Tube work really well with IWBs and this is an activity that I often start the lesson with. From the world map, I can zoom down till very specific places such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Eiffel Tower. I then elicit the children’s understanding by asking them to guess where we are.” In such ways, IWBs have clearly facilitated whole-class discussion, which has led to the sharing of ideas and generation of new learning through spin-out questions.

Multimodality and Versatility Interviewed teachers were also conscious of the opportunity to use multimedia facilities such as video clips, scanning of images, and sound effects for their teaching. Learning is much more powerful if it has a range of multimodality and versatility facilities across the curriculum.

IWBs allow science teachers to teach multi-sensory lessons, seamlessly changing from one type of media to another. Text, sound, video and graphics can be operated at the same time to provide better scientific ideas and concepts explanation to young children. A teacher pointed out and said, “…children are really easy to get focused. The minute I turn on the IWB, it can be a basic interactive game, they are so engaged. I can create sequences linking sound files, web pages and images to gain young children’s attention.…”

Versatility of IWBs supports several different learning styles such as visual-spatial, auditory and kinaesthetic. One teacher shared her views that: “Children not only can watch and listen to the video via IWBs, it also provides physical involvement by touching and moving objects to show its effect…” Kinaesthetic learning for example would occur when young children were asked to click and drag the images on the board.

Efficiency and Effectiveness It is worthwhile considering that one of the most obvious distinctions between IWBs and other technology teaching tools is the facility to control the computer at the touch of the screen. This enables teachers to stay in the front of the class and still be interacting with the technology. Interviewed teachers revealed that having a touch screen enabled them to explain and teach with more focus. Young children need to be shown and pointed out while explaining certain concepts to ensure that they can follow the lesson. By having touch screen facilities,

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teachers can perform explanation without neglecting them. The touch-sensitive nature of IWBs facilitates a more efficient presentation and more professional delivery of multimedia resources. One of the teachers said “I can have more attention to my children’s expressions rather than just focusing on clicking and searching icons on the computer screen…” Another teacher also noted that with that affordance, she could scan pages out from previous materials to use in class discussions, where she could point out the important point visually to young children in order to ensure that they focused on the entire sentences or images while the explanation was going on.

Teaching materials can be saved to hard disk or USB stick or software galleries and subsequently be reused and edited for additional use in future teaching and learning activities. In IWBs, there is a feature that can capture work that has been done in the work place (screen). Revisiting previous lessons is easy. Teachers of science can return to earlier pages or screen to help a child who needs extra explanation or for reinforcement purposes. Saved information can be recalled for review and discussion at the end of the lesson. A teacher mentioned how she could easily bring the previously saved diagrams and pictures into her lesson again by using IWBs. “SMART notebook galleries are fantastic; I can drag and drop the saved images easily from the galleries”. Similarly a teacher reflecting on her own practices noted “…with IWBs and its backup feature… I will never have to rewrite on the board, it just takes minutes for me to revisit the information that has been discussed before...”

Pedagogical Challenges Few pedagogical challenges were noted for using IWBs in teaching and learning for children aged five and six years, apart from the obvious initial expenditure to purchase them.

Classroom setting Integrating IWBs into classrooms can pose some serious challenges and problems. This issue became a common topic when participating teachers were asked about the challenges of using the entire technology. Full class visibility can be problematic when initial conventional classroom settings are not designed for technology viewing especially when a huge light is shining directly towards the classrooms. Blinds have to be installed to solve this problem. A disappointed teacher revealed that, “one of the classrooms here, the projector is not bright enough and there is so much light coming in to the room, no blind has been installed”. Teachers also complained that some IWBs were not placed in the front centre of the classroom due to the practical necessity of finding convenient power outlets. This resulted in difficulties for some children in the classroom to have a comfortable view of the board.

The height at which IWBs are placed can be an issue, particularly where boards are permanently fixed. Many participating teachers revealed that some IWBs have been installed without considering the children’s height. “In my class, many children are having difficulty to touch the top of the board as it fixed too high”. Teachers need to prepare accessories that can help make it easy for the smaller students, such as stylus pens in the form of long wands that give the children a greater reach on the boards.

Technical Support Interviews revealed that, at least in the initial stage of introduction, teachers were hesitant about changing pedagogy as they are let down by their ineptitude with the technical aspect of use of IWBs. If teachers are working with a technology infrastructure that realistically cannot support their work, they will turn back to the conventional teaching tools. Statements that showed this concern were “having technical support is really important. When we have got 25 children in front, we can’t stop the lesson. And also if I spend 10 or 15 minutes to solve the problem, tomorrow, I need to catch-up”. And “Some IWBs are not working properly. We get frustrated trying to fix it, and we are just about to start to use it. At the end we prefer not using it and give up”.

Teachers also must have access to on-site technical support personnel who are responsible for troubleshooting and assistance after the technology and lessons are in place. A statement that showed this concern was “We just have one day a week from a part-time technician. That is Wednesday. When IWBs break down on Thursday, we need to wait for next week”.

From the interviews, researchers found that all participating teachers noted that they do not like technical problems, which from their perspective cause disruption, delay and frustration. One of the very experienced teachers prompted that “… we know that technical problems are many times unavoidable and unforeseeable, but setting up routine technology maintenance is vital, and by that, it may be avoided”. Another concerned teacher said, “My previous school was in the countryside. It’s about 100 kilometres from Adelaide. If the computer breaks down, I need to go to Adelaide to fix it”.

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Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills Having an IWB in the classroom, however, does not necessarily open a lesson to higher levels of children’s interaction. IWBs require an investment of time, and some degree of training. Low confidence in use of IWBs could hinder teachers to use IWBs in their daily teaching activities. Training in the technical and pedagogical aspects of IWBs should be viewed as a continuous process. Glover and Miller (2001) claimed that the interactive nature of IWBs requires new approaches to both pedagogy and professional development for teachers. Successful integration of any technology into the classroom requires more than simply acquiring that technology. Closing the digital divide requires much more than buying equipment, it requires the knowledge and skills of teachers using the technology, and access to digital tools in the community (Riel, Schwarz & Hitt, 2002, p.147). Indeed, the introduction of an IWB does not in itself transform existing pedagogies (Moss, Jewitt, Levaaic, Armstrong, Cardini & Castle, 2007). For teachers who may not be confident or lack basic technology skills, the IWBs can be a hindrance to their teaching and learning process during the lessons.

Although the participating teachers have high enthusiasm towards their developmental needs, they revealed that they want more training development programs. A desperate teacher commented, “We can go to our colleagues or websites for extra information, but we need more…more training”. Whilst others said; “We had training during the day of the installation, but it is not enough”. But, one statement proved that teachers were taking prompt actions to have more sharing of resources among colleagues. One of the interviewed teachers said “in fact, yesterday, in the staff meeting, we have discussed having 10-15 minute use of IWBs in every session”. These actions could provide ideas for broader usage and generally offer additional techniques for teaching science using IWBs among young children. Advanced skills were needed by some participating teachers. One enthusiastic adopter of IWBs commented that: “…I need more advanced knowledge and skills, such as layering, sequencing, converting and inserting video or sound…all these are very crucial for me to create interactive lessons for my kids”.

CONCLUSIONS This paper has described the results of a study that was designed to understand the perspective of Australian teachers of science using IWBs with children aged five to six years. In particular, this paper has tried to determine the pedagogical practices, benefits and challenges of using IWBs in teaching and learning for young children specifically for the science learning area. Despite findings reported in the literature to date about the use of IWBs for teaching and learning, much of the data gathered during this study had proven the merit of the affordances of IWBs in science classroom for children aged five and six years. There was evidence from interviews that participating teachers had changed both preparation and style of teaching in order to be fully engaged with IWBs, compared with conventional classroom teaching tools. This was because they believed that IWBs could lead to the learning of investigative science, critique in science and responsible actions in science.

And although not mentioned as a major theme in previous studies, findings from this study revealed that participating teachers did use IWBs for supported didactic, integrated interactive activities and guided assessment. These summarised that, in teaching science for younger children, IWBs could be used to improve whole class teaching and learning processes, especially in lesson introduction, children-teachers’ interaction and promoting group or individual evaluation. The findings also highlighted the affordances of IWBs in science classrooms. Promoting authenticity and connectedness, multimodality and versatility, and efficiency were the factors that most frequently mentioned by participating teachers. These characteristics encourage children to be engaged actively in the learning process and to develop investigation skills relating to the nature of science.

An important outcome stemming from these findings is the need to be mindful of the potential drawbacks of technology evolution in educational technology. Teachers need time and properly designed professional development. This study illustrates the disruptive effects when conventional classroom settings were used for IWBs implementation and teachers were having limited skills to develop the lessons.

Consideration should now be given to teachers’ professional development in IWBs. The Australian national priority on ICT integration in education acknowledges that children need greater access to appropriate resources, but well-trained teachers are essential to gear up the progress to achieve a high level of integration of IWBs in the teaching and learning for young children. Education authorities need to understand the importance of training to encourage positive use of IWBs in the early years education. It must be noted that the IWB itself does not enhance teaching and learning. Rather, it is the way that it is used as a new teaching and learning tool that does so. Good teaching remains good teaching with or without IWBs; it enhances the pedagogy only if teachers understand it as another pedagogical means to achieve teaching and learning goals.

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Many international researchers have noted that the use of IWBs is growing rapidly and becoming one of the most important educational technology tools in the digital generation. However, in Australia, there is little Australian research looking into their use and exploring pedagogical practices to enhance young children’s learning in science classrooms. Therefore, more studies of this kind, especially at a larger scale, need to be conducted so that the findings can adequately reflect the perspective of the whole population of teachers teaching science using IWBs for children aged five and six years. This could be in the form of a comparative study across several states , to determine whether there are differences especially regarding the use of IWBs for different curriculum that have been implemented in various states. We suggest that a comparative study could be conducted across different states to determine whether there are different findings especially regarding the use of IWBs for different curriculum that have been implemented in different states. Since technology especially interactive software, will continue to grow and develop rapidly, a replication of this study might be conducted periodically in order to examine its trends and its wider contributions remain to be seen.

