The availability of user-friendly tools for designing learning environments resulted in an innovative shift of design focus. This shift has been noticed from a user-centred, although passive and reactive, design approach to a participatory, at responsibility and self-directedness directed, design approach. This latter innovative and promising…

To prevent children with reading difficulties from thinking of themselves as failures, academic experiences must include projects that will motivate them to be responsible learners, enhance their self-concept, and reinforce all the language arts skills. One class of sixth grade students with reading disabilities made minibooks from greeting cards…

"DITonline" is an independent, daily news website run by students, for students, at the Durban Institute of Technology (DIT) in Durban, South Africa. The website is a collaborative project, emanating from blended teaching and learning environments in the university's journalism department. "DITonline" was launched in August…

During the 1974 spring semester, the Sanostee-Toadlena Title VII Bilingual Education Project focused on "how and what to teach Navajo children". The on-site program included courses in human and growth development, classroom learning, production of materials, social studies, science methods, mathematics methods, developmental reading,…

Examines how educational theory translates into classroom practice. Students in a graduate course learned about educational theory by creating a hypermedia chapter for a Web-based book. Findings indicated: most students were highly satisfied with the course; some transferred learning; and students developed skills and knowledge with instructional…

This publication shares three "best teaching practices" as identified by the Ohio Literacy Resource Center from responses from Ohio's adult literacy programs. "Identifying Errors in Writing" (Mary Cupilary) is a writing improvement strategy/lesson that involves selecting one sentence from a paragraph written by each student,…

The participatory rural appraisal (PRA) technique was used with 1,550 women and 420 men in more than 100 villages in Uganda, El Salvador, and Bangladesh over a 2-year period to develop and pilot test an approach to literacy education called REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques). The REFLECT approach, which…

Current educational theory and practice clearly show that project-based instruction has the potential to enhance learning. Preliminary findings on one type of project-based learning in which students take on the role of hypermedia designers support this claim. This study examined the effect of being hypermedia designers on fourth-graders'…

The introductory instructional technology course at Iowa State University is a survey course covering various technologies. In this case, the instructor chose to create a situated learning environment using low-technology everyday surroundings to teach the fundamentals of photographic and video production, linking the photography, audio, and video…

The curriculum guide is designed to serve as a resource for local teachers and community members to design their own special curriculum around the unique nutritional needs of individuals and families making up the population. The guide is organized around six major topics: the individual's involvement in nutrition and food, factors involved in…

This paper presents the framework used in implementing "Marketing on the Web," an interdisciplinary course that integrates marketing and technology strategies, with an approach that is grounded in cognitive psychology and in constructionist theory. Though applied at the undergraduate level, the framework may be adapted to primary through graduate…

The unit supplement provides skill development activities for high school students in mass media techniques. It is intended to be used with a social studies curriculum unit entitled "Unit on Political Decision Making and Action Strategy Over a Local Environmental Problem," (ED 118 526). Teacher directions for using the supplement as a single unit…

This book describes, in detail, practical ways to develop an open, individualized and child-centered classroom by using learning or interest centers. Consideration is given to the initial planning of learning centers, and sections discuss various kinds and uses of learning centers for the primary and intermediate grades. Topics discussed include…

Provides a brief discussion of the possibilities and pitfalls of using video for a research or final project. Outlines some pre-production questions to ask and guidelines to follow in producing a video for academic credit. Discusses technical considerations, content, and issues of confidentiality and ethics. (MJP)

This issue of a biannual journal devoted to teaching methods and techniques in English as a second language (ESL), with emphasis on a Japanese instructional context, consists of the following articles: (1) "The Missing Element in Foreign Language Communication: Self-Disclosure," by Gertrude Moskowitz; (2) "Seven Clocks: Their…