This article describes a study of children's electronic books (e-books) technology. In particular, the focus is on devices used to access children's e-books, current available e-books and an e-book builder specifically for children. Three small case studies were conducted: two to evaluate how children accept the devices and one to test the ease of…

Many school districts (SDs) use the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) to disseminate a wide variety of information about things such as district events, policies, and a wide variety of student information. On-line barriers limit the accessibility of the WWW for persons and students with disabilities and thus can limit their access to vital information.…

This study explored the role of student characteristics in studying micro teaching-learning environments. The overarching hypothesis is that teachers teach differently to micro environments in their classrooms. This study is the first of a series exploring the following four questions: (1) What student profiles are identified at the beginning of a…

Professional development at postsecondary institutions has primarily been supported through a central faculty development center. With purposive sampling, this small case study explored the ways in which teacher education faculty members were influenced to participate in decentralized professional development focused on learning to teach with…

Support is needed to promote problem-based learning (PBL) and to enhance critical thinking skills in discussion-based Internet forums. By advancing the capabilities of chat room and forum software, problem-based discussions for learning can be supported further in online learning environments. In this paper, the authors report on MALESAbrain, an…

Introduction: For postgraduate training of doctors there is a need for valid and reliable instruments to assess their daily performance. Various instruments have been suggested, some of which use incognito simulated patients (SPs). These methods are resource intensive. Computerised Case-based testing (CCT) is logistically simpler and may still…

Many universities and colleges list the development of lifelong learning skills as a curriculum objective and have adopted laptop programs that may enable lifelong learning. The purpose of this research is to address the effectiveness of a technology-based and computer-mediated learning environment in achieving lifelong learning skills from the…

TeamXchange, an online team-based exercise, is described. TeamXchange is consistent with the collaborative model of learning and provides a means of fostering enhanced student learning and engagement through collaboration in virtual teams experiencing periodic membership changes. It was administered in an undergraduate Organizational Behavior…

This study describes the use and assesses the benefits of a virtual learning environment (VLE)-enhanced independent language learning program (ILLP), based on the "WebCT" platform, for three groups of first- and second-year Italian students. It considers the positive outcomes of the program for the students' learning abilities. These outcomes…

Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) is a 130-year-old independent girls' school in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Teaching students from ages 4 to 18, PLC has a reputation for academic excellence. Geography is a separate subject taught as a part of the core curriculum in the secondary school. The College, which uses principally Macintosh…

In July, 2005, the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology at the campus of the University of Bordeaux, France, hosted a focused week of seminars, workshops, and discussions around the theme of "teaching signal transduction." The purpose of the summer school was to offer both junior and senior university instructors a chance to…

The DIN Didactical Object Model extends the approaches of existing Educational Modeling Languages introducing specifications for contexts and experiences. In this paper, we show how the Didactical Object Model can be used for sharing didactical expertise. Educational Modeling Languages change the design paradigm from content orientation towards…

Starting from the first public draft of IMS Learning Design in November 2002, a research project at the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt in Germany was dedicated to the conceptual examination and empirical review of IMS Learning Design Level A. A prototypical runtime environment called "lab005" was developed. It was built based…

Utilizing the full potential of distance education requires an understanding of how the absence of face-to-face communication affects the relationship between teaching behaviors and learning outcomes. Teachers' awareness of how their teaching behaviors change across distance and conventional contexts can assist them in overcoming the limitations…

The purpose of this study was to develop guiding principles to encourage higher levels of teaching and learning in Web-based distance education. The research framework used Zetterberg's (1962) model for change. Data from semi-structured interviews with university instructors who had experience in teaching Web-based distance education courses, a…