A design case is a form of scholarly writing in which the author embarks on a reflective journey sharing rich descriptions of their design, design processes, challenges, etc. This paper presents two design cases that demonstrate how learning theories and instructional design concepts were purposefully incorporated in two instructional applications…

This article summarizes the current status of AuthorIT authoring and TutorIT delivery platforms available at www.TutorITweb. It is based on two recent publications, and includes a short history of developments along with references and relationships to the goals established for the GIFT framework established by the Army Learning Model (ALM). Also…

Celebrating hands-on making and technological inventiveness, the Maker Movement promotes the popularity of new makerspaces: learning environments filled with diverse materials for youth's creative projects. Described as "constructionist learning environments," makerspaces can be challenging to design because materials require substantial…

Findings synthesized across five empirical laboratory- and classroom-based studies of high school and college students engaged in geometric reasoning and proof production during single- and multi-session investigations (346 participants overall) are presented. The findings converge on several design principles for computer technologies to support…

This article is not the usual Excel pedagogy fare in that it does not provide an application or example taught via a spreadsheet. Instead, it briefly reviews the history of spreadsheets in the economics classroom and explores the current environment, with an emphasis on modern learning theory. The conclusion is not surprising: spreadsheets improve…

The educational laws establish an organization and a grouping of the contents of the educational system they rule. As far as we know, the set of experts who design it neither follow precise objective criteria nor use computer tools. That is why they are not usually rotund. We consider that defining precise objective criteria is the key to develop…

This article describes Children's Museum of Pittsburgh's multi-phase approach to developing professional development (PD) for its maker educators. Researchers engaged maker educator staff in research-practice partnerships at each stage of the process, with the intention of supporting maker educators in developing their practice. Grounded in…

Calculus, perhaps more than other areas of mathematics, has a reputation for being steeped with procedures. In fact, through the years, it has been noticed of many students getting caught in the trap of trying to memorize algorithms and rules without developing associated concept knowledge. Specifically, students often struggle with the…

Chinese characters have been an obstacle preventing the development of Chinese proficiency for learners of Chinese whose native language does not have characters. A substantial literature review identified linguistic, pedagogical, and political factors as causes such difficulties. Tone changes represent different meanings of a word. Compound…

We describe the use of rapid game prototyping as a pedagogic technique to experientially explore and learn requirements discovery, modeling, and specification in systems analysis and design courses. Students have a natural interest in gaming that transcends age, gender, and background. Rapid digital game creation is used to build computer games…

Research into students' understanding of complex systems typically ignores young children because of misinterpretations of young children's competencies. Furthermore, studies that do recognize young children's competencies tend to focus on what children can do in isolation. As an alternative, we propose an approach to designing for young children…

With the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the ways in which learning activities in mathematics can be created and delivered are changing. However, to get the best results from the integration of ICTs in education, any application's design and development needs to be based on pedagogically appropriate principles, in terms of…

This paper aims to discuss the changing roles and competencies of a teacher in context of prevailing developments accomplished by the vast availability of social software, which have made easy the development of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). This has been accomplished by an in-depth review of the literature on teacher's socially situated…

An important aspect of education is to promote higher-order thinking skills to learners. However, in the lecture environment, learners are passively engaged and it is unlikely for higher-order thinking to occur. Although interventions such as "clickers" can be used to increase engagement in lectures, this does not necessarily promote…

In the present paper, the development and use of a specific set of pedagogical design principles in a large research and development project are analysed. The project (the Knowledge Practices Laboratory) developed technology and a pedagogical approach to support certain kinds of collaborative knowledge creation practices related to the…