If you are like the millions of people buying the latest smartphone, iPhone 5, or Samsung Galaxy S III, your local library should have something to offer you. The Emma S. Clark Memorial Library, for one, has an app for that! Dubbed "Emma Mobile," the library's application works with iOS (Apple), Android (Google), and Amazon Kindle Fire…

Nowadays, the use of data-acquisition systems in undergraduate laboratories is routine. Many computer-assisted experiments became possible with the PASCO scientific data-acquisition system based on the 750 Interface and DataStudio software. A new data-acquisition system developed by PASCO includes the 850 Universal Interface and Capstone software.…

Digital Badges--icons that can represent skills and achievements at a more fine-grained level than a degree--give colleges and universities a new way to document learning outcomes and to map the pathways students follow to earn a degree. They also provide a common currency to denote learning outcomes and give employers a visual representation and…

This article provides an overview of several studies in which the authors draw on social media, storytelling, and mobile apps to help children playfully develop their own approaches to science. The authors detail their efforts to strike a balance between the structure needed to promote science learning and the flexibility needed to nurture…

Educators who engage with today's students appreciate the impact digital media has on the lives of our younger generations. Learners of today consume, create, and publish multimedia content continuously, using a variety of devices such as cell phones, tablets, and computers. They generate original and innovative products through programs, apps,…

Current education standards in the U.S. require school students to read and understand complex texts from different subject areas (e.g., social studies). However, such texts usually contain figurative language, complex phrases and sentences, as well as unfamiliar discourse relations. This may present an obstacle to students whose native language…

The term of implicit learning is still subject to controversy. "At least a dozen different definitions have been offered in the field" (Frensch & Rünger, 2003 p.13). While some scholars consider it downright inexistent (see Chun & Jiang, 1998), many others are trying to identify how we seem to acquire knowledge in absence of…

An important and interesting area in the study of triangle geometry is the related issue of extrema problems and inequalities. These problems play a significant role in the mathematics study program in high school. In tasks such as these, the difficulty level is high when one does not know in advance what the expected answer is. When one knows…

As portable devices become increasingly available in elementary classrooms teachers are expected to use these new technologies to engage students in both traditional print-based literacy learning and digital literacies practices, such as multimodal composing. Teachers face the daunting task of integrating apps into their current research-based…

QR codes are two-dimensional square patterns that are capable of coding information that ranges from web addresses to links to YouTube video. The codes save time typing and eliminate errors in entering addresses incorrectly. These codes make learning with technology easier for students and motivationally engage them in news ways.

For over two decades, the field of children's literature has been incorporating more digital technologies into publication of and access to texts. From early computer and CD-ROM adaptations of print picturebooks to the extensive visual and aural interactivity of the newest literature apps, what and how children read has changed significantly in…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce educators to three types of applets that are compatible with smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers: screencasting applets, graphing calculator applets, and student response applets. The applets discussed can be seamlessly and effectively integrated into classrooms to help facilitate lectures, collect…

It is vitally important for students to be creating music from the youngest age, and in all general music class settings. Now that the National Standards have been revised (renamed the National Core Arts Standards) and creating has been elevated to one of three artistic processes, the creative activities of composing, arranging, and improvising…

As state boards of education and other state policymakers consider the future of schools, sorting fad technology from technology that accelerates learning is key. Virtual reality (VR) is one such technology with promise that seems unlikely to fizzle. Hailed as potentially transformative for education and still in the early stages of application,…

More than 2,200 years ago, Eratosthenes, who was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, used a simple proportion involving the distance between two ancient cities and measures of shadows cast in those cities during a summer solstice to estimate the circumference of Earth (Nicastro 2008, 25-28). Today, middle school students can use…