Illinois Wesleyan University created the Trust the Wisdom in Student Teams (TWIST) project to develop student teams into essential components of IT support. This article explains how and why to apply the TWIST concepts. When deciding if a student team is a good choice, to meet a particular institution's IT support requirements, several things need…

In spite of large expenditures on and increased access to educational technologies, a concern remains that computer-based technologies are not being integrated into regular instructional practices. While there is evidence to support the hypothesis that newer teachers' familiarity with technology leads to increased technology integration, a…

At Florida Tech, we have incorporated DataFit from Oakdale Engineering throughout the entire curriculum, beginning with ChE 1102, an eight-week, one-day-per-week, two-hour, one-credit-hour, second-semester Introduction to Chemical Engineering course in a hands-on computer classroom. Our experience is that students retain data analysis concepts…

Although an increasing number of K-12 educators have taken up blogging in the past few years, blogging professors are still a rarity. Time pressures, entrenched beliefs about peer-reviewed publication, and a lack of familiarity all contribute to the paucity of faculty who regularly blog for public audiences. In this article, several prominent…

Most would agree that today's art education is far more complex than art activities such as making pumpkin paintings in October. For one, art education continually evolves in response to arts technology integration. What exactly are the implications for art education in the new millennium? In this article, the author presents and shows some of the…

A simple, rapid method for generating complex genetic profiles using Alu-based markers was recently developed for students primarily at the undergraduate level to learn more about forensics and paternity analysis. On the basis of the Cold Spring Harbor Allele Server, which provides an excellent tool for analyzing a single Alu variant, we present a…

In this article, the author looks at ways of creating conditions to bring about learning. If one is to "arrange conditions to bring about learning," one needs written guidance and support systems. Two books that discusses how to arrange these conditions are: "Thinking Mathematically" by John Mason with Leone Burton and Kaye Stacey and "Starting…

Interactive videoconferencing (IVC) consists of live, synchronous audio and video communication via a computer or digital phone network among sites in different physical locations. Many productive but not always obvious benefits, such as increased learning opportunities, student motivation, and instructor-student communication, are possible…

The trend in higher education these days is to speak of students' technological skills as if they are worlds different from those of individuals who actually teach them. Teachers are the dinosaurs who do not understand how to maneuver in this brave new world of technology, while students are the evolved birds who will live on into the future. Part…

The information overload in learning and teaching scenarios is a main hindering factor for efficient and effective learning. New methods are needed to help teachers and students in dealing with the vast amount of available information and learning material. Our approach aims to utilize contextualized attention metadata to capture behavioural…

This paper introduces a ubiquitous computing environment in order to support the learners while doing tasks; this environment is called PERKAM (PERsonalized Knowledge Awareness Map). PERKAM allows the learners to share knowledge, interact, collaborate, and exchange individual experiences. It utilizes the RFID ubiquities technology to detect the…

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a planimeter is "an instrument for measuring the area of a plane figure by tracing its boundary line". Even without knowing how a planimeter works, it is clear from the definition that the idea behind it is that one can compute the area of a figure just by "walking" on the boundary. For someone who has…

This article features Eliza Dresang, an award-winning author, and her achievements. Dresang was responsible for making a radical shift in how teachers and parents understand modern children literature when she wrote her groundbreaking book, "Radical Change." She found the motivation to write this book after realizing how teachers and parents were…

A research study was carried out to measure the effect of a computer animation as part of the assessment of conceptual understanding of second-semester general chemistry students. The major impact of the animation was observed to be in minimizing the difficulty students have in visualizing the particle motions for each distractor.

An exercise is described which introduces students to using concepts in thermochemistry to predict relative stability of a hypervalent molecule. Students will compare the energies of formation for both fluoride and the hydride by calculations and they will also explore the issue of partial ionic character in polar covalent bonds.