As part of an evolutionary approach to extending and enhancing the online learning experience for adult students in the LMS-based online college courses that I teach, I have been introducing learning activities that use social media and mobile devices. However, realizing that student adoption of mobile devices with data plans such as smartphones…

This booklet relates ways to communicate with preschoolers about such phenomena as Ninja Turtles. Ninja Turtles are likeable, fun-loving creatures that have captured the imagination of children because they have a great deal of energy, strength, and power. However, because the turtles model language and engage in violence that negatively affects…

Perspectives on and methods in second language teaching have changed rapidly during the past 10 years. So also have the role and function of the language laboratory and the laboratory instructor. One area of concern, listening, has been somewhat neglected; generally it has been taught toward the end of increasing speaking proficiency. A review of…

In Taiwan, revised curriculum standards for junior and senior high school technology education were developed to take effect in the 1997 and 1998 school years. A project was undertaken to develop a set of exemplar technology learning activities (TLAs) to assist teachers in developing their school-based course of study for the living technology…

Because of an expressed need for staff development for vocational education administrators, research was conducted to identify and verify the competencies needed by vocational administrators; competency-based modularized materials were developed to address those competencies; and a variety of competency-based training program strategies were…

This paper introduces and reports upon lessons learned during the development phase of the Lord Kelvin Middle School Science Program. For the past two years, a set of tools to help middle school students learn science in a way that uses the full power of today's technology has been under development. Lord Kelvin is a robust collection of science…

This paper reports on the development and evaluation of "WoundCare: an Interactive Learning Program for Health Professionals" (trial version). The major goal of this project was to develop an interactive multimedia application that could be used by student nurses to enhance learning related to the assessment and treatment of people with…

This paper presents an approach for developing flexible Hypermedia Learning Environments (HMLE) and applies this theoretical framework to the creation of a layered model of a hypermedia system, called HyperDisc, developed at the German Institute for Research on Distance Education. The first section introduces HMLE and suggests that existing…

This paper presents results of a year-long project involving K-12 teachers working with student software designers to create "learning objects"--small, computer-based tools (known as "widgets") for concepts identified by the teachers as "difficult to learn." This educational software development project was…

Designed to instruct teachers in the construction and design of their own Learning Activity Packages (LAP), this article is itself an LAP, teaching LAP design through activities and instructional objectives. Journal availability: see RC 503 504. (SB)

This report describes the development and evaluation of mathematics activities manuals for grades K-8, correlated with the Tennessee state mathematics curriculum. Seventeen elementary teachers and seven secondary teachers met during January-June 1989 to write draft versions of the manuals and demonstrate activity-based mathematics and…

One obvious reason that teachers hesitate to create Web sites for their distance courses is the lack of computer/technology skills. Other teachers who know how to create a well-structured course site are put off by the fact that it takes a lot of time to maintain it. Thus there is a risk that the course site will be ill-structured and poorly…

Informed opinion suggests that problems of underachievement in school relate to the lack of particular kinds of experience, discontinuity between school and home, and linguistic and cultural diversity. If a literacy program were based on up-to-date knowledge of the processes involved in reading and writing, and what is known of early literacy…

This telementoring project paired 23 preservice teachers and 13 inservice teachers in an idea exchange and in curriculum materials development. After an initial introductory e-mail exchange, pairs identified a topic for a thematic unit or a literature focus unit that the classroom teacher was currently teaching or developing for the future. Online…

Second language learning today requires new materials. One type of learning unit suggested would have a simple format, limited scope and objectives, and diversity of content, form, learning strategies and activities. In spite of the problems involved in the production of this format, such units might be worked out in teacher-training programs, by…