Many older adult have an interest in learning to use computers. The study reported in this article examined whether older adults' attitudes toward computers can be influenced by direct, customized computer training. Thirty older participants who registered for introductory computer courses offered at a SeniorNet computer lab completed the…

According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000), children need to learn how to create and use mathematical diagrams to represent and reason about phenomena in the world. The author proposes a model of diagram literacy that includes six types of knowledge required for diagrammatic competence--implicit, construction, similarity,…

In 2005 the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) was successful in obtaining a grant from National Centre of Science, Information and Communication Technology and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) to undertake the Computing Studies Teachers Network Rural and Regional Focus Project. The project had five…

This study examines teacher-student interactions and selected student gender differences with volunteer boys and recruited girls in a technology class. The participants were teachers and triads of girls and boys in single-gender sections of a technology course where the students built, designed features for, and programmed Lego robots. We analyzed…

Using the pipeline metaphor as the conceptual framework, the current paper presents gender differences in computer science (CS) and computer engineering (CE) students' study aspirations in elementary and high schools, the extent to which they hold a study-related job while in college and their career aspirations after graduating from college. It…

The popularity of web-based learning systems has encouraged researchers to pay attention to several new issues. One of the most important issues is the development of new techniques to provide personalized teaching materials. Although several frameworks or methods have been proposed, it remains a challenging issue to design an easy-to-realize…

In this paper, a methodological educational proposal based on constructivism and collaborative learning theories is described. The suggested approach has been successfully applied to a subject entitled "Computer Architecture and Engineering" in a Computer Science degree in the University of La Laguna in Spain. This methodology is…

With the changing demographics of the American workforce, the National Science Foundation, along with the U.S. Department of Commerce, has highlighted the shortage of minorities in information technology (IT) careers (http://www.ta.doc.gov/Reports/itsw/itsw.pdf). Using data from a 6-year period and the psychology Involvement-Regimen-Self…

The role of social setting in adult IT literacy has not been a topic of research in much of the current literature. The purpose of this proposed study is to compare and contrast the extent to which social setting influence adult IT literacy. Participants will receive IT literacy training at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR)…

We will argue that CALL can usefully be viewed as a subset of computer software engineering and can profit from adopting some of the recent progress in software development theory. The unified modelling language has become the industry standard modelling technique and the accompanying unified process is rapidly gaining acceptance. The manner in…

India is now in the throes of a higher education revolution, and its colleges are churning out thousands of professionals each year. Despite the fact that 35 percent of its population still cannot read or write, the country has successfully positioned itself as one of the world's foremost producers of math, science, and technology graduates,…

In this paper, the author aims to offer an elaboration of simple, yet powerful, mathematical patterns through mathematical games. Mathematical games may serve as colorful instructional tools for teachers and textbooks, and may raise students' motivation and intuition. Patterns are fundamental in mathematics and computer science. In the case of…

The fields of Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Information Technology (IT) are experiencing rapid change. In 2003, an analysis of IT degree programs and those of competing disciplines at 10 post-secondary institutions concluded that an information technology program is perceived differently from information systems and computer science. In…

This study was designed to solicit responses from senior citizens (adults over the age of 55) who had enrolled in a computer course after retirement. The information is intended to aid program planners for seniors in developing future courses. Seventy-six seniors from four local sites (Puget Sound, Washington) and two nationwide online services…

In 1992, the National Research Council recommended that the computer science and engineering community should enrich its talent pool by reaching out to women and minorities, both underrepresented in the field. This paper describes four such outreach programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Center for Research on Parallel Computation…