Describes research that examined the role of online examples in a minimal manual on learning to use an interface construction toolkit called InterCONS. Highlights include the minimalist approach to designing user resources; user performance; the use of online examples versus printed examples; and user reactions. (Contains 18 references.) (LRW)

Explores the syntactic structure, cognitive functions, pedagogical features, and communicative characteristics of questions asked by graduate students in an asynchronous learning environment. Results show students used fewer syntactic forms and asked more rhetorical questions than in face-to-face classrooms and exhibited higher levels of…

Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds performed Tower of London problems under spoken, manual, and combined (requiring both spoken and manual) response conditions. Preschoolers' solutions were most goal-focused when required to give only a spoken response, intermediately goal-focused when required to give both response types, and least goal-focused when…

This article is documentation of the personal professional reflection processes as well as staff discussions reflecting the staff's ongoing efforts to improve the quality of teaching in the teacher education programme at the University of Bergen. The documentation is two-dimensional: video clips have been inserted into the traditional text form.…

This essay offers an analysis of PowerPoint apart from the histrionics of the "'Tis and 'Taint" arguments about its value, and proposes a program of research to move forward our understanding of PowerPoint as an inscriptional system. To that end, the study begins with a discussion of PowerPoint as an inscriptional system that employs both…

This study investigated the role of different modes of representation, i.e., verbal description, decorative pictures, informational pictures and number line, in solving additive change problems. Data were collected from 1447 students in Grades 1, 2, and 3. Structural equations modelling affirmed the existence of four first-order…

In this paper we present findings from an empirical study-in-progress that investigates how a teacher integrates technology, specifically an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), to teach multiliterate practices when reading multi-modal texts. This research was a collaboration between a teacher and a team of university-based researchers as they used…

The opinions of second language learning (L2) theorists and researchers are divided over whether to use authentic or simplified reading texts as the means of input for beginning- and intermediate-level L2 learners. Advocates of both approaches cite the use of linguistic features, syntax, and discourse structures as important elements in support of…

This study investigated whether two different versions of an online professional development course produced different impacts on the intended outcomes of the course. Variations of an online course for middle school algebra teachers were created for two experimental conditions. One was an actively facilitated course with asynchronous peer…

Millennial students make up a large portion of undergraduate students attending colleges and universities, and they have a variety of online resources available to them to complete academically related information searches, primarily Web based and library-based online information retrieval systems. The content, ease of use, and required search…

This study examined the constructs of a study skill--highlighting--to determine whether the constructs for highlighting in a paper mode would be the same as highlighting in a computer mode. Constructs are defined as the underlying processes that are elicited in an experimental setting and that provide a basis for explaining the relations among the…

This study compared the typing efficiency of four young children (5 to 6 years of age) who were novice typists on the Dvork and QWERTY keyboards. A copying program on an Apple IIc microcomputer functioned as the training instrument. Although the children did not acquire proficient touch typing skills, they did type accurate responses faster, keep…

This study investigated the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of drills as used in computer assisted instruction (CAI) lessons in phonetic transcription. Subjects (N=44) were students in a course in general phonetics at the University of Illinois. Measurements of student learning, student attitude, and time required for completion…

A study was conducted in the School of Medical Technology at the University of Illinois to determine the relative learning effectiveness of lessons taught by means of computer assisted instruction (in this case, PLATO) versus lessons taught by means of paper copies adapted from the PLATO system. While the benefits of translating paper…

To determine the effects of cartoon-embellished programed text materials on student skill performance and student attitudes towards instruction and subject material, a random sample of 85 students in a course on audiovisual materials were selected as research subjects. Research procedures included: (1) pretest for skills and attitudes; (2) random…