The current historical moment is marked by the gradual transition from a print culture to a digital new media culture, and this shift carries material effects for how education research contexts are perceived and represented. This discussion uses the concept of materiality to demonstrate how the conceptualization of inquiry through digital…

This paper identifies the issues that arose from a year-long Digital Imaging project which took place in a multicultural, urban area of the UK, working with children aged from seven years in a primary school and investigating their uses of digital technology. The outcomes of the project are described, using existing theoretical frameworks relating…

This study examined visual information processing and learning in classrooms including both deaf and hearing students. Of particular interest were the effects on deaf students' learning of live (three-dimensional) versus video-recorded (two-dimensional) sign language interpreting and the visual attention strategies of more and less experienced…

Static, animated, and interactive visualizations are frequently used in electronic learning environments. In this article, we provide a brief review of research on visuospatial cognition relevant to designing e-learning tools that use these displays. In the first section, we discuss the possible cognitive benefits of visualizations consider used…

Numerous research studies have shown that science methods courses based on constructivist approaches can enhance teacher knowledge and confidence in ways that foster more positive attitudes to the teaching of science. However, a critical part of reflective practice is the opportunity to observe competent professionals practising their craft.…

This pilot study obtained baseline information on verbal and visual rhetorics to teach microscopy techniques to college biology majors. We presented cell images to students in cell biology and biology writing classes and then asked them to identify textual, verbal, and visual cues that support microscopy learning. Survey responses suggest that…

In their specialized schooling, blind children are now frequently presented with raised line figures and maps. However, there is still much to do in evaluating the cognitive effects of training using these displays. The purpose of this research is to determine if the level of expertise in the haptic exploration, and the perception of the raised…

In this article, the author introduces the concept of flat pack toys. Flat pack toys are designed using a template on a single sheet of letter-sized card stock paper. Before being cut out and built into a three-dimensional toy, they are scanned into the computer and uploaded to a website. With the template accessible from the website, anyone with…

Among the old-school resources that the digital age is making obsolete, or at least less consequential, count the chalkboard. For decades, the chalkboard was the focal point of all instruction, the big screen on which teachers wrote out and directed lesson after lesson after lesson. Today, while chalkboards still exist, they are losing their…

Two studies were conducted to investigate the specificity of the relationship between preschoolers' emerging executive functioning skills and false belief understanding. Study 1 (N=44) showed that 3- to 5-year-olds' performance on an executive functioning task that required selective suppression of actions predicted performance on false belief…

Background: This project examined the intermodal perception of temporal synchrony in 16 young children (ages 4 to 6 years) with autism compared to a group of children without impairments matched on adaptive age, and a group of children with other developmental disabilities matched on chronological and adaptive age. Method: A preferential looking…

Computer-based mathematical cognitive tools (MCTs) are a category of external aids intended to support and enhance learning and cognitive processes of learners. MCTs often contain interactive visual mathematical representations (VMRs), where VMRs are graphical representations that encode properties and relationships of mathematical concepts. In…

The dance studio typically features a wall of mirrors; however, there has been little research on the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of mirrors in the training environment. Psychological studies on objective self-awareness, the ability to see one's self as an object, suggest that the mirrors magnify this state. How this increased…

Instructions are an essential communication component of organizations, but even advanced students seldom admit any shortcomings in direction-writing. Whether printed material for customers on how to use a product (construct the children's play set, connect a DVD player to a home entertainment center, or program a car radio's stations), formal job…

A program designed to evaluate the benefits of an audiovisual-frequency modulated (FM) system led to some questions concerning the effects of illumination level and a talker's skin color on speech-reading performance. To address those issues, the speech of a Caucasian female was videotaped under 2 conditions: a light skin color condition and a…