John Abdelmalak, director of technology for the School District of the Chathams, was pretty sure it was time to jump on the virtualization bandwagon last year when he invited Dell to conduct a readiness assessment of his district's servers. When he saw just how little of their capacity was being used, he lost all doubt. Abdelmalak is one of many…

In this paper, a dropout prediction method for e-learning courses, based on three popular machine learning techniques and detailed student data, is proposed. The machine learning techniques used are feed-forward neural networks, support vector machines and probabilistic ensemble simplified fuzzy ARTMAP. Since a single technique may fail to…

With the increased use of computer manipulatives in teaching there is need for theoretical discussions on the role of manipulatives. This paper reviews theoretical rationales for using manipulatives and illustrates how earlier distinctions of manipulative materials are broadened to include new forms of materials such as virtual manipulatives.…

Classifying a particle requires an understanding of the type of bonding that exists within and among the particles, which requires an understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations, which requires an understanding of the elements of periodic properties, and so on. Rather than getting tangled up in all of these concepts at the start…

Collaborative technologies offer a range of new ways of supporting learning by enabling learners to share and exchange both ideas and their own digital products. This paper considers how best to exploit these opportunities from the perspective of learners' needs. New technologies invariably excite a creative explosion of new ideas for ways of…

One of the biggest debates among music educators today is about whether or not video games are a valid educational tool. As far back as the early 1990s, teachers were using games such as Sid Meier's Civilization to reinforce history and social studies concepts, but until recently games that dealt with areas of music education have been few and far…

Second Life (SL), an immersive virtual environment, is increasingly being adopted in education for both formal and informal teaching and learning uses. This paper addresses the process of developing a demonstrator presence in SL, the potential of the system for formal teaching and some practical ideas on how to successfully integrate such emerging…

Each student has a unique learning style or individual way of perceiving, interacting, and responding to a learning environment. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the prevalence of learning styles among undergraduate Sport Management Studies (SMS) students at California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U). Learning style…

Teachers the world over are discovering the importance and benefits of incorporating popular culture into the music classroom. The cultural prevalence and the students' familiarity with recorded music, videos, games, and other increasingly accessible multimedia materials help enliven course content and foster interactive learning and…

Expanding on the popular, practical how-to guide for public, academic, school, and special libraries, technology expert Susan Sharpless Smith offers library instructors the confidence to take Web-based instruction into their own hands. Smith has thoroughly updated "Web-Based Instruction: A Guide for Libraries" to include new tools and…

This paper explores the impact of generational attitudes on teachers' ICT use. Findings from the preliminary research suggest that when applications have a use or purpose that extends beyond the classroom and into their social or personal sphere, younger teachers demonstrate noticeable confidence and a higher potential for technology integration…

Students who struggle with reading comprehension in middle school often lack the academic vocabulary the need to understand grade-level textbooks and other instructional materials. Research shows that to learn a new word well, students need to encounter and use it multiple times in different contexts. The authors describe Word Generation, a…

At each Association for Business Communication (ABC) conference the authors have attended in the past 2 to 3 years, the many presentations focusing on social networking, blogs, wikis, and various Web 2.0 technologies have captured their attention. They welcome the wonderful, new communication tools that increasingly allow people to communicate and…

From MP3 players to cell phones to computer games, we're surrounded by a constant stream of ones and zeros. Do we really need to know how this technology works? While nobody can understand everything, digital technology is increasingly making our lives a collection of "black boxes" that we can use but have no idea how they work. Pursuing…

Based on a specially adapted questionnaire, research was carried out to explore how resources in modern distance learning were being applied in rural elementary and middle schools in Western China, in order to enhance the usefulness of the allocated resources. One particular distance learning project was used as the subject of the study, and…