A number of underlying principles for including technology in the mathematics classroom is provided by Way and Webb (2006). They see technology, if incorporated in a rich and meaningful way, as potentially providing: (1) a shift from "instructivist" to constructivist education philosophies; (2) a move from teacher-centred to…

Children with autism are at-risk for poor literacy outcomes and have the right to learn literacy skills. Despite this, students with autism often may be perceived as not ready for literacy instruction. This study focused on teaching alphabet skills to young children with autism. Two instructional conditions were compared, traditional teacher-led…

This paper reports on a study, "MUSE", which involved Secondary (Grade 7) students in designing and constructing a virtual museum. It presents a description and evaluation of the design and implementation of the technologically-mediated intervention within a language curriculum that emphasizes multimodal meaning-making and expression.…

Earlier quantitative studies in computer-supported collaborative learning identified "Productive Failure" (Kapur, Cognition and Instruction 26(3):379-424, "2008") as a phenomenon in which students experiencing relative failures in their initial problem-solving efforts subsequently performed better than others who were in a condition not involving…

In a multi-study naturalistic quasi-experiment involving 269 students in a semester-long introductory philosophy course, we investigated the effect of teaching argument diagramming (AD) on students' scores on argument analysis tasks. An argument diagram is a visual representation of the content and structure of an argument. In each study, all of…

Accompanying the emergence of blog technology as a dominant online publishing paradigm is a growing interest in its educational benefits and applications. This study sets out to develop an empirically grounded framework for educational blogging in the context of teacher education. A working framework was first proposed that highlights four areas:…

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is used to teach a variety of skills to children with developmental disabilities. However, it remains unclear whether CAI or direct instruction from a therapist produces better learning outcomes. In addition, no studies have evaluated the ease of training therapists to implement CAI versus direct instruction. In…

The current research article is based on a simple and practical way of employing the computational power of widely available, versatile software MS Excel 2007 to perform interactive computer simulations for undergraduate/graduate students in biology, biochemistry, biophysics, microbiology, medicine in college and university classroom setting. To…

This literature review synthesizes the effects of computer-assisted instruction to enhance the reading comprehension of students with disabilities and struggling readers from 1985-2009. First, it addresses research investigates the impact on comprehension when students are presented with computerized versus printed reading material. Second, it…

Ubiquitous technology and agile organizational structures have enabled a strategic response to increasingly competitive, complex, and unpredictable challenges faced by many organizations. Using cyberinfrastructure, which is primarily the network of information, computers, communication technologies, and people, traditional organizations have…

The application of virtual reality is becoming ever more important as technology reaches new heights allowing virtual environments (VE) complete with global illumination. One successful application of virtual environments is educational interventions meant to treat individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). VEs are effective with these…

Operating room (OR) management differs from clinical anesthesia in that statistical literacy is needed daily to make good decisions. Two of the authors teach a course in operations research for surgical services to anesthesiologists, anesthesia residents, OR nursing directors, hospital administration students, and analysts to provide them with the…

Scratch is a visual programming environment that allows users (primarily ages 8 to 16) to learn computer programming while working on personally meaningful projects such as animated stories and games. A key design goal of Scratch is to support self-directed learning through tinkering and collaboration with peers. This article explores how the…

Computer-supported collaboration by spatially distributed group members still involves interaction problems within the group. This article presents an empirical study investigating the question of whether computer-supported collaborative problem solving by spatially distributed group members can be fostered by evoking knowledge and information…

To improve retention and engagement, first-year college science majors enrolled in University Experience orientation courses participated in a hands-on laboratory research experience: a DNA barcoding project to facilitate species identification. Students collected arthropods and hypothesized morphology-based species identifications. Then they…