REFERENCES Beauchamp, G. (2004). Teacher use of the interactive whiteboard in primary schools: towards an effective transition framework. Technology, Pedagogy and Education. 13(3), 327-348. Beauchamp, G. & Kennewell, S. (2010). Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning. Computer and Education. 54. 759-766. Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency). 2004. Getting the most from your interactive whiteboard: A guide for primary schools. Coventry: Becta. Betcher, C. & Lee, M. (2009). Interactive Whiteboard Revolution: Teaching with IWBs. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press. Burden, K. (2002). Learning from the bottom up – the contribution of school based practice and research in the effective use of interactive whiteboards for the FE/HE sector. Paper presented at the Making an Impact Regionally Conference, The Earth Centre, Doncaster, 21, June. Clarke, C. (2004). Secretary of State for Education and Skills Opening Address, BETT Conference, Olympia, 7 January 2004. Accessed 19 February 2007 from http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/community/webcasts/ bett2004/transcripts/clarke7jan04/ Gillard, J. (2010, 18th February 2010). $40m for teachers' professional development in ICT. Media Release, 18 February 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2011 from http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Gillard/Media/ Releases/Pages/Article_100218_ 130817.aspx. Glover, D. & Miller, D. (2001). Running with technology: the pedagogic impact of the large-scale introduction of interactive whiteboards in one secondary school. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 10(3), 257- 278. Glover, D., Miller, D., Averis, D., & Door, V. (2007). The evolution of an effective pedagogy for teachers using the interactive whiteboard in mathematics and modern languages: an empirical analysis form the secondary sector. Learning, Media and Technology.32(1), 5-20. Harlow, A., Cowie, B. and Heazlewood, M. (2010). Keeping in touch with learning: the use of an interactive whiteboard in the junior school. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 2(19): 237-243. Hennessy, S, Deaney, R, Ruthven, K & Winterbottom, M (2007). Pedagogical strategies for using the interactive whiteboard to foster learner participation in school science. Learning, Media and Technology, 3(32), 283- 301 Higgins, S, Beauchamp, G & Miller, D (2007). Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards. Learning, Media and Technology, 3(32), 213-35. Moss, G., Jewitt, C., Levaaic, R., Armstrong, V., Cardini, A., & Castle, F. (2007). The interactive whiteboards, pedagogy and pupil performance evaluation: An evaluation of the schools whiteboard expansion (swe) project: London challenge. London: School of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London. Murcia, K. (2008a). Teaching for scientific literacy with an interactive whiteboard. Teaching Science, 54(4), 17 – 21. Murica, K. (2008b). Teaching science creatively: Engaging primary teacher education students with interactive whiteboard technology. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 3(3), 45-52. Murica, K. & Sheffield, R. (2010). Talking about science in interactive whiteboard classrooms. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 26(4), 417-431. Preston, C. & Mowbrary, L. (2008). Use of SMART Boards for teaching, learning and assessment in kindergarten science. Teaching Science, 54(2), 50– 53. Riel, M., Schwarz.J., & Hitt, A. (2002). School change with technology: Closing the digital divide. Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual. 147-179. Smith, F., Hardman, F., & Higgins, S. (2006). Impact of interactive whiteboards on teacher-pupil interaction in the national literacy and numeracy strategies. British Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 443-457.

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Smith, H., Higgins, S, Wall, K., & Miller, J (2005). Interactive whiteboards: boon or bandwagon? A critical review of the literature. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21, 91-10. Somekh, B., Haldane, M., Jones, K, Lelvin, C., Steadman, S.,Scrimshaw. P. Sing. S. Bird K. Cummings, .J., Downing. B., Harber Stuart, T. Jarvis, J. Mavers, D. & Woodrow, D. (2007). Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project- Summary Report. Centre for ICT, Pedagogy and Learning. Manchester. UK. Underwood, J., Baguley, T., Banyard, P., Dillon, G., Farrington-Flint, L., Hayes, M., et al. (2010). Understanding the impact of technology: Learner and school level factors, Becta 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010 from http://research.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh&catcode=_re_rp_02&rid=17726, White, K. (2007). Interactive whiteboard trial, South Western Sydney Region: A report. Retrieved 26 July 2010 from www.cli.nsw.edu.au.

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AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION PATTERNS IN A ROBOTICS COURSE FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN: A PILOT STUDY

Eric Zhi-Feng LIU* (Corresponding author) Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction Center of Teacher Education Research Center for Science and Technology for Learning National Central University Taiwan [email protected]

Chun-Hung LIN Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction National Central University Taiwan

Pey-Yan LIOU Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction National Central University Taiwan

Han-Chuan FENG Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction National Central University Taiwan

Huei-Tse Hou Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Taiwan

ABSTRACT Compared with other media, programmable bricks provide children with the opportunity to create their own product and, through this process, to express creative thinking. Studies have found that learning robotics or integrating programming bricks into courses can help to develop students’ problem-solving abilities and enhance their learning performance. This study attempted to develop a one-to-one Topobo robotics course for kindergarten children and to explore teacher-student interaction patterns. This study used a creative thinking spiral as the framework for the Topobo robotics course. The research sample included a five-year-old child and a preschool teacher. Topobo, the programmable bricks, was the main learning tool in this course, and the sequential analysis method was used to identify teacher-student interaction patterns. Based on the frequency of the teacher-student interactions, this study found that two behaviors, the student’s “play” and the teacher’s “guidance,” appeared most frequently. Moreover, the results of sequential analysis and content analysis of the videotaped learning process indicated that the teacher’s guidance helped the student to assemble or play with the Topobo bricks. The teacher’s questions encouraged the student to express and share his ideas or identify and solve problems. This study proposes suggestions for future studies on this issue. Keywords: Topobo, Creative thinking spiral, Teacher-student interaction, Sequential analysis

INTRODUCTION Many new technologies, such as games and robots, have been applied to educational fields (Chen, Chiang, Liu, & Chang, 2012; Feng, Lin, & Liu, 2011; Lin et al., in press; Liu, 2011; Liu & Lin, 2009; Miller & Robertson, 2010; Nelson, Erlandson, & Denham, 2011), and the concept of media literacy, which includes the ability to use new technology, has received increasing attention (Chang & Liu, 2011; Chang, Liu, Lee, Chen, Hu, & Lin, 2011; Chang, Shieh, Liu, & Yu, 2012; Liu, Lin, Jian, & Liou, 2012). Programmable bricks provide children with the opportunity to create their own products and to express creative thinking (Lin, Liu, & Huang, 2012; Lin, Liu, Kou, Virnes, Sutinen, & Cheng, 2009; Liu, Lin,& Chang, 2010). Liu (2010) interviewed forty-eight elementary school students about their perceptions of robots and found that students tend to perceive learning of robotics as a way to high technology. Some studies have found that integrating educational robotics or programming bricks into courses could improve students’ problem-solving abilities and enhance their learning performance (Chang, Lee, Wang, & Chen, 2010; Chang, Lee, Chao, Wang, & Chen, 2010; Liu, Lin, & Chang, 2010). Most of these Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 9 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

studies have focused on primary school, middle-high school students, and even higher education students, but few studies have examined how to design robotics course for kindergarten children and how children learn in these courses (Bers, 2007; Levy & Mioduser, 2008; Virnes & Sutinen, 2009).

The five stages of creative thinking spiral model proposed by Resnick (2007) can illustrate both how children develop their creative thinking and how teachers interact with their students. These five stages are illustrated within the context of a robotics course: imagining (e.g., guiding students to imagine the product of a robotics course), creating (e.g., assembling bricks in a robotics course), playing (e.g., playing with the products in a robotics course), sharing (e.g., sharing and expressing ideas in a robotics course) and reflecting (e.g., identifying and solving problems in a robotics course).Through the above process, learners may share their new ideas, develop assembly skills and solve problems in a robotics course. Moreover, creative behaviors have been viewed as the performance of creative thinking. The period of creative behavior starts with motivation and proceeds to the accomplishment of forming a product (Harris, 1998; Lubart, 2001). In the past, although the participants mentioned by Resnick were elementary students, Resnick’s original concept was based on lifelong kindergarten (Resnick, 1998). Moreover, Virnes and Sutinen (2009) also designed a robotics course for kindergarten students using Topobo developed by Raffle, Parkes and Ishii (2004). In this pilot study, we attempted to design a one-on-one kindergarten Topobo robotics course to encourage learners to share new ideas, develop assembly skills and solve problems; we also designed the course to explore possible teacher-student interaction patterns.

Teacher and student interaction is understood to be an important issue in education, and teacher-student interaction is beneficial for students’ learning. Flanders (1970) developed an analytical system for teacher-student interaction and identified seven categories of teachers’ behaviors: clarifying feelings, praising, using students’ ideas, asking questions, lecturing, giving directions, and criticizing. Amidon (1959) indicated that teachers could help to develop students’ ideas by asking questions. Liu and Elicker (2005) found that when teachers asked specific questions or asked for students’ help, children felt more confident and secure. Two roles can be identified among teachers and students: parallel and inclination. When teachers and students perform parallel roles, they have equal status. When teachers and students perform inclination roles, they interact as educators and the educated (Liu & Elicker, 2005). For teachers, behaviors such as playing with children and expressing their experiences were related to the parallel role, and behaviors such as directing and asking questions were related to the inclination role. During teacher-student interactions, teachers can use strategies such as denomination, correction, and expansion to reconceptualize the information provided by the children (Rosemberg & Silva, 2009). While a few studies have investigated teacher-student interactions, most previous studies have been conducted in a classroom context where one teacher was responsible for several children. Chi, Siler, Jeong, Yamauchi and Hausmann (2001) suggested that in a one-to-one context, instructors could provide suitable support according to students’ needs, thereby enhancing students’ motivation and learning performance. This study uses a quantitative content analysis of video recordings and a sequential analysis method to explore teacher-student interaction patterns; these methods are applied to a situation in which children learn by using programmable bricks via the creative thinking spiral model (Resnick, 2007). The teacher-student interaction patterns are evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the Topobo robotics course as a pilot study.

METHOD Participants and course design To explore the application of Topobo for instruction and teacher-student interactions, this study conducted an empirical, exploratory case study with an observation and analysis of a videotaped teaching case to understand teacher-student interaction patterns. The participants in this study were one five-year-old child and a kindergarten teacher. Topobo, the programmable bricks invented by Raffle, Parke and Ishii (2004), were used as learning materials. The detailed background and characteristics of the student and the teacher are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Characteristics of the student and the teacher

This course had three purposes or goals: 1. encouraging the student to propose and share new ideas; 2. developing the student’s assembling skills and playing with programming bricks; and 3. helping the student to identify and solve problems. The course structure is shown in Figure 2. The design of the robotics learning course was based on the creative thinking spiral model proposed by Resnick (2007). Five elements were included in this course: imagining, creating, playing, sharing and reflecting.

In the imagining stage, the teacher gave the child a treasure-hunting map and explained the task. The student explored the map and collected the bricks he needed. In the creating stage, the student assembled the bricks to create products for different tasks. In the playing stage, the teacher and the child used the products to complete the task. In the sharing stage, the teacher and the child shared their experiences, feelings, and ideas. Finally, in the reflecting stage, the child identified some problems with his products and attempted to redesign or add functions to his products.

Figure 2: Topobo robotics course structure

The Topobo robotics course is a four-hour, one-to-one course that includes seven tasks. Task 1 to task 3 asked the child to use one motor in his products, and task 4 to task 7 asked the child to use two or more motors in his products (Table 1). The student had to assemble Topobo robotics to solve the assigned learning tasks on the map.

The study field was a semi-closed space. There was only one door, at the front of the classroom, and one video camera was set up in the front of the classroom to record the teacher-student interactions.

Table 1: The task list in the Topobo robotics course Task1: Snail Task2: Dragonfly Single motor Task3: Penguin Task4: Ant Task5: Shepherd dog Two motors Task6: Elk Task7: Dinosaur

Materials Topobo Topobo was designed by Raffle, Parkes, and Ishii in 2004. The Topobo programmable bricks are based on the concept of 3D construction. Topobo includes two kinds of bricks, active and passive. Passive bricks include straight-, T-, L- (900), and tetra- (1080) shaped bricks. The active bricks are egg-shaped objects that are able to record and play back movement (Figure 3). In this course, we provided Topobo bricks for the student to create different kinds of products.

Figure 3: Actives (left) and passives (right) in Topobo system

The teacher-student interaction coding scheme The teacher-student interaction coding scheme was based on a design from previous studies (Flanders, 1970; Perraton, 1987). Seven codes were included in this coding scheme: T1 (providing guidance), T2 (correcting mistakes), T3 (asking questions), S1 (assembling bricks), S2 (playing with the products), S3 (sharing and expressing ideas), and S4 (identifying and solving problems) (Table 2).

