Design prescriptions to create web-based courses and sites that are dynamic, easy-to-use, interactive and data-driven, emerge from a "how to do it" approach. Unfortunately, the theory behind these methods, prescriptions, procedures or tools, is rarely provided and the important terms, such as "easy-to-use", to which these…

Many young children have speech or language disorders or delays that require the coordinated services of a preschool intervention team. Young children with delayed talking skills benefit when their parents and their preschool teachers collaborate to include assistive technology in home and preschool routines. Assistive technology for communication…

"simSchool" is a classroom simulation program funded by the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Teach with Technology (PT3) program of the U.S. Department of Education. Just as a flight-simulator immerses a player in the complexities of flying a plane, "simSchool" immerses novice teachers in some of the complexities of teaching 7th-12th grade…

This article considers a hypothetical decision by a hypothetical learner about whether or not to participate in an online "discussion", viewed through the lens of risk analysis. It begins with the premise that participation online is desirable but that it involves the participant in risk, a fact that needs to be acknowledged and taken into account…

In this age of rapid technological and economic change, life-long learning is becoming a way of life. The average age of students will become greater. Participation in learning activities by learners 18 and over increased from 38 percent in 1991 to 50 percent in 1999 (U.S. Department of Education, NCES, 1999). As the population seeks more…

This article demonstrates how sociocultural theories can be used to support strategic structuring of professional development activities for preservice and practicing teachers on technology use and integration. Examples are drawn from the authors' experiences with teachers in two professional development schools that participated in a four-year…

This article is a descriptive overview of one aspect of the history of Quebec's Tele-universite (TU). This case is used to unveil the inter-organizational and political tensions which may accompany the somewhat difficult development of a distance education model. Teleuniversite was created in 1972 as an experimental project by the Universite du…

Recent science and teacher education reports continue to stress the need for radical changes in the way teachers are prepared to teach science to diverse learners. In response, a three-year intervention project was developed to help teachers in culturally diverse schools transform their science teaching practices using learning technologies. Many…

Online learning has become a well-respected alternative to traditional bricks and mortar. Almost every institution of higher education in the United States, and many secondary educational institutions, feature opportunities for students to take courses, if not earn an entire degree, online. Community colleges have been at the forefront of this…

Computer assisted learning (CAL) can involve a computerised intelligent learning environment, defined as an environment capable of automatically, dynamically and continuously adapting to the learning context. One aspect of this adaptive capability involves automatic adjustment of instructional procedures in response to each learner's performance,…

Today's college students believe that learning technologies are necessary tools that should be integrated into their course work. However, faculty have not yet responded to these expectations. This qualitative study engaged approximately 100 faculty and undergraduate students at the University of Washington in focus groups to explore this…

Distance education has evolved through many delivery formats, conforming in varying degrees to an Information Age definition of "distance education" that emphasizes two-way electronic communication. The technological characteristics and limitations of each format have implications for pedagogical choices in designing distance education courses for…

As the fifth largest school district in California, Santa Ana Unified School District faces the challenge of providing technology access to its more than 63,000 students and over 6,000 certificated and classified staff members. This article describes how the district found the solution in wireless computing, which is now being used as a highly…

This empirical study describes the administrative experiences of a collaborative model between a local middle school and a college of education. The project focuses on technology training and utilization using the current educational research concept Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL's basic principles of multiple representations, multiple…

With computer corpora firmly established as research tools in linguistics, their application for language teaching purposes is also increasingly advocated to the extent that corpus-based language teaching has even been praised as the new revolution in language teaching (cf. Sinclair, 2004b). This article takes a more critical view and examines…