At a time when scientific and technological competence is vital to the nation's future, the weak performance of U.S. students in science reflects the uneven quality of current science education. Although young children come to school with innate curiosity and intuitive ideas about the world around them, science classes rarely tap this potential. Many experts have called for a new approach to science education, based on recent and ongoing research on teaching and learning. In this approach, simulations and games could play a significant role by addressing many goals and mechanisms for learning science: the motivation to learn science, conceptual understanding, science process skills, understanding of the nature of science, scientific discourse and argumentation, and identification with science and science learning. To explore this potential, Learning Science: Computer Games, Simulations, and Education, reviews the available research on learning science through interaction with digital simulations and games. It considers the potential of digital games and simulations to contribute to learning science in schools, in informal out-of-school settings, and everyday life. The book also identifies the areas in which more research and research-based development is needed to fully capitalize on this potential. Learning Science will guide academic researchers; developers, publishers, and entrepreneurs from the digital simulation and gaming community; and education practitioners and policy makers toward the formation of research and development partnerships that will facilitate rich intellectual collaboration. Industry, government agencies and foundations will play a significant role through start-up and ongoing support to ensure that digital games and simulations will not only excite and entertain, but also motivate and educate.

This volume tackles issues arising from today’s high reliance on learning from visualizations in general and dynamic visualizations in particular at all levels of education. It reflects recent changes in educational practice through which text no longer occupies its traditionally dominant role as the prime means of presenting to-be-learned information to learners. Specifically, the book targets the dynamic visual components of multimedia educational resources and singles out how they can influence learning in their own right. It aims to help bridge the increasing gap between pervasive adoption of dynamic visualizations in educational practice and our limited understanding of the role that these representations can play in learning. The volume has recruited international leaders in the field to provide diverse perspectives on the dynamic visualizations and learning. It is the first comprehensive book on the topic that brings together contributions from both renowned researchers and expert practitioners. Rather than aiming to present a broad general overview of the field, it focuses on innovative work that is at the cutting edge. As well as further developing and complementing existing approaches, the contributions emphasize fresh ideas that may challenge existing orthodoxies and point towards future directions for the field. They seek to stimulate further new developments in the design and use of dynamic visualizations for learning as well as the rigorous, systematic investigation of their educational effectiveness.the volume="" sheds="" light="" on="" the="" complex="" and="" highly="" demanding="" processes="" of="" conceptualizing,="" developing="" implementing="" dynamic="" visualizations="" in="" practice="" as="" well="" challenges="" relating="" research="" application="" perspectives.

This book is intended for students, instructional designers, professors, instructors, teachers, trainers, software developers, and development team leaders who: • are taking a course on creating computer-based training/educational software applications • are or will be working on a computer-based training/educational software development team • need to expand their skills into the multimedia technology field • are excited about the possibilities of teaching with multimedia • have worked on their own and unsuccessfully tried to do it all • may have created mediocre computer-based training/educational software • want to do it right the first time • need a practical reference • need practical guidelines for creating computer-managed presentations This book focuses on the practical principles of creating computer-based training/educational software applications and computer-managed presentations. In computer-based training/educational software applications, the computer assumes the teaching role. In computer-managed presentations, you maintain the responsibility for teaching the learners and use what is contained in the presentation as a resource. In a sense, computer-managed presentations are a subset of computer-based training/educational software applications. Their differences will be highlighted throughout this book. This book will not make you an expert in designing computer-based training/educational software applications. Expertise comes through years of experience and continual learning. However, this book will provide you with the foundations for creating professional, instructionally-effective products. To gain support for your computer-based training/educational software applications and computer-managed presentations and to silence the critics, it is important to create excellent products. People will notice quality much more than quantity. This is especially true for your first project. This book, with its numerous practical hints, will help you do it right from your first project onward.

This book addresses key issues concerning visualization in the teaching and learning of science at any level in educational systems. It is the first book specifically on visualization in science education. The book draws on the insights from cognitive psychology, science, and education, by experts from five countries. It unites these with the practice of science education, particularly the ever-increasing use of computer-managed modelling packages.