As computers have become commonplace in everyday life, educators have begun to shift focus from "working" with computers (computer literacy) to "thinking" with computers (computational thinking). This article describes the progression of computational thinking (CT) from a historical perspective. This paper will first review the…

During young adolescence, many youth develop strong identities in relation to science, technology, engineering and mathematics with computing (STEM + C). One way to design for student engagement in STEM + C is to create project-based units that leverage students' interests. We created one such unit, called the "smart greenhouse project".…

The 24th Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education (GCCCE) was held September 12-16, 2020 at Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China. The GCCCE adopted a hybrid conference format for the first time, combining traditional face-to-face sessions and online live streaming to reduce the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic. The GCCCE hosted…

The 23rd Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education (GCCCE) was held May 23-27, 2019, at Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China. With a theme of "Wisdom of Science, Technology, and Humanities," GCCCE hosted four keynote speeches, over 200 concurrent presentations facilitated by nine conference divisions, two expert…

The 22nd Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education (GCCCE) was held May 25-29, 2018, at South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. Broadcasting live on the Internet, the Conference had 424 onsite participants with 299,816 online viewers from different countries and regions. The Conference hosted five keynote speeches, two expert…

This paper introduces the Teachers' Research Exchange (T-REX), an online community of practice that is currently being deployed on a pilot basis nationwide in Ireland as a response to the "research-practice gap". The system includes collaborative, educational, and technical components. The technical aspect is the social networking and…

In the past 15 to 20 years there has been an increased interest in the use of games for learning. A considerable amount of work has already been done by educational researchers and theorists (Gee, Squire, Malone, Lepper, Shaffer, etc.) to identify and to operationalize the native affordances of games that make them good for learning. Unfortunately…

This article discusses a number of significant developments in 3D holographic technology, its potential to revolutionize aspects of teaching and learning, and challenges of implementing the technology in educational settings.

Electronic portfolios (eportfolios) can increase reflection, develop content and pedagogy skills and facilitate communication between teachers and administrators. However, they have limitations. Despite resources that teacher institutions devote to eportfolios, research suggests that most implementations are of limited duration. In a climate where…

This article discusses the planning and initial research behind the design of an online support community for pre-service teachers. This community is initially being designed to support pre-service teachers with their technology integration efforts during their student teaching experiences, but may also grow to serve special teaching cohorts in…

The increasing ease and ubiquity of video has resulted in a proliferation of video annotation tools used and designed for improving education. While similar, each tool has its relative strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the "right" tool can have an impact on the experience of teachers and the effectiveness of video as a means for improving…

Web 2.0 offers a new type of interactive technology that may change the focus and approach of formal education in ways we are just beginning to comprehend. The new and unique qualities of Web 2.0 can be compounded in traditional educational settings by the fact that students often times have far more experience with and understanding the new…

This article describes the design and implementation of the year 2 curriculum and student learning experiences in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. We discuss the ways that this second set of courses builds on the first year of the program that students encounter, and also describe the theoretical…

This paper expands the boundaries of video annotation in education by outlining the need for extended interaction in online video use, identifying the challenges faced by existing video annotation tools, and introducing Video-ANT, a tool designed to create text-based annotations integrated within the time line of a video hosted online. Several…

In this article we describe the evolution of an elective course designed specifically for undergraduate students in our pre-service teacher education program. This course is intended to prepare these undergraduate students as future teachers--helping them to make effective and creative uses of technology in learning settings. This course…