Technology educators who teach digital photography should consider incorporating an infrared (IR) photography component into their program. This is an area where digital photography offers significant benefits. Either type of IR imaging is very interesting to explore, but traditional film-based IR photography is difficult and expensive. In…

Understanding the personality of a constant current (CC) dc welding machine can make the difference between a successful or unsuccessful weld test or between a student who pursues a career in welding and one who may quit in frustration. In this article, the author explains the two different "personalities" of CC welders. He also explains how…

The "Horizon Report" series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe. The report examines emerging technologies for…

The annual "Horizon Report" describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, a qualitative research project established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years. This…

Miami Central High School technology teacher Frank Houghtaling thinks the connection between theory and application is one reason his students perform better on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The impressive turnaround school drew local and national attention last spring when one of Houghtaling's students, Dagoberto Cruz, won…

Most high school students are at an age when they are learning to drive. They often want to offer input when their parents decide on what vehicle to purchase, so the activity described in this article should have direct personal interest for them. It allows students to use technology and mathematics to determine the environmental impacts of…

The author spent many years in the classroom as a traditional technical education teacher. He was always attracted to emerging technologies, and visual technologies in particular interested him. In this article, he shares some of his experiences with setting up and running a very successful TV/video technology program.

This article details the many benefits of educators' use of digital camera technology and provides an activity in which students practice taking portrait shots of classmates, manipulate the resulting images, and add language arts practice by interviewing their subjects to produce a photo-illustrated Word document. This activity gives…

The author has taught beginning, intermediate, and advanced electronics/electricity classes for more than 20 years. During that time--each and every semester--students struggle with measuring current in the laboratory. As all electronics/electricity instructors know, this results in blown fuses, burned parts, and just plain frustration on…

This article describes the Hill-Climb project of a second level Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) class. The author primarily designed the activity to increase student understanding of the assembly drawing process and its components. The emphasis on problem solving adds a dimension that can aid students in their other classes as well. By…

It may not seem like school is the best place to crank up the bass for glass-cracking extreme energy, but subwoofers just might make better teaching and learning tools than they do music makers. Faced with the fact that electricity is invisible, electrical technology students encounter significant challenges in the classroom when abstract concepts…

Frequent quizzing prods students to keep up with course work--and keeps them on their toes. The Internet offers a great tool for frequent quizzing. In this article, the author shares his experience quizzing his students weekly using his university's online learning system, WebCT, in the hope that this experience will prove useful to other…

Many teachers find developing a new lesson or course quite difficult. It would be nice to have all necessary information, lesson plans and assessment materials ready at hand. But most often, they find themselves on their own when it comes to lesson and course development. The author faced this situation when he was asked to develop a lesson on…

In this article, the author shares his experience teaching production technology to special education students at Hialeah Middle School in Miami-Dade County, Florida. He has had many students who clearly had talent in graphics and design that went unrealized because of their physical disabilities. He has seen students with an enormous amount of…