Blended learning combines traditional in-person learning with technology-enabled education. Its pedagogical aim is to merge the scale, asynchrony, and flexibility of online learning with the benefits of the traditional classroom--content-rich instruction and the development of learning relationships. This book offers a guide to both theory and…

This guide summarizes "Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Best-Evidence Synthesis" and "Effective Programs in Middle and High School Mathematics: A Best-Evidence Synthesis," two research reviews conducted by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Research and Reform in Education. The purpose of the reviews was to evaluate the…

The second edition of "19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City" adds new questions to those in the original volume. Continuing the developing conversation in urban education, the book is provocative in style and rich in detail. Emphasizing the complexity of urban education, Shirley R. Steinberg and the authors ask direct questions about what…

Uses R. Gagne and L. Briggs's nine Events of Instruction to discuss where video fits into the teaching and learning process, what educators can legitimately expect of video as an instructional tool, and where principles to guide the development of effective instructional videos can be found. (SR)

This guide focuses on children and learning, while offering a picture of how technology can help to further educational goals. It includes anecdotes from the real world of the classroom which show how teachers are using technology to support and enhance students' literacy skills, creating opportunities for positive learning experiences, and…

This handbook introduces some fundamental ideas on designing, implementing, and facilitating a distance learning course. It offers specific strategies for topics ranging from choosing delivery technologies to encouraging collaboration among scattered distance-learning students to testing and other evaluation methodologies. The book is broken down…

Preservice and inservice teachers are expected to address individual differences in students. However, the nature of differences and the needs of individuals can slow or, at times, completely stop learning for the rest of the classroom. Teachers are also encouraged to teach higher level thinking skills, although standardized tests are often…

Even though affordable technology makes it possible for teachers to make professional looking computer presentations, overheads, and handouts, they need to understand basic design principles to create effective visuals. This article discusses when visuals should be used and principles of design: layout; organization; and use of space, color, and…

Educational technology should be a tool used for learning but should not become more important than the learning itself. Six criteria for the effective classroom use of technology include determining whether the technology offers an invitation to learn, decentralization of authority, flexibility, access to knowledge, time to explore and use…

A discussion of innovation in optometry instruction emphasizes the need for careful consideration of new methods and technologies and for a strategy for measuring the innovation's effect. The process of curriculum reform, role of pedagogy and technology in that process, and use of outcomes assessment to monitor change are examined. (MSE)

Three types of homework assignments are common in U.S. schools: practice, preparation, and extension. Reasons cited for assigning homework are: (1) Doing homework is useful as an act of intellectual discipline; (2) Homework eases time constraints on the amount of curricular material that can be covered; (3) Homework fosters student initiative,…

This series of one- and two-page abstracts highlights a variety of innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the community college. Topics covered in the articles include: the use of "trigger films" in group learning situations; letter writing as a means of maintaining group cohesion in a nontraditional classroom; creative grading; the use…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year federally funded project, Project LITT (Literacy Instruction Through Technology), which focused on developing the reading skills of elementary and middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) by using hypermedia-based children's literature. The project involved five…

Teaching in the cyberspace classroom requires moving beyond old models of pedagogy into new practices that are more facilitative. It involves much more than simply taking old models of pedagogy and transferring them to a different medium. Unlike the face-to-face classroom, in online distance education, attention needs to be paid to the development…

Based on the idea that anyone who is interested in making entertaining and informative presentations in educational settings is interested in multimedia, this practical guide offers tips for communication (and other) teachers who want to integrate and program interactive multimedia into their courses. The guide suggests that teachers on limited…