Headlines about the negative effects of screen time may alarm teachers and cause them to worry about using digital media with early childhood and elementary school students. However, the relationship between digital media use and language and literacy learning is complex, and there are, in fact, arguments both "for" and…

The ability to verbalize--and therefore think and learn abstractly--has conditioned people to see the world in logical patterns. People are trained to do so by the wiring of the neurologically typical (neurotypical) brain and the increasing complexity of the environment that shapes it. Public schools are also designed for students with…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM 1991, 2000) recommends that students be positioned as sense makers who weigh one another's ideas and judge their mathematical validity. The instructional tool discussed in this article helps students engage in discussions that foster student reasoning, then settle on correct mathematics.…

The most successful school library media specialists are those who collaborate with teachers as full partners in the instructional process. Without assertive action by the school library media specialist, however, school administrators and teachers are likely to be more aware of the media specialist's administrative role than the roles of teacher,…

As it becomes increasingly essential to include China in the social studies curriculum, teachers are faced with the challenges of finding appropriate, high-quality resources, and, more fundamentally, of engaging students with a culture and a place far removed from their own. Film and video can address both issues, and there is a wealth of…

This article examines the role of technology in preservice teacher reflection. Situated in informal reflection (Shoffner, 2008), preservice English teachers' choice of a specific technology medium for reflective practice is examined for satisfaction with their choice and understanding of that medium's influence on their reflection. The…

This article argues for the use of self-study as a research methodology for learning technology scholars to advance knowledge and improve practice in the use of emerging technologies in the classroom. It reports on a self-study conducted on the use of the Second Life multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) in a graduate level seminar entitled…

Personal response systems (PRS)--also called student response systems (SRS), or more commonly, "clickers"--can be a catalyst for transformation of a learning environment from one of silence to one rich in dialogue and interaction. But how is this transformation achieved? In this paper, we present three case studies of instructors who use…

A globe, in a school or university yard, which simulates the Earth's orientation in space, could be a very useful and helpful device for teaching physics, geometry, astronomy and the history of science. It would be very useful for science education to utilize the forthcoming International Year of the Planet Earth 2008 and the International Year of…

This article reports on a UKLA-funded project in which a group of 10 teachers in South Wales were involved. The televised science fiction drama "Doctor Who" was chosen as the theme as it was based on popular culture as well as being of local and national interest. The main character in this television drama is an alien who can fly…

In the rapidly developing digital world, technology is and will be a force in workplaces, communities, and everyday lives in the 21st century. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) including computer hardware/software, networking and other technologies such as audio, video, and other multimedia tools became learning tools for students in…

Debates continue in public and in educational policy forums about the "basics" of literacy while many have not recognised that these basics may never be the same again. Rapid changes in digital communication provide facilities for reading and writing to be combined with various and often quite complex aspects of music, photography and film. At the…

It may not seem like school is the best place to crank up the bass for glass-cracking extreme energy, but subwoofers just might make better teaching and learning tools than they do music makers. Faced with the fact that electricity is invisible, electrical technology students encounter significant challenges in the classroom when abstract concepts…

This column lists and defines several sets of selected terms that may better help any educator communicate with the digital-savvy student clientele. Terms were gathered from the sources listed in "Further Reading" and confirmed among three online professors at Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. The sample terms are clustered by…

Offers suggestions for teaching and resources for bringing the works of Shakespeare successfully to students of today. (CRH)