This paper addresses some key design issues in e‑learning, and its integration with knowledge management. The underlying premise is that the purpose of e‑learning is useful knowledge, and that the design of e‑learning should therefore be integrated with the design of related knowledge management — particularly personal knowledge management. e‑learning will be explored using the notion of "distributed learning". Knowledge management will be explored using the notion of "just‑in‑context knowledge", emphasising both the contextual underpinning of knowledge, and its strategic value — that is to say its applied value, and its embeddedness in decision making processes. The potential for distributed learning to optimise shared resources is also explored.

Abstract: JiFUNzeni blended learning approach is a sustainable approach to provision of professional development (PD) for those in challenging educational contexts. JiFUNzeni approach emphasizes training regional experts to create blended learning conte nt, working with appropriate technology while building content repositories. JiFUNzeni approach was field‑tested though a design‑based research intervention conducted in rural western Kenya. The field test included design, development and implementation o f a blended learning course for teachers professional development utilizing appropriate technologies including tablets powered by solar energy, open educational resources and open source software. One year after the intervention, follow‑up interviews wer e conducted with eight of the ten teachers and two professional development tutors (PDTs) who participated in the research. The findings from the follow‑up interviews shared in this paper revealed that: teachers still used cooperative learning and activ ity‑based learning strategies in their teaching. The PDTs on the other hand designed, developed and implemented one other jiFUNzeni blended learning course for twelve teachers in one school in Korogocho slum in Nairobi city. Implementation by PDTs of jiFU Nzeni approach confirmed that they had learned through a sustainable way of delivering professional development in challenging educational contexts. The PDTs utilized the instructional design approaches learned through their participation in the research in designing blended learning content, while they also innovated new ways of developing self‑study content as an important creative addition to what they had previously learned. Two teenage children participated in digital content development by advising the PDTs on some appropriate ways of applying technology thus, attesting to the fact that digital natives are important reciprocal supporters to digital immigrants and vice versa.

Developing countries lacking capabilities, funds and human resources are compelled to improve the digital literacy rates of their task force through educational initiatives. This is the case of Tunisia where a stand‑alone in‑service teacher education (Ted) initiative was implemented in 2014 and 2015. The aim of this project, the Tech Age Teacher Project (TATP), was to equip teachers in Tunisia with the technology skills for teaching so that they can dispense teaching of a 21st‑century education quality. Five English language teachers, who benefitted from this initiative, are the focus of this study. The aim was to explore whether and how they are making the transition into the technologically‑challenged schools. Analysis of the TATP documents, data is collected through a short teacher questionnaire and a semi‑structured interview during which teachers give their personal accounts as TAT trainees and their attempts to apply the ideas in real school settings. Results indicated that teachers showed great dedication toward implementing the ideas/skills received in the training and that they strove, as technology‑capable teachers, to integrate technology in their day‑to‑day practice despite the constraints they faced in the schools. Their accounts reveal their rationale and motives for using technology with their students and the strategies they employ to circumvent obstacles, but also show that their success in integrating technology remains restricted by issues of infrastructure, barred access to a technology space, learners' "playful" attitudes, etc. The findings highlight these teachers' resourcefulness and sense of mission as to transforming their learners' learning experience and changing their attitudes towards technology use and to fostering 21st‑century education learning goals. The paper concludes with recommendations for future initiatives to (re)design and (re)orient the goals of the initiative towards supporting these teachers' learning processes as they make the transition as technology‑capable teachers into the technology‑challenged schools. Recommendations are made for the emerging professional community of technology‑capable teachers to build a networked community of practice likely to foster these teachers' reconstruction of their professional knowledge and skills and to facilitate the dissemination of ideas on the integration of technology in education.

The goal of this study is to gain insight into the effects of context on educational game experience. Using a quasi‑experimental setup, it compares the playing and learning experiences of adolescent players of the awareness‑raising game PING in a domestic (N=135) and a school (N=121) context. Results indicate that both gaming (identification, enjoyment) and learning experiences are more intense in a home compared to a school context. However, all of the variance in gaming and part of that in learning experience are caused by longer playing times and better computer equipment. Moreover, the overall impact of context on perceived learning is significantly smaller than that of other experiential factors such as identification and enjoyment. Thus context should be considered as a significant yet relatively small determinant of learning experience.

Abstract: At a time of substantial change, globalization, and ubiquitous access to information, educators struggle to change even the most basic aspects of their classrooms. This is especially true for those in challenging contexts where many perpetuate the mind numbingŽ practice of rote instruction. This paper describes a collaborative partnership among academics in Canada and East Africa as they develop Innovative Learning Centres (ILC) in their respective institutions to leapfrog pedagogy in imagin ative ways, drawing on experiential learning and the Maker Movement in a studio based learning environment.

Abstract: Current debates on quality standards in education often look to the levels of an increasingly diverse array of literacies as a measure of that standard. At the same time, while mobile technologies are profoundly changing the way we live, communi cate and learn in our everyday lives, relatively little seems to be known about their potential to influence even basic literacy in formal education sites. Examining the use of practical and affordable emerging technologies in many countries worldwide whe re literacy rates are an issue, seems as yet to have been overlooked. Considering the implication of multiple literacy and communication skills to economic and cultural development and stability in emerging countries and increasingly in developed ones as well, finding immediate answers to challenges in this area is critical. This paper reports on a longitudinal study that examined the power of e‑readers to support change in the literacy habits and ultimately the learning cultures of a group of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers‑in‑training in Chile. The aim of the study was to determine if access to low‑cost mobile readers and a social‑learning driven, technology‑supported, guided reading program, could reverse their literacy challenges. The s tudy is based on social‑cultural theory in which learner agency, access to funds of knowledge and social interaction are imperative ingredients for developing engaged, life‑long learners and readers. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is used to condu ct the inquiry. Working within a qualitative research paradigm, ethnographic tools and numerical data from pre‑ and post‑test results, helped to uncover how the use of technology influenced both the literacy practices and identities of the teachers‑in‑tra ining. The findings have led to the proposal of a new 21st century model for literacy education for such challenging contexts. This model could have important implications for Chile as well as learners, educators and policy makers elsewhere.

The rise of technology’s influence in a cross‑section of fields within formal education, not to mention in the broader social world, has given rise to new forms in the way we view learning, i.e. what constitutes valid knowledge and how we arrive at that knowledge. Some scholars have claimed that technology is but a tool to support the meaning‑making that lies at the root of knowledge production while others argue that technology is increasingly and inextricably intertwined not just with knowledge construction but with changes to knowledge makers themselves. Regardless which side one stands in this growing debate, it is difficult to deny that the processes we use to research learning supported by technology in order to understand these growing intricacies, have profound implications. In this paper, my aim is to argue and defend a call in the research on ICT for a critical reflective approach to researching technology use. Using examples from qualitative research in e‑learning I have conducted on three continents over 15 years, and in diverse educational contexts, I seek to unravel the means and justification for research approaches that can lead to closing the gap between research and practice. These studies combined with those from a cross‑disciplinary array of fields support the promotion of a research paradigm that examines the socio‑cultural contexts of learning with ICT, at a time that coincides with technology becoming a social networking facilitator. Beyond the examples and justification of the merits and power of qualitative research to uncover the stories that matter in these socially embodied e‑learning contexts, I discuss the methodologically and ethically charged decisions using emerging affordances of technology for analyzing and representing results, including visual ethnography. The implications both for the consumers and producers of research of moving outside the box of established research practices are yet unfathomable but exciting.