Although nearly every college offers a major in computer science, many computer science teachers at the secondary level have received little formal training. This paper presents details of a project that could make a significant contribution to national efforts to improve computer science education by combining teacher education and professional…

Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer (1996) list five stages in the "evolution" of a teacher's capacity for computer-based instruction--entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation and invention--which hereafter will be called the teacher's computer-based instructional evolution. In this study of approximately six hundred junior high school…

This article proposes three guidelines for mobile technology design that address the needs and goals of teachers who are considered mainstream with regard to technology use. Devices should be easy to learn and use, focused on the curriculum, and instruction-friendly. Only if the three guidelines are followed by hardware and software developers…

Researchers and practitioners have attempted to identify technologies that support students' scientific understanding, activities and support practices that facilitate students' inquiry processes, and methods to sustain technology-enhanced innovations in everyday science classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the findings and…

Technology is an integral part of educational goals today. A study of technology use in a large urban Midwestern school district found that teachers have equipment available to them, but it is oftentimes inadequate, inconvenient, or not working. Teachers would like to use technology, but in reality they don't use it. Part of the reason is lack of…

The Ministry of Education of the land (regional level) is responsible for setting the specified aims for the cultural and creative dimensions of education. The ministry decides also about the creation and the implementation of the arts curriculum. The arts curriculum at ISCED levels 1 and 2 (age group: 6-15/16) is organised as separate subjects.…

Students are, increasingly, digital content producers, and participate extensively in evolving online social networks. The emergence of the former represents subtle changes in students' experience of images, audience, copyright, ownership of learning, and technology. Experiencing the latter places students in an awkward position in terms of…

Research has shown that technology-enhanced visualizations can improve inquiry learning in science when they are designed to support knowledge integration. Visualizations play an especially important role in supporting science learning at elementary and middle school levels because they can make unseen and complex processes visible. We identify 4…

Purpose: An e-portfolio is a useful tool to increase reflection and awareness in teachers and students. However, benefits of e-portfolio use are weakened by difficulties due to the lack of motivation, the heavy weight of creation and revision of the e-portfolios, the rigid tool structure. The paper aims to answer these emerging issues, showing how…

The Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science II project (TEEMSS), funded by the National Science Foundation, produced 15 inquiry-based instructional science units for teaching in grades 3-8. Each unit uses computers and probeware to support students' investigations of real-world phenomena using probes (e.g., for temperature or…

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of a cognitive computer tool by undergraduate calculus students as they worked cooperatively on mathematical tasks. Specific attention was given to levels of cognitive demand in which the students were engaged as they completed in-class labs with the assistance of MathCAD. Participants were assigned…

As adult office workers' use of computers has increased, the incidence of computer-related musculoskeletal complaints and injuries has also increased. Although the use of computers in the classroom is increasing, little attention has been paid by educators, furniture manufacturers, or researchers to the ergonomic design issues of educational…

"Lumina Foundation Lessons" is an occasional publication in which the foundation shares the results of its grantees' work on strategies to improve the persistence rates among Indiana's underserved college freshman and sophomore populations. This issue, the first in the series, contains the following articles: (1) Summer Transition…

This paper explores the Web 2.0 ethos with respect to the application of pedagogy within 3D online virtual environments. 3D worlds can create a synthetic experience capturing the essence of "being" in a particular world or context. The AliveX3D platform adopts the Web 2.0 ethos and applies it to online 3D virtual environment forming a Web…

The present study investigated the effects of a self-monitoring strategy on web-based language learning. Both students' academic performance and their motivational beliefs were investigated. The interaction between the use of a self-monitoring strategy and the level of learners' English proficiency was also examined. A total of 99 college students…