Table 2: Coding scheme for teacher-student interaction in robotics learning activities Code Actor Dimension Description T1 Teacher Providing The teacher explains how the activity proceeds. Guidance T2 Teacher Correcting The teacher identifies the student’s mistake and mistakes provides direction. T3 Teacher Asking The teacher asks questions to guide the student. questions S1 Student Assembling The student assembles bricks independently. The bricks teacher and the student assemble the bricks together. S2 Student Playing with The student plays with the product independently. The the products student and teacher play with the product together. S3 Student Sharing and The student shares his experience with the teacher. The expressing student shares his ideas with the teacher. ideas S4 Student Finding and The student identifies problems. The student proposes solving solutions to the problems. problems

For content analysis, each interaction behavior was coded by three educational researchers. Coding the four-hour robotics learning activities produced 432 codes. The value of the Kappa coefficient was .92 (p<.001), indicating that the data had very good inter-rater reliability.

Lag sequential analysis Lag sequential analysis was used to explore whether significant teacher-student interaction patterns existed. We also provided supplemental qualitative information for the significant interaction patterns during the Topobo robotics course. Lag sequential analysis is a useful tool for researchers to analyze relationships and extract patterns in behavior streams. It also allows the researchers to examine whether certain sequences of behaviors reached statistically significant levels (Bakeman & Quera, 1997). Lag sequential analysis has been applied in educational studies to explore knowledge construction patterns in online discussion forums. The sequential analysis software Multiple Episode Protocol Analysis 4.8 (MEPA 4.8), designed by Gijsbert Erkens, was used in this study.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Descriptive statistics of teacher-student interactions The distribution of coded interaction behaviors during the four-hour robotics learning activities is shown in Figure 4. The results indicate that S2 (playing) was the most frequent behavior (n=108, 25.00%), followed by S3 (sharing and expressing ideas: n=83, 19.21%) and T1 (guidance: n=80, 18.53%). The frequencies of the three codes (T2, S3, and S4) were much lower than the frequency of S2. T2 (correction) constituted only 6.02% of all interaction behaviors during the robotics learning activities. It is worth noting that in the robotics learning activities, the teacher rarely corrected the student’s errors directly (6.02%), and the child was encouraged to play with Topobo (25.00%). Additionally, T1 (guidance) was an important interaction behavior for the child, who often shared his ideas with the teacher during the robotics learning activities.

Figure 4: Distribution of quantitative content analysis of interaction behaviors in robotics learning

Lag sequential analysis of teacher-student interactions To further investigate whether significant interaction patterns were present during the robotics learning activities, calculations of sequential transfer matrixes were performed. The adjusted residual table of sequential analysis was then inferred (as shown in Table 3). Table 3 indicates that the seven sequences that reached a significant level during the robotics learning activities were T1ÆS1, T1ÆS2, T3ÆS3, T3ÆS4, S3ÆS2, S4ÆT1, and S4ÆT2 (Figure 5).

Table 3: Adjusted residuals table of sequential analysis (lag=1) T1 T2 T3 S1 S2 S3 S4 T1 -2.78 -1.02 0.06 3.34* 2.46* -0.44 -1.58 T2 -0.86 -0.48 0.55 -0.88 -0.21 0.00 1.84 T3 -2.01 -1.63 -1.95 -0.72 -2.61 4.87* 3.23* S1 0.51 1.29 -0.11 1.73 -2.25 1.18 -1.07 S2 1.62 -0.24 -0.52 -0.52 -2.01 1.87 -0.39 S3 -0.07 0.00 1.80 -0.99 2.77* -4.02 0.45 S4 3.07* 2.02* -0.12 -2.16 0.81 -2.29 -1.44 *P<0.05

Figure 5: Lag sequential-analysis diagram of teacher-student interaction in robotics learning activities

This study found that the student’s behaviors of identifying and solving problems were significantly followed by the teacher’s questions (T3ÆS4). The results indicated that the teacher’s questions triggered the student’s reflection. After analyzing the student’s behaviors in this sequence, it was found that 50% of the student’s behavior involved proposing solutions and 42% involved solving problems independently. These results suggest that teachers’ questions can encourage students to reflect on problems and attempt to identify possible solutions. However, S4 (finding and solving problems) did not occur repeatedly, indicating that the student could not identify and solve problems by himself and required the teacher’s support. Furthermore, the student’s behavior of expressing and sharing his ideas significantly followed the teacher’s questions (T3ÆS3) (z=3.23, p<.05), indicating that the teacher’s questions triggered the student’s reflection and expression. The content analysis showed that the student shared his new ideas most frequently and that the teacher’s questions triggered the student’s imagination and willingness to share his ideas. Additionally, the teacher often asked the student questions to identify his reasons for performing certain behaviors. The following excerpts of dialogue from the content analysis of the video demonstrate that the questions provided the opportunity for the student to explain the motivation behind his behavior.

Teacher: The snail walks very slowly. Can we help him? Student: Yes! Teacher: How? Student: We can assemble a whipping top! Teacher: How can a whipping top help the snail? Student: The whipping top can spin fast, and it can help the snail move faster. (20110130-S3-1-I006)

The sequence T1ÆS1 achieved significance(z=3.34, p<.05), indicating that the teacher’s guidance gave the student direction in assembling the programmable bricks. This sequence suggests that providing suitable support (such as helping to assemble the tiny components or explaining the task) helps the child to assemble the bricks independently. However, the results of the sequential analysis demonstrated that after the student finished assembling (S1), the action that sequentially connected to other behaviors showed no significant sequences. This result indicated that the assembling behavior did not extend to other creative thinking activities, such as playing (S2), sharing (S3) or problem solving (S4). Additionally, the sequence T1ÆS2 reached a statistically significant level (z=2.46, p<.05), suggesting that the student’s play behavior often followed the teacher’s guidance. Clearly introducing the course rules and objectives would help the teacher and student to achieve consensus and to cooperate in the game. After the student finished S2 (play), the sequential connection of this action to other behaviors showed no significant sequences. Thus, in the Topobo robotics course, play behaviors did not occur spontaneously, and the teacher’s guidance was important. The results indicate that the teacher’s guidance triggered the student’s building and playing behaviors. Furthermore, the teacher’s questions may trigger the student’s sharing and problem-solving behaviors. This result suggests that the teacher’s support was important to the student in this course.

To provide adequate support and maintain the student’s engagement in the course, the teacher paid attention to the student’s problems and attempted to provide appropriate support. Two sequences, S4ÆT2 (z=2.77, p<.05) and S4ÆT1 (z=3.07, p<.05), reached statistically significant levels, indicating that when the student had problems during the robotics learning activities, the teacher provided guidance. This behavioral transition Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 14 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

showed that the teacher cared about the student’s problems and provided guidance for the student during the Topobo robotics course.

The sequence S3ÆS2 achieved a statistically significant level, suggesting that before the child played with the programmable bricks or assembled products, he expressed and shared his ideas with the teacher. In Resnick’s model (Resnick, 2007), children shared their experiences or ideas only after they had the play experience. However, in this study, the student shared his ideas before he played the game to clarify the rules and goals of the task.

The relationship between course objectives and teacher-student interaction In this section, we examine the relationship between the course objectives and the teacher-student interactions.

Objective 1: Encourage the student to propose and share new ideas. One of the objectives of this course was to encourage the student to propose new ideas. Therefore, when the student proposed ideas, the teacher responded positively or by asking questions to allow the student to express his ideas. The lag sequential analysis indicated that the sequence T3ÆS3 (i.e., from the teacher’s question to the student’s sharing behavior) reached a significant correlation (z=4.87, p<.05). Through positive responses and questioning, the teacher encouraged the student to express new ideas. Furthermore, the sequence S4ÆT1 achieved a significant level. Following this sequence, when the student had problems, the teacher provided ideas for the student. After the discussion and sharing process, the student was able to generate more ideas. The following excerpt of dialogue from the content analysis of the video demonstrates these findings:

Student: I want to use the flag to distract the monster. Teacher: I think….how about using the whipping top? Student: Mm……Oh, I got it. I want to assemble a whipping top to defend against the monster’s attack. (20110130-T1-3-I115)

Learning to share and express ideas is a very important skill. Through the process of creating new products and sharing ideas, the student engaged in the creating process (Resnick, 2007). In this course, we encouraged the student to share and express his ideas through the teacher’s questions. The result of the sequential analysis showed that the sequence T3ÆS3 reached a significant level (n=19, z=4.87, p<.05), indicating that the teacher’s questions were a useful strategy to encourage the student to express his ideas. When the teacher asked questions, the student had to organize his thoughts and attempt to express them clearly. Through a series of questions, the teacher helped the student clarify his ideas, and the student was able to explain his thoughts and motives more clearly. The following excerpts of dialogue from the content analysis of the video demonstrate these findings:

After student assembled a fish: Teacher: ……Why are the fins of the fish not the same size? Student: Because the fish is sick… (20110130-T3-R159)

Student: Now, someone wants to steal their treasure. Teacher: Who? Students: This small green monster. Teacher: The green monster again? He usually comes to steal the treasure when people sleep. Why is he so bad? Student: Because he wears a mask. Teacher: So we cannot identify him? Student: Yes. (20110130-S3-1-P192)

Objective 2: Develop the student’s assembling skills and play with the programming bricks. In this course, we provided programmable bricks, Topobo, for the student to develop his assembling skills. Because the student lacked experience assembling the programmable bricks, the teacher guided the student systematically in an attempt to motivate the student to assemble the bricks. The result of the teacher-student interaction analysis indicated that the teacher’s guidance enhanced the student’s assembling behavior (i.e., T1ÆS1) (z=3.34, p<.05). In the process, the student learned to identify which kinds of bricks and motors he needed and how to analyze his mistakes. After analyzing the student’s assembling behaviors, it was found that the student assembled the bricks independently. As Figure 6 shows, the student gradually developed his motivation and ability to assemble the programmable bricks and completed a series of products to achieve the learning tasks. Play was an important objective in this course, and we hoped that the student would be able to Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 15 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

apply his own motivation to complete the tasks. The student had to learn to control the motor and construct the product in accordance with his imagination and design. Therefore, the teacher clearly explained the operation of the motor to the student. The sequential analysis showed that the sequence T1ÆS2 reached a significant level, indicating that guidance on the control and operation of the motor was useful for the student and allowed him to continue and complete the tasks.

Figure 6: The child’s six products

Objective 3: Discussion to help the student identify and solve problems. Reflection is an important element of the creative thinking spiral. Reflection helps a student to evaluate his products according to certain standards or rules and to choose suitable strategies to solve problems. A goal of this course was to encourage the student to develop the ability to identify problems, test possible solutions, attempt to fix the problem, solve the problem, and then attempt to refine his work. The sequential analysis showed that the sequence T3ÆS4 reached a significant level (n=12, z=3.23, p<.05), indicating that the teacher’s questions helped the student to identify problems and consider possible solutions.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS This study examined whether a child developed assembling abilities, willingness to share ideas, and the ability to identify and solve problems during the Topobo robotics course. The main purpose of this study was to develop a robotics course for kindergarten children and to investigate the patterns of teacher-student interactions to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. In this study, the child developed assembling ability, willingness to share his ideas, and the ability to identify and solve problems. Interestingly, the teacher’s guidance or support was very important for the children, and different strategies had different effects on the child’s behavior. Providing children with concrete rules and guidance is beneficial for their ability to assemble and play with the programmable bricks. Additionally, by asking children questions, teachers can help students to identify problems, propose solutions, and share their ideas. This study found that the teacher was an important element in enhancing the child’s learning and engagement in the robotics learning activities. Even in a constructivist learning environment, the role of teacher remains essential. By providing various suitable strategies, the child could use his imagination and could identify and solve problems. Programmable bricks were a new learning material for this kindergarten child, and the teacher’s support was necessary. Based on the results of this study, we suggest that teachers should provide different supportive strategies, such as providing guidance or asking questions, to help children develop their ability to assemble the programming bricks, identify and solve problems, and increase their willingness to propose and share their ideas.

