This study examined whether answering focused explanative questions during pauses in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) lesson on pipetting procedures could enhance learning. The goal was to take a generative learning activity, known to be effective for declarative knowledge with conventional media, to the context of procedural knowledge with…

This article reports results from a study in which two groups of college level students were exposed to interactions with Apple's Siri in order to foster dialogue about their dialectal features. In this paper, the methodology and procedural challenges behind one of the activities that the participants completed are studied. These activities had…

Purpose: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Next Generation Courseware Challenge (NGCC) in 2014 to address the limited availability of affordable, high-quality adaptive courseware to postsecondary students. SRI International was retained to evaluate the NGCC initiative as a whole and to conduct impact studies for the NGCC…

This paper describes findings from a blocked randomized design (BRD) field study conducted to examine the "Next Generation Preschool Math" (NGPM) program's implementation in preschool classrooms and promise in improving young children's mathematic learning. NGPM integrates traditional preschool activities with developmentally appropriate…

Open educational resources (OERs) provide a potential alternative to costly textbooks and can allow content to be edited and adapted to a variety of classroom environments. At the University of California, Davis, the OER "ChemWiki" project, as part of the greater STEMWiki Hyperlibrary, was developed to supplant traditional post-secondary…

Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) conducted a randomized-treatment experiment during the 2006-2007 school year to test the efficacy, for Title I students, of the technological and individualized EPGY Kindergarten through Grade 5 Mathematics Course Sequence, modified for the Title I schools. Restricting attention to…

This article describes an Oakland Unified schools program of "blended learning" that is designed to reach students who are academically all over the map. Blended learning combines brick-and-mortar schooling with online education "with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace" of learning. The program…

This year-long, quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of the use of netbook computers and interactive science software on fifth-grade students' science learning processes, academic achievement, and interest in further science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) study within a linguistically diverse school district in…

Teacher educators are constantly revisiting and revising their teacher education programs. Historically, research, educational policy, and accreditation requirements have been the impetus for renewal in teacher education. For the past 20 years, technology innovation has played an increasingly significant role in rethinking teacher education. This…

This study describes the efficacy of a novel tool, mini-lecture movies, in teaching Web based general chemistry. The analysis shows a marked improvement in student learning, as evidenced by a corresponding increase in homework and final exam scores. Students with access to mini-lecture movies scored 11.2% (p = 0.016) higher than students who did…

This paper addresses the assessment of an online academic course delivered through WebCT at San Diego Miramar College in Southern California. The native and non-native college students who took this course experienced online academic instruction for the first time. WebCT gives learners both knowledge input and interactive practice by encouraging…

Instructors have many tools to consider when offering online courses: chat rooms, discussion boards, and interactive Web environments, to name a few. The selection of applications for instructional purposes can be a complicated task as the number available grows. Not only must the application work, but it also must have a pedagogical purpose or…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…

This article presents a descriptive case study on the first experience moving a required teacher preparation instructional technology course from the university classroom into an elementary school setting. The key motivation was to help future teachers become more adept at integrating technology into their practice by learning about commonly used…

The concept of data-driven professional development is both straight-forward and sensible. Implementing this approach is another story, which is why many administrators are turning to sophisticated tools to help manage data collection and analysis. These tools allow educators to assess and correlate student outcomes, instructional methods, and…