Software is usually considered enabler for innovation in education. Thus, it is necessary to investigate: What leads to innovation in education and which, therefore, should be considered in the development of educational software? How to support decision-making for choosing software to be used in teaching and learning? How to evaluate software…

Research students in social science disciplines frequently struggle to master statistical analysis. A contributing factor may be the statistical software that is used, as the design of such software may not address the needs of non-statisticians or non-computer programming students. Hence, decisions about which statistical software tools are most…

The purpose of this study was to identify salient features for a critical thinking app and create an instrument to facilitate the app evaluation and selection process. Two questions guided the study: (1) What distinguishes critical thinking instructional apps from others? and (2) What design principles are essential to develop a critical thinking…

The article suggests that the non-destructive editing features of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) can be useful for communication centers and for the support of multimodal assignments because they can promote greater attention to sound. The turn to the DAW is situated in a tradition of embracing sonic technologies for pedagogical purposes…

This study compared five common multilevel software packages via Monte Carlo simulation: HLM 7, M"plus" 7.4, R (lme4 V1.1-12), Stata 14.1, and SAS 9.4 to determine how the programs differ in estimation accuracy and speed, as well as convergence, when modeling multiple randomly varying slopes of different magnitudes. Simulated data…

Implementing an enterprise-level, mission-critical software system is an infrastructure project akin to other sizable projects, such as building a school. It's costly and complex, takes a year or more to complete, requires the collaboration of many different parties, involves uncertainties, results in a long-lived asset requiring ongoing…

As mobile devices become prevalent, there is always a need for apps. How hard is it to develop an app, especially a cross-platform app? The paper shares an experience in a project that involved the development of a student services web app that can be run on cross-platform mobile devices. The paper first describes the background of the project,…

The increasing ease and ubiquity of video has resulted in a proliferation of video annotation tools used and designed for improving education. While similar, each tool has its relative strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the "right" tool can have an impact on the experience of teachers and the effectiveness of video as a means for improving…

In these difficult economic times, everyone is on the lookout for savings. This author, an adult services librarian at New City Library in New York, has spent the last two years implementing small-scale open source and freeware replacements where proprietary or paper solutions once ruled. While none of these projects is individually revolutionary,…

At thousands of schools and universities, years of economic troubles have led to repeated budget cuts. The reductions typically fall disproportionately on maintenance departments, where cuts are viewed as less critical than those that directly affect classroom instruction. And so nearly every facility manager at an education institution faces a…

In October 2012, Microsoft will release the commercial version of its next operating system, presently called "Windows 8." This version represents a significant departure from the past. Microsoft wants this operating system to meet user needs regardless of physical platform (e.g., desktop, notebook, tablet, mobile phone). As part of this mission,…

Developments in computer and information technologies continue to give opportunities for designing advanced E-learning systems while entailing objective and technical evaluation methodologies. Design and development of E-learning systems require time-consuming and labor-intensive processes; therefore any decision about these systems and their…

As computers become an increasingly ubiquitous part of young children's lives there is a need to examine how best to harness digital technologies to promote learning in early childhood education contexts. The development of emergent literacy skills is 1 domain for which numerous software programs are available for young learners. In this study, we…

The current study developed a taxonomy of reading skills and compared this taxonomy with skills being trained in 30 commercially available software programs designed to teach emergent literacy or literacy-specific skills for children in preschool, kindergarten, and Grade 1. Outcomes suggest that, although some skills are being trained in a…

Repositories with educational resources can support the formation of online learning communities by providing a platform for collaboration. Users (e.g. teachers, tutors and learners) access repositories, search for interesting resources to access and use, and in many cases, also exchange experiences and opinions. A particular class of online…