Although the teacher’s support allowed the child to identify and propose solutions to problems, the child’s ability to identify and solve problems did not occur repeatedly. The student did not develop the habit of identifying and Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 16 TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2013, volume 12 Issue 1

solving problems independently. Chi, Siler, Jeong, Yamauchi and Hausmann (2001) suggested that in a one-to-one context, instructors could provide suitable support according to students’ needs. However, in such a context, children might feel that they are in an unequal position in relation to the teacher and rely on the adult’s help. Peer interaction is also an important element of a learning environment, but in a one-on-one context, the child had no peers to interact with and fewer opportunities to learn by observing, so he relied more on the teacher’s support. Because the programming bricks were a new technology for the child, concrete examples during the learning process that allow the child to observe or imitate would decrease the child’s difficulty in identifying and solving problems.

This work has some limitations that should be addressed in future research. A robotics course for kindergarten children was developed in this study is a one-on-one context. In future research, teacher-student interactions in a classroom context should be explored. Moreover, the teacher-student interaction patterns and peer interaction patterns could be compared to provide more information about how students interact with teachers or peers in a learning environment using programmable bricks. Furthermore, the design of the robotics course was based on the creative thinking spiral model, which includes five elements: imagining, creating, playing, sharing, and reflecting. The micro-view perspective was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the robotics course by exploring teacher-student interaction patterns. More empirical studies are required to identify the sequence pattern of the five elements in the robotics course and to provide more information about how kindergarten children develop their creative thinking during this type of course.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, under contract numbers NSC 101-2631-S-008-001, NSC 100-2511-S-008-017-MY2, and NSC 100-2511-S-008-006-MY2.

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APPLICATION OF INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA TOOLS IN TEACHING MATHEMATICS – EXAMPLES OF LESSONS FROM GEOMETRY

Marina Milovanović, Ph.D., Faculty of entrepreneurail business, Union University, 62 Cara Dušana str., 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]

MsC Jasmina Obradović Institute Goša, 35 , Milana Rakića str., 11 000, Belgrade, Serbia [email protected],

Aleksandar Milajić, Ph.D. Faculty of management in civil engeneering,, Union University, 62 Cara Dušana str., 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]

ABSTRACT This article presents the benefits and importance of using multimedia in the math classes by the selected examples of multimedia lessons from geometry (isometric transformations and regular polyhedra). The research included two groups of 50 first year students of the Faculty of the Architecture and the Faculty of Civil Construction Management. Each group was divided into two groups of 25 students, one of which had the traditional lectures, while the other one had the interactive multimedia lessons. The main source of information in multimedia lectures were the softwares created in Macromedia Flash, with the same definitions, theorems, examples and tasks as well as in traditional lectures but with emphasized visualization possibilities, animations, illustrations, etc. Both groups were tested after the lectures. In the both multimedia groups students showed better theoretical, practical and visual knowledge. Besides that, survey carried out at the end of the research clearly showed that students from multimedia groups were highly interested in this way of learning. Keywords: multimedia learning; multimedia lessons; isometric transformations; regular polyhedra.

INTRODUCTION Mathematics teachers show great interest in visualization of the mathematical terms and emphasize that visualized lectures are of the great help in developing abstract thinking in mathematics (Bishop, 1989). It is of the major importance to connect the existing pictures that students have on certain terms in order to develop them further and to enable students to accept the further knowledge (Tall, 1991). Therefore, in teaching mathematics it is necessary to combine the picture method and the definition method in order to improve the existing knowledge and to enlarge it with the new facts, which is one of the points of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001, 2005). Recent researches on presentation methods in teaching mathematics are focused on testing different visualization methods, such as pictures, two- and three-dimensional animations in order to find the most appropriate and the most understandable ones (Rias, Zaman, 2011).

Geometry is the branch of mathematics in which the visualization is one of the most essential elements for understanding presented definitions and theorems, as well as for solving the given tasks and problems. Experience in working with students showed that they find it difficult to ’imagine’ the picture of a given problem and that they will be more successful in solving the task if it is adequately presented both textually and visually. Furthermore, if we use the multimedia presentation of the problem instead of the picture in order to enable visualization with animated ’movements’ in three-dimensional space, solving of the problem will be much easier and more interesting. Numerous authors who have investigated the methodology of teaching geometry have emphasized that it is of essential importance for a teacher to understand students’ conceptions or misconceptions of important ideas (Glass, Deckert, 2001). It is also important for a teacher to consider various approaches to teaching, to offer activities that probe students’ understanding, and to analyse students' work (Hollebrands, 2004).

Modern methods in multimedia learning include the whole range of different possibilities applicable in mathematics lectures for different levels of education and with various interactive levels (Hadjerrouit, 2011; Herceg, 2009; Milovanovic, 2005; Milovanović, Takaci, Milajic, 2011; Takači, Stojković, Radovanovic, 2008; Takači, Herceg, Stojković, 2006; Takači, Pešić, 2004). These authors suggested using different kinds of software in education. There are several investigations on using software tools in teaching geometry, such as GeoGebra (Bulut, 2011), Geometers’ Sketchpad (GSP), (Nordin, Zakaria, Mohamed, Embi, 2010) etc.

All the above-mentioned resulted in an idea of making applicative software which would be helpful in a modern and more interesting approach to the field of teaching mathematics. The purpose of the software was to raise the students’ knowledge in a field of isometric transformations and regular polyhedra to a higher level. So, the aim of this article is to recognize the importance of multimedia in the teaching process as well as to examine the students’ reaction to this way of learning and teaching.

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION OF SEVERAL PROBLEMS FROM THE SCOPE OF ISOMETRIC TRANSFORMATIONS AND REGULAR POLYHEDRA Multimedia lessons presented in this work included isometric transformations (line and point reflection, translation and rotation) and regular polyhedra as the basic fields of the mathematical geometry. These topics are also important because they are being introduced very early in learning mathematics, in the primary school. They are also present throughout the higher levels of education both directly and indirectly, using numerous examples of their implementation. Therefore, studying isometric transformations and regular polyhedral throughout education is one of the most important segments of teaching mathematics.

The emphasis was on using computers, i.e. multimedia software in learning, because animations enable students to see not only the final result of an isometric transformation but also the ‘movement’ that produced it. Besides that, student can rotate any polyhedron and see it from all sides in order to solve the given task.

Assorted examples and problems from multimedia lectures on Isometric Transformations Our lectures on isometric transformations (start page shown on Figure 1), consist of four units: line and point reflection, translation and rotation (Milovanovic, 2005). Lesson about every transformation is presented by the following chapters: Basics, Examples, Some characteristics, Exercises, Problems and Examples from everyday life. In creating multimedia lessons, special attention was paid to enabling students to find out the solutions individually.

Figure 1. Start page of multimedia lesson about the Isometric Transformations.

Example 1. Basic idea of this example is to help students to see, comprehend and implement the line reflection in different cases before giving them the exact definition. Students were asked to recognize the common characteristic of given figures [see, Figure 2a] and to find which two of them do not belong in the group. After that, the solution was offered for all the figures except the third and the last one [Figure 2b], in which it was shown that there is at least one line along which we can fold the paper and every point from one side would fall on corresponding point on the other side.

Figure 2. Problem (a) and solution (b) for introducing the idea of symmetry. a) b)

Example 2. In next step, students were asked to look at the figures shown on Figure 3a and to find out if there is an axis of symmetry for any given pair of figures. After that, multimedia animation led them to the correct answer, see [Figure 3b].

Figure 3. Problem (a) and solution (b) for introducing the axis of symmetry. a) b)

Examples 3 and 4. Following two examples [Figure 4 and 5] introduce definitions of rotation and translation of a given shape. Unlike the standard lectures, students were enabled to rotate the given figure by themselves [Figure 4], as well as to see the movement of any point of the figure [Figure 5].

Figure 4. Rotation. a) b)

Let S be shape given in plane α and vector v coplanar with α. If shape S′ is set of all points that were copied from the shape S by translation Tv (Tv,(A)=A′, Tv,(B)=B′, Tv,(C)=C′), then we say that shape S is translated into shape S′ using translation Tv, i.e. Tv,(S)=S′.

Figure 5. Translation. a) b) c)

Example 5.Two billiard balls, A and B, are on the rectangular table, as shown on Figure 6-a. How should we hit the ball A if we want it to strike all four rails before hitting the ball B?

Solution. Let us mark the rectangle (billiard table) as XYUV, and A'=IXV(A), A''=IXY(A'), B'=IUV(B), B''=IUY(B'). (Multimedia presentation shows transformation step by step.)

Figure 6a. Disposition of the billiard balls problem.

If we mark the intersection of lines A''B'' and XY as M, the intersection of lines A''B'' and UY as N, the intersection of lines A'M and XV as P, and the intersection of lines B'N and UV as Q, it can be noticed that the following angles are equal: APV=A'PV=XPM,PMX=XMA''=NMY, MNY=B''NU=UNQ, and NQU=B'QV=VQB. (Multimedia presentation shows drawing of every line and their intersections, i.e. above-mentioned points.)

Figure 6b. Steps in finding the solution.

Therefore, ball in point A should be hit in such a way that would send it through points P,M, N and Q, and it will finally hit the ball in point B (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Solution of a given task as given by the multimedia animation.

Chapter Exercises offers numerous tasks ordered by difficulty, from basic to more demanding ones, each containing explicit solution or instructions how to reach it. In great majority of them, lecturer leads a student to think and to find a conclusion before it is shown on the screen. Animations do not show the whole solution at once, but steb by step.

Multimedia lessons about regular polyhedra Multimedia lessons in this segment consist of the following chapters: Basics, Paper models of regular polyhedra, Discussion on number of polyhedra, Conclusions, Exercises and Homework.

Figure 8. Start page of multimedia lesson about the regular polyhedral.

Example 6. Students were given the opportunity to rotate any of five Platonic solids in order to find out how many surfaces, vertices, edges and angles it has (Figure 9). Multimedia lesson is created in such a way to lead a student to the correct answer using offered possible answers (Figure 10).

Figure 9. Rotation of cube.

Figure 10. Solution of a given task.

Example of animated multimedia lesson which shows the problem and the step-by-step solution is given on Figure 11.

Example 7. Cut given regular tetrahedron of edge lentgh a and regular four-sided pyramid of edge length a into pieces which can be assembled to form a cube. a Remark: Described solids can be assembled to form a cube of edge length . Regular four-sided pyramid 2 should be cut into four equal parts which will be rested on the faces of regular tetrahedron.

Explanation: If the cube has edge length a, length of its diagonal is da= 2 . Therefore, four-sided pyramid should be cut into four pieces, i.e. three-sided pyramids whose bases are quarters of the base of original regular pyramid. Two edges of these pyramids will have the length a, and the other two edges will have the length equal one half of aa2 diagonal, i.e. bc== = . 2 2

Figure 11. Solution of a problem given step-by-step.

a) b)

c) d)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Aim and questions of the research On the basis of previous researches and results (Hadjerrouit, 2011; Herceg & Herceg, 2009; Takači, Stojković, Radovanovic, 2008), some of the questions during this research were as follows: 1) Are there any differences between results of the first group of students, who had traditional lectures (control group – traditional group) and the second group, who had multimedia lectures (experimental group – multimedia group)? 2) Where were these differences the most obvious? 3) What do students from the experimental group think about multimedia lectures? Do they prefer this or traditional way and why?

