The school lives of students and educators have long been affected by technological changes, but the advent of digital technologies, from smartphones to social media, have amplified the effects on their daily lives. Unfortunately, school curricula rarely focus on critically examining our relationships with technologies. Daniel G. Krutka, Jacob…

This paper describes the integration of geographic information system (GIS) technology in a high school environmental science classroom, specifically examining the impact of GIS technology on student engagement, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning for Education for Sustainability (EfS). This environmental science classroom utilized…

This conversation with Joe Renzulli begins by exploring the length of time Renzulli has been involved with gifted education; when his first paper was published; the general tone of gifted education in the U.S. when Renzulli began his career; and the origin of Renzulli's "three-ring conxeptualization." Additionally, Renzulli is asked to…

Current world events demand public affairs leadership training that generates among professionals a sense of capability, agency, and responsibility to engage in complex public problems. In this paper, we describe a unique course operated in the US focused on achieving these learning outcomes. It uses an unconventional schedule and course design…

This paper proposes and discusses how to use an assignment based on "Freakonomics" as a way to foster critical thinking and statistical literacy skills within the classroom.

An innovative project was designed for a retail management course to enhance critical thinking skills and provide hands-on learning about marketing strategy in an electronic retail context. Students created, promoted, and managed online stores using Zazzle.com, which retails user-generated designs, and analyzed the results of their efforts.…

The authors discuss how high school students participated in a unit in which they learned about African American history in a 1:1 computer classroom--in particular, how they were able to use digital history to learn about a variety of African American leaders who are not frequently covered in the traditional American History textbook. In addition,…

In this article, the author describes a sticky-note mural project that originated from his desire to incorporate contemporary materials into his assignments as well as to inspire collaboration between students. The process takes much more than sticking sticky notes to the wall. It takes critical thinking skills and teamwork to design and complete…

Many tertiary-level courses assess students' participation in tutorial or online discussions. However, in educational and pedagogical research literature, criteria for assessing students' skills in engaging with peers remain unclear. This article describes an online assignment with a set of participation criteria and a method for assessing the…

This paper examines how virtual worlds and other advanced social media can be married with problem-based learning to encourage creativity and critical thinking in the English/Language Arts classroom, particularly for middle school, high school, and undergraduate college education. Virtual world experiences such as "Second Life," Jumpstart.com, and…

A phylogenetics exercise is incorporated into the "Introduction to biocomputing" course, a junior-level course at Savannah State University. This exercise is designed to help students learn important concepts and practical skills in molecular phylogenetics through solving a real-world problem. In this application, students are required to identify…

The author experienced the introduction of the Internet as a high school student. Reflecting on that experience, he now realizes that he did not understand the possibilities offered by chat rooms, instant messaging, and other Internet-based communication tools to increase sociopolitical connectedness. As the teacher of an eleventh grade social…

Instead of carrying bulging backpacks, imagine students carrying mobile devices that allow them to access information from anywhere at any time. How do we transition from print to digital learning in the midst of economic challenges? This breakthrough guide shows educators how to affordably make the shift to one-to-one computing and transform…

This paper purports to demonstrate a problem solving case in the course of the development of methodology, in which the quality of the negotiation practicum is maintained or raised without sacrificing the class contact hours for the lessons for reading comprehension skills, on which the essence of negotiation practicum is solely based. In this…

An understanding of the periodic table is central to the study of chemistry. So it is no surprise that it is included in the National Science Education Standards. But how can teachers get students excited about the periodic table? And how can teachers help them learn it in a way that challenges their critical-thinking skills? The authors'…