The purpose of this chapter is to explore whether social constructivism promotes mobile technology rich, student-centered learning/teaching practices, leading adult English as a second language (ESL) students to transform into self-directed learners. Under this theory, a shift from teacher-centered English language learning to a student-oriented approach to how students acquire basic English skills is promoted and students' possible transformation into independent and autonomous learners is fostered because, by use of mobile technologies, they may successfully transfer information from their previous experiences to their current knowledge. Incorporating mobile learning (m-Learning) into their instruction and making social constructivism an integral part of their curriculum, ESL teachers can contribute to their students transformation into self-directed learners as an active, knowledge-building community and in charge of their own learning processes, which explains that this theory is highly compatible with the principles grounded in what Knowles proposed as a progressive learning approach for adult education: andragogy.

Today's learners are intrinsically motivated in that they are apt to analyze, synthesize, internalize, rebuild, share, and disseminate knowledge not only with their instructors, but also their peers, and the greater community, including a plethora of learning communities from across the world. Web-based technologies play a key role in this learning process. Particularly online social media networks and mobile technologies, the two selected technology trends evaluated in this paper, are thriving in online learning/teaching settings, immensely helping students acquire valid learning gains. These technologies are not a fad, a myth, or talk-of-the-day in learning and teaching environments in any given discipline. With that said, there are also certain issues and challenges that accompany these media and technologies for learning and teaching practices, which will also be addressed in this paper. Finally, future implications on these trends and issues in DL will be further discussed with the hope that educational leaders can draw on them for further inquiry and development in the field.

Visual representation of content during the design and delivery of instruction emerges as an integral component of the process. Use of visuals that helps transmit a certain message to learners or users of a particular instructional or an industrial product plays a crucial role in active learning. From a pedagogical viewpoint applied in learning and teaching, when learners are provided with a solid instructional product, they get to actively engage in the learning activities with higher cognitive process and apply their newly gained knowledge in real-life cases. This is a view highly congruent with the cognitive processing approach to learning where students become active participants and builders of the content. It is through this understanding that, in this paper, the concept of visual communication in learning and teaching, its support in the learning process, as well as the role of visual literacy and visual intelligence during this process will be discussed and presented with visual illustrations. Keywords: visual communication, instructional design, active learning, cognitive processing approach, visual literacy, visual intelligence, adult English as a second language (ESL) learning contexts Visual Communication DefinedIn their study regarding principles of design, Costello, Youngblood, and Youngblood (2012) referred to the design elements as the "ingredients used in making visual art" (p. 114). In support of adding visuals to the content of a rather text-rich instructional product, Mayer (2003) argued that "adding relevant graphics to words can be a powerful way to help learners engage in active learning. Overall, [one's] view of the cognitive stages of how learning works can influence [his/her] decisions about how to design instruction" (as cited in Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 79). According to Costello et al. (2012), visual communication is an area of study that "investigates the transmission of ideas and information through visual forms and symbol. On a deeper level, it also looks at the cognitive and affective processes that affect the way we perceive (or sense) visual stimuli" (p. 95). Communication through visuals is effective when content and form successfully interact with one another. In the instructional design (ID) terminology, the what (i.e., content) and how (i.e., form) of this message that the designer desires to communicate to the viewers involves an overlap of both elements that influence one's objective and subjective reality. That is, what one sees and perceives about the same message is highly affected by both the substance of that message and the manner in which it is transmitted to the audience, viewers, users, or in educational terminology, to learners. With respect to this, Hai-Jew (2010) posited that "Meanings may be interpreted at the top level of what is observed and depicted" (p. 270).In regards to the interaction of content and form that plays a considerable role in the way one expresses or communicates his/her message, Costello et al. (2012) provided that while content is the "t...

The paradigms of old media are replaced by new forms of creativity and delivery of content by those who strive to enhance innovative ways of communication and learning based on universally accepted guidelines. These ubiquitous rules of design are what scholars in the field of call as the principles of design. Particularly when instructional effectiveness of a new message is under close lens, instructional designers unanimously accept and implement these design principles in the process of planning and designing products for consumers and/or learners.With today's digital revolution and technological break-throughs, instructional designers need to keep seeking new forms of design, communication, and learning with various forms of instructional media and innovative, technology-rich design techniques. Given this educational milieu in an ever-growing digital world of learning and instruction, this paper will focus on eliciting some of these most innovative and outstanding instructional design (ID) products and evaluate their effectiveness in learning and teaching environments based on an array of ID principles generally accepted by the scholars of the field.Keywords: visual design, instructional design (ID), communications, learning, teaching, English as a Second Language (ESL), ESL learning and teaching environments, adult learners IntroductionAccording to Costello, Youngblood, and Youngblood (2012), "the principles of design can be thought of as the recipe for combining elements within a visual space" (p. 71). In this digital era where old theories, pedagogies, and methodologies of learning and instruction are superseded by new means and technologies of communication and learning, what calls for is an outside-the-box type of thinking that should shake these outdates models of normal science from its grassroots. As such, it is impossible to underestimate the role of today's digital revolution in education, especially with the surge of the Internet and the World Wide Web, in addition to other emerging multiple forms of media through which information is disseminated and shared in an online, digitized network and in an open system. With the digital revolution breaking through, therefore, instructional designers need to keep seeking new forms of design, communication, and learning with various forms of instructional media and innovative, technology-rich design techniques. Given this educational milieu in an ever-growing digital world of learning and instruction, this paper will focus on eliciting some of these most innovative and outstanding The examples to these static illustrations include "drawings, charts, graphs, maps, or photos, and dynamic graphics such as animation or video" (Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 70). The designers of this website seem to have applied these visual design principles in line with the authors' visual design-related guidelines. UnityAccording to Costello et al. (2012), unity is an essential ingredient of visual design, and they described it "as the perceptual glue that holds a design together a...

Today's learners are intrinsically motivated in that they are apt to analyze, synthesize, internalize, rebuild, share, and disseminate knowledge not only with their instructors, but also their peers, and the greater community, including a plethora of learning communities from across the world. Web-based technologies play a key role in this learning process. Particularly online social media networks and mobile technologies, the two selected technology trends evaluated in this paper, are thriving in online learning/teaching settings, immensely helping students acquire valid learning gains. These technologies are not a fad, a myth, or talk-of-the-day in learning and teaching environments in any given discipline. With that said, there are also certain issues and challenges that accompany these media and technologies for learning and teaching practices, which will also be addressed in this paper. Finally, future implications on these trends and issues in DL will be further discussed with the hope that educational leaders can draw on them for further inquiry and development in the field.