After 25 years of evolution of technology resources in schools, your leadership team, board of education and local community have finally gotten the message that these tools are here to stay and belong in every classroom for student access. A budget has been appropriated, equipment purchased, professional development completed and new curriculum…

In spite of all the attention that the concept of learning objects has received in the education community, it remains poorly defined. This paper attempts to explore what may be a learning object other than some computer file catalogued in a digital library for reuse. Any debate about what a learning object may be is premature without a general…

Uncertainty and irreversibility are central to online learning projects, but have been neglected in the existing educational cost-benefit analysis literature. This paper builds some simple illustrative models of the impact of irreversibility and uncertainty, and shows how different types of cost and demand uncertainty can have substantial impacts…

This paper describes a Web-based and distributed system named QSIA that serves as an environment for learning, assessing and knowledge sharing. QSIA--Questions Sharing and Interactive Assignments--offers a unified infrastructure for developing, collecting, managing and sharing of knowledge items. QSIA enhances collaboration in authoring via online…

In this paper we consider the extent to which learning objects that focus on higher level thinking might be seen as Type II applications, as defined by Maddux, Johnson, and Willis (2001). We conclude that learning objects are at best hybrid applications, with some Type I and some Type II characteristics. We also consider whether the educational…

For at least twenty years educators have wrestled with questions about the appropriate uses of computer technologies in classrooms while spending millions of dollars with neither clarity of purpose nor defined expectations. The private uses of communications technologies by children and youth leave everyone, with a different question--not whether…

In his recent article in this journal, John Gough (2004) concludes that the practical results of the considerable academic research undertaken at the University of Melbourne into the uses and impacts of graphics calculators and CAS (computer algebra systems) should be made more widely available in journals for teachers. This short article is…

For most of the past century, literacy has been associated with being able to read the printed word. The meaning of literacy, however, is changing (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). Not only are reading experts expanding their notion of literacy to include technology use (Leu, 2003), but it is included in literacy in other disciplines, as well (Burkhardt…

This article describes a study that examined the conceptions of three New Hampshire superintendents as to the institutional conditions they believe impact teachers' ability to integrate technology. Common thinking was found. They agree if integration is to be successful, teachers need a better understanding of how these technologies can be applied…

With the expansion of Internet-based instruction, research-based guidelines are needed to support faculty decision making during course design to ensure student success and satisfaction with instruction incorporating new delivery technologies. This investigation consisted of two phases. In Phase One, computer skills and attitudes toward…

A pendulum "engine" with dynamic parameters can be created and pendulum functions manipulated and analyzed using interactive elements in Flash. The effects of changing the damping (convergence) properties, initial release angle and initial velocity conditions can be explored. The motions then can be digitized using the Flash Digitizer 1.1,…

When we planned the editorial calendar with the topic ubiquitous computing, we were thinking of ubiquitous computing as the one-to-one ratio of computers to students and teachers and 24/7 access to electronic resources. At the time, we were aware that ubiquitous computing in the computer science field had more to do with wearable computers. Our…

This article discusses the technology immersion in the Minnetonka, Minn., School District. Imagine walking into a classroom where the teacher uses his finger on a giant touch screen to maneuver website data or diagram a sentence. Imagine every student in the class--even the one who hasn't spoken all semester--holding a response device to give the…

This article features the Atomic Learning. The challenge of teaching people how to effectively use technology motivated a group of technology coordinators to form a company and create a product to help teachers and students understand the software and hardware they were employing in the classroom. This group, with over 200 collective years of…

Teaching with activity schedules may yield functional skills that are not readily achieved by traditional discrete-trial teaching or by naturalistic intervention strategies. Activity schedules are unique because the procedures focus on teaching a learner to do and say things in the presence of instructional cues accessed independently rather than…