This study addressed one aspect of a national strategic recommendation in South Africa by examining the effectiveness of computer-based outreach programmes in terms of how the programmes were implemented and learners' perceptions of the classes. The role that the computer centres played at two schools was examined and the research endeavoured to…

The prototype of a guided practice application was developed to instruct year 13 biology students in the process of DNA replication. The application uses a high degree of interaction to engage the student in a guided exploration and problem solving exercise. An evaluation revealed that the students showed considerable enthusiasm and significant…

This article discusses the impact of patents for computer algorithms in course management systems. Referring to historical documents and court cases, the positive and negative aspects of software patents are presented. The key argument is the accessibility to algorithms comprising a course management software program such as Blackboard. The…

This paper presents particular pedagogical applications of a number of corpus-based CALL (computer assisted language learning) programs such as "CONTEXTS" and "CLOZE," "MATCHUP" and "BILINGUAL SENTENCE SHUFFLER," in the teaching of English through children's literature. An elective course in Taiwan for…

This research addresses the effectiveness of an interactive learning environment, Inquiry Island, as a general-purpose framework for the design of inquiry-based science curricula. We introduce the software as a scaffold designed to support the creation and assessment of inquiry projects, and describe its use in a middle-school genetics unit.…

With the rapid advance of stand-alone e-learning systems, we believe a sharable and interoperable portal platform capable of integrating various existing learning systems is critical for the future development of e-learning systems. We highlight two problems as the root causes for current ineffective sharing of learning resources: learning object…

The purpose of this study was to understand, describe and interpret the uses of information communication technology (ICT) in primary education in the Taiwan Schools Cyberfair as a means to expand and enhance student learning in an extra-curricular setting. Four winning schools, with 48 teachers and students involved, were purposefully selected…

There has been extensive investment by governments and individual schools in interactive whiteboard technology in developed countries premised on the assumption that their use in education will impact positively on learners' achievements. Developing countries, such as South Africa, keen to raise attainment among their learners are following suit.…

One of the great strengths of Jim Kaput's research program was his relentless drive towards scaling up his innovative approach to teaching the mathematics of change and variation. The SimCalc mission, "democratizing access to the mathematics of change," was enacted by deliberate efforts to reach an increasing number of teachers and students each…

This paper traces the genesis of the MIT OpenCourseWare project from its initial strategic precursors in 1999 and 2000, through its launch in 2001 and its subsequent evolution. The story told here illuminates the interplay among institutional leadership, and strategic planning, and with university culture in launching major educational technology…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of technology on students' mathematics achievement, particularly the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) mathematics results. Eleven schools within the Miami-Dade County Public School System participated in a pilot program on the use of Geometers Sketchpad (GSP). Three of…

Students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are confronted with multiple external representations (MERs) in their learning materials. The ability to learn from and communicate with these MERs requires not only that students comprehend each representation individually but also that students recognize how the…

Over the past ten years, traditional lecture style delivery has given way to computer-aided instruction (CAI) in post-secondary education. Developmental mathematics courses have been one of the most widely used applications. At a small community college in the Mississippi Delta, a computer assisted version of Intermediate Algebra was implemented.…

Millipore Corp.--a global company of 6,100 employees for which the author serves as the science and patent information specialist--supplies products and expertise that span the research, development, and production stages in the life science research and biologic drug manufacturing fields. Millipore's corporate library, the information group,…

Motivation in distance education (DE) has been studied mostly at the postsecondary level with few studies having been conducted at the high-school level. This paper breaks with this tradition by reporting on the perspectives on motivation of 42 Canadian high-school DE teachers. Data collection involved one-hour long, semi-structured telephone…