This study was motivated by a concern for how older adults adjust to their digital everyday life. Theories of motivation and self-efficacy are applied in order to understand how older adults master and adjust to the rapid development into a paper-free, online world. A sample of eighteen older adults (62-90 years) were interviewed about the reasons and motivations underlying their ICT usage, and how this affects their perception of mastering their everyday life. A semi-structured interview guide was developed for this purpose. The data were analyzed using an inductive coding procedure involving descriptive and interpretive phases based on the theoretical assumptions about motivation and mastery. Three overarching categories were evident in the data material; Challenges, Connectedness and Expanding. The first category describes new challenges mastering everyday life activities, and how this brings about feelings of pressure, barriers, and fear. The other two categories give a more positive picture of how older adults perceive the new developments. Internet and social media is perceived as positive because it enables them to stay connected to family, old and new friends. It also enables them to cultivate and expand leisure and hobby activities in new ways. Based on the findings we underscore the necessity of devising strategies that will prevent older people from being marginalized in relation to the digital everyday life.

Characteristics of openness can be found in many respects throughout the history of education. From Comenius’ call for pedagogical reform to postmodern educational theory, requirements of access, social justice, creativity, knowledge sharing, innovation, and capacity building have been emphasized in various ways. The chapter provides an outline of different understandings and notions of openness in educational contexts as well a discussion of their relevance for openness towards academic knowledge cultures and different forms of knowledge. Finally, the contribution highlights organizational, methodological, and critical perspectives as three aspects which appear to be undervalued in current debates about openness in higher education.

There is a large body of research on technology-enhanced learning, but questions related to the educational effectiveness of technology use still needs to be questioned. In this paper, I argue that digital innovators’ stories about technology enhancement may constitute a rich source for understanding this complex educational phenomenon both in relation to teachers’ daily practices and the implementation of ICT in higher education at large. Based on biographical interviews with “digital innovators”, the aim of this paper is to investigate how [their] digital competence is used to enhance teaching and learning in higher education. This paper asks; how do digital innovators approach the use of ICT to enhance students’ learning and what are the organisational conditions for this approach? The findings suggests that technology-enhancement is linked to nine key characteristics: different educational models, authenticity, pedagogical added values, meaningful student activities, changing approaches to feedback, assessment and connection with the outside world, as well as holistic planning, supportive leaders and strong micro-cultures. This paper proposes a more nuanced understanding of the term technology enhanced learning and suggests strategies for educational development and further investigations related to this phenomenon in higher education.

This article reports on a study of a higher education online course based on asynchronous communication. The selection of technology for online discussions aimed at creating a sense of togetherness among the teachers and the students. This choice proved to be a source of insights into the differences of agency of a virtual learning environment (VLE) compared to social media when it comes to social presence. We discuss the agency of Fronter, our formal VLE, and Facebook, when it comes to their effect on the relevant social networks at hand. Important issues identified are related to the quality and nature of the professional and social relations between teachers and students as well as their technology practices in the online course. The discussions are based on the concepts of immediacy and intimacy, as these issues kept appearing in the interviews with the students. The article suggests that the differences of materiality between VLEs and social media, exemplified here by Fronter and Facebook, matter in several respects: how social relations are established and sustained, the agency of the technology in respect to social presence and control and how the technologies affect the quality of dialogic pedagogy.

This special issue of seminar.net is the result of a collaboration between teachers at the two master programmes, “Communication, Design and Learning” at the University of Oslo and “ICT Supported Learning” at the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. For 2013-2015, we received a grant from Norgesuniversitetet to develop partnership, flexible teaching and study methods, and to increase learning outcomes among students. The four papers represent the first research results from our project. We are grateful to Norgesuniversitetet for its support.Per HetlandGeneral editorThe first paper, by Per Hetland and Anders I. Mørch, both from the University of Oslo has a title called “Ethnography for Investigating the Internet”. They describe the field by giving an overview of the competing concepts, and argue for their chosen path. They point at important crossing roads and selections that needs to be taken for future research.Jan Erik Dahl, also of The University of Oslo, presents the paper “Supporting learning through epistemic scaffolds embedded in a highlighter tool”. It explores how the use of the tool was used to support students’ readings and discussions of research articles. He argues that the use of annotation technologies in education is increasing, and that annotations can play a wide variety of epistemic roles; e.g., they can facilitate a deeper level of engagement, support critical thinking, develop cognitive and metacognitive skills and introduce practices that can support knowledge building and independent learning. Dahl criticises some of the underlying assumption of present research in the field and suggest that one needs to look for the active co-construction that students do in collaboration with others.Monica Johannesen and Leikny Øgrim, of the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, has collaborated with Ole Smørdal of the University of Oslo on the paper “Facebook as an actor - a case of students negotiating their social presence in an online course”. Their paperreports on a study of a higher education online course based on asynchronous communication. In the selection of technology for online discussions they aimed at creating a sense of togetherness among the teachers and the students. Their choice proved to be a insightful experience of how the differences of agency of a virtual learning environment (VLE) are compared to social media when it comes to social presence.Anders I. Mørch of the University of Oslo has collaborated with Louise Mifsud and Bård Kjetil Engen, of Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences on the fourth paper, called “Problem-Based Learning in Synchronous Networked Environments: Comparing Adobe Connect and Second Life”. Their approach was to compare experiences from using two networked learning environments: Adobe Connect (AC) and Second Life (SL) for supporting teaching and learning in distance education courses. Data were collected from two separate case studies: one in Norway (AC) and the other in the United States (SL), using different but comparable methods of data analysis. They focus on problem-based learning (PBL), using four application characteristics of PBL (learner activity, collaborative learning, feedback, and valuation of previous knowledge).General sectionIn addition to the four papers in the special issue of Seminar.net, we also contribute with two more papers.David Hallberg, representing both The Swedish Red Cross University College and the Stockholm University, has written a paper with Henrik Hansson and Anders G.Nilsson, also from Stockholm University called: “Immigrant Women's Reasoning and Use of Information and Communications Technology in Lifelong Learning”. The paper explores the reasoning and use of information and communications technology (ICT) in lifelong learning by immigrant women. The researchers collected data from semi-structured and unstructured interviews. The study was carried out primarily in a school environment, which also made it possible to draw conclusions about the connection between learning in and outside school environments.Trine Fossland, of University of Tromsø UiT The Arctic University of Norway, presents the last paper in this issue. Her paper, “Stories of technology-enhancement in higher education – a critical approach”, continues a critical stance of educational technology, suggesting that even if there is a large body of research on technology-enhanced learning, questions related to the educational effectiveness of technology use still needs to be questioned. She argues that “digital innovators’” stories about technology enhancement may constitute a rich source for understanding this complex educational phenomenon both in relation to teachers’ daily practices and the implementation of ICT in higher education at large. Her paper relies on biographical interviews with “digital innovators”. Her findings suggest that technology-enhancement is linked to nine key characteristics: different educational models, authenticity, pedagogical added values, meaningful student activities, changing approaches to feedback, assessment and connection with the outside world, as well as holistic planning, supportive leaders and strong micro-cultures. This paper proposes a more nuanced understanding of the term technology enhanced learning and suggests strategies for educational development and further investigations related to this phenomenon in higher education. Yngve Nordkvelle