Participants of the research The research included two groups of 50 first year students of the Faculty of the Architecture and the Faculty of Civil Construction Management (CCM) of the Union Nikola Tesla University, Belgrade, Serbia. Each group was divided into two groups of 25, one of which (Group I) had traditional lectures and the second one (Group II) had multimedia lectures. Groups were formed randomly, so the previous knowledge needed for the lectures about isometric transformations and regular polyhedra was practically the same, which was confirmed by pre-test. The pre-test included theoretical questions and tasks from geometry. Average score of this pre-test was statistically similar between these groups (I: 72.35, II: 71.25 out of 100).

Methods and techniques of the research Lectures in both groups included exactly the same information on the isometric transformations and regular polyhedra, i.e. axioms, theorems, examples and tasks. It is important to emphasize that the lecturer and the number of classes were the same, too. The main information source for the multimedia group was software created in Macromedia Flash 10.0, which is proven to be very successful and illustrative for creating multimedia applications in mathematics lectures (Bakhoum, 2008). Our multimedia lecturing material was created in accordance with methodical approach, i.e. cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001, 2005), as well as with principles of multimedia teaching and design based on researches in the field of teaching mathematics (Atkinson, 2005, Merill, 2003) and geometry (Lehrer, Chazan, 1998). The material includes a large number of dynamic and graphic presentations of definitions, theorems, characteristics, examples and tests based on step-by- step method with accent on visualization. An important quality of making one’s own multimedia lectures is the possibility of creating a combination of traditional lecture and multimedia support in those areas we have mentioned as the ‘weak links’ (three-dimensional problems, tasks in which it is important to see the movement, etc.).

After the lectures were finished, students had the same test of knowledge about the isometric transformations and regular polyhedra, solved without using the computers.

Isometic transofrmations – Test 1

1. Which of the following shapes are axially and centrally symmetric: • Ray • Circle • Line • Parallelogram • Isosceles triangle • Isosceles trapezium • Deltoid 2. Translation which copies line a into line b is possible if the lines are: a) perpendicular b) parallel c) intersecting How many axes of symmetry does a circle have? d) 2 e) 4 f) infinite What does remain fixed in the point reflection? a) Point of reflection b) Points of the image c) Points of the pre-image Rotation is completely defined by: a) Centre of rotation b) Angle of rotation c) Centre of rotation and angle of rotation 3. How many axes of symmetry do the following letters have: E, O, N, H, Z, C, S? 4. Smaller rectangle is cut out of the greater rectangle. Draw a line p which will divide the remaining figure in two parts of equal area. 5. Two points, A and B, are given from the same side of the line p. Find the point P on the line pin which the ray of light starting in point A will reflect and pass through the point B. (Note: Use the fact that angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.)

Regular polyhedra – Test 2

1. How many • edges • surfaces • angles • vertices has each of the Platonic solids? 2. Prove that there are exactly five regular polyhedra. 3. How many equilateral polygons are there and how many of them meets in each vertex of cube, tetrahedron, dodecahedron, octahedron and icosahedron? 4. Cut the cube with a plane to create: a) Scalene triangle b) Equilateral triangle c) Isosceles triangle 5. What is the volume of a regular tetrahedron of edge lentgh a?

Test score were within the interval from 0 to 100 (20 points per task). Results were analyzed with Student’s t-test for independent samples using SPSS (version 10.0) software. The difference between groups was considered statistically significant if the probability p was less than 0.05.

RESULTS Average score of the Test 1 (isometric transformations) in the traditional group from the Faculty of Architecture was 76.56 with standard deviation 18.64, and in multimedia group, average score was 86.96 with standard

deviation 17.72. Results of the t-test for two independent samples showed that multimedia group had significantly higher scores in comparison with the traditional group, with statistical significance of p<0.05 (t = – 2.022, p = 0.049). Average score of the same test in the traditional group from the Faculty of Civil Construction Management was 76.64 with standard deviation 18.53, and in multimedia group, average score was 88.12 with standard deviation 18.11. Results of the t-test for two independent samples showed that multimedia group had significantly higher scores in comparison with the traditional group, with statistical significance of p<0.05 (t = 2.216, p = 0.031).

Average score of the Test 2 (regular polyhedra) in the traditional group from the Faculty of Architecture was 72.64 with standard deviation 12.19, and in multimedia group, average score was 85.20 with standard deviation 13.11. Results of the t-test for two independent samples showed that multimedia group had significantly higher scores in comparison with the traditional group, with statistical significance of p<0.05(t = 3.508, p = 0.001). Average score of the same test in the traditional group from the Faculty of Civil Construction Management was 75.80 with standard deviation 15.59, and in multimedia group, average score was 86.80 with standard deviation 14.28. Results of the t-test for two independent samples showed that multimedia group had significantly higher scores in comparison with the traditional group, with statistical significance of p<0.05(t = – 2.601, p = 0.002).

Average total test scores for both faculties are given in Figures 12, and average scores by tasks are given in Tables 1 and 2.

Figure 12. Total average scores for a) Test 1 and b) Test 2.

Table 1: Total average scores by tasks for Test 1. Std. Sig (2- Task Faculty Group N Mean T value Deviation tailed)

Traditional 25 2.55 (Control) 17.4 Architecture -1.047 0.3 Multimedia 25 18.2 2.84 (Treatment) Task 1

Traditional(Control) 18.2 2.45 25 CCM -0.837 0.41 Multimedia 25 18.8 2.61 (Treatment) Traditional 25 3.5 (Control) 18.2 Architecture -1.55 0.128 Multimedia 25 19.4 1.66 Task 2 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 16.9 4.26 CCM Multimedia -2.43 0.02 25 19 2.5 (Treatment) Traditional 25 17.36 3.83 Task 3 Architecture (Control) -1.012 0.316 Multimedia 25 18.36 2.12

(Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 17.96 3.8 CCM Multimedia -0.407 0.69 25 18.36 3.12 (Treatment) Traditional 25 13.2 3.79 (Control) Architecture -4.265 0.000 Multimedia 25 17.8 3.84 Task 4 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 13.6 3.68 CCM Multimedia -3.918 0.000 25 17.76 3.82 (Treatment) Traditional 25 12.8 4.58 (Control) Architecture -3.38 0.001 Multimedia 25 16.4 2.71 Task 5 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 12.68 4.33 CCM Multimedia -4.7 0.000 25 17.4 2.55 (Treatment)

Table 2: Total average scores by tasks for Test 2. Std. Sig (2- Task Faculty Group N Mean t value Deviation tailed)

Traditional 25 17.4 2.55 (Control) Architecture -0.84 0.405 Multimedia 25 18 2.5 (Treatment) Task 1

Traditional(Control) 17 2.89 25 CCM -0.833 0.410 Multimedia 25 17.8 3.84 (Treatment) Traditional 25 14.4 4.16 (Control) Architecture -2.677 0.01 Multimedia 25 17 2.5 Task 2 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 16.8 2.45 CCM Multimedia -1.42 0.162 25 17.8 2.53 (Treatment) Traditional 25 17.4 2.93 (Control) Architecture -1.51 0.138 Multimedia 25 18.52 2.28 Task 3 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 17.2 4.35 CCM Multimedia -0.552 0.583 25 17.8 3.25 (Treatment) Traditional 25 12.8 4.8 (Control) Architecture -3.212 0.002 Task 4 Multimedia 25 16.6 3.45 (Treatment) CCM Traditional(Control) 25 12.2 4.1 -4.023 0.000

Multimedia 25 17 4.33 (Treatment) Traditional 25 11.04 5.14 (Control) Architecture -3.027 0.004 Multimedia 25 15.08 4.25 Task 5 (Treatment) Traditional(Control) 25 12.6 5.79 CCM Multimedia -2.761 0.009 25 16.2 2.99 (Treatment)

When asked whether they prefer classical or multimedia way of learning, in group of Architecture students 12% (3 students) answered classical and 82% (22 students) answered multimedia, and in group Civil Construction Management students of 20 % (5 students) answered classical and 80 % (20 students) answered multimedia, explaining it with the following reasons: • ‘Picture is essential for understanding geometry, and it is even better with animation and movements in 3-D space’. • ‘It is much easier to see and understand some things, and much easier to comprehend with the help of step-by-step animation’. • ‘Much more interesting and easier to follow, in opposite to traditional monotonous lectures with formulas and static graphs’. • ‘More interesting and easier to see, understand and remember’. • ‘I understand it much better this way and I would like to have similar lectures in other subjects, too’. • ‘Quite interesting, although classical lectures can be interesting – depending on teacher’.

When asked whether it was easier for them to learn, understand and solve problems after having lectures and individual work with multimedia approach, students answered the question as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Students’answers – a) Architecture, b) Civil Construction Management.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS During past few years, multimedia learning has become very interesting and important topic in the field of teaching methodology. Mayer and Atkinson’s researches (Mayer, 2001; Atkinson, 2005) resulted in establishing the basic principles of multimedia learning and design, which were confirmed in our research too. Results of researches on teaching geometry (Lehrer, Chazan, 1998; Glass, Deckert, 2001), as well as researches of geometric transformations (Hollebrands, 2004), coincide with our findings and emphases the importance of visualization in the intuitive understanding of geometry. Multimedia lessons about the isometric transformations and regular polyhedra, created in accordance with these principles, proved to be successful.

Numerous researches in different fields of science, as well as in mathematics and geometry, showed that using multimedia makes learning process easier (Hadjerrouit, 2011; Herceg & Herceg, 2009; Takači, Stojković, Radovanovic, 2008; Takači, Herceg, Stojković, 2006; Takači, Pešić, 2004; Takači, Pešić, Tatar, 2003).

Our results show that students who have used multimedia learning achieved remarkably higher test scores. Average total scores for Test 1 (isometric transformations) show that students of the Faculty of Architecture who had multimedia lessons had 10.4 points higher average total score than students from the traditional group, while the students of the multimedia group at the Faculty of Civil Construction Management had 11.48 points higher

average total score than students from the traditional group. On Test 2 (regular polyhedra), students from the multimedia group at the Faculty of Architecture had average total score 12.56 points higher than students from traditional group, while at the Faculty of Civil Construction Management students from the multimedia group had 11 points higher average total score than the students from traditional group.

Researches on learning geometry with software packages GeoGebra (Bulut, 2011) and Geometers’ Sketchpad (Nordin, Zakaria, Mohamed, Embi, 2010) have shown that students who had used computers in the learning process had higher scores on tests. These investigations were conducted using different multimedia teaching tools in learning geometry. Our results of higher tests scores after learning with Macromedia Flash animations have proven the general importance of using various multimedia in the process of teaching mathematics.

According to Tables 1 and 2, which show average single tasks scores, we concluded that students from both multimedia groups were remarkably more successful in solving problems which demand visual comprehension (tasks 4 and 5), while the average scores in tasks 1, 2 and 3 were practically the same on the both groups. Solving tasks 4 and 5 demanded visual and spatial understanding of the problems, and according to students, it was essential to be able to see given bodies and intersections by using movements in three-dimensional space, from different angles, and to implement adopted knowledge in solving new problems. This approach, based on experience in work with students and awareness of their intuitive understanding of geometry and space, corresponds to the results of some other authors (Lehrer, Chazan, 1998; Glass, Deckert, 2001; Hollebrands, 2004).

