On the basis of her experience with buying new curricular materials--specifically, for reading instruction and intervention--the author shares valuable lessons about how to make the most of such purchases. A program can be beneficial for some students but detrimental for others; programs should be presented to employees as tools to critique and…

Despite much fanfare, new technologies have yet to fundamentally advance student outcomes in K-12 schools or other educational settings. We believe that the system that supports the development and dissemination of educational technology tools is falling short. The key missing ingredient is rigorous evaluation. No one knows what works and for…

The development of technological solutions often consists of a small group of experts selecting the type of technology and how it is to be used, regardless of the culture of the user. This practice excludes practitioners from the decision-making process, and can lead to frustrations and an unsustainable community of practice. This paper addresses…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine a set of practices that can help promote self-directed learning (SDL) in congruence with the goals of developing and maintaining a learning organization. Design/methodology/approach Findings from this study were derived from an extensive review of the SDL and the learning organization literature, as…

The increase in online graduate programs and the online mentoring of student research have led to the need to identify challenges faced by online mentees and successful strategies used by online mentors during the dissertation process. Based on semistructured interviews with ten graduates, strategies for online mentoring and areas of support…

This article highlights a middle ground for academic publishing between formal peer-reviewed journals and informal blogging that we call "Small "p" Publishing." Having implemented and tested a publishing network that illustrates this middle ground, we describe its unique contributions to scholars and learning communities. Three features that…

Technology has already become an indispensable part of our lives, and nations around the world see schools as the main agents to prepare their youth for a technology-filled future, and invest important amounts of funding to provide hardware to schools, students and teachers. The Turkish Ministry of National Education is in the midst of the FATIH…

This introductory-level presentation demonstrates how to evaluate the materials and teaching in online courses. Topics covered include similarities with evaluation of on-ground teaching, factors unique to online courses, technological considerations, helping administrators unfamiliar with online courses, and national standards, rubrics, and…