As we strive to provide quality and sustainable online learning experiences, we must frame instructional design decisions around learners' current needs and interaction with technology. This article explores the implications of technology transience on instructional design. We provide numerous examples of programs assuming a purposeful approach to…

Like authors who create settings as integral components of engaging narratives, thoughtful literacy coaches and other educators who plan and implement professional development consider elements of settings to engage teachers in continuous learning. Many teacher educators, researchers, administrators, literacy coaches, and K-12 teachers understand…

Describes an Educational Products Information Exchange (EPIE) study which evaluated 163 elementary and secondary education microcomputer courseware programs for intent, content, methods and approach, and evaluation, to discover whether trends existed across areas and courseware types, and to determine strengths and weaknesses of available…

Summarizes a discussion by the authors of this special issue that took place after the five instructional designers created lesson plans for the same design task. Highlights include the specified content's convergent effect on the designs; design philosophies; things that surprised the designers; and their favorable responses. (AEF)

This paper offers a definition for the word "effective" and then discusses implications of research on the environment in relation to designing effective instruction. Similarities and differences involved in designing effective instruction are presented across four different contexts: K-12, higher education, human services, and…

Almost every state is "imposing" academic standards. Helping students to meet those standards is a key task for teachers and school administrators, as well as instructional systems designers. Thus, instructional designers in the K-12 environments are facing the challenge of using appropriately and effectively academic standards in their…

Schools have much to learn from video games and the gaming community. By providing compelling activities for motivating otherwise indifferent learners, video games can potentially help teachers improve the design of learning environments. However, there are considerable rhetorical and practical barriers between the schooling and gaming communities…

This paper presents a model for designing computer-based simulation environments within a constructivist framework for the K-12 school setting. The following primary criteria for the development of simulations are proposed: (1) the problem needs to be authentic; (2) the cognitive demand in learning should be authentic; (3) scaffolding supports a…

This research investigates the ways people learn from multimedia and how navigational patterns can be incorporated into the design structure. The paper begins with a discussion of present navigational research and then presents the results from the initial empirical work, including a pilot study of primary and secondary children using multimedia…

This paper describes the development of two World Wide Web sites, "Our Place in the World" (OPITW) and "Chicana and Chicano Space" (CCS), specifically designed as resources for art educators, and describes a framework for three blended levels or layers of navigation that support knowledge construction within the domain. The…

Support for Teachers Enhancing Performance in Schools (STEPS) is a World Wide Web and CD-ROM electronic performance support system (EPSS) designed for preK-12 and preservice educators to assist in designing and developing lessons, units, or curricula; this tool was developed around school reform and accountability initiatives in Florida. To…