Background: Analysing classroom dialogue is a widely used approach for understanding students' learning, often requiring team-based collaborative research. This presents a challenge for single researchers due to the labour-intensive nature of the process. Emerging advancements in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, enhance qualitative…

Middle school learners with disabilities, particularly learning disabilities, struggle with organizing their thoughts, expressing their ideas, spelling, the use of content vocabulary, the mechanics of writing, fluency, and overall, the primary elements of written expression (Graham et al., 2015). While writing complicates learning for students…

The purpose of this multiple intrinsic case study was to describe how Northeastern United States middle school teachers and students engaged with a new automated writing evaluation tool used to score and provide feedback on extended essay assignments to improve teaching and learning writing. Richard Elmore's (1993) instructional core framework is…

Just as social media created a new language that causes a rift in understanding between many adults and adolescents, so too has the use of technology in classrooms. The author, Ana Homayoun, an educational consultant, spends much of her time helping young people harness the power of technology to improve their organization and time-management…

Many students struggle with decoding and implementing feedback given to them on writing assignments. Researchers and instructors have used various technologies and strategies to improve students' uptake of feedback given on written assignments, one of which is a form of video feedback called screencasting. Research has been conducted on students'…

Various technology-based interventions exist to support writing for students with learning disabilities (LD). However, it is not enough to simply provide access to technology. How it is implemented by teachers may affect student outcomes. In this study, three special education teachers used a technology-based graphic organizer (TBGO) with embedded…

The purpose of this study is to examine the incorporation of Google Earth Virtual Reality (VR) into English Learners' (ELs) expository writing experiences from a Funds of Knowledge perspective utilizing a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design. The participants were 22 ELs from a middle school in a rural Midwestern town. During the…

We uncovered two critical issues in earlier studies: (a) some studies have shown that mobile learning technology is not beneficial for all students due to complexity of learning environments and student prior knowledge, skills, and experience and (b) familiarity of students with the authentic environments in which they learn using mobile…

The purpose of this article is to describe and report on how a group of teacher candidates used technology to create multicultural texts which integrated literacy and social studies. To meet this purpose, the authors briefly describe the objectives of the assignment, examine 41 teacher candidates' perceptions of the assignment, and discuss media…

Many studies have confirmed the importance of tasks on language learning. Nowadays, many teachers apply different kinds of tasks in their classrooms. The current study investigated the effect of mobile assisted language learning tasks (MALL) on participants' English grammar learning. The researcher administered a pre-validated grammar test to 90…

Around the country, high school teachers are being called upon to improve student writing, but they often lack the tools and requisite know-how to make a difference. An ambitious new program called Drive to Write is attempting to change that. This report describes an evaluation of the program's implementation in 11 public high schools in New York…

Launched in June 2016, the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) provides access to the digital resources from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, 9 major research centers, and the National Zoo, to be used as real-world learning experiences. It is designed to aid students in building lasting knowledge and critical skills that take learners from simply…

Researchers have documented a "summer reading setback" where an achievement gap between proficient and struggling readers expands during the summer. This research focuses on 20 rising sixth graders who participated in a summer independent reading initiative using Nook digital readers. Using a qualitative exploratory design and content…

This paper examines the nature of academic classroom tasks middle school teachers are designing and using that integrate one-to-one technological devices/computers: technology integration (substitution/augmentation/modification/redefinition-SAMR); 21st century skill (4Cs) integration; task complexity (DOK); and student work aspects (work product,…

Despite having studied English for some 33 months, the students at the private junior high school in Japan described in this paper had never before been asked to write original compositions in the language. The researchers undertook a quasi-experimental pilot study in which the 156 (n= 156) participants were each asked to write four compositions,…