Describes a variety of software programs appropriate for whole-language learning. The software allows elementary students to make picture books and create posters, banners, greeting cards, puzzles, and minimovies and to do group writing activities. Also included is information on resources and computer reading packages. (SM)

Presents the computer microworlds developed by the Children's Construction of Rational Numbers of Arithmetic (Fractions) Project. Provides an overview of three microworlds: Toys; Sticks; and Candybars. Discusses how children are expected to use the microworlds to construct an understanding of rational numbers. (MDH)

Discussion of cross-cultural media transfer emphasizes computer software portability. Educational aspects of portability are discussed; types of software most suitable to portability are described; educational guidelines for portability that focus on linguistic, contextual, structural, and motivational factors are offered; and a formative…

A computer simulation program for use in the study of fluid mechanics is described. The package is an interactive tool to explore the fluid flow characteristics of a pipe system by manipulating the physical construction of the system. The motivation, software design requirements, and specific details on how its objectives were met are presented.…

Describes a study conducted in Finland that investigated designers' and teachers' conceptions of learning and evaluation criteria for educational software. Results indicate that designers emphasized the appearance of software while teachers referred more to practical teaching arrangements, and that participative and collaborative design is needed.…

The pace of technology adoption by university faculty is often slow. Slow faculty technology adoption may result from fear of failure, disinterest, or aversion to change. However, in 2007 we experienced a different faculty response while training faculty for technology-enhanced teaching at Butler University. During a technology upgrade of…

Spatial visualization skills are vital to many careers and in particular to STEM fields. Materials have been developed at Michigan Technological University and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College to assess and develop spatial skills. The EnViSIONS (Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success) project is combining these materials…

As Japanese uses three writing systems (hiragana, katakana, and the ideograms known as kanji), and as materials in the target language include all three, it is a major challenge to learn to read and write quickly. This paper focuses on interactive multi-media methods of teaching Japanese reading which foster learner autonomy. As little has been…

One-size-fits-all educational innovations do not work because they ignore contextual factors that determine an intervention's efficacy in a particular local situation. This paper presents a framework on how to design educational innovations for scalability through enhancing their adaptability for effective usage in a wide variety of settings. The…

PictoPal is the name of a technology-supported intervention designed to foster the development of emergent reading and writing skills in four and five year old children. Following the theoretical underpinnings and a brief description of PictoPal, this article describes how children worked with the technology; how the intervention elicited their…

The constructivist learning environment was designed on three perspectives: pedagogical, social and technological. A group of 24 trainee teachers used the environment and participated in the formative evaluation. Results showed that the trainee teachers liked the design specifications and perceived the learning environment to be useful. The…

This paper reports our implementation and evaluation of a wireless handheld learning environment used to support a clinical nursing practicum course. The learning environment was designed so that nursing students could use handhelds for recording information, organizing ideas, assessing patients, and also for interaction and collaboration with…

This study investigated the effects of several elements of instruction (objectives, information, practice, examples and review) when they were combined in a systematic manner. College students enrolled in a computer literacy course used one of six different versions of a computer-based lesson delivered on the web to learn about input, processing,…

Discrete-trial training (DTT) relies critically on implementation by trained tutors. We report three experiments carried out in the development of "DTkid"--interactive computer simulation software that presents "SIMon", a realistic virtual child with whom novice tutors can learn and practise DTT techniques. Experiments 1 and 2 exposed groups of…

Teachers and students often express an aversion to poetry based on their experiences with printbased poetry texts that typically dominate school curricula. Given this challenge and the potential affordances of new and multimodal technologies, we investigate how preservice and inservice teachers enrolled in a new literacies master's course began to…