Information technology (IT) literacy skills are increasingly important for all adolescents to learn, as the majority of post-school pursuits will require at least some amount of computer skills. For adolescents with disabilities, this urgency is perhaps more pronounced, as this subpopulation typically experiences more dismal post-school outcomes…

In this study, a peer assessment system using the grid-based knowledge classification approach was developed to improve students' performance during computer skills training. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in a computer skills certification course. The participants were divided into three…

This article draws on a one-semester study to investigate the effect of videos and 3D animations on students' conceptual understandings about basic computer units. A quasi-experimental design was carried out in two classrooms; videos and 3D animations were used in classroom activities in one group and those were used for homework in the other…

While advances in game-based learning are already transforming educative practices globally, with tech giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google taking notice and investing in educational game initiatives, there is a concurrent and critically important development that focuses on "game construction" pedagogy as a vehicle for enhancing…

Concept mapping has been widely used in various fields to facilitate students' organization of knowledge. Previous studies have, however, pointed out that it is difficult for students to construct concept maps from the abundant searched data without appropriate scaffolding. Thus, researchers have suggested that students could produce high quality…

University of Illinois Extension, in partnership with Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Joliet, Illinois, offered a technology summer program for Hispanic youth from June 22 to July 22, 2009. The program, "Looking Back, Moving Forward," utilized self-directed learning activities during the entire program. Eight out of fourteen Hispanic…

Many teachers and people in educational institutions consider it necessary to prepare children for living in a computerized society. The Internet offers an incredible number of opportunities for teachers. The Web offer of e-learning open source platforms reached an impressive configuration. In this article, we present an educational software for…

This research examined the impact of preservice teachers delivering individualized instruction of basic computer skills to at-risk, ethnic minority alternative high school students in an urban school district in South Texas. The alternative high school students' achievement of computer skills, motivation to use computers, and self-efficacy as…

The rapid changes in information technology in recent years have rendered current high school curricula unable to cope with student needs. In consequence, students do not possess the proper skills required in today's information era. Specifically, many students lack the skills to search efficiently for information. Moreover, even when abundant…

A pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of EnvisionIT, a 10-unit web-based curriculum designed to teach secondary students information technology (IT) skills in the context of transition-planning activities. Fifteen high schools were stratified by socioeconomic status and randomly assigned to the…

Contrary to conventional expectations, the reality of computing education in Taiwan's vocational schools is not so practically oriented, and thus reveals much room for improvement. In this context, we conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects of applying web-based problem-based learning (PBL), web-based self-regulated learning (SRL), and…