Numerous researches on multimedia learning include analyses of comments on how much multimedia approach affects teaching and individual learning processes (Wishart, 2000). Teachers emphasized that multimedia lectures have made their work easier and have proved to be motivating for students, while students said that multimedia lessons, in comparison with traditional methods, have offered better visual idea about the topic. As shown in Figure 13, a large number of them insisted that multimedia tools enabled easier understanding, learning and implementation of knowledge.

One of this research’s conclusions can be one student’s answer to the question: what is multimedia learning? ‘Multimedia learning is use of multimedia as an addition to the traditional way of learning. Multimedia enables us to have better understanding of many mathematical problems and to experiment with them.’ According to the students’ reactions, animations used in the multimedia lessons are the best proof that a picture is worth a thousand words. It can be added that animation is worth even more. Students’ remark, and consequently one of this research’s on conclusions, was that there should be more multimedia lessons, i.e. that multimedia is an important aspect of teaching and learning process.

GUIDELINES FOR FURTHER RESEARCHES During our research, several new questions appeared that should be solved in the future: (a) In which scientific fields does the multimedia approach give the best results? b) For which areas of mathematics (geometry, analyses, etc.) would the multimedia approach be the most successful? (c) How much success of the multimedia approach depends on an individual student’s ability and how much on a teacher’s skills? (d) How can we improve the understanding of lectures by multimedia approach, because our aim is learning and understanding, not the multimedia per se.

REFERENCES Atkinson, R., (2005). Multimedia Learning of Mathematics in Mayer, R., (2005). The Cambridge handbook of Multimedia Learning, Cambridge University Press, 393-408. Bakhoum, Е., (2008).Animating an equation: a guide to using FLASH in mathematics education. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, Vol.39, No. 5, 637–655, Taylor & Francis. Bishop, A., (1989). Review of research on visualization in mathematics education. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, 11 (1), 7-16. Bulut, M., Bulut, N., Pre service teachers’ usage of dynamic mathematics software The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology– October 2011, volume 10 Issue 4. Glass, B., Deckert, W., (2001). Making Better Use of Computer Tools in Geometry, Мathematics teacher, Volume 94, Issue 3, Page 224. Hadjerrouit, S., (2011). Using the interactive learning environment Aplusix for teaching and learning school algebra: a research experiment in a middle school. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – October 2011, volume 10 Issue 4.

Herceg, D., & Herceg, Đ., (2009). The definite integral and computer. The teaching of mathematics, Vol. XII,1, pp.33-44. Hollebrands, K., (2004). High School Students' Intuitive Understandings of Geometric Transformations, Мathematics teacher, Volume 97, Issue 3, Page 207. Lehrer, R., Chazan, D., (1998). Designing Learning Environments for Developing Understanding of Geometry and Space, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah. Mayer, R., (2001). Multimedia Learning, Cambridge University Press. Mayer, R., (2005). The Cambridge handbook of Multimedia Learning, Cambridge University Press. Milovanovic, M. Application of Multimedia in Teaching Isometric Transformations, MSc thesis (in Serbian) Faculty of Mathematics, Belgrade University, 2005. Milovanović, M., Takaci, Đ., Milajic, A., (2011),Multimedia approach in teaching mathematics - examples of interactive lessons from mathematical analysis and geometry in Interactive Multimedia, InTech, Croatia, ISBN: 979-953-307-623-1. Milovanović, M., Takaci, Đ., Milajic, A., (2011), Multimedia Approach in Teaching Mathemathics – Example of Lesson about the Definite Integral Application for Determining an Area, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, Volume 42 Issue 2, 175-187., ISSN 0020-739X. Nordin, N, Zakaria, E, Mohamed, N, Embi, M., (2010), Pedagogical usability of the Geometers’ Sketchpad (GSP) digital module in the mathematics teaching The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – October 2011, volume 9 Issue 4. Rias, M.R., Zaman B.H., (2011). Different visualization types in multimedia learning: a comparative study, Proceeding of the second international conference on Visual informatics: sustaining research and innovations – Volume Part II, Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, 408-418, ISBN: 978-3-642-25199-.3 Tall, D., (1991). Advanced mathematical thinking, Springer. Takači, Dj, Stojković, R., Radovanovic, J., (2008). The influence of computer on examining trigonometric functions, Teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, 6/1, 111-123, Debrecen, Hungary. Takači, Đ., Herceg D., Stojković R., (2006). Possibilities and limitations of Scientific Workplace in studying trigonometric functions, The Teaching of Mathematics,VIII_2 / 2006, 61-72, Belgrade. Takači, Dj., Pešić, D., (2004). The Continuity of Functions in Mathematical Education-Visualization method, in Serbian, Nastava matematike (The Teaching of Mathematics), 49, 3-4, Beograd. Takači, Dj., Pešić, D., Tatar, J., (2003). An introduction to the Continuity of functions usingScientific Workplace, The Teaching of Mathematics, Vol. VI, 2, Belgrade, 105-112. Wishart, J., (2000). Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Motivation and Learning Through the Use in Schools of Multimedia Encyclopedias on CD-ROM. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 9(4), 331-345.

CAN AN ELECTRONIC TEXTBOOKS BE PART OF K-12 EDUCATION?: CHALLENGES, TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS AND OPEN ISSUES

HeeJeong Jasmine Lee School of Information Technology Monash University [email protected]

Chris Messom School of Information Technology, Monash University [email protected]

Kok-Lim Alvin Yau Faculty of Science and Technology, Sunway University [email protected]

ABSTRACT An electronic textbook (e-Textbook) is a digitized (or electronic) form of textbook, which normally needs an endorsement by the national or state government when it is used in the K-12 education system. E-Textbooks have been envisioned to replace existing paper-based textbooks due to its educational advantages. Hence, it is of paramount importance for the relevant parties (i.e. national and state governments, or school districts) to draw a comprehensive roadmap of technologies necessary for the successful adoption of e-Textbooks nationwide. This paper provides a brief overview of e-Textbooks and subsequently an extensive discussion on challenges associated with e-Textbooks in the pursuit of replacing traditional textbooks with e-Textbooks. This paper further provides an extensive review on how the challenges have been approached using existing e-Textbook technologies, such as multi-touch technology, e-Paper, Web 2.0 and cloud computing. Literature review and interview have been conducted to identify the challenges of e-Textbooks implementation in terms of e-Textbook usage levels and the reasons of its refusal. There were 180 students and 20 academic staff participated as a sample for interviews. Eight categories of key challenges were identified. Subsequently, assessment was performed on how the evolving e-Textbook technology has been applied to address the key challenges and problems. This article aims to provide a strong foundation for further investigations in e-Textbooks for successful adoption of e-Textbooks in school education.

INTRODUCTION Electronic textbooks (e-Textbooks) or digital textbooks are digitized forms of textbooks that will potentially replace existing paper-based textbooks in the school curriculum. Compared to traditional textbooks, advantages of e-Textbooks have been reported in the literature (Boorsok & Higginbothan-Wheat, 1991; Ozsoyoglu et al., 2004; Kausar, Choudhry & Gujjar, 2008; Kayaoğlu, Akbaş & Öztürk, 2011). Firstly, the incorporation of multimedia contents, such as video clips, animations and education-based games, are some of the elements of e-Textbooks that have been shown to capture students’ interest in study. Secondly, e-Textbooks allow teachers to “customize and produce content by re-purposing to suit what needs to be taught, using different modules that may suit a learner’s learning style, region, language, or level of skill, while adhering to the local education standards” (CK-12 Foundation, 2008, Next generation textbooks section, para. 1). Thirdly, students are no longer carrying backpacks loaded with heavy textbooks to schools. Fourthly, e-Textbooks enable easy backup and replacement so that any losses can be easily replaced by new copies from e-Textbook servers. Fifthly, fast update and access to the latest content are possible.

E-Textbooks have been envisioned to be a preferred and common choice of teaching and learning tool in the very near future. Recently, schools in the UK, USA and Australia have started pilot testing using devices such as Apple®’s iPad and Amazon®’s Kindle® to convert the content of paper-based textbooks to e-Textbooks (Ipadacademy, 2010; Warschauer, 2011). While e-Textbooks are seen as promising, its introduction to the classroom is seen as a major challenge. A wide range of problems and issues (e.g. curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and infrastructure) associated with e-Textbooks must be addressed. This article focuses on the technological aspects of e-Textbooks, and provides extensive discussions pertaining to two main concerns. Firstly, proper selection of hardware and software components is necessary. Secondly, proper methods to enhance teaching and learning experience in the classroom for teachers and students using e-Textbooks are necessary.

While there are numerous reports and studies on e-learning (Haddad & Draxler, 2002; Kapp, 2003; Bates, 2005) and the advantages of e-Textbooks; a technical review that provides extensive discussion on the challenges, as

well as important technologies of e-Textbooks, is notably absent. Hence, the discussions in this article would be highly relevant to developing and distributing e-Textbooks in K-12 education (i.e. a term used to describe the duration of primary and secondary education). The research outcome in this study provides important suggestions on new features to be incorporated into e-Textbooks. This article also serves as a foundation for further investigations in this emerging research area.

The remainder of this article introduces research questions, and describes research methodologies used in this study. This article also details the major problems and issues stemming from the migration of paper-based textbooks to e-Textbooks, and subsequently, it proposes a comprehensive strategy framework to overcome problems and issues associated with e-Textbooks. Additionally, this article presents open issues. Finally, a summary of this article, limitations and future work are presented.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS This research aims to explore two main research questions pertaining to the successful adoption of e-Textbooks in the national curriculum for K-12 education programme. The research questions are as follows: • Research Question Q1 - What are the challenges and factors relevant to the adoption or refusal of e-Textbooks? • Research Question Q2 - What are the technological solutions to the challenges and factors relevant to the adoption or refusal of e-Textbooks?

METHODOLOGY This study involves extensive literature review and interview to gather and identify important information, such as the key challenges and the fundamental technologies associated with the introduction of e-Textbooks in classroom. Additionally, the key international market players of e-Textbooks are identified based on the current literature and through the University of Monash’s library, including (a) IEEE Xplore, (b) the ACM Online Library, and (c) ScienceDirect. There are three main steps, namely problem analysis, technology review, and suggestion for the integration of this technology into e-Textbooks.

In the first step, we performed problem analysis through a literature review in existing literature as presented in challenges associated with e-Textbooks section. Subsequently, we interviewed academic staff and students in order to identify the key challenges and problems pertaining to the successful adoption of e-Textbooks. We identified eight categories of key challenges. 20 academic staff and 180 students were selected as a sample for supporting interviews. The objective of the interview is to understand the perceptions of students and academic staff on the challenges of e-Textbooks in order to reinforce the key challenges and problems identified in the literature review. They were chosen through purposive sampling. This involves “those situations where the researcher already knows something about the specific people or events and deliberately selects particular ones because they are seen as instances that are likely to produce the most valuable data” (Denscombe, 2007, p. 17). Therefore, a purposive sample of 20 academic staff having experience in different status positions was taken (e.g. teachers, principals, head teachers etc.). The respondents were working in well-known schools in Bandar Sunway in Malaysia and had a better understanding of the challenges of e-Textbooks. Bandar Sunway is a suburban area in Selangor, Malaysia. It has good access to the metropolitan centres such as Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. The school embraces technology utilizing the Smart board system. It has a wireless internet, where each student uses their own laptop. A purposive sample of 180 students was chosen by teachers. These students were chosen because they may know the challenges and problems pertaining to the successful adoption of e-Textbooks. For the interview, firstly, a hands-on short tutorial was given to them about e-Textbooks including an explanation on how the e-book is different from the e-Textbook. Next, respondents explain their opinions associated with e-Textbooks. Interview was used in order to reinforce the key challenges and problems identified in the literature review. Therefore interview results were used as reference in this study.

