Although today's unprecedented advancements in technology ought to serve as a springboard for innovations in teaching and learning, practices in many schools in the United States and around the globe remain unchanged. Indeed, Europe, too has struggled with this challenge. Using European technology initiatives as points of reflection, the authors…

What would it take for instructional design to qualify as a bona fide applied discipline? First and foremost, a fundamental requirement is a testable and tested theoretical base. Untested rationales until verified remain in limbo. Secondly, the discipline's applied prescriptions must be demonstrably traceable to the theoretical base once it is…

Technology-savvy teachers are often the "go to" staff members in schools for their colleagues' technology issues. These teachers are seen as leaders within their schools with respect to technology and often do not understand their peers' difficulties when bringing technology into the classroom. Understanding both the reasons teachers may…

Despite the rhetoric around technology as a transformative force in education, transformation is in the hands of teachers not technology. Yet, teachers cannot capitalize on technology's transformative potentials when teacher education is focused on the technology itself or even on the goal of technology integration. Teachers today are challenged…

Over the past few decades, information and communications technology (ICT) has been used in changing the traditional education system. It has helped to improve the quality of education and the overall teaching-learning process. Unfortunately, many teachers still do not use ICT effectively; or, even if they use ICT, it is not integrated into their…

Brian Lewis, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) chief executive officer, is an education advocate and leader specializing in management and governance, policy, corporate communications, branding, and marketing. He provides leadership to ISTE's Washington, DC, and Eugene, Oregon, offices and directs organizational…

Currently mobile learning is making headlines in the educational press as a possible path for transforming education, just like it has significantly changed communication in business and society generally. Technology in American schools has a decades-long history of failure compared with its use outside schooling. Until the structure and political…

Educational reform efforts have failed to create widespread improvement. The authors argue that rather than trying to improve the existing system of education, a new learner-centered paradigm is needed that supports individualized learning. Such a significantly different system of education will require the systemic application of technology to…

The learner-centered paradigm of education requires very different roles for technology, as well as for teachers and students, compared with the teacher-centered paradigm. Rather than almost exclusively serving the teacher for teaching, technology primarily serves the student for learning. It does so through four major roles: (1) keeping records…

The design of online learning environments is a complicated process because it entails the use of technological tools to mediate the various forms of interaction situated in the learning process. One possible way to help reduce such complication inherent in various forms of interaction is to look at design as a problem-solving activity. This means…

Most classrooms in the U.S. are composed of students with different learning styles and experiences as well as different achievement levels (Ferguson, 2001). Personalized learning is a unique way of students' learning determined by their own learning style, pace, and needs. Focusing on individual differences, personalized instruction aims to…

This article describes how a textbook has traced 30 years of evolution in instructional technology. One of the book's key continuing features is the ASSURE Model. To connect technology to learning, the Classroom Link was developed. As standards were formulated for teachers and students, they were included in the textbook. Other evolutionary…

One of the most explosive areas of growth in the field of higher education is currently in emerging international markets. In developing nations, lack of access to high-quality teachers and educational materials is often the key obstacle preventing students from gaining the skills and knowledge they need to pursue new opportunities and advance in…

A great number of technologies and tools have been developed to support science learning and teaching. However, science teachers and researchers point out numerous challenges to implementing such tools in science classrooms. For instance, guidelines, lesson plans, Web links, and tools teachers can easily find through Web-based search engines often…

Stavros Demetriadis is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in Greece. He also earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master Diploma in Electronic Physics from AUTh. He became interested in information and communications technologies when he was a high school…