Facebook is a popular social networking site. It, like many other new technologies, has potential for teaching and learning because of its unique built-in functions that offer pedagogical, social and technological affordances. In this study, the Facebook group was used as a learning management system (LMS) in two courses for putting up announcements, sharing resources, organizing weekly tutorials and conducting online discussions at a teacher education institute in Singapore. This study explores using the Facebook group as an LMS and the students' perceptions of using it in their courses. Results showed that students were basically satisfied with the affordances of Facebook as the fundamental functions of an LMS could be easily implemented in the Facebook group. However, using the Facebook group as an LMS has certain limitations. It did not support other format files to be uploaded directly, and the discussion was not organized in a threaded structure. Also, the students did not feel safe and comfortable as their privacy might be revealed. Constraints of using the Facebook group as an LMS, implications for practice and limitations of this study are discussed. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic • Facebook has been popularly used by tertiary students, but many students do not want their teachers to be friends on Facebook • Teacher's self-disclosure on Facebook can promote classroom atmosphere, teacher's credibility and student-teacher relationship • Commercial learning management systems (LMSs) have limitations What this paper adds • The Facebook group can be used an LMS as it has certain pedagogical, social and technological affordances • Students are satisfied with the way of using the Facebook group as an LMS

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived differences between asynchronous online discussions and face-to-face discussions in a classroom setting. The students' reflections were analysed by following a qualitative research approach. The results showed that atmosphere, response, efficiency, interactivity and communication were the top five themes that differ between asynchronous online and face-to-face discussions. Implications for designing asynchronous online and face-to-face discussions are discussed.

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) are known to possess great potential in supporting learning because of their ability to simulate a real classroom learning environment. But research in this area has produced mixed results. The reason for this remains puzzling. This paper is written with two purposes: (1) to examine some recent research and organize the findings in terms of classroom characteristics, and (2) to discuss and reveal any uncovered issues pertaining to the findings and provide input whenever possible. A framework formed by using APA characteristics, APA presentation, and learners' characteristics is used to analyse past research findings. The findings from the analysis reveal that because APAs are regarded as social members similar to humans, they are more effective in engaging learners in environments that require social communication and interactions. They therefore produce more definitive results in terms of affective gain and group learning. But such conditions also impose greater demand on designers to create more complex learning environments that can provide interactions with several agents and yet maintain a mode of communication that is pedagogically effective. The challenges for creating such environment include using an agent's gestures to duplicate its speech in instruction, which is usually uncommon in human practice, overcoming the needs to use inputoutput interface for communication and taking into consideration the possible influence of the learners' characteristics such as their sensory preference. This paper suggests that APAs' application in instruction should be seen in the light of affordances and be designed within its own practical limits.jca_299 203..218

Critical thinking and knowledge construction have become essential competencies for people in the new information age. In this study, we designed an interactive learning environment involving three forms of interaction: individual reflections, group collaboration and, class discussions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the three forms of interaction promoted students' critical thinking and knowledge construction. Seventeen students at National Institute of Education of Singapore participated in this study. Their reflections and discussions were analyzed by following a content analysis approach. Results showed that writing reflections had potential to promote critical thinking but, not all students thought critically. Knowledge construction in groups and in class discussions happened at lower levels. This paper presents the conceptual framework, design specifications and evaluation results of the ILE. Implications of the results are discussed.

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