This study aims to investigate students’ expectations and experiences of meaningful learning in simulation-based learning environments. We set the following research question: How do students’ experiences of meaningful simulation-based learning correspond to their expectations? The students’ (n = 87; male 51, female 36) pre- and post-questionnaires were analyzed using statistical methods. The results indicated that students’ expectations and experiences of meaningful learning were positive, and for most statements, there were statistically significant differences between the mean pre-questionnaire rating and the mean post-questionnaire rating, thereby indicating that students’ actual experiences of simulation-based learning were more positive than their expectations. Thus, students’ experiences exceeded their expectations.

The gap between the compulsory secondary school, students’ daily experiences and interests and social demands seems to have significantly increased. Nowadays disaffection and disengagement with school, low-attainment and early school leaving are found not only in disadvantaged students but also practically among all social groups across countries. The traditional conception of learning prevailing in most schools does not seem able to meet the educational needs both of young people and society. Living and learning in a digital and globalized world implies considerable challenges for schooling, and these are reviewed in this paper.We build on the outcomes of an ethnographic case about young people learning inside and outside school using different media. First, we discuss the challenges posed by contemporary compulsory secondary education while also establishing the scope of our research. Then we explore the transitions of students between inside and outside school and the characteristics of a learning process in which switching constantly between online and offline environments is a given. Finally, we make suggestions, which can be taken into account by schools seeking to offer students more meaningful and authentic learning experiences.

This article reflects the methodological challenges presented in the research process, where the principle of 'following the field’ means that the researcher must also follow students engaged in online activities in their own homes. The ethnographic studies are a part of a PhD project on “NETeducation,” a full-scale development project in nursing education (Lyngsø, 2014). With a focus on online professional education as the starting point, the process of research will follow the shifting learning process, through phases in the virtual classroom and in the students’ own homes.Research in online contexts demands a rethinking of the traditional ethnographic approach (Hammersley, 2006; Hine, 2005), sharpening the focus on the online and offline contexts, and the shifting between them (Webster, da Silva, 2013). The methodological reflections in the first part of this article can relate to this division due to the “netstudents” activities in studying online at home. On the other hand, the dichotomy between online and offline contexts is found to be inadequate, during the observations conducted. In light of some preliminary findings, the challenges of observing online and offline activities almost simultaneously are considered, despite a dearth of literature existing on this subject.

This paper is focused on understanding Internet use and comparingcross-cultural differencesaccording tothe contents and preferences of the websites that are most visited bytwogroupsof university students from Finland (n=30) and Mexico (n=30).The following research is anexploratory qualitative study with some basic statistics. A questionnairewas used in this study as a data collection instrument. The findings show that in both groups, university students prefer websites about social networking (Facebook), sending email (MSN), videos (YouTube), multiplatform applications (Google), educational sites (UniversityofOulu), and wikis (Wikipedia). Thisdemonstratedthat both groups have an interest in sharing ideas and meetingfriends.The differences reveal that Finnish students use their university’swebsite more regularly thanthe Mexican student respondents and that theytend to implementtheirideas more often.Furthermore, thisstudyexplored how university students use the Internet and whattype of influencethe Internet has onthem.The emotional effects suggest thatalmost quarter ofstudents reportedusing the internet to escapenegativefeelings, such as depression or nervousness.The findings provide information for university teachers about students’habitsand prior knowledge regarding Internetusefor educational purposes. The informationwill behelpful when designing learning and teaching in multicultural student groups.

Future skills, so-called 21st century skills, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT in order to support the development of their students’ 21st century skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). These skills, particularly ICT skills, pose challenges for teachers and teacher education. This paper focuses on developing an instrument for measuring pre-service teachers’ knowledge related to ICT in the context of 21st century skills.Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Kohler, 2006) was used as a theoretical framework for designing the instrument. While the TPACK framework is actively used, the instruments used to measure it have proven challenging. This paper outlines the results of the development process of the TPACK-21 instrument. A new assessment instrument was compiled and tested on pre-service teachers in Study1 (N=94). Based on these results, the instrument was further developed and tested in Study2 (N=267). The data of both studies were analysed using multiple quantitative methods in order to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instruments. The results provide insight into the challenges of the development process itself and also suggest new solutions to overcome these difficulties.