In the second step, we performed an extensive technology review and assessment on the evolving e-Textbook technology in order to understand how the key challenges and problems identified in the literature review and the interview have been approached using the state-of-the-art technology in e-Textbooks.

In the third step, we performed assessment on how the evolving e-Textbook technology in Table 1 has been applied to address the key challenges and problems. The technology review was performed by collecting data from various official websites of major market players. There are four categories of market players, namely textbook reader, reading software, display and open education resource. Textbook readers are portable electronic devices for reading digital books. Reading software are the software applications, which are installed in the textbook readers, used to access e-Textbooks. Displays are output devices for enhanced or larger view of textbook readers. For instance, a textbook reader can be connected to large interactive display table. Open

educational resources (OER) are digital content of paper-based textbooks, which can be freely available through open licenses. The market players and off-the-shelf technologies of e-Textbooks are shown in Table 1. The selected websites in Table 1 provide an extensive information resource aimed at promoting e-Textbooks to end users. Data collection was performed from May 2010 to March 2012.

Table 1: Market players and off-the-shelf technologies of e-Textbooks Category Market player/ Website off-the-shelf technology Amazon®’s Kindle® DX http://www.amazon.com Textbook Apple®’s iPad® http:// www.apple.com/ipad reader Samsung® Galaxy Tab http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab EPUB http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB Reading CourseSmart http://www.coursesmart.com software iBooks® 2 http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks Google Play Books https://play.google.com/about/books LG® Display http://www.lgdisplay.com Display Hyundai multi touch table http://www.hyundai-displays.com iPhonetable http:// iphonetable.blogsopot.com Flexbook http://www.ck12.org Open Discovery Education http://discoveryeducation.com education Connexions http://cnx.org resource Wikibooks http://wikibooks.org ReadWriteThink http://readwritethink.org

CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH E-TEXTBOOKS This section addresses research question Q1: What are the challenges and factors relevant to the adoption or refusal of e-Textbooks? A wide range of issues covering technical, social, cultural and budget aspects must be overcome in the migration of paper-based textbooks to e-Textbooks. This section discusses a number of challenges discovered in previous studies (Catone, 2009; Sadon & Yamshon, 2011; Chen et al., 2011). In general, the challenges, together with the interview results, can be divided into eight categories, namely providing lower price, standardising format of content, improving service reliability, improving quality and accuracy of content, increasing life of ownership, reducing health risk and visual fatigue, improving readability, and protecting copyright. As interview used as reference, only selected interview data are included based on their relevance in eight categories. Identifying information (e.g. name, address) has been removed from the data.

Providing Lower Price The migration from paper-based textbooks to e-Textbooks is expected to incur substantial investment, and so it is a primary concern. While the costs associated with paper-based textbook (e.g. printing, warehousing, selling and shipping) are eliminated; there are costs of going digital. The costs of e-Textbooks are associated with the fundamental elements of e-Textbooks, namely hardware and software components of e-Textbooks, network infrastructure and supporting equipment. Other costs are installation (or integration) of hardware and software components, internet access, maintenance and operational costs, upgrade and replacement costs, support and training. The costs may be high if frequent update is necessary; for instance, Apple® launched 3 generations of iPad® in 2 years although the software was broadly compatible.

Catone (2009) points out that students would not switch to e-Textbooks if the cost saving is minimal. Catone (2009) also points out that, “those cost savings will have to become more significant for students to start opting for electronic texts over printed ones” (Chapter 1, para. 3). Our interview shows that e-Textbooks must be cheaper than paper-based textbooks: “Unless prices are drastically lower, no – one will adopt it.” [Student 166] “I want to use e-Textbooks, however they can’t cost more than the ones at the bookstore or Amazon.” [Student 120] “When e-Textbooks become mandatory, they should be available for all groups of people without excluding children from poorer families.” [Teacher 13] Hence, further efforts are necessary to investigate a comprehensive budget plan so that the costs associated with migration to e-Textbooks become economical.

Standardising Format of Content There are two kinds of compatibility, namely software compatibility and hardware compatibility. Software

compatibility is the ability of an application to run on different computers without the need to change its format; while hardware compatibility is the ability to connect different devices without the use of certain equipment or software (Dictionary.com, 2012). The inclusion of multimedia and interactivity features into various e-book formats (e.g. PDF, ePub, txt and html) has produced a wide range of e-Textbook formats. Additionally, different countries may use different formats. Hence, a student who purchases and installs a particular vendor lock-in reader may not be able to access contents from different vendors and countries, as well as to transfer e-Textbooks from one level (primary school) to another level (secondary school).

Catone (2009) and Sadon and Yamshon (2011) discuss the issue of incompatibility between e-Textbook content and the reading device, and that the format war for e-Textbooks is a hurdle that must be overcome. Our interview shows that e-Textbooks must be highly compatible: “I won’t buy anything if it’s not compatible with all of my devices.” [Student 47] “E-Textbook reader device and content format incompatibility will be a problem.” [Teacher 20] “The "format" war for e-Textbooks is a hurdle that must be overcome.” [Teacher 18]

Hence, further efforts are necessary to improve compatibility of e-Textbooks.

Improving Service Reliability Reliability, which shares the same notion with trustworthiness and dependability, is defined as the degree of consistency among users when making observations of the same service (Mehrens & Lehmann, 1987; Worthen et al., 1993). Lack of reliability may lead to service failures that often result in inconvenience. When e-Textbook service failures occur, students are not able to access the learning material or learning history. This can be due to device failure, service failure or power interruption. A class will not function if there is no preparation for service failure. This may cause reservations amongst schools to go digital.

Rich multimedia textbooks are very attractive. However, high bandwidth consumption will be required for uploading and downloading large files to access the service. This may cause problems on bandwidth consumption and quality of service. Broken devices may lead to service failures, too. Parents would not be happy if they find that the device has been broken which may lead to service failures. Our interview shows that e-Textbooks must be highly reliable: “Rich multimedia textbooks are a lovely idea. However, a lot of hardware space will be required. For example, some e-Textbooks need 2GB or more. The consumption of bandwidth will be a lot.” [Teacher 2] “I do not want to find that the device has been broken by a sports racket in my son’s school bag.” [Teacher 8]

Further efforts are necessary to ensure high reliability so that teaching and learning can be conducted without interruption at all times. Also, bandwidth requirement of each e-Textbook must be minimized.

Improving Quality and Accuracy of Content Traditionally, any changes to paper-based textbooks must be carefully vetted by the governmental bodies (i.e. Ministry of Education). This ensures that the changes are accurate, and of the highest quality. Most importantly, the changes reflect the principles of the national school curriculum. Since digital content can be easily created, edited and delivered online, our interview shows that there has been great concern over the accuracy and quality of e-Textbooks: “As digital content can be easily edited the content has to be accurate as they represent the national school curriculum.” [Teacher 7]

Further efforts are necessary so that the traditional vetting process can go digital to ensure highest possible accuracy and quality of teaching and learning materials in schools. It may be necessary to have a formal review process for content if the right is granted to unauthorized personnel to modify content as well as to remove outdated content. This can be achieved with the help from editors to oversee the review process, which may involve peer review.

Increasing Life of Ownership Life of ownership is defined as the duration of the ownership when people buy or rent a product. At the end of ownership, an e-Textbook will be returned. If the life of ownership is less than those required by the students, there may be several problems. Firstly, students will lose the notes they had made on the e-Textbook. Secondly, students have less sense of ownership of their e-Textbooks because the books, together with their own notes, will eventually be lost.

Catone (2009) and BISG (2011) point out that, it is easier to pass on a paper-based book to share with someone else compared to a digitally-locked version. Our interview shows that there has been great concern over the lifetime of ownership of e-Textbooks: “Once you purchase a book either in print or in a digital format it should be yours until you decide to get rid of it.” [Student 174] “Ownership rights might be the biggest obstacle.” [Student 78] “It’s easier to pass on a hard copy of a book to share with someone else compared to a digitally locked version.” [Student 9] “Regarding paper textbooks – they have a resale value at the end of semester.” [Student 32]

Further efforts are necessary to investigate the effects of the lifetime of ownership on the adoption of e-Textbooks.

Reducing Health Risk and Visual Fatigue There have been concerns about the side-effects of long-term usage of e-Textbooks on students’ health. The problem is pronounced for some reading devices that have a small screen size. Our interview shows that there has been great concern over health and visual fatigue: “It is exhausting to read a lot of content on the screen” [Student 108] “Personally I do not understand why people want to read from a back lit screen for hours. Reading should be done without torturing themselves.” [Student 121]

Further efforts are necessary to investigate possible side-effects of prolonged usage of e-Textbooks, as well as to reduce fatigue, particularly eye fatigue, when reading e-Textbooks.

Improving Readability Readability is defined as “the ease in which text can be read and understood” (Patowary, 2011, para. 1). There have been concerns about the perceived difficulties and fatigue in reading electronic media. The issues of readability on electronic screen can lead to reluctance to engage with e-Textbooks (Mercieca, 2004). In other words, students feel that traditional paper-based textbooks are easier to browse and read (Mercieca, 2004; Warschauer, 2011). Research conducted by Nielsen and Krug shows that the reading process can be 25% - 40% slower from a screen compared to on printed page (Robinson, 2011). Another research project (Mercieca, 2004) shows that students have reluctance to use e-Textbooks due to perceived difficulty in reading electronic text. Our interview shows that there has been great concern over readability: “It is difficult to read digital content outdoors.” [Student 114] “For many subjects, high definition images are critical.” [Student 3] “I think if digital readers incorporate the usual features of printed books, such as page flipping, familiarity would breed contentment and hence adoption.” [Student 137]

Further efforts are necessary to provide most features found in paper-based textbooks, as well as to provide a printed-page-like reading experience to students.

Protecting Copyright Copyright is “a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time” (Hasija & Narayanan, 2009, p. 36). Generally speaking, e-Textbooks can be downloaded from their servers to students’ reading device (e.g. iPad®, laptop and PC) and reading software through the internet. The e-Textbooks can also be stored and distributed via storage media (e.g. USB drive and CD-ROM). Compared to a paper-based book, an e-Textbook is more likely prone to copyright issues for two main reasons. Firstly, it can be distributed in a large scale with very low cost. Secondly, photocopying a textbook may take much longer time, while copying an e-Textbook may happen instantly. Our interview shows that there has been great concern over copyright issue: “I think piracy is a much bigger issue here. Photocopying a textbook takes several hours. Duplicating digital textbooks occurs in a flash.” [Teacher 11] “Once textbooks are digitized, they will be much easier to pirate.” [Student 143]

Further efforts are necessary to uphold copyright on e-Textbooks because duplication and distribution of digital content have been much easier compared to paper-based textbooks. For instance, copyright issues, such as to prevent non-authors from modifying existing e-Textbooks for monetary gain, must be addressed.

Section Summary With regard to the Research Question Q1 – “What are the challenges and factors relevant to the adoption or

refusal of e-Textbooks?”, eight categories of challenges have been raised in this section. This question has been answered by conducting an extensive literature review, and subsequently conducting supporting interviews with teachers and students. After analysing the gathered data, the challenges associated with the migration of paper-based textbooks to e-Textbooks are identified.

