Reviews perspectives on closed (nonnetworked) multimedia systems, identifies characteristics of meaningful interactions, and outlines some basic considerations for designers of interactive multimedia instruction. Highlights include active learning environments; learner control; feedback; learner response options; adaptability; and engagement and…

Presents a geometry game, tangrams, as an active learning method to engage international teaching assistants in concepts related to effective communication. Asserts that by framing the presentation of research-based communication concepts in an active learning metaphor that compares giving instructions to teaching, learners can experience these…

Explains what being a naturalist means and discusses concerns about biologists who lack an understanding of natural history. Discusses reasons for the decline in the number of naturalists and makes suggestions on how to use natural history as a teaching tool. (Contains 12 references.) (YDS)

Describes the "One-Minute Paper," a teaching strategy used to encourage active learning by students and provide feedback to teachers. Enables the professor to establish a rapport with a large class of students and provides the professor with an insight into student difficulties and perceptions of the lecture material. (JRH)

Describes four approaches to improve students' abilities and inclination to think better: provide classroom learning environments that make thinking possible and students willing to engage in it; make the invisible substance of thinking visible and explicit; support student execution of newly encountered or complex thinking operations during…

The sixth technological revolution, electronic communications, challenges educators with the rapid pace of change, possible displacement of teachers, and the dangers of misapplication. Advantages include more active involvement of students in the learning process, flexibility, and variety. (SK)

Reviews state-of-the-art reports on the discipline of communication published between 1970 and 1999. Claims the discipline of communication can begin self-definition by considering how the discipline is defined by those outside the discipline. Includes the perspective provided by the Federal Government as well as general education programs in…

Developed and constructed by individual teachers, Foxfire is an active, learning-centered approach that defines an interactive relationship among teachers, learners, and curriculum and involves learners in deciding how they will learn, assess what they learn, and apply their knowledge meaningfully. Tenets and implementation steps are discussed.…

Discusses the extent to which the existing literature offers insights into effectively teaching statistical inference. Describes an in-class exercise that helps students understand inferential statistics. Explains that students learn more about concepts such as population distribution, sampling distributions, and standard error of the estimate.…

Describes an approach to incorporate active learning strategies into the first semester of a university-level introductory physics course. Combines cooperative and peer-based methods inside the classroom with project-based learning outside the classroom in an attempt to develop students' transferable skills as well as improving their understanding…

This case study of a team-taught learning community that integrates American history and literature focuses on student team presentations. We argue for the need to train students to learn actively, and we describe strategies for teaching students how to prepare for and present interdisciplinary team presentations. One finding is that training…

New teachers expect many things in educational life to be complex (e.g., classroom management, lesson planning, administrative paperwork, relationships with colleagues and students' parents), they still underestimate the amount of detail that goes into creating effective learning experiences daily. Field trips, for example, always sound like a…

In this article, the authors present the Extended Buying Center Game (EBCG), an experiential exercise that integrates marketing concepts and theory with a strong emphasis on industry skills and that does so in an adaptive course design format. The focus of the EBCG is on organizational buying behavior, buyer-seller interaction, and marketing…

The advent of wireless and pervasive technologies offers many opportunities for designing learning experiences that encourage children to explore, initiate and reflect. Novel forms of interactions can be developed, that exploit the "physical" and the "digital" in a diversity of ways that move beyond the "desktop" genre of interactions. In this…

In selecting a Claude Bernard Distinguished Lecturer, the Teaching Section looks for an individual who has made major contributions to physiology education. Dr. Harold Modell has certainly earned this honor. Harold has an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, a Masters in biomedical engineering from Iowa State, and, continuing the…