As students increasingly use online chemistry animations and simulations, it is becoming more important to understand how students independently engage with such materials and to develop a set of best practices for students' use of these resources outside of the classroom. Most of the literature examining students' use of animations and…

Evaluating the relation between evidence and theory should be a central activity for science learners. Evaluation comprises both hypothetico-deductive analysis, where theory precedes evidence, and inductive synthesis, where theory emerges from evidence. There is mounting evidence that induction is an especially good way to help learners grasp the…

Evaluating the relation between evidence and theory should be a central activity for science learners. Evaluation comprises both hypothetico-deductive analysis, where theory precedes evidence, and inductive synthesis, where theory emerges from evidence. There is mounting evidence that induction is an especially good way to help learners grasp the…

This study examined how using two different ways of displaying the solar system--a true-to-scale mode vs. an orrery mode--affected students' knowledge of astronomical concepts. Solar system displays were presented in a software application on a handheld tablet computer. In the true-to-scale mode, users navigated a simulated three-dimensional solar…

Organizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language curricula is not an easy endeavour (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Guth & Helm, 2010), as pedagogical, organizational and technical issues have to be addressed before cross-cultural interaction sessions can be carried out (O'Dowd & Ritter, 2006; O'Dowd, 2011). These issues make many…

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of computer animation technique on academic achievement of students in the "Solar System and Beyond" unit lecture as part of the Science and Technology course of the seventh grade in primary education. The sample of the study consists of 60 students attending to the 7th grade of primary school…

Simple harmonic motion (SHM) is an important topic for physics or science students and has wide applications all over the world. Computer simulations are applications of special interest in physics teaching because they support powerful modeling environments involving physics concepts. This article is aimed to compare the effect of…

This paper reports on the effects an experimental English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program in Second Life (SL) had on Chinese student EFL learning. The study took an evaluative approach using quasi-experimental design with participants from one Chinese university and one American university in the southeastern United States. Results indicated…

Numerous flash or java applet based simulations have been developed to improve students' comprehension of Science concepts, particularly the more complex or "dry" ones. Simulations have been reported to be effective as instructional aids in scaffolding scientific learning by students since simulations support the explication of implicit…

The current study investigated the effects of different external representational formats on learning combinatorics and probability theory in an inquiry based learning environment. Five conditions were compared in a pre-test post-test design: three conditions each using a single external representational format (Diagram, Arithmetic, or Text), and…

Organizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language curricula is not an easy endeavour (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Guth & Helm, 2010), as pedagogical, organizational and technical issues have to be addressed before cross-cultural interaction sessions can be carried out (O'Dowd & Ritter, 2006). These issues make many teaching…

This article presents our plans and initial work to explore how mathematics teacher education programs can prepare teachers for diverse middle grades classrooms. It describes the start-up of a five-year National Science Foundation project to design, develop, and test technology-enriched teacher preparation strategies to address equity in algebra…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the use of solid modeling software increases participants' success in solving a specified technical problem and how visualization affects their ability to solve a technical problem. Specifically, the study sought to determine if (a) students' visualization skills affect their problem…

Over the last decade, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), a form of narrative often involving multiple media and gaming elements to tell a story that might be affected by participants' actions, have been used in the marketing and promotion of a number of entertainment related products such as films, computer games and music. This paper discusses the…

This study investigated the relationship between the use of a three-dimensional Virtual Reality Learning Environment for Field Trip (3DVLE[subscript (ft)]) system and the achievement levels of senior high school earth science students. The 3DVLE[subscript (ft)] system was presented in two separate formats: Teacher Demonstrated Based and Student…