STATE-OF-THE-ART This section addresses research question Q2: What are the technological solutions to the challenges and factors relevant to the adoption and refusal of e-Textbooks? Fundamental elements of e-Textbooks are driven by various factors, such as the demand for new technology, their potential market value, and the complexity of the new technology (Miao, Liu & Sun, 2011). Selecting the right technology for each component is an ongoing challenge to the successful development and implementation of e-Textbooks. Developing the right roadmap for the development of e-Textbooks is essential; and a variety of performance and cost considerations must be made. This section addresses the challenges, which has been identified in the challenges associated with e-Textbooks section by adopting the following technologies. Table 2 shows how the challenges of e-Textbooks have been approached using various solutions in e-Textbooks (i.e. hardware technology, software technology and low-cost and Open Educational Resources).

Table 2: The Challenges faced when moving toward e-Textbooks and its solutions Low-cost and Open Challenge Hardware Technology Software Technology Educational Resources • Connexions (http://cnx.org) • Wikibooks Providing Lower Price (http://wikibooks.org) • Flexbook (http://ck12.org) Standardising Format • Reader Applications of Content Improving Service • Flexible Display • Cloud computing Reliability • Web 2.0 Improving Quality and • Web services Accuracy of Content • Cloud computing • Connexions (http://cnx.org) Increasing Life of • Wikibooks • Web 2.0 Ownership (http://wikibooks.org) • Flexbook (http://ck12.org) Reducing Health Risk • Visual-syntactic text • Electronic Paper and Visual Fatigue formatting • Multi-touch • Visual-syntactic text Improving Readability Technology formatting • Electronic Paper Protecting Copyright • Digital rights

Hardware Technology This section reviews various types of hardware technologies (Chung & Shon, 2009), as well as their potential applications in the classroom, which are essential to display and read e-Textbooks.

Multi-touch Technology Multi-touch technology enables a user to interact with e-Textbooks through an input surface (or screen), which can detect two or more points of contact (Dalvi & Amor, 2010). Examples of mobile devices with multi-touch technology are iPhone® and iPad® tablet. The multi-touch screen, which has a high degree of user interactivity, is becoming the preferred choice of input method for consumer electronics (Piggott, 2010). Teachers and students can write and draw directly onto any document electronically using this method (Berque et al., 2008). The multi-touch technology, which is interactive in nature, is attractive to a wide variety of learning styles (e.g. visual learning or auditory learning), and it can improve readability because of the speed, efficiency and responsiveness of the technology.

Teachers can transmit live lessons and quizzes to students’ computers during class, and students can respond and answer on their devices using multi-touch screen. Therefore, the students can concentrate on the concepts presented by their teacher, rather than copying from the blackboard. The use of multi-touch screen has been shown to improve students’ learning experience. As an example, a Japanese or Chinese language teacher can show the order of strokes while illustrating how to write a character (Mantgem, 2008). Traditionally, a teacher writes the character on a blackboard; and the students often lose their concentration on the order of the strokes while copying the character on a handwriting paper. Using a multi-touch screen, the order of a character can be shown on the screen, and the students can slide their fingers on the screen itself following the order of the strokes.

An interactive whiteboard, which is a large multi-touch screen (or table), enables a user to use hands, instead of fingers, to interact with e-Textbook. The use of interactive whiteboards encourages collaboration among students, which provide added advantages compared to PCs in which only a single student can control a mouse (Piggott, 2010). For instance, students can share their ideas and work together to create a presentation using an interactive whiteboard.

Electronic Paper Electronic paper (e-Paper), which is a display technology, mimics traditional handwriting paper in which the display resembles ink on paper (Pattison, 2008). There are a number of off-the-shelf electronic papers: Pixel Qi modifies LCD display to develop e-Paper; Qualcomm designs e-Paper based on the study of biometrics, which is inspired by the vividness of the reflection of light that bounces off a butterfly's wings; Fujitsu Frontech develops colour e-Paper for its e-book reader (The eBook Reader, 2011); and LG® has already rolled out 6-inch e-paper display on a large scale basis (Kee, 2012).

Unlike most displays, e-paper is soft on the eyes, and it achieves the same appearance of the traditional printed paper. Without backlight, e-paper would appear less glaring, and so reading on e-paper is like reading a paper-based book. This helps to improve readability and to reduce health risk and visual fatigue.

As an example, E-Ink®'s Vizplex™ uses electrophoretic technology, which provides a relatively thin and lightweight display with very high resolutions suitable for sharp and crisp fonts (Yang et al., 2011). Without backlight, e-Paper with low or near-zero power consumption has also been demonstrated (Arar, 2010; Yang et al., 2011).

With the commercial success of monochrome e-Paper, further efforts are necessary to develop the next-generation device, particularly coloured e-Paper with multimedia enhancements including video (Heikenfeld et al., 2011).

Flexible Display A flexible display is a paper-like device in which the display, which is made of a sheet of plastic material (Davison, 2009), can be bent or flexed. During use, the display can be rolled out of the device, and so flexible display improves service reliability. Note that, e-Paper is also a flexible display, however it uses a different hardware technology that typically manipulates a material in the laminate to change its colour or contrast in order to create an image. While flat panel display, such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) and Plasma Display Panels (PDPs), is the dominant display devices (Martin, 2008), flexible displays are gaining popularity because of its convenience, portability and lightweightness. The flexible display provides the following advantages: • Save paper, and so it is environmental friendly • Feel like paper, and so drawing and editing can be made just like on a sheet of paper • Consume low power, and so it requires less time for charging the device • Lightweight, and so it reduces the weight of students’ backpacks • Robust, and so it increases resistance to breakage due to its flexibility • Allow expansion of display, and so users can extend their display with larger width

Software Technology This section reviews various types of software technologies that address the challenges, which are presented in challenges associated with e-Textbooks section, as well as their potential applications in classroom.

Reader Applications Due to a wide range of formats of content for e-Textbooks (see standardising format of content section), defining a standard format for interoperability may be a complex and distant goal. Hence, reader applications

should be able to read various formats, such as PDF, ePub, txt and html. Additionally, there are software applications, such as 2epub and Calibre, that convert various formats to more popular formats, particularly pdf and ePub format.

Web 2.0 in Education Web 2.0 provides an extension to the traditional Web 1.0, which provides static information on web pages, through incorporating interactive features. Hence, Web 2.0 enables information sharing, interoperability and collaboration among users on the internet (Hayati et al., 2010). There are a number of applications that demonstrate the fundamental concepts of Web 2.0, such as information sharing, user-centred and interoperability, and they are already being used in school education (Ullrich et al., 2008). Examples of interactive tools provided by Web 2.0 are blogs, wikis, social networking sites (Wu et al., 2012), live polling service, evernote and video sharing, and these tools possess great potential to change teaching and learning environments radically (Chatti et al., 2008) through expanding students’ education outside of the classroom. For instance, students can post questions on blogs, which are linked to e-Textbooks, so that their peers and teachers can respond and comment on posts that are publicly available. Web 2.0 addresses the challenges of the accuracy of content and the lifetime of ownership. For instance, collaboration among users, including teachers and students, enables them to create and update content, as well as to share knowledge among peers. With a stronger sense of community, the accuracy of content is expected to improve over time, while the ownership of the content would be given to the community.

Web Services The W3C working group defines a “web service” as “a software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML” (Noji et al., 2002, section 1.1, para. 2). As an example, using web service, a user can readily invoke and use online applications or exchange information through their APIs without prior understanding and creation of application logic. As another example, an e-Textbook can use a web service that searches for the right education resources to gather teaching and learning materials; and this tool is necessary as the internet is overwhelmed with teaching and learning materials (Ullrich, 2004). Various web services, such as immediate assessment results, instructional animations and videos, as well as audio-visual dictionary, can be customised based on personal preference and needs (Warschauer, 2011). Hence, students with different learning capabilities (i.e. talented students may choose to learn in a faster pace) can choose suitable types of web services in order to suit their learning styles. The web services can be extended to include other functions, such as providing immediate feedback in interactive exercises and intelligent assistants. The quality and accuracy of the content is ensured because users can revoke web services from the original or trusted sources.

Cloud Computing Over time the methods to deliver music to people has changed consistently, from discs to cassettes to CDs and MP3s. There has been a constant movement. So far the delivery mechanisms for textbooks have not kept up to the experience of latest technology format. They will rapidly accelerate once it can be delivered to students in an electronic device that they like.

Cloud computing provides on-demand delivery of information technology services whereby shared resources, software, and information are delivered as a utility over a network. The delivery mechanism of e-Textbooks can be integrated into a cloud architecture in order to achieve three main advantages (Pocatilu, 2010): virtualisation, centralized data storage, and monitoring of data access. Virtualisation enables users to access content remotely. Additionally, virtualisation reduces the number of servers required to maintain e-Textbooks, and so the maintenance cost of servers can be minimised. Centralized data storage enables users to retrieve e-Textbooks easily from the cloud, and this improves service reliability because users may have less worry about losing a textbook. The quality and accuracy of the content is ensured because users retrieve e-Textbooks from the cloud. Monitoring of data access becomes easier because monitoring all e-Textbook servers is not necessary while managing a cloud, which provides an entry point to all shared resources. For examples, a teacher can monitor students’ performance and keep track of frequency of access to e-Textbooks through cloud computing remotely.

Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting Brown (2001) suggests that a user’s reading styles may change while interacting with digital text. Suggestions have been made so that the content is chunked or broken down into smaller sections, which are easier to skim read (Mercieca, 2004).

A new reading format called visual-syntactic text formatting (VSTF) has been developed by Walker et al. (2007) that reorganises the conventional block-shaped text (see Figure 1, left) into cascading patterns (see Figure 1,

right) in order to help readers to identify the grammatical structure of a sentence. This improves readability and reduces visual fatigue. Walker et al. have carried out a sequence of studies (2005, 2007) using e-Textbooks among high school students. It was found that students who read using the VSTF format have seen improvement in academic achievement and long-term reading proficiency.

Figure 1. Example of visual-syntactic text formatting (Source from liveink.com)

Digital Rights Protecting digital rights helps to prevent unauthorized modification, duplication and distribution of e-Textbooks. To tackle copyright issues, many organisations and companies have been involved in the development of standards and technologies including digital watermarking, Digital Rights Management (DRM), Electronic Book Exchange (EBX), MPEG-21, Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL), DOI (Digital Object Identifier), Open e-Book (OEB) and Extensible Rights Mark Up Language (XrML), etc. (Jones, 2007). For example, the DRM system provides secured editing and authoring processes in order to prevent unauthorized duplication and distribution of e-Textbooks, and it also provides an automatic review processes in order to inform the editor regarding any copyright issues, particularly digital rights violation.

Low-cost and Open Educational Resources This section reviews various open educational resources that address the challenges in the previous section, namely the challenges associated with e-Textbooks section. Compared to traditional paper-based books and e-books, e-Textbooks follow the national school curriculum, and so they can be distributed free of charge or at a subsidised rate with unlimited lifetime of ownership. For instance, students may log in to their LMS (Learning Management System) to obtain course materials, including e-Textbooks, for free or for a small fee. With cost savings, students are encouraged to adopt e-Textbooks.

There are several examples of open-source e-Textbook projects. For example, the California Open-Source Textbook Project has started in 2002 and released science and mathematics textbooks. Many experts are willing to accept peer recognition in place of payment for their knowledge contributions to Wikibooks (http://wikibooks.org). Open Educational Resources (OER) provides free course materials, which can be modified and redistributed. Teachers can choose modules to be included in their course without any charges. Flexbook (http://ck12.org), ReadWriteThink (http://readwritethink.org) and Connexions (http://cnx.org) are examples of OER sites.

Section Summary With regard to the Research Question Q2 – “What are the technological solutions to the challenges or factors relevant to the adoption or refusal of e-Textbooks?”, a w