In recent years, a number of curriculum reform projects have championed the notion of having students do science in ways that move beyond hands-on work with authentic materials and methods, or developing a conceptual grasp of current theories. These reformers have argued that students should come to an understanding of science through doing the…

Playing computer games is an extremely popular leisure activity for children. In fact, the computer games market in the UK is now double that of the video rental market, and substantially larger than cinema box office sales, and under people under the age of 18 make up 38% of these game players. Based on the popularity and strong motivational…

Several years of experience in training lecturers for developing and tutoring project-based learning (PBL) courses have resulted in a 'practise as you preach' based and flexible training programme. This programme was successfully incorporated in the teacher training programmes of the University of Twente and other universities and polytechnics in…

This article addresses how community-university digital media literacy projects are redefining literacy, literate practices, and institutions. Using Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which emphasizes the organizing process itself, I analyze the shifting definitions of literacy within one particular university-community collaboration. My analysis…

The majority of literature regarding problem-based learning demonstrates its usefulness as a teaching technique in the natural sciences curriculum. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the broad purpose is to illustrate the application of problem-based learning for instructing students about controversial issues in sociology. Within the…

Using asynchronous online discussions for interschool collaborative project work represents one of the innovative practices in the Singapore classroom. With anytime, anywhere access to interactions among the students and teachers, the asynchronous nature of these interactions leads to new paradigms for teaching and learning, with both unique…

When one walks into the classrooms at New Technology High School (NTHS) in Napa, California, he or she will see that students there are always at work: writing journals online, doing research on the Internet, meeting in groups to plan and make their Web sites and their digital media presentations, and evaluating their peers for collaboration and…

This article draws on second language theory, particularly output theory as defined by Swain (1995), in order to conceptualise observations made in a computer-assisted language learning setting. It investigates second language output and learner behaviour within an electronic role-play setting, based on a subject-specific problem solving task and…

This paper presents a multimedia mediated, student centred learning environment which seeks to study the group based, cooperative learning paradigm, using a web based multimedia project. This project is carried out in a Malaysian classroom by groups of students in the second year course in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM), Multimedia…

Education researchers suggest that teacher education candidates be taught that meaningful learning is essential and that conceptual understanding be infused into all lessons. However, many teacher candidates are unable to successfully develop conceptual level lesson plans and some are unable to differentiate between skills and concepts. The…

This project used techniques from problem-based learning to aid students in developing a technology-based science lesson. In this case, the "problem" students were asked to solve, was that of combining curriculum knowledge and pedagogical skills to incorporate computer graphics animation technology within a science lesson and then teach the lesson…

Teacher educators are often searching for methods and/or techniques to enhance and expand the content of their courses. As teacher educators, we do not want to introduce new methodology that detracts our students' attention away from the course content. However, we need to keep our courses current and interesting for ourselves as well as for our…

For several years, the author has been working with colleagues in the Northern California Writing Centers Association (NCWCA) and the Stanford Writing Center to build bridges between college and high school writing centers. The writing center at Stanford defines one of its central goals as "celebrating a culture of writing" for all…

The purpose of this study was to provide recommendations to teachers who are interested in implementing Internet inquiry projects. Four classes of ninth-and tenth-grade honors students (N = 100) participated in an Internet inquiry project in which they were presented with an ecology question that required them to make a decision based on…

Designing and implementing pedagogies that support collaborative groupwork experiences and which also incorporate the use of information and communications technology is a commonplace, yet complex, task. This article describes a case study that uncovered problems with such an approach that employed interdisciplinary group projects in an…