Economic, social, technological and educational factors have led to an increase in the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in education at all levels. Most research concerning this has focused on the way in which e-learning can be used to improve teaching and learning across the curriculum and has neglected the teaching of ICT as a subject (Hammond, 2004). In a 1999 Ofsted inspection, ICT was found to be the least well taught subject in primary schools. The present research considers how the teaching of ICT could be better supported in the UK and Saudi Arabia. In the first stage, an investigation was made of the teaching of ICT in UK primary schools to understand why its teaching had been rated unfavourably. It was discovered that teaching focused on technical aspects (i.e. how to use specific applications) whilst ignoring the communication and information parts. Although it has been argued widely that e-learning improves teaching and learning across the curriculum, observations showed that e-learning was not, in itself, used to support teaching of the ICT curriculum. Hence, this research explored the ways in which the teaching of the ICT curriculum (to 9-11 year olds) could be made more effective, particularly through the incorporation of e-learning material. It was hypothesized that the experience of teaching and learning could be enhanced if e-learning material was designed which specifically addressed the needs of the teachers and young learners. Evidence collected in the course of the research suggested that little material existed to support the ICT curriculum, and that e-learning material produced to support other subjects does not always suit the teachers’ needs. Therefore in the second stage of the research, a design approach that engaged end users (teachers and young students) was proposed which was tested and refined during the design of e-learning material to support the teaching of the Multimedia Unit of the ICT National Curriculum. The resulting e-learning material was evaluated in UK schools to determine the extent to which it satisfied user needs and its effectiveness in teaching the intended learning outcomes. The results in both cases were positive implying that such a method could lead to the production of useful supportive material. As a former Saudi Arabian computer teacher, one of my personal goals was to provide opportunities to improve the experience of teachers and children in my own country. As such I have been interested in how I can transfer my understanding of the UK educational system to my home country. Following the successful evaluation of the elearning material in the UK, a demonstration of how a child centred design approach can be used to design effective educational material. Unfortunately although such a process might produce more effective learning outcomes and pleasurable material, I also found that such an approach is considered incompatible with commercial design environments. In the last stage of the thesis strategies are discussed which could be used (particularly in Saudi Arabia) to encourage the producers of educational materials to engage in the design of more effective teaching and learning experiences, especially in relation to the primary ICT curriculum. One such strategy would be to train undergraduates in applying a more user centred design approach as an integral part of their practice. The resultant design approach has now been approved by the Director of the Graphic Design Department in Dar Al Hekma Collage (Jeddah – Saudi Arabia) to be taught as a design approach for designing e-learning material for children on the Information Design Course. Additionally, a set of recommendations was developed for the Saudi Ministry of Education addressing the sort of revisions needed to improve the ICT curriculum in Saudi Arabia.

It has been suggested that theoretical computer science (TCS) suffers more than average from a lack of intrinsic motivation. The reasons provided in the literature include the difficulty of the subject, lack of relevance to the informatics degree or future careers, and lack of enjoyment of the learning experience. This thesis presents evidence of these claims derived from the results of an expert survey. Increasing the students’ perceived control of the learning experience has been shown to increase student motivation in numerous different settings. A few of those also showed increased student performance. This thesis proposes that game-building can be such a setting for the area of TCS. Within the area of TCS, the focus will be on the modelling skills (finite state automata, push-down automata, Turing machines, CCS, etc.) since they form the majority of the curriculum at undergraduate level. It will be demonstrated how arbitrary TCS modelling skills can be mapped onto a game-building framework and allow the students to learn about the former by using the latter. It is hypothesized that the success of the approach depends on the amount of control given to the student. To test this claim, two experimental conditions were used in a repeated-measures design: (1) own-game and (2) pre-defined game. In the former, students are asked to write a game of their own, whereas in the latter, they are asked to copy a pre-defined game. A large demand for the own-game context was observed and results of its effect on performance and enjoyment are presented. Although no main effect of the owngame condition versus the pre-defined game condition was found in terms of either enjoyment or performance, some interesting interaction effects between condition and motivational type were unveiled.

