The desire to integrate technology within the PreK-12 educational environment is a noble endeavor and may lead to the enhancement of student achievement. Teacher candidates are constantly striving to understand the learning environment and to meet these expectations, but do not have models from which they may glean appropriate knowledge,…

This paper proposes the phenomenon of play as a legitimate goal for interactive multimedia learning environments. Play offers a means for understanding motivation and learning in a holistic way. Serious play is not easy to achieve, but the reward is an intense and satisfying experience for both students and teachers. Technology offers many routes…

The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate the ways faculty at The School of Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh use electronic journals to obtain information to support their academic tasks, teaching, research and services. Library and Information Sciences faculty at the University of Pittsburgh were chosen as the…

Effectiveness in distance education has been scrutinized for years, but only recently has literature focused on Web-based learning. As more online degree programs are established, the need for evaluation methodologies and processes guiding those activities increases. This paper describes on-going research to develop an evaluation plan for a fully…

This is one of six innovative sessions proposed for the AHRD Scholar-Practitioner Track and coordinated by the AHRD Scholar-Practitioner Committee. It examines a suite of novel e-learning design options and how to implement an action-based approach to online learning. Participants have the opportunity to hear about these innovative approaches to…

Practices of teachers who use educational technology effectively are reviewed. The difference between the classrooms of exemplary users of technology and low technology users is in the way their classes are conducted. In exemplary classrooms, student use of learning technologies is woven integrally into the patterns of teaching even though…

This research brief answers questions about the in-service training of teachers to use educational technology and offers models of exemplary programs in practice. Only 5% of the teaching force can be considered exemplary technology users, and it is recognized that becoming an accomplished integrator of technology into instruction is a complex and…

This report describes a project consisting of a collaborative effort involving a team of computer graphics specialists and an art historian in creating an electronic facility for teaching and research in the history of art. The major innovation was in finding a way to use exclusively digitized material, text, images, and movement through space, in…

This paper describes the Telematics for Teacher Training Project (T3) Work Package 08, which aims to evaluate, assess, and produce course materials to respond to the information needs of librarians supporting teacher trainers and trainees in higher education institutions across Europe. The increasing use of educational technology to deliver more…

No instructional technique has brought introductory students in literature at Tidewater Community College (Virginia) closer to the genuine in poetry than writing their way into a work, in particular, writing combined with individual and collaborative activities that engage multiple senses and establish learning communities. Adapting to a computer…

Rhetorical sensitivity is the "tendency to adapt messages to audiences." Unless communicators find a place of similarity between themselves and the audience, the communicators' intended effect loses potency. In order to present effective online instruction, instructors must imagine they are learners, or imagine they are new to online…

This project supported the creation of a computer-based interactive text for linear algebra using guided discovery in a laboratory-based course which emphasized active learning, collaborative learning, and the use of writing. This pedagogical approach had as its goal improved student understanding and retention of the concepts and methods of…

This final report describes major activities and outcomes of a one-year project in Birmingham, Alabama, which attempted to utilize quantitative record linkage methodology and a qualitative family interview to increase the available information regarding risk factors associated with special education placement for young children. The project…

School administrators and teachers are increasingly relying on sophisticated technology systems to provide support and service in completing their daily tasks in schools. A myriad of tasks associated with operating a school has been affected dramatically over the past few years as computer and telecommunications technologies have been integrated…

This paper presents the Virtual Reference Desk project, its current activities, and a proposed information system architecture to build a human intermediated network of expertise and experience for the K-12 community. The Virtual Reference Desk is a project headed by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology and funded by the U.S.…