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People begin to recognise and develop interpersonal skills from the day they are born — some claim it starts even before that — and they go on learning, or failing to learn, how to use them until the day they die — some say it goes on long after that. When trainees come into training situations at work, as more or less mature adults, they already have a considerable range of interpersonal skills that they have acquired throughout their lives in a variety of contexts.

This chapter will explore how the places of learning might look in next generation learning spaces where learners traverse physical and virtual spaces using personalised learning strategies. It will examine how learning spaces may represent ubiquitous spaces in which the learner undertakes some form of study or learning. Although there has been extensive examination of the design of spaces for knowledge generation (Keppell & Riddle, 2012, 2013; Souter, Riddle, Sellers, & Keppell, 2011) there has been little attention given to how learners customise and personalise their own physical and virtual learning spaces as they traverse their learning journey. Seven principles of learning space design will be adapted for use by the personalised learner. Personalised learning strategies encompass a range of knowledge, skills and attitudes that empower the learner to take charge of their learning within next generation learning spaces. Personalised learning consists of six broad concepts: digital citizenship, seamless learning, learner engagement, learning-oriented assessment, lifelong and life-wide learning and desire paths. Teachers will need to assist learners to design their own personalised learning spaces throughout formal education to encourage learners to be autonomous learners throughout their lifetime. In order to assist learners in developing personalised learning strategies we need to teach them about learning space literacies. We can’t assume learners have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be able to identify and effectively utilise appropriate learning spaces that optimises engagement.

Through observing the use of iPhone and iPad by a child between the ages of two and four years and a half, this study presents accounts on the child’s use of and interaction with these devices, as well as her interaction with the physical environment.

Unstructured, naturalistic observation was employed in this study. The study is grounded in theories of user engagement with digital and physical objects.

A child’s interaction with touch-based devices does not deter the child from engaging effectively with the physical environment or from activities centered on creativity and interpersonal engagement. A child is able to move back and forth seamlessly between the physical and digital environments.

Findings from this study could help parents, educators, and system designers understand why and how toddlers and preschoolers use and engage with touch-based devices, as well as the kind of tasks they perform.

Studies of toddlers’ or preschoolers’ information behavior and interaction with touch-based devices are scarce. Children born toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century are growing up with a propensity to using touch-based devices. This study provides a framework for effective usage of such devices while ensuring all-round cognitive and physical development of the child.

This index covers all issues between February 2005 (Volume 9, Issue 1) and November 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 4). Numbers in bold refer to yolume, numbers in brackets refer to issue, with subsequent numbers to pages.

Purpose – The gradual release of responsibility (GRR) framework has long been used as a model to provide explicit and scaffolded literacy instruction (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983), but has seen far less application within the teaching of writing. As such, a framework for further incorporating the GRR model into comprehensive writing instruction is presented.

Design – This chapter describes a recursive writing process that includes four iterative and connected steps: we study, we write, we share, and we react and revise. From direct modeling needed to build efficacy (Bloomberg & Pitchford, 2017), prompting in the “we do it together phase” (Fisher & Frey, 2016), and peer collaboration offering students the opportunity to move from the solve it together to the self-regulated stage of learning, the GRR model of writing supports students as they move recursively between the phases of learning.

Findings – The recursive nature of the GRR model of writing offers scaffolded support calibrated to each student’s phase of learning. The gradual release model of recursive writing provides an opportunity for students and teachers to engage in a feedback cycle and permit teachers to pass the pen to students at an ideal time, often encompassing many opportunities to write, react, and revise with their peers serving as an authentic audience.

Practical implications – Writing proficiency is linked to relationship building and social networks (Swan & Shih, 2005) as well as academic and career success (Cormier, Bulut, McGrew, & Frison, 2016). The GRR model of writing offers a new model of a flexible, social, and recursive writing process needed in professional development and teacher education programs.

People with cognitive disabilities have a right to an inclusive society, and to have access to services and products that meet their specific needs. Participatory design (PD) represents a potentially effective way to ensure these rights, because users become influencers of the technological development and design process, are actively involved in the customization of that technology and develop a relationship with the designers/developers. Literature suggests that user involvement in technology development produces better products and has shown that this process offers users a voice and the process is also conducive to mutual learning between researchers and participants. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Here the authors will present the development of a virtual world (VW) platform, having as a starting point a minimally viable initial version. This was followed by the creation of a networking framework to test each feature of the VW, which allowed connected users, most of whom on the autistic spectrum, to interact with each other in real time in the VW, and to see each other’s effects. Stress testing sessions were initiated with a mixed group of 15 users, 8 of whom with autism (7 male and 1 female). Ten of the participants were male and five were female (Figure 1).

Even though the platform is feature-complete, its code is still in development; features can be improved/expanded upon, which necessitates further testing. The most commonly flagged issues from the stress testing were requests for videos/text manuals, the camera controls and chat message errors. These were implemented/fixed or added to the feature roadmap. “Heavy avatar customization” was also suggested, which has conceptual merit, but is not a priority.

PD is an inclusive approach that addresses personal needs and preferences, matching up the person with the tools and environments to ensure equity and inclusion. The VW whose development is described in this paper has been used for communication skills training with autistic young adults. It could be used for other social, life, academic and vocational skills training. This type of training through VR/VW may help enhance the employment-related skills of neurodiverse populations (and thus empower independent living) and has the potential for broader implementation and wider access in terms of distance learning.

This paper adds to the rather limited literature on applying PD approaches in the development of products for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The authors will present such a process for the development of a VW with people with autism. Although literature suggests that user involvement produces better outcomes, adopting this approach is not straightforward. The paper will describe in detail not only the contribution the participants made in every phase but also the limitations of applying a PD approach with a neurodiverse population, in order for them to be equal partners in the process and be involved in a meaningful way.

Provides a lighthearted view of post‐modernist links with retail marketing via the UK soap opera Coronation Street.

The aim of the paper is to locate the role of social and emotional support during the school‐to‐work transitions of apprentices, within the Australian vocational education and training context.

The research reported here is based on an independent evaluation of an apprentice suicide prevention and support program. This program has been implemented in rural and regional Australia, and findings highlight the program's retention of key messages in the long‐term (i.e. 6 months to 2 years post‐completion). The work is based on both quantitative questionnaires from 119 apprentices as well as 18 face‐to‐face interviews.

The research showed that apprentices’ resilience to face school‐to‐work transitional challenges can be enhanced by increasing knowledge of suicide risk factors and sources of social and emotional support had increased. Findings indicate that a number of apprentices had made significant changes in their lives as a result of participating in the program. While 10 per cent of apprentices identify as “socially isolated”, it was encouraging to note that peer support, as a result of the program, can be considered an informal referral point to formal help‐provision and support.

While the program has been successfully applied to building and construction industry apprentices, there is overlap in school‐to‐work transition issues of other types of apprenticeships/traineeships; this merits consideration of wider application of apprentice support programs within the Australian vocational education sector.

This paper draws together a focus on school‐to‐work vulnerabilities and social‐emotional support (similar to that found in youth development programs) as it can be applied to the vocational education and training sector.