The relative positions of the sun, moon, and earth, their movements, and their relationships are abstract and difficult to understand astronomical concepts in elementary school science. This study proposes a three-dimensional (3-D) virtual reality (VR) model named the "Sun and Moon System." This e-learning resource was designed by…

Even though computer games hold considerable potential for engaging and facilitating learning among today's children, the adoption of modern educational computer games is still meeting significant resistance in K-12 education. The purpose of this paper is to inform educators and instructional designers on factors affecting teachers' adoption of…

The present work describes an experience of educational innovation in a university context. Its aim was to determine the relationship between students' frequency of use of online self-assessment with feedback and their final performance on the course, taking into account both learners' motivation and perceived usefulness of these resources for…

Creation of multimedia (MM) could be a valuable diversification of assessment methods within non-technical modules. The apparent popularity of sites based on user-generated video content such as YouTube and also of podcasting suggests that relevant skills and interest are becoming more mainstream. Translating book learned knowledge into visual…

This article presents a descriptive case study on the use of technical vocabulary in the lectures of a first-year graduate theology course in Canada. It first contextualizes this research by noting four kinds of English vocabulary and the study of classrooms as lexical environments. Next it outlines the study's methodology, including the…

This study extends the research into faculty and student use of contemporary academic technologies. The goals of the study are threefold. First, the study aims to unpack which technologies students and faculty use, and how often. Second, it aims to understand their experiences in the contexts in which they live them. Finally, it explores the…

Contemporary changes in pedagogy point to the need for a higher level of video production value in most classroom video, replacing the default video protocol of an unattended camera in the back of the classroom. The rich and complex environment of today's classroom can be captured more fully using the higher level, but still easily manageable,…

With the explosive growth of e-portfolios in teacher preparation programs, it is essential for administration and other relevant stakeholders to understand the student perspective of e-portfolios' organizational uses. This article describes the validation of the modified Electronic Portfolio Student Perspective Instrument (EPSPI). The analysis…

This paper explores and discusses arguments for the use of virtual environments and interactive avatars in supporting the achievement of student learning goals within conventional educational contexts. It describes and evaluates arguments promoted by some authors (eg, van den Brekel, 2007; Deuchar & Nodder, 2003; Dickey, 2003; Facer, 2004; de…

As it happens in other fields of engineering, blended learning is widely used to teach process control topics. In this paper, the inclusion of a reactive element--a Fuzzy Logic based controller--is proposed for a blended learning approach in an introductory control engineering course. This controller has been designed in order to regulate the…

Abstract: As one of the Web 2.0 tools, blogs are widely used in US education. This paper gives a brief overview of blogs such as advantages, disadvantages, and major software for creating blogs, and then it reviews some EduBlogs, its usage, and examples in US education. The purpose is to motivate more educators to use blogs in teaching and…

The "Accelerated Reader" program is a guided reading intervention in which teachers are closely involved with student reading of text. It involves two components, the "Accelerated Reader" software and "Accelerated Reader Best Classroom Practices" (formerly called "Reading Renaissance"). The "Accelerated…

Purpose: This paper aims to sketch the emerging notion of auto-adaptive software when applied to e-learning software. Design/methodology/approach: The study and the implementation of the auto-adaptive architecture are based on the operational framework "ActiveTutor" that is used for teaching the topic of computer science programming in first-grade…

The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat Apparatus from PASCO scientific provides the means for doing a simple experiment to determine the mechanical equivalent of heat, "J." A necessary step of this experiment is to determine the temperature of an aluminum cylinder. By measuring the resistance of a thermistor embedded in the cylinder, one is able to…

Most homes in developed countries have a sophisticated data acquisition board, namely the PC sound board. Designed to be able to reproduce CD-quality stereo sound, it must have a sampling rate of at least 44 kHz and have very accurate timing between the two stereo channels. With a very simple adaptation of a pair of regular PC microphones, a…