This first edition of the New Media Consortium's (NMC) annual "Horizon Report" details findings of the Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education. Drawing on an ongoing series of interviews…

In this research work we explored the nature of 9-12 year old pupils' responses to probabilistic problems with tree diagrams. It was found that a large percentage of pupils failed to respond correctly even to very simple problems that demanded the identification of "possible routes/paths" in figures with tree diagrams/mazes. The results…

This paper considers how teachers' questioning behaviors are observed to change after training in and using clinical interviews. Seven elementary mathematics teachers participated in trainings in clinical interviews. They were videotaped while introducing a new mathematics topic to their students prior to and after four months of the training.…

In a complex domain such as economics, elementary school students' knowledge of formal systems beyond their immediate experience is often too incomplete, superficial, and disorganized to function as schema or model. However, visual imagery is a good technique for teaching young children a network of 10 to 20 propositions and the relationships…

Procedures for constructing an inexpensive, hands-on working model of DNA are provided, as well as suggestions for using the model in a high school or college biology class. (DC)

Proposes a categorization scheme based on instructional design theory and empirical findings for employing various types of graphic/visual displays under specified conditions. (Author/CHC)

A method of teaching students how to recognize when zeros are necessary and when they may be omitted is presented. (MP)

Describes a technique of using the collage in teaching single paragraph and experiential writing. The collage is an exciting motivational device that helps students express their thoughts first in pictures and later in words. (CMV)

Emphasizes how to choose visuals that will best illustrate ideas or relationships in teaching science, when to present real objects, and how to use pictures in assessing children's comprehension. A review of literature related to this topic is included. (SA)

This study, to determine whether complexity of detail, scale, and background help subjects to learn technical information, demonstrated no significant difference between groups. One group used the existing self-contained learning package with many complex visuals; the other group used lessons identical in the audio portion but containing…

Describes the use of the "cultoon," an informative cartoon depicting some aspect of a culture, to develop cultural understanding. (AM)

Describes the use of advertisements in language instruction, with particular attention to the language of advertisements, including the conative and emotive functions, linguistic shock, translation, humor, and cultural information. (AM)

Bulletin boards in language classrooms can be highly motivating learning activities. Examples are given here of several activities used successfully at beginning and intermediate levels of Spanish in secondary schools. (CHK)

Discusses uses of scanning (process of copying or converting text, images, and objects into information that the computer can recognize and manipulate) in schools and notes possible desktop publishing projects. Describes popular scanners and ways to edit a scanned image. A sidebar gives costs and telephone numbers for nine scanners. (AEF)

Investigates students' conceptions and misconceptions relating to the construction of graphs. Qualitative analysis of students' responses identified three main alternative conceptions. Quantitative analyses of the data indicated that overall students did not enter the learning situation as a tabula rasa. Discusses the theoretical and practical…