Most early years practitioners heed this advice--"Well planned play, both indoors and outdoors, is a key way in which young children learn with enjoyment and challenge (DFEE/QCA, 2000, P. 25)--and provide environments in which children can play. Sefton LEA wanted staff to provide opportunities for children to construct "places to…

With its global vision, community partners and cutting edge curriculum, Kirkwood Community College has become a leader in emergency preparedness and response training. The college is integrally involved with a variety of training consortia and entities including HMTRI (Hazardous Materials Training Research Institute), PETE (Partnership for…

In this article, the author provides an overview of the best instructional design and delivery practices for facilitating online courses. Many factors that contribute to effectively facilitating an online course are discussed, including student expectations and experience with technology, understanding the types of technologies used, effective…

Become a Goggle Power User was developed for incoming students in Sackville High School, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2003, and has been adapted for use in other local schools and in several universities, it is an instructional program designed for first-year high school students that was integrated into the English Language Arts curriculum, the…

This article describes research on the quality of a computer program designed to help secondary level science teachers in southern Africa create exemplary paper-based lesson materials. Results of this study show that the content, support, and interface of the program combine to form a tool that is considered by both users and experts to be valid…

While there has been a significant amount of research on technical issues regarding the development of agent-based learning environments (e.g., see the special issue of Journal of "Interactive Learning Research," 10(3/4)), there is less information regarding cognitive foundations for these environments. The management of control is a prime issue…

The course creator, not the course, empowers collaborative communities. Using the Internet to communicate without restraints due to place or time has allowed the quantity and quality of human relationships to increase. To prepare our students for the 21st century, we must understand who our Audience is, how we can Benefit from virtual communities…

Change in distance learning is occurring at a rapid pace. As new technologies appear, institutions of higher education incorporate them into their course delivery options. Library services must also change to meet new user needs. This article examines the meanings of change and leadership within a distance-learning setting. After describing…

Graduate students preparing themselves for a career in school administration are typically apprehensive about the legal issues they will face in their first administrative position. After teaching school law for the first time, the author believed that there had to be a more effective way to reach these students rather than the traditional methods…

Online course delivery can be a dynamic learning experience where information is used to shape and extend thinking. The challenge is creating a virtual classroom that combines evocative resources with tasks that enhance and stimulate student learning. New models are needed to reflect the changing learning environment that began with the advent of…

Pre-service teachers' attitudes towards computers significantly influence their future adoption of integrating computer technology into their teaching. What are the pedagogical strategies that a teacher education instructor or an instructional designer can incorporate to enhance a pre-service teacher's comfort level in using computers? In this…

This paper describes the design of a web-based learning module. The aim in the design was to operationalize the concepts of granularity, reusability, scalability, and interoperability as they relate to learning objects. The prototypical module was designed for contexts where identifying and solving ill-structured problems is relevant. The module…

Across the spectrum of academic disciplines, history is one of the few to be organized largely on the basis of the nation-state. With a few notable exceptions, only since the 1960s have American historians begun to see the limitations that this nation-bounded approach has imposed on the field. Since then a movement to internationalize the study…

The article examines the approach taken in one primary school to introduce a reflective teaching approach, following an OFSTED inspection. By considering the development of reflective teaching and learning, the development of a working mode and the types of skills needed in order to teach in a reflective manner, it reports on the outcomes from the…

One need not visit many classes to discover some students not sufficiently energized to do the work necessary to learn. Many of these same students, however, immerse themselves in complex computerized mystery/adventure games, becoming so engaged by the experience they lose track of time. Designers invest much of their energy in trying to figure…