Research in instructional technology offers valuable insights into how technology has been adopted in language teaching to improve student learning outcomes. However, this research is typically limited to affordances and constraints of different technological tools with little examination of teacher knowledge of integrating these tools and how…

This study examined the impact of e-book interactivity design on the learning of Chinese characters by fourth graders (10-year-old children). This study was guided by two main questions: (1) Are there any differences in achievements (Chinese character writing, lexical comprehension, and lexical usage) between groups of young learners who read…

This study compared the affordances of 4 multimedia learning environments for specific learning processes. The environments covered the same domain but used different instructional approaches: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. Although they all promote an active…

Designing web technology courses that match students' knowledge background and emphasize students' hands-on experience is imperative yet challenging. This paper discusses a new approach to teaching web technologies, particularly, open source Web 2.0 technologies, in which a combination of studios, mini-lectures, presentations and tutorials, class…

This article investigates if WebQuests have been an effective instructional tool for teaching Social Sciences subjects. In order to obtain an answer to this question, a review of scholarly literature from 1995 to the present has been undertaken and action research in 8th grade U.S. history course was conducted. The literature investigation has…

As society's interactions with web technology mature from novelty to familiarity and finally into transparence for users, it becomes important to reexamine what modern students are taking from their experiences with educational technology. Students in a physical chemistry laboratory course interacted with a hypermedia learning environment as part…

This study's focus was to examine the impact of learning style on learning outcomes in an Interactive Multimedia Instruction program (IMI). The literature review emphasizes that incorporating technology alone does not ensure positive gains in an educational initiative. It also identified a number of factors that may influence how students will…

Interactive, multimedia cases with technology supports present new ways of teaching and learning in teacher education. In this mixed-methods, naturalistic study, the authors investigate how and what participants learn from multimedia cases and, in particular, how instructional implementation affects learning outcomes from multimedia cases.…

The purpose of this study was to compare the use of podcasts to traditional delivery of information in classrooms. Four podcasts were created on the topics of asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders, and acute infections to aid students in reviewing for quizzes. Knowledge retained of students using podcasts was compared to the knowledge retained of…

This article explores 21st century skills, nonlinear thinking skills, and the need for student reflection--which, taken together, serve as an essential foundation for digital-age teaching of today's hypertext learners. The authors discuss why preservice teachers need to use multimedia technologies within the context of students' familiar,…

In this article, the author first explains what an authors gallery is and suggests additional uses and modifications. Next, readers are taken through a day-by-day description of creating the gallery while having the theory behind this pedagogical choice explained. The step-by-step discussion is supported with student examples and concepts drawn…

In this study, the authors compared four multimedia learning arrangements differing in instructional approach on effectiveness and efficiency for learning: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. The approaches all advocate learners' active attitude toward the learning…

This article introduces a system that supports the organization of semi-structured, hierarchical educational content for use as supplement for social studies. The system also provides the content's presentation through both an automatically generated procedure and multimedia enhanced navigation tools.

The authors draw on Cognitive Flexibility Theory (Spiro, Coulson, Feltovich, & Anderson, 2004) as a lens to examine one seventh-grade English language arts teacher's pedagogical approach to using multiple text types to develop students' conceptual understandings about the 1957 integration of Little Rock's Central High School. Multiple text types…

Describes "Story Producer for InteractivE Learning" (SPIEL) a multimedia retrieval system for educational stories, and its integration into an architecture called "Guided Social Simulation" (GuSS), for teaching complex social skills such as management, diplomacy, or selling. Highlights include an example of the use of SPIEL,…