The transition to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered criticalities in the participation of students with special educational needs. The BESt-DaD project responded to these difficulties by developing a user-friendly online platform aimed at accommodating these students' neurocognitive profiles, ultimately promoting inclusion.…

This study sought to understand the experiences of female 11th-graders in English classes that used Google Classroom applications during emergent e-learning due to COVID-19. Teachers and students used Google Classroom in place of face-to-face learning in Palestine as required by the Ministry of Education. A qualitative approach with…

This qualitative study traced the development and enactment of five elementary special education teachers' technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) as they learned to use flexible digital tools and implemented them with students and their families before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight how changing…

This content analysis explored how previously validated Web-based inquiries (WBIs) for science instruction are designed and to what extent they match the proposed teacher-support guidelines of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Examined WBIs implemented few recommended teacher-support mechanisms. This article explores the…

One technology made possible through Web 2.0 is podcasting. Podcasts are audio, video, text, and other media files that can be played on the computer or downloaded to MP3 players. This article discusses how to create a podcast and ways to use this technology in education. Benefits and issues related to podcasting are also provided.

The World Wide Web is evolving in response to users who demand faster and more efficient access to information, portability, and reusability of digital objects between Web-based and computer-based applications and powerful communication, publication, collaboration, and teaching and learning tools. This article reviews current uses of Web-based…

The online courses studied here used the visual medium of the interactive geographic map as a form of dialogue to reduce students' sense of transactional distance during the course, build their skills with Web 2.0 media, and increase their motivation. Using the dynamic map and the related online spreadsheet, the course participants created digital…

A frequent concern raised by distance educators is that e-learning takes more time to facilitate than traditional classroom instruction. The simple fact that it takes more time to read and write than to speak and listen warrants consideration. To establish viable e-learning programs, we need to optimize the amount of time educators spend online.…

Reviews the development and delivery of a higher education course module that was designed to provide remote learners in England with computer-supported solutions to access higher education as part of a technology-assisted distance education program. Highlights include use of a Web site; e-mail; videoconferencing; and student attrition rate.…

In 1999, Virginia Beach City Public Schools launched a completely new distance learning (DL) initiative, Quality Connection. Since that time, through perseverance and creative thinking, the program has become a model of technology as well as a highly successful method of delivering services to a wide variety of stakeholders. Not only do students…

Fads are common in every area of education. The problem with fads is that even promising developments are quickly abandoned to make room for the next innovation. Educational innovations become fads partly because they are without a firm foundation in theories of learning, or because that foundation is not fully identified and communicated. There…

A small rural school in Idaho tried various forms of distance education to broaden the range of subjects offered to students. It gave up on satellite-based coursework because of high cost and synchronization problems. Correspondence courses solved the synchronization problem, but still required expensive adult supervision to keep students on task.…

The success or failure of an asynchronous computer conference as part of a distance education course is largely dependent upon the abilities of the moderator of the conference. This paper discusses various skills and responsibilities of a moderator. It includes a discussion of ineffective moderation and how to avoid making common mistakes by…

Discusses the design of high quality Web-based online programs for higher education distance learning courses using the framework of grounded design. Uses an example of a graduate instructional technology course to focus on five areas of design decisions that best facilitate learning outcomes: psychological, pedagogical, technical, cultural, and…

Making decisions about which technologies, if any, are appropriate for your classroom or educational institution has never been easy. These difficult decisions are, however, increasing in their complexity as new technologies continually enter the marketplace, expectations of parents and students rise for more technology in the classroom, budget…