This mixed method study sought to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders in education, on the role and contribution of ICT in Scottish secondary schools towards generic skills development among pupils for post school transitions. The timing of this study coincided with a period characterised by contextual pressures globally, marked with technology changes, youth unemployment and curriculum reviews. A review of literature was conducted systematically to evaluate the explicit permeation of ICT in Scottish schools. A sequential mixed method design was adopted for the two phased study commencing with a convenience sampling technique for the first phase, involving 1364 upper secondary school pupils from all eight schools, 64 teachers and the 17 employers in one local Council in Scotland. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select two sample schools for the second phase, based on best use and practices of ICT. Questionnaires were administered online and in person at the first phase, followed by a semi structured interview at the second phase. SPSS was used for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and one way Anova, while Nvivo 10 software was used for thematic analysis from the interview transcript. The study offers a framework for personalisation starting with identification of pupils’ ability and ICT skill level at inception classes, followed by a personalised learning design incorporating pupils’ interest, ability and post school destination. The study also proposes separate roles for teachers and policy makers in order to maintain teachers’ autonomy, as policy makers’ interference has been identified to have an impact on teachers’ professionalism, effectiveness and confidence necessary for imparting generic skills in pupils. A series of recommendations are provided for future research, including a longitudinal evaluation of generic skills acquired from individual school subjects through the upper school years to post school destination, to ascertain effective transfer and sustainability of generic skills.

There have been many claims as to the benefits of personal digital assistants (PDA) as tools in education, but little objective data concerning device usage patterns. The aim of this project was to overcome this deficiency by objectively investigating the use of mobile devices in teaching and learning, specifically in the process of formative assessment. A bespoke PDA application was written, which recorded in detail when PDA applications were being used and overcame a number of technical barriers in securing this information for later analysis. This data, along with information on student access to the University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and final student examination results, formed the main objective datasets recovered in the project. Novel data analysis tools and methodologies were developed to mine the extensive, heterogeneous datasets obtained, and efficiently characterise how students used PDA applications. Finally, data analysis was performed on four cohorts of students: i) fourteen joint honours students in electronics and software engineering, where researchers learned that even for technologically adept students, simple issues (such as failure to replace batteries and resultant data loss) could significantly restrict useful research outputs; ii) five summer school students using quiz applications and question sets, where the first significant evidence of the educational benefits of using mobile devices was obtained; iii) students who failed to interact in any way with what they saw as obsolete devices, emphasising the importance of keeping student PDAs current with modern technology; iv) a full scale trial involving a 1st year cohort of BTechEd students, where the lessons learned in phases 1-3 were applied. In the trials, technical and human-computer interface barriers to securing useful data were encountered and overcome, and guidelines for future good practice, of significant use to practitioners in the research area, determined. Patterns and modes of their PDA use - considering a range of factors including overall duration of use, use as a function of time of day or time of week, and the complexity of use (e.g. frequency of application switching within a usage session) - were obtained and correlated with exam results and access to the University VLE. A number of usage characteristics of successful and unsuccessful learners were extracted from this data. In addition to these results, novel student behaviour was observed, with volunteer students actively avoiding returning data despite stated interest in the project, lowered technical barriers, significant inducements, and guarantees of data anonymity. We suggest a number of social factors, including on the nature of peer group formation in student cohorts and the socially disruptive nature of new technology, as contributing to this effect and identify the area as worthy of future investigation.

