The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' attitudes and perceptions toward the use of technology-based instruction (i.e., "Inspiration 6 software") as an effective instructional strategy in inclusive social studies classes. Three high school social studies teachers, one general education and two special education teachers, completed a…

This paper describes the use of a range of Web 2.0 technologies to support the development of community for a newly formed Land Trust on the Isle of Lewis, in NW Scotland. The application of social networking tools in text, audio and video has several purposes: informal learning about the area to increase tourism, community interaction,…

Online courses are growing in popularity, providing opportunities for individuals to complete their education while overcoming time and distance constraints. Innovations in distance education allow for the design and development of online courses that adapt to meet the specific needs and/or learning styles of the students enrolled, and reflect the…

A learning model describes how learning occurs, and two major classifications of models are objectivism and constructivism. A. D. Carswell (2001) notes that "within an objectivist schema, the instructor identifies the course objectives required of students and then systematically arranges the content to reach those goals." Constructivism, on the…

Empirical research evaluating the effectiveness of learning objects is noticeably absent. No formal research has been done on the use of learning objects in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of learning objects by high school students. The evaluation metric used to assess benefits and quality of learning objects…

Using a case study research strategy of data collection, the empirical component of the study presented in this paper is aimed at exploring the interplay between content knowledge and pedagogy when information and communication technologies (ICT) are used by a number of secondary school mathematics teachers. An orienting framework advanced as a…

This article identifies three uses of educational technology and evaluates their potential to change curricula and pedagogic strategies. The article is in four parts, with the first outlining a temporal model of change and discussing educators' expectations of continuities and discontinuities in practice. In order to distinguish minor…

In this article, the author demonstrates the very real possibility of using technology to help open up the classroom space so that students feel empowered. For her, such possibilities are at the center of feminist praxis, especially on urban campuses and at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Building a feminist pedagogy on an…

Lifelike, interactive digital characters, serving as mentors and role-playing actors, have been shown to significantly improve learner motivation and retention. However, the cost of modeling such characters, authoring and editing their interactions, and delivering them over limited-bandwidth connections can be prohibitive. This paper describes a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine an assessment task, undertaken by pre-service science teachers, that integrates the use of technology (in this case digital video-recorders and video-editing software) whilst scaffolding skill development. The embedding of technology into the assessment task is purposeful, aiming to…

The rapid growth and modernization of economies in developing countries like Botswana creates new and unmet demands for certain kinds of educated and skilled labour. The expansion of secondary and tertiary school systems has also created a problem of unemployed school leavers. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),…

Contextualised and ubiquitous learning are relatively new research areas that combine the latest developments in ubiquitous and context aware computing with educational approaches in order to provide structure to more situated and context aware learning. The majority of recent activities in contextualised and ubiquitous learning focus on mobile…

Students those who are at-risk and with disabilities often benefit from strategically designed computer supported assignments and instruction. The proposed manuscript summarizes a research study which included a focus on training participants to effectively utilize hand-held computers and select software programs in planning, delivering, and…

This deliverable identifies key approaches for quality management in peer production by benchmarking peer production practices and processes in other areas. (Contains 29 footnotes, 13 figures and 2 tables.)[This report has been authored with contributions of: Kaisa Honkonen-Ratinen, Matti Auvinen, David Riley, Jose Pinzon, Thomas Fischer, Thomas…

A weak negative attitude towards learning science was noticed among the students in Qatar, a matter that was reflected on their achievement in national tests. To test if the use of PBL would improve the students' attitudes towards learning science, a sample of 25 nine graders from Hamza school were motivated to plan their own investigations and to…