Instructional designers are often discouraged from testing their learning products due to the challenges faced when attempting to apply the traditional approaches of usability testing. As a result, scholars have been trying new methods to overcome those challenges. Remote usability testing, often operated by crowdsourcing websites, is one of those…

The objective of this research was to identify Facione's six critical thinking skills using graduate students blogs as a reflection tool in the context of leadership using structured and unstructured blogs. The skills researched were (a) Interpretation, (b) Analysis, (c) Evaluation, (d) Inference, (e) Explanation, and (f) Self-Regulation (Facione,…

The development of educational technologies has resulted in a fundamental shift in the educational paradigm with learning no longer equating to the assimilation of knowledge transmitted by textbooks and instructors but by personally building and communicating knowledge. The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss the importance of infusing…

Educational games and simulations are excellent active learning tools that offer students hands-on experience. Little research is available on developing games and simulations and how teachers can be assisted in making their own games and simulations. In this context, the paper presents a multi-step process of how to develop games and simulations…

Disorientation problems influence student learning. To address this issue, this study uses an integrative approach to investigate the causes and consequences of disorientation problems so that a complete understanding can be obtained. Unlike previous empirical studies, which use statistical techniques, this study attempts to expose unexpected…

The development of the resource file is a common experience in teacher preparation programs. The author examines strategies for transforming what has been a project composed of physical resources to one emphasizing digital resources. Methods for finding, tagging, storing and retrieving resources are explored.

With the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the ways in which learning activities in mathematics can be created and delivered are changing. However, to get the best results from the integration of ICTs in education, any application's design and development needs to be based on pedagogically appropriate principles, in terms of…

Within a very few years, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has turned out to be an effective educational technology which promotes some dramatic changes in teaching and learning processes. Technologies allow students to work more productively than in the past, but the teacher's role in technology-rich classrooms is more demanding than…

In October 2012, Microsoft will release the commercial version of its next operating system, presently called "Windows 8." This version represents a significant departure from the past. Microsoft wants this operating system to meet user needs regardless of physical platform (e.g., desktop, notebook, tablet, mobile phone). As part of this mission,…

Many educators know that web 2.0 tools can transform learning and teaching, but teachers need support to make this happen. This article discusses how principals can encourage teachers to learn how to use these powerful tools. Over the past decade, Intel has provided the Center for Children & Technology with funding to conduct numerous studies…

In this paper, the authors present some of the most important lessons they have learned from teaching courses, conducting workshops, writing articles, and supervising graduate student research on the educational uses of digital storytelling. The guidelines described here are categorized within the ADDIE instructional design framework and are…

Despite the growing number of books designed to radically reconsider the educational value of video games as powerful learning tools, there are very few practical guidelines conveniently available for prospective history and social studies teachers who actually want to use these teaching and learning tools in their classes. As the games and…

Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) was proposed as a standard for sharable learning object packaging, delivering and sequencing. Several years later, Common Cartridge (CC) is proposed as an enhancement of SCORM offering more flexibility and addressing needs not originally envisioned, namely assessment and web 2.0 standards, content…

The paper reported on a small-scale qualitative study on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education with a two-fold objective, investigating the possibility of integrating the Internet for academic purposes in the context of a pre-service English teacher education programme in Egypt, and suggesting some guidelines based on the specific…

Over the years, researchers have consistently reported that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats (Beckman, 1990; Chickering & Gamson, 1991). The majority of these research studies have…