Η χρήση των κινητών υπολογιστικών συσκευών έχει αυξηθεί σημαντικά τα τελευταία χρόνια και έχει επεκταθεί σε διάφορες ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες. Οι συσκευές αυτές μεταφέρονται εύκολα και προσφέρουν τη δυνατότητα σύνδεσης σε ασύρματα δίκτυα και δίκτυα κινητής τηλεφωνίας με σκοπό την επικοινωνία και γενικά την ανταλλαγή δεδομένων. Τα χαρακτηριστικά αυτά καθιστούν τις συσκευές εργαλεία ιδιαίτερα χρήσιμα και ελκυστικά, τα οποία μπορούν να αξιοποιηθούν στην εκπαίδευση με τη χρήση των κατάλληλων εφαρμογών. Σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης έρευνας είναι η μελέτη της χρήσης των κινητών υπολογιστικών συσκευών στην προσχολική ηλικία. Συγκεκριμένα, μελετώνται οι αναπαραστάσεις των μαθητών για τις κινητές υπολογιστικές συσκευές και οι μεταβολές σε αυτές μετά την διδακτική παρέμβαση. Παράλληλα, παρατηρείται η αλληλεπίδραση των μαθητών με τη συσκευή κατά τη διάρκεια της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας και εξετάζεται η αλληλεπίδραση των μαθητών μεταξύ τους . Για το σκοπό της έρευνας σχεδιάστηκε ένα εκπαιδευτικό σενάριο, το οποίο αξιοποιεί εφαρμογές Android που ανήκουν σε διάφορες κατηγορίες λογισμικών. Η παρούσα έρευνα αποτελεί μία μελέτη περίπτωσης και για τη συλλογή των δεδομένων χρησιμοποιήθηκε η ατομική ημιδομημένη συνέντευξη, η συμμετοχική παρατήρηση και η ηχογράφηση. Τα εργαλεία συλλογής δεδομένων που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν ήταν οι ερωτήσεις των συνεντεύξεων και οι ηχογραφημένες συνομιλίες των μαθητών κατά την εργασία τους στις ομάδες. Από την έρευνα προκύπτει ότι τα παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας αντιλαμβάνονται τις βασικές λειτουργίες των υπολογιστικών συσκευών και μπορούν να αλληλεπιδράσουν με αυτές χωρίς σημαντικές δυσκολίες. Επίσης καλλιεργούν σε κάποιο βαθμό τις επικοινωνιακές τους δεξιότητες ως μέλη μίας ομάδας. Η εποικοδομητική χρήση των κινητών υπολογιστικών συσκευών κατά την εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία, βασίζεται σε σημαντικό βαθμό στον προσεκτικό σχεδιασμό δραστηριοτήτων και στη χρήση κατάλληλων εφαρμογών. / The use of mobile devices has increased over the last few years and has been adopted in many human activities. The mobile devices' main characteristics include portability and connectivity to wireless and mobile networks which enable communication and data exchange. The above features make these devices particularly useful and attractive to be used in education. The purpose of this case study is to address the use of mobile devices in pre-school education. In more detail, the case study examined children’s perceptions of the mobile devices and how they differed after the sessions took place. Furthermore, the children-device interaction and the children-children interaction were explored. A number of Android applications were used as part of an educational scenario that was specifically designed and implemented for the purpose of this case study. The study found that pre-schoolers can easily use and understand the main functions of the tablet. What is more, they can develop their communication skills as members of a team. Finally, the constructive use of tablets in education is primarily based on the careful design of activities and the use of suitable applications.

