4-H academics responded to the COVID pandemic by rapidly adapting CDC and other resources for virtual delivery. A statewide epidemiology project was taught to 48 youth with the goal of minimizing fears and confusion, increasing prevention measures, leveraging current topics for education, and bolstering the social-emotional health of youth…

When the COVID-19 pandemic moved teaching and learning to remote and virtual spaces, teacher professional learning moved online as well. To create consistently high-quality teacher learning opportunities, many online asynchronous approaches need improvement, and they need to be tailor-made for the online setting. That was the authors' goal when…

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting health and safety concerns caused the cancellation of many engineering education opportunities for high school students. To expose high school students to the field of neural engineering and encourage them to pursue academic pathways in biomedical engineering, the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) at the…

Social media platforms such as WhatsApp are increasingly used in formal education settings. However, there is little research to guide educators on how to set up effective peer tutoring groups on social media platforms, particularly between tutors and tutees who rarely meet face-to-face. In the context of a WhatsApp mathematics tutoring project,…

Like many 21st-century youth, students attending urban schools operate in a cultural milieu where social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram have become the lived environments where young people display information and ideas, establish camaraderie or feuds, and share conversations and perspectives from the imaginative to the…

Educational Technology and Design 879 is a graduate course that introduces students to the basics of video design and production. In an attempt to improve the learning experience for students a redesign of the course was implemented for the summer of 2011 that incorporated an authentic design studio model. The design studio approach is based on…

Despite a large increase in the number of students enrolled in online courses, published research on student experiences in these environments is minimal. This article reports the narrative analysis of a series of interviews conducted with a female student at a brick-and-mortar school enrolled in a single virtual school course. Her narratives…

This paper focused on whether the use of online discussion boards can enhance the quality of interaction in the middle and high school English classroom, covering both the characteristics of online discussion boards and potential negative effects of their features. The features of online discussion boards, their effects, and how these boards…

In this article, the author shares challenges of teaching writing in a virtual classroom. One of the challenges of online education--the often-asynchronous nature--also holds one of the strengths: the opportunity for a lesson to continue long after the classroom closes. The author's experiences online offer ways to rethink meanings of youth…

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation this month promoting the growth of virtual schools. The new law requires the state to develop policies for approving and monitoring a wide array of private and nonprofit online education providers. The legislative action in Virginia is the most recent major policy move by a state to expand the…

All teachers know them--the students who sit in the back of the room and never make a peep. If prodded, they may reluctantly offer a comment or opinion, but they are so obviously uncomfortable about participating that a teacher may wonder if it is even worth trying to engage them. Are they unprepared or just shy? Do they lack ideas or merely need…

With today's computer and telecommunications technologies, every young person can have a quality education regardless of his or her place of birth. This is the dream that Open Educational Resources (OERs), when viewed as a right rather than a privilege, are directed to realize. For developing countries, we propose a type of OER initiative that…

Online and face-to-face courses are often viewed and studied as two distinct worlds, but the social field of the teacher who teaches them may well include both, and both the teacher and the courses he or she teaches may be transformed by the movement from one environment to the other. Susan Lowes explores this two-way interaction between…

Delivering a discussion-intensive curriculum via online instruction can pose a variety of challenges. This article presents an overview of a contemporary issues online graduate course, and analyzes the degree to which the course encouraged feelings of community, a tone of thoughtful and willing reflection, and an overall understanding of…