Reports a study that examined entering preservice teachers' prior experience in word processing, database, and spreadsheet software, based on self-reported information. Factors that influenced students' entering skills (for example, gender and computer experience) were noted. Survey data indicated that the subjects had little prior knowledge of…

"The Research Assistant," was developed to help graduate students and faculty manage the quantity of available information, to be able to read it, synthesize it, and create new insights and knowledge. "The Research Assistant" was designed using the Filemaker Pro relational database and can be set up in a networked environment to be used in…

Describes a long term teaching experiment carried out with students from grades 9 and 10. Aims at clarifying the role of the Cabri environment in teaching-learning processes. Analysis of protocols shows the possible evolution of a justification into a proof but at the same time indicates that this evolution is not expected to be simple and…

Discusses how to use computers to facilitate learning with young children in early care and education settings. Includes discussion of software selection, website selection, connections of software and websites to the curriculum, and computer selection. Lists strategies for facilitating equitable access, improving computer availability, and…

Examines the use and effectiveness of software to help students pass the mathematics portion of the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test. Results indicated that administrative support, teachers' instructional style, teachers' perceived priority of learning about computers and software, computer availability and access, technical assistance, and…

The argument examined in this paper is that music--when approached through making and responding to coherent musical structures, facilitated by multiple, intuitively accessible representations--can become a learning context in which basic mathematical ideas can be elicited and perceived as relevant and important. Students' inquiry into the bases…

See how several educators are exploring the potential of technology in their classrooms. Citing several Web sites that provide and catalog primary source documents, two teachers show how classrooms can use digitized documents as historians and scholars do. An English teacher in Israel uses technology to engage students as foreign ambassadors. One…

The effect of intervening use of molecular visualization software was tested on 73 first-year general chemistry students. Pretests and posttests included both traditional multiple-choice questions and model-building activities. Overall students improved after working with the software, although students performed less well on the model-building…

As a science subject leader and year 6 teacher in North Bristol, the author has spent the last few months exploring how an interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be used to teach science skills, particularly those that are repeatedly highlighted as problematic, such as analysis and evaluation of evidence. The IWB came with software called…

The Virtual Grand Tour (VGT) is a paradigm for integrating a presentation of an overview of a larger subject with the possibility of launching at any time an exploratory study of a given sub-topic. The name derives from the paradigm's emulation of those 18th-century travels intended to educate (especially) young, affluent British men; today, with…

This paper serves as a brief description of research into the use of professional level music software as a learning tool for creativity and composition by primary school children. The research formed the basis of a Master of Information Technology in Education degree at the University of Melbourne. The paper examines the physical environment, the…

The study "New Media in the Humanities: from metaphors of inevitability to metaphors of possibility," argues that using digital technologies in humanities classrooms (at the post-secondary level) is transformative for both students and professors. It begins by identifying and then allaying the fears that scholars in the humanities…

In an era of state budget cuts and a tight economy, distributed learning is often seen as a way to address the needs of colleges and universities looking for additional revenue sources. Likewise, budding virtual universities, consortia, and corporate partnerships are now providing new ways for institutions to share resources across campuses. The…

The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through…

The authors develop a framework for the design of tools to mediate collaboration intended to lead to learning. We identify two categories of media that are common in computer-supported collaborative learning and software in general: communication media and information media. These two types of media are then mapped onto two types of social…