The article begins by reviewing the theoretical bases for the contention that advanced computer-based educational gaming can provide powerful learning experiences, and overviews the limited research on the use of such games. Although studies to date have generally supported their value, most of the published investigations have methodological…

Access to education has always challenged students with disabilities. The increase of online instructional materials presents new opportunities--and possible barriers--for accessibility in higher education. Despite rising numbers of students with disabilities in higher education, colleges and universities have not ensured accessibility of online…

This Media Literacy column is a follow-up to the column in the September 2007 issue that discussed Guy Debord and the artistic, political avant-garde organization called the Situationist International. This column continues the discussion of the situationist concepts of the spectacle and "detournement" by explaining quick and easy ways to…

As a veteran teacher at a NCSSSMST (National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology) high school, the author takes pride in allowing her students to stretch their minds. But as a teacher of gifted juniors and seniors, it has always been a challenge to keep her students up to date with key events in…

The current higher education, both distance education and traditional campus courses, relies more and more on modern information and communication technologies (ICT). The use of computer systems and networks results in a wide range of security issues that must be dealt with in order to create a safe learning environment. In this work, we study the…

In this article, we discuss the findings of a study about how patients who have been diagnosed with cancer learn about their disease. This is a form of learning that is not often thought of as learning, within the practices in which it takes place. It involves learners who neither possess specific forms of knowledge, nor are sure about what…

Educational researchers and policy makers have come to rely on data from sample surveys. However, survey research on educational issues poses some special challenges. In many respects, the survey methodology issues in educational research are the same as those throughout the social and behavioral sciences. These issues concern obtaining the best…

Online education is used for a variety of purposes in higher education. Two such purposes are improving staff performance over time and allowing staff to obtain feedback about their professional skill development. Relying on data from online staff skill development courses delivered in five universities, this article explores online faculty…

The role of online learning and distance learning over the Internet in providing post secondary educational opportunities to low-income, working adults who have never attended college is examined. It was found that structured training programs for the staff on topics related to online post secondary study might provide the benefits of online study…

Videos of teachers that students taped in secrecy are all over online sites like YouTube and MySpace. Angry teachers, enthusiastic teachers, teachers clowning around, singing, and even dancing are captured, usually with camera phones, for the whole world to see. Some students go so far as to create elaborately edited videos, shot over several…

The purpose of this study was to examine critically how family literacy is promoted and represented through the images and written texts on Web sites developed by providers of family literacy programs. Naturalistic research over the last 20 years or so demonstrates that the family is a rich site for supporting children's literacy development…

With nearly four decades of National Council for the Social Studies conferences under his belt, the author reflects on the valuable networking and stimulating sessions he attended, and highlights key educational websites from the increasingly technologically-adept exhibits. Here, he describes five websites that can be useful resources for…

The concept of "publishing" has changed again, just in the last few years, due to YouTube, Blogger, Second Life, Flickr, and other new social networking tools (John Marshall Law School, 2005). Whether they are making it possible for everyone to view a video on YouTube on how to install a hard drive on a Mac, add a collaborative student writing…

This study examined the effects of question prompts, knowledge integration prompts, and problem solving prompts, embedded in a Web-based learning environment in scaffolding preservice teachers' conceptual understanding and problem solving in an ill-structured domain. A mixed-method study was employed to investigate the outcomes of students'…

Just as linguistic errors have provided insights into the nature of linguistic competence(s), detailed analyses of blind spots or "marked trajectories" in the reflection cycles of novice teachers may provide a window on their underlying beliefs, and thus on relevant zones of proximal development. In this paper we analyse a case study in an…