The purpose of this study is to examine how the 1:1 laptop initiative impacted student achievement for the students at a single intermediate school (grades 4-6) in Mooresville, North Carolina. Researchers Dunleavy, Dexter, & Heinecke, 2007; Mouza, 2008; O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell & Tucker-Seeley, 2005 have called for additional research…

The study reported here sought to determine the perception of North Carolina County Cooperative Extension directors in regard to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service's role in bridging the digital divide. It was perceived by respondents that variables such as income, education, gender, disability status, race/ethnicity, age, and…

Online learning has steadily become a more integral strategy for schools and districts in their efforts to offer students greater access to the courses they need. Where in the past, much of the online learning activity happened at the state level or regional level, more and more schools are exercising greater control over their online and digital…

The purpose of this study was to examine how the one-to-one laptop initiative affected student achievement gaps for students at a single high school in Mooresville, NC. The variable in this study was the preexisting End of Course exams for Algebra I and English I for the two school years prior to the one-to-one laptop implementation year…

For the forty-first time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains twenty-seven…

Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities between rich and poor? Would a program of government provision of computers to early secondary school students reduce these disparities? The authors use administrative data on North Carolina public school students to corroborate earlier surveys that…

North Carolina State University may never build another computer lab. Instead the university has installed racks of equipment in windowless rooms where students and professors never go. This article describes a project called the Virtual Computing Lab. Users enter it remotely from their own computers in dormitory rooms or libraries. They get all…

Since 1980, Dr. Linda Hayden has been able to bring innovation to Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) by seeking out and partnering with entities like the U.S. Navy and NASA. For years, these partnerships allowed faculty, students, and administrators in the computer science department and other departments to gain early exposure to cutting-edge…

Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities between rich and poor? Would a program of government provision of computers to early secondary school students reduce these disparities? We use administrative data on North Carolina public school students to corroborate earlier surveys that document broad…

Students today live in technology-rich environments that shape their interactions with information and with each other. Children in the 21st century have access to a wide range of technology resources and tools for learning in real-life contexts. This study reports on a survey of 4000 North Carolina middle school students about what they need to…

America's K-12 education system faces three significant challenges: (1) increased global demands for skilled workers, (2) significant financial shortfalls, and (3) a looming teacher shortage. Independently, these factors present significant challenges for U.S. schools. In combination, they create a national imperative for swift action to create a…

Catawba Valley Community College has introduced digital storytelling (DS), an innovative instructional method that has produced extraordinary results. Digital storytelling uses affordable software to craft powerful multimedia presentations of student writing. Students create 3-to-4-minute movies with images, voiceovers, and music. This project…

The North Carolina Virtual Public School completed its first session during the summer of 2007. Evaluation results revealed differences between accelerated and credit recovery students, including a significantly higher likelihood for accelerated students to rate their courses as high quality, to express interest in taking another online course,…

This study explores the effects of school-level characteristics on North Carolina students' reading and math achievement from fourth through eighth grade, focusing on the relationships between achievement and the racial and poverty composition of schools. After creating race-by-poverty cohorts of schools, I use multilevel models to examine math…

Project TIES (Technology Integration Enhancing Science), a four-year K-8 Technology Literacy Challenge project, combined technology as a tool for teaching and learning with earth and environmental science education. This project provided teachers in two North Carolina school systems with professional development as well as technology equipment and…