Joseph South, an educational researcher, technology consultant, and former director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology participated in a research initiative on Educational Technology Efficacy Research organized by the Jefferson Education Accelerator, Digital Promise, and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. The…

Today's teachers need up-to-the-minute information to help their students make sense of the multimodal texts they encounter daily in and out of school. "Reading the Visual" is an essential introduction that focuses on what teachers should "know" about multimodal literacy and how to "teach" it. This engaging book…

Despite teachers' best intentions, traditional whole-class discussions sometimes end up sounding like the monotonous drone of Charlie Brown's teacher. But with careful planning, teachers can structure discussions that encourage meaningful student interaction and collaborative thinking, write Laura Billings and Terry Roberts of the…

"Developing Collections to Empower Learners" examines collection development in the context of today's shifts toward digital resources while emphasizing the foundational beliefs of the school library profession. Writer Sue Kimmel includes practical advice about needs assessment, planning, selection, acquisitions, evaluation, and…

Through this study, a librarian and faculty team aimed to determine the extent to which a one-credit information literacy course deepened preservice teachers' understanding of information literacy. We employed a treatment and control group design; treatment participants received 15 hours of information literacy instruction while control…

Given the dynamic nature of our society, literacy conceptualizations are constantly being redefined. While print literacy continues to be the primary literacy within elementary classroom, the growing nature of technological capabilities, social networking, and multimodal affordances require educators to delve into explorations of how children can…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between a collaborative design process for selecting instructional graphics and online learner perceptions of graphic appropriateness. At the end of their online graduate course, 9 students ranked how appropriately each of 25 graphics represented 1 of 8 human performance technology…

Instructional materials are a key means to achieving the goals of science education--an enterprise that yields unique and worthwhile benefits to individuals and society. As states and districts move forward with adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or work on improving their instruction to align with "A…

Second language acquisition (SLA) as a sub-branch of applied linguistics has been researched by Chinese and foreign scholars for over 40 years, but few researches have been done on its implications for Business English teaching which needs more language teaching theories to support. This paper makes a review of related studies, and puts forward a…

The objective of this study is to better understand the process by which faculty members select the educational materials that they employ in their courses. The educational resource that people are most familiar with is the required textbook: faculty members select one or more books that all students are required to use through the duration of the…

Instructional materials are essential tools in the English language arts classroom. They allow students to interact with words, images, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in multiple literacies such as reading, listening, viewing, thinking, speaking, writing, and technology. Because selection policies should reflect local interests and…

A large-scale online teacher resource exchange is studied to examine the ways in which metadata influence teachers' selection of resources. A hierarchical linear modeling approach was used to tease apart the simultaneous effects of resource features and author features. From a decision heuristics theoretical perspective, teachers appear to…

In Croatian classrooms it is possible to observe teaching scenarios that follow the features of constructivist and traditional teaching theories and many variants and combinations of teaching didactics that are student centered and those that are teacher centered. Teachers struggle to find their way in the selection and design of a media…

Expressive movement, created by students to demonstrate musical elements and artistry, provides a valid assessment opportunity for general music teachers. This purposeful movement, "plastique animée", was developed by Swiss composer, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, in the early 20th century. "Plastique animée" can serve as a useful…

The growing presence of K-12 online education programs is a trend that promises to increase flexibility, improve efficiency, and foster engagement in learning. Students with disabilities can benefit from dynamic online educational environments, but only to the extent that they can access and participate in the learning process. As students with…