From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

On Educational psychology: A cognitive view.

Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning di Mohamed Ally costituisce la parte introduttiva di Theory and practice of online learning, una guida curata da Terry Anderson e Fathi Elloumi e pubblicata online dalla Athabasca University (http://cde.athabascau. ca/online_book/). Il testo rappresenta un significativo passo avanti nella riflessione sul mondo della formazione Open e sulle difficolta e potenzialita che le nuove tecnologie per la comunicazione e l’informazione offrono alla formazione superiore. L’esperienza piu che trentennale dell’Athabasca University e gli studi condotti dai suoi ricercatori, messi a disposizione di enti e istituzioni dell’e-Learning attraverso il Creative Commons Copyright, assicurano una cifra di qualita e una risorsa preziosa per la ricerca.

Foundations of educational theory for onl ine learning

Neither an academic tome nor a prescriptive 'how to' guide, "The Theory and Practice of Online Learning" is an illuminating collection of essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex field of distance education.Distance education has evolved significantly in its 150 years of existence. For most of this time, it was an individual pursuit defined by infrequent postal communication. But recently, three more developmental generations have emerged, supported by television and radio, teleconferencing, and computer conferencing. The early 21st century has produced a fifth generation, based on autonomous agents and intelligent, database-assisted learning, that has been referred to as Web 2.0.The second edition of "The Theory and Practice of Online Learning" features updates in each chapter, plus four new chapters on current distance education issues such as connectivism and social software innovations.

The Theory and Practice of Online Learning

This meta-analysis reviews experimental and quasi-experimental studies in which students learned by constructing, modifying, or viewing node-link diagrams. Following an exhaustive search for studies meeting specified design criteria, 67 standardized mean difference effect sizes were extracted from 55 studies involving 5,818 participants. Students at levels ranging from Grade 4 to postsecondary used concept maps to learn in domains such as science, psychology, statistics, and nursing. Posttests measured recall and transfer. Across several instructional conditions, settings, and methodological features, the use of concept maps was associated with increased knowledge retention. Mean effect sizes varied from small to large depending on how concept maps were used and on the type of comparison treatment. Significant heterogeneity was found in most subsets.

/pdf/learning-with-concept-and-knowledge-maps-a-meta-analysis-33k3ymd0dw.pdf

Learning With Concept and Knowledge Maps: A Meta-Analysis

More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts of stress while adapting to the culture of the host-institute. Several researchers argue that studies on adaptation of international students should widen its focus to the underlying mechanisms that leads towards this “misalignment”. In a cross-institutional comparison among 958 students at five business schools in the Netherlands, differences in academic performance between local and international students were identified by focussing on their levels of academic and social integration. Students’ academic integration was measured with the Students’ Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), while students’ social integration was measured with a newly developed and validated questionnaire. The results indicate that the degree of academic success of international students is multi-faceted. International students with a (mixed) western ethnic background perform well on both academic and social integration, and also attained higher study-performance in comparison to domestic students. In contrast, international students with a non-Western background are less integrated compared to other international students. Nevertheless, they have a similar study-performance. Finally, academic adjustment is the main predictor of study-performance for Dutch, Western and Mixed-Western students. Social adjustment was negatively related to study-performance. The lack of fit for predicting long-term study success of non-Western students indicates that their academic and social integration processes are more complex and non-linear.

/pdf/understanding-academic-performance-of-international-students-2ooleoslu6.pdf

Understanding academic performance of international students: The role of ethnicity, academic and social integration

This article presents an experimental study aimed at investigating the learning effectiveness of concept mapping for computer-supported collaborative problem solving. The main assumption underlying this research is that shared cognition is substantial for cognitive construction and reconstruction and that concept mapping is an effective tool for mediating computer-supported collaboration. Three scenarios for "mediated group interaction" by concept mapping have been designed-distributed, moderated, and shared. They are based on the assumption that the form in which knowledge is shared strongly influences the process of shaping, and shared cognition subsequently influences the effectiveness of collaborative learning. These three scenarios demonstrated differential effects towards various aspects of learning effectiveness both at the group and at the individual level. It is concluded that both the mode of sharing and the representation of knowledge as expressed by students are more important than the access to the distributed resources itself. The sharing scenarios showed to be most appropriate for establishing a supportive learning environment.

Concept Mapping as a Medium of Shared Cognition in Computer-Supported Collaborative Problem Solving

Although culture has recently been recognized as one factor in interface design, CS and engineering are generally thought to be culturally neutral. The approach presented here recognizes society and culture in computational concepts and applications.

Piet Kommers

Papers

Understanding academic performance of international students: The role of ethnicity, academic and social integration

Concept Mapping as a Medium of Shared Cognition in Computer-Supported Collaborative Problem Solving

Ethnocomputing: ICT in cultural and social context

Intelligent agents for educational computer-aided systems

Students' concept mapping for hypermedia design: navigation through World Wide Web (WWW) space and self-assessment