This practical resource shows educators how to use the Internet to help students communicate electronically, reaching beyond the borders of traditional classroom walls. The authors--a lifelong professional developer and a dedicated facilitator of improved K-12 education through her work with graduate students in school leadership--provide the…

The development of the resource file is a common experience in teacher preparation programs. The author examines strategies for transforming what has been a project composed of physical resources to one emphasizing digital resources. Methods for finding, tagging, storing and retrieving resources are explored.

Purpose: Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) have become increasingly popular in educational settings and the role of 3D content is becoming more and more important. Still, there are many challenges in this area, such as lack of empirical studies that provide design for educational activities in 3D CVEs and lack of norms of how to support…

Web-based instruction is not a new phenomenon. There are 15-20 years of research and literature to support the effectiveness of web-based instruction. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the research in this field in order to determine which factors are critical to the success of web-based instruction. We created a toolkit to assist…

This article reports the result of an action research study that explored the need for visual literacy as an additional instructional input for students creating technology integration solutions. The introduction of visual literacy concepts is useful in two ways. First, it raises visual considerations to the conscious consideration of students.…

Game-based learning has been a popular development and recommended as an effective pedagogy in educating new generations of learners. Few studies, however, have demonstrated the efficacy of game-based learning on learners' academic performance with empirical data. The described learning outcomes of game-based pedagogy within the limited available…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) connects standards-based content to real-world scenarios through the use of projects to improve student achievement. By engaging students in authentic problems that do not have a predetermined solution, students learn both subject matter and critical 21st-century skills. This "Focus On" addresses what…

Wikis have the potential to change learning environments from traditional knowledge transmission models to knowledge transformative ones where students generate, share, and reshape knowledge. In this three-part study, graduate students created wikibooks across institutional settings. One of these projects extended to universities in China, Taiwan,…

This paper discusses the establishment of an international collaborative program focused on school improvement in Brazil and the United States. Two qualitative research studies were conducted on the development work conducted by faculty, students, and local K-12 school stakeholders. The design and implementation of collaborative student projects…

Outlines seven common mistakes in student-produced videos; suggests ways to avoid them. Mistakes include too much open screen space; unnatural, abrupt transitions between camera shots; odd juxtapositions of performers with background objects; endless talk without shot changes; no space between the subject's head and top of the video screen;…

Presents guidelines for student hypermedia projects that are based on experiences at the Singapore American Middle School. Topics include integrating technology into the curriculum; and the need for setting standards regarding content and design, including supplying references for sound and graphics sources. (LRW)