Understanding the basic principles of structural biology is becoming a major subject of study in most undergraduate level programs in biology. In the genomic and proteomic age, it is becoming indispensable for biology students to master concepts related to the sequence and structure of proteins in order to develop skills that may be useful in a…

This study examined the relationship between academic achievement of young African American children and access to and use of computers in their school and home. The sample consists of 1,601 African American public school children who attended kindergarten and 1st grade. Results indicate that access to and use of a home computer, computer area in…

On October 20, 2008, the New Media Consortium announced the release of a white paper produced in conjunction with the Economist Magazine and in collaboration with Apple, Inc. This paper reports the results of a study of nearly 300 CIOs and technology leaders inside and outside of education to gain deeper insight into the wider impact of technology…

Technology holds the key for bridging the gap between access to quality education and the need for enhanced learning experiences. This book contains case studies on divergent themes of personalized learning environments, inclusive learning for social change, innovative learning and assessment techniques, technology and international partnership…

Shadow netWorkspace (SNS) is a web application system that allows a school or any type of community to establish an intranet with network workspaces for all members and groups. The goal of SNS has been to make it easy for schools and other educational organizations to provide network services in support of implementing a learning community. SNS is…

A major influence this generation of high school digital natives has had on the curriculum is their natural focus on visuals to convey information. They are driving the move toward visual information. In this article, one high school expands the learning environment from handhelds to videoconferencing. Sacred Heart has found that mixing the…

Thinking Together is a project that began at the Open University in the mid 1990s and grew out of research that showed that children benefit from explicit instruction on how to talk in groups. Its fundamental premise is that the ability to communicate effectively is a key skill that lies at the heart of educational success. A crucial goal arising…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is defined as the computer technology that evaluates and scores the written prose (Shermis & Barrera, 2002; Shermis & Burstein, 2003; Shermis, Raymat, & Barrera, 2003). AES systems are mainly used to overcome time, cost, reliability, and generalizability issues in writing assessment (Bereiter, 2003; Burstein,…

While it has become common to employ pronunciation oriented software to improve one's pronunciation in L2, both language teachers and L2 learners feel uncertain about choosing software to meet their purposes. Taking "MyET", pronunciation oriented software written and highly praised in Taiwan, as a representative program, this study…

The developments of new technologies over the last decades provide some answers to the limited exposure imposed on second/foreign language (L2) learners, who study a target language in an academic setting in countries where that language is not actively used. Not only are such learners restricted in their exposure to the L2 in the formal academic…

The introduction of an online learning management system (LMS) raises a number of complex issues involving institutional responses at various levels to the adoption and diffusion of technological change. Issues include those related to governance, management and technical support, as well as to core learning and teaching matters associated with…

This article presents findings from a comparative case study of the learning experiences of two graduate students in an online action research course. The key roles played by reflection and co-reflection, an emerging concept, are identified through the use of narrative analysis. Co-reflection is a collaborative critical thinking process mediated…

Many of the information security appliances, devices, and techniques currently in use are designed to keep unwanted users and Internet traffic away from important information assets by denying unauthorized access to servers, databases, networks, storage media, and other underlying technology resources. These approaches employ firewalls, intrusion…

Detecting and combating plagiarism from Web-based sources is a concern for administrators and instructors involved in online distance education. In this paper, we quantify copy-and-paste plagiarism among adult learners in an online geography course offered through Penn State's World Campus Geographic Information Systems (GIS) certificate program.…

This study describes the use and assesses the benefits of a virtual learning environment (VLE)-enhanced independent language learning program (ILLP), based on the "WebCT" platform, for three groups of first- and second-year Italian students. It considers the positive outcomes of the program for the students' learning abilities. These outcomes…