Οι νέες συνθήκες της «Κοινωνίας της Γνώσης» επιβάλλουν την ανάγκη αναμόρφωσης του Εκπαιδευτικού Συστήματος σε όλες τις ανεπτυγμένες χώρες ώστε να ανταποκρίνεται στις νέες, αλλά και τις διαχρονικές ανάγκες του ανθρώπου και τις προκλήσεις της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας. Στο σχεδιασμό αυτό θα πρέπει να ληφθούν υπόψη και οι παιδαγωγικές δυνατότητες των Τεχνολογιών της Πληροφορίας και της Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) ώστε να αξιοποιηθούν οι δυνατότητες που αυτές προσφέρουν στον άνθρωπο, την κοινωνία, τον πολιτισμό και τη μάθηση. Οι εφαρμογές πολυμέσων στην εκπαίδευση έχουν αλλάξει σημαντικά τον τρόπο διδασκαλίας σε κάθε βαθμίδα της. Η εξάπλωση των εφαρμογών πολυμέσων εκπαιδευτικού περιεχομένου, οφείλεται στη δυνατότητα παροχής υλικού από κείμενα, εικόνες, ήχους και διάφορες άλλες μορφές δεδομένων. Η εργασία πραγματεύεται τη χρήση πολυμεσικών εφαρμογών ως εκπαιδευτικό υλικό για την ενίσχυση της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Αναλύει τη χρήση των εφαρμογών ΤΠΕ στη διδακτική πράξη. Καταγράφει τα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα χρήσης πολυμεσικών εφαρμογών στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία. Περιγράφει τις φάσεις και αναλύει τα συστατικά ανάπτυξης ενός πολυμεσικού εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού. Αποτυπώνει τη σημερινή κατάσταση στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση και προτείνει μεθόδους διαχείρισης και προγραμματισμού του εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού. Τέλος, περιγράφεται η ανάπτυξη πολυμεσικού διαδικτυακού εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού που αναπτύχθηκε για τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της Ιστορίας. / The new conditions of the "Society of Knowledge" are imposing the need to change the Educational System in all developed societies in order to meet both the new and the time-old human needs and the challenges of modern society. In this new planning, consideration needs to be given to the pedagogical possibilities offered by the Information and Communication Technologies in order to take advantage of the chances and possibilities they put to the service of men, society, civilisation and learning. The flexibility in the materials used of multimedia educational content - image, sound, texts and other forms of data haw greatly contributed to its spreading. The Thesis examines the use of multimedia applications as educational material to foster the educational process in Secondary Education. It analyses the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom. It notes the pros and cons of their use in the learning process. It describes the stages and analyses the components for the development of multimedia educational software. It depicts the current situation in Secondary Education and proposes ways to manage and programme the educational software. Finally, it describes the development of a web-based multimedia educational software that was created for the teaching of History.

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Στόχος της εργασίας είναι να δείξει ότι ένα Σύστημα Σύγχρονης Λήψης και Απεικόνισης [ΣΣΛΑ] ή αλλιώς Microcomputer Based Laboratory [MBL] είναι ευνοϊκό για την μάθηση εννοιών των φυσικών επιστημών, μέσω δημιουργικής διερεύνησης και συνδυάζοντας τον πειραματισμό με αντικείμενα του πραγματικού κόσμου. Αυτό πραγματοποιείται με την παρατήρηση ενδείξεων, με τη λήψη μετρήσεων και με την καταγραφή των μεγεθών που εξελίσσονται, σε πραγματικό χρόνο στην οθόνη του υπολογιστή με τη χρήση αισθητήρων και κατάλληλου λογισμικού, προσφέροντας έτσι μια καλή σύνδεση μεταξύ των φαινομένων και πολλαπλών αναπαραστάσεων τους. / -

There is currently a notable amount of research suggesting that educators should use computer games as part of their teaching. Most of this research suggests why games should be used choosing very specific example games, or making broad sweeping statements about gaming as a whole. But very little of the research explains how these games should be used. What features should be present in the game? Do these features change depending on a given learning outcome? Do they change depending on the type of game? This thesis begins by compiling a prospective set of required features for an educational game, taken from literature on Learning Environments, as well as the requirements of different learning styles. This requirement set is cross-referenced with an overview of some typical, commercially available games, to show that such games are capable of meeting these requirements. This preliminary list is used in two investigations: the first explores how well the chosen features are offered by a series of current educational mini-games; the second shows how different requirements are offered by different commercially-available computer game genres. The results of these investigations are used to refine the list, before carrying out a user survey to identify the important features offered by different game genres, and to determine whether game quality improves as more of the features are met. The survey results show that some key requirements separate the genres significantly, while others were consistent across all genres. In addition, there is a positive correlation between each feature offered, and the overall user enjoyment of the game. The thesis concludes with a proposed framework of game genres and features, to assist in the design and selection of games for a given educational scenario, as well as some suggestions for future work.