In a recent article in "Physics Today," Meredith and Redish emphasized the need to make introductory physics courses beneficial for life sciences majors. In this study, a lab activity is proposed to measure the intensity of electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phones and connect these measurements to various standards, biological…

The rise of social media websites (e.g., Facebook) and online services such as Google AdWords and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) offers new opportunities for researchers to recruit study participants. Although researchers have started to use these emerging methods, little is known about how they perform in terms of cost efficiency and, more…

I used a subscriber identity module card reader to copy the lists of saved contacts from 170 mobile phones in Fiji. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages compared to other techniques for collecting telephone network data. Copying phone contacts avoids recall biases associated with survey-based name generators. It also obviates the…

Smartphones and tablets are packed with sensors that allow us to take experimental data, essentially making them mobile physics labs. Apps exist that make it easy to capture and analyze data from these sensors, allowing users to study diverse phenomena such as free fall acceleration, the speed of sound,radioactivity, and many others. Commonly, the…

In this paper we present a short tutorial on creating mini-videos using two platforms--PCs and tablets such as iPads--and software packages that work with these devices. Specifically, we describe the step-by-step process of creating and editing videos using a Wacom Intuos pen-tablet plus Camtasia software on a PC platform and using the software…

The advent of Twitter® and other social media services of its type ushered in a new era of professional development in education. This article addresses how a group of users have been employing Twitter to conduct professional development sessions that would benefit their participants by advancing their pedagogical approaches to learning and…

Visualization of chemical concepts can be challenging for many students. This is arguably a critical skill for beginning students of biochemistry to develop, since new information is often presented visually in the form of textbook figures. It is recommended that visual literacy be explicitly taught in the classroom rather than assuming that…

Group work is a powerful constructivist pedagogy for facilitating students' personal and professional development, but it can be difficult for students to work together in an academic context. The assessed reflective writings of undergraduate students studying Information Management are used as data in this exploration of the group work situation…

This paper begins with examining the origins of Individual Educational Plans, before taking a critical approach to the concept, to highlight the shortcomings and flaws that can now be found with the concept. The call is made to move toward Personalised Planning models, which will have a greater impact on pupil outcomes, before reporting on how the…

Objective: This paper reports on a pilot study evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a text- and mobile video-based intervention to educate women and men attending college about non-daily contraception, with a particular focus on long-acting reversible contraception (LARC). A secondary objective is to describe the process of intervention…

Harold Stolovitch is Emeritus Professor of Workplace Learning & Performance, Université de Montréal, where he also served as Associate Dean of Research and Chair of the Instructional & Performance Technology graduate programs. He has also been a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Visiting Professor at the University of Southern California.…

This study provides a first look into how learning motivations are associated with different ways that students use mobile devices to carry on multiple conversations--multicommunicate--while in class. We use self-determination theory to make predictions linking intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, to classroom mobile device…

Students enter classes with mobile devices and use them for learning; however, these are also distracting devices. Some teacher educators display positive attitudes; others display negative attitudes, depending on their perception of the advantages and disadvantages of mobile technology for learning. This paper represents findings of a study that…

In this paper, we developed two kinds of application software run on a mobile/wearable device for autistic spectrum disorder students, intellectual disability students, or physically challenged. One of the applications is expression detector/evaluator using a smartphone and a small expression sensor for social skill training. This sensor can…

Mobile technology plays a prominent role in teaching and learning. To address this vital component of teacher preparation, the education department of a small college provided the freshman class with iPads. iPads were selected because they are common in public schools, lightweight, portable, touch-screen controlled and have an abundance of…