There is a growing trend within secondary and post-secondary institutions to offer information technology (IT) certification programs as instructional vehicles to provide students with viable skills needed by the workforce, to satisfy state skill standards, and to prepare students for post-secondary IT studies. The use of IT certification programs…

The paper describes the use of a spreadsheet in a mathematics teacher education course. It shows how the tool can serve as a link between seemingly disconnected mathematical concepts. The didactical triad of using a spreadsheet as an agent, consumer, and amplifier of mathematical activities allows for an extended investigation of simple yet…

Contributions from researchers and practitioners involved in self, peer and group assessment in an online or e-learning environment investigate how assessment practices can be used to assist and improve the learning process. The book describes the principal characteristics of self, peer and group assessment; presents guidelines for effective…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an online learning environment on student computer use, classroom/school activities, and parental involvement. An online learning environment was created with the goals of giving students access to a variety of software programs from home and school, facilitating home-school connectivity, and…

This paper describes two related distance courses for instructor and leadership training and a distance undergraduate course in mechanics. Flexible and distance learning are becoming more and more important, so it is important to train instructors for such changes. KTH (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) has the course "5C4502 Distance…

Faced with reduced numbers choosing to study foreign languages (as in England and Wales), strategies to create and maintain student interest need to be explored. One such strategy is to create "taster" courses in languages, for potential university applicants. The findings presented arise from exploratory research, undertaken to inform…

This report examines the types of professional development necessary to implement successful online learning initiatives. The potential for schools utilizing online learning is tremendous: schools can develop new distribution methods to enable equity and access for all students, they can provide high quality content for all students and they can…

"Informed math self-placement," a program implemented at American River College in Sacramento, California, to determine students' readiness for college-level math, has been in place for three years. This case study describes the development and implementation of math self-placement at American River. Math self-placement consists of a…

This research project is a study of education, out-migration of young adults, and the impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) on the education and economies of rural communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. A qualitative study of Newfoundland and Labrador's rural schools were conducted from January to August 2001. This report…

David Niguidula, an education consultant who helped research the effectiveness of digital portfolios as an assessment tool in the mid-1990s, discusses core questions for schools planning to use digital portfolios. Schools must take time to identify the purpose of portfolios, plan what will go into portfolios, and decide how to assess portfolio…

Through surveys, interviews, observations, and field notes, I examined the beliefs and practices of six high school world history teachers regarding the use of digital primary sources and the potential added value of formal training in technology as a tool for instruction. Access to equipment (namely computer projectors and school computing…

Building and evaluating artifacts specifically for K-12 education, technologists committed to design sciences are needed along with an approach to evaluation increasing the systemic transfer from research and development into school settings. The authors describe THE VIRTUAL LAB scanning electronic microscope simulation, including (a) its…

The phrase "technology and education" usually means inventing new gadgets to teach the same old stuff in a thinly disguised version of the same old way. Moreover, if the gadgets are computers, the same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased towards its dullest parts, namely the kind of rote learning in which measurable…

Many teachers struggle with motivating students to learn. This is especially prevalent in social studies classrooms in which students perceive social studies as boring (Schug, Todd, & Berry, 1984; Shaughnessy & Haladyana, 1985). This article advocates the use of technology in social studies as a means to motivate students by engaging…

This paper is the result of a research project that set out to document a group of adolescent musicians in a rural Australian secondary school as they wrote and performed their own music. The processes they developed are reflective of a cooperative approach to group composition where upwards of 21 students composed and "jammed" their way…