PowerPoint and other visual technologies have become pervasive in schools. Adoption of these technologies is perceived as a necessary--or, at the very least, an educationally appropriate--innovation in UK schools, even though systematic examination of their use is relatively recent. On the basis of a wider ethnographic study of ICT use in one UK…

Graphing calculators and data collection technology was integrated in an undergraduate science methods classes for preservice elementary school teachers. The study investigated whether preservice teachers' knowledge and comfort with the use of graphing calculator technology and their perspectives in the use of graphing calculator technology were…

Audience Response Technology (ART) has been widely adopted on college campuses, and prior research indicates that, on average, it receives positive evaluations from students. However, research has not yet examined how characteristics of students as learners influence their responses to ART. The current study examined aptitude for learning,…

PowerPoint is widely used for a variety of purposes in today's university and public school classrooms. Many children in the elementary grades quickly learn to prepare PowerPoint presentations with ease. Sometimes, however, we believe that PowerPoint presentations are overused and ineffective, especially when one is subjected to viewing several of…

This study explores students' perceptions of the value that technology brings to the classroom. A survey administered to undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice courses showed that the majority of students have been taught with PowerPoint and/or blackboard. The findings further suggest that students maintain the perception that modern…

In 2001, Indiana officials at the Department of Education were taking stock. The schools had an excellent network infrastructure and had installed significant numbers of computers for 1 million public school enrollees. Yet students were spending less than an hour a week on the computer. It was then that state officials knew each student needed a…

Twenty-six scholarly papers and ten abstracts comprise the content of the thirteenth annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship. The…

WordArt is a wizard feature in MS Word that changes text into a graphic object. It is located in the MS Word menu bar: Insert, Picture, WordArt. Text can be edited to create a multitude of special effects--all with very little, if any, graphic arts training. WordArt is perfect for word processing writing, allowing even primary students to create…

The Spanish educational system will require certain changes in order to achieve the Bologna objectives for the European Higher Education Area, including a more professional profile, with new activities and roles for both students and teachers, who must assume new skills that will affect concepts and attitudes related to the teaching and learning…

Student teachers often complain about the lack of relevance of the theoretical courses in teacher education, and they repeatedly stress the importance of the practicum as the most significant component in preparation for teaching. However, most teacher educators, as well as students themselves, recognise the importance of being well informed about…

This study explores the efforts at Brigham Young University to improve preservice candidates' technology integration using the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) as an assessment tool. Baseline data that was analyzed from 95 TWSs indicated that students were predominantly using technology for productivity and information presentation purposes even though…

Appropriate classroom assessment now tends to utilize formative measures with greater frequency, especially in the early grades and with learner groups at risk of not passing state-mandated standardized tests. Within the authentic context of an action research project, teacher candidates were given handheld computers equipped with data-collection…

Pre-laboratory activities have been known to improve students' preparation before their practical work as they assist students to make available more working memory capacity for actual learning during the laboratory. The aim of this investigation was to compare two different teaching approaches which supported a pre-laboratory session by using the…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze enabling factors in the technology integration change process in a multi-section science methods course, SCIED 408 (pseudonym), from 1997 to 2003 at a large northeastern university in the United States. We used two major data collection methods, in-depth interviewing and document reviews.…

Though technology can enliven and enrich a teacher's work, its glitches can sabotage the most beautifully planned presentation. High school teacher Grinvalds shares six practices that help to deal with the glitches inevitably experienced by those entering the realm of classroom technology: (1) Prepare; (2) Ask for Help; (3) Stick with What You…