Without a change in our technology integration strategies, there's no reason to expect that a new device will magically create new teaching practices. In some iPad classrooms, students are engaged in truly innovative work. On the whole, however, tablets are most often used to reproduce existing practices. To make the most of their investment in…

In order to help teachers envision digital products in action in classrooms, the authors look at three examples of how teachers they know enhance learning time by employing technology efficiently. The examples include: (1) a social studies teacher who begins each class period with a three-question formative assessment using the website…

Summit San Jose is part of the Summit Public Schools network, a group of charter schools in California's Bay Area. In 2011, when Summit San Jose first opened its new high school with a cohort of 9th graders, the teachers decided to pilot Khan Academy. At the time, they had piloted their math resources and platform with five classrooms in Los…

More than 1.5 million K-12 students in the United States engage in online or blended learning, according to a recent report. As of the end of 2010, 38 states had state virtual schools or state-led online initiatives; 27 states plus Washington, D.C., had full-time online schools; and 20 states offered both supplemental and full-time online learning…

Online resources can deepen student learning--if teachers design the right tasks and learner supports. In this article, the authors look at instructional websites teachers will want to use with their students. They focus on three types of web-based learning environments--(1) informational reading systems; (2) interactive learning systems; and (3)…

Students who struggle with reading comprehension in middle school often lack the academic vocabulary the need to understand grade-level textbooks and other instructional materials. Research shows that to learn a new word well, students need to encounter and use it multiple times in different contexts. The authors describe Word Generation, a…

In an age when students gravitate to online sources for research--and when tremendous amounts of both reputable and questionable information are available online--many have come to regard the Internet itself as a culprit in students' plagiarism. Some teachers go so far as to forbid students from researching online, in the mistaken assumption that…

Statistics reveal that students spend more time on electronic games than on any other recreational activity and 32% admit to playing them during class. The gaming revolution contains lessons for teachers, and understanding the pedagogical potential of computer and video games and developing curriculum that supports the educational use of…

The issue of adopting information technology (IT) based education and performance-based education in schools is debated. The arguments supporting each of the education policy are presented.

According to futurist/educational technology expert Chris Dede, new technologies will revolutionize education only when used to support new models of teaching and learning. Grafting technological solutions onto antiquated structures and learning approaches is misguided. Sidebars explain schools' technology access problems and review Clifford…

Teachers participating in the Image Processing for Teaching Process, begun at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in 1989, find this technology ideal for encouraging student discovery, promoting constructivist science or math experiences, and adapting in classrooms. Because image processing is not a computerized text, it…

A junior high school principal describes how a small lap-top computer to record teacher and student classroom behavior assists in giving teachers an objective record and analysis. After independently analyzing the transcript, teacher and principal discuss recommendations during a postobservation conference. (CJH)

The Internet is no longer only a place to research information. It is now also a forum through which users can publish and disseminate their own writing. Richardson describes some of the main tools that make this new "Read/Write Web" work--blogs, wikis, really simple syndication, and podcasting--and gives examples of how each can be used to…

Schools across the country are experimenting with one-to-one laptop learning programs. The author's research team has studied 10 such schools--seven in California and three in Maine--and has found that laptop programs have great potential to help schools prepare students for the future. In this article, Warschauer warns that one-to-one laptop…

An overly narrow and specialized focus on technology in schools discourages the use of computers to promote higher-order thinking. Many districts have concentrated on skills training, failed to supply such necessary supports as professional development, conflated technology use with instructional quality, and classified all software applications…