As a result of the growth of virtual schools across the United States, K-12 school courses and diplomas are increasingly offered, either completely or partly, at a distance. In light of this increase, it is apparent that there will be demand for teachers who are prepared to teach from a distance and a complementary need for local counselors. The…

This descriptive study investigates the diffusion of electronic portfolios in preservice teacher education by documenting the context and emergent practices in six programs identified as mature in their implementation. Context variables examined include prior use of paper portfolios, pressures for standards-based assessment, and leadership and…

Although computer-mediated discussions (CMDs) have the potential to be ideal forums for fostering dialogue, research on listservs and in college composition classes has found that the discourse tends to be dominated by a few individuals, often men, and is sometimes abusive. In contrast, results of our study in a teacher education course revealed…

An instrument was administered to a sample of educators in two suburban school districts in the Midwestern United States. The purpose was to gauge the attitudes toward electronic grade book systems, and to ascertain the relationship between attitude and chronological age, years of teaching experience, years of computer experience, and gender. The…

A Delphi method was used to determine the extent to which current educational software was meeting the needs of teachers; as well as what changes needed to occur in educational software to make it more effective. Five overarching themes emerged: (a) instructional design issues, (b) curriculum, (c) materials, (d) cost, and (e) meeting specific…

This study examined various teacher dispositions that predict technology use among K-12 teachers. The Teacher Attribute Survey was administered to 177 K-12 teachers from six Northwest Ohio schools. This instrument measured a variety of teacher attributes, such as teacher self-efficacy, philosophy, openness to change, amount of professional…

This research study assessed the effects of an information technology initiative on undergraduates at a Western Pennsylvania college. A random sample of alumni from the classes of 1997, 1998, and 2000 were surveyed to gauge their attitudes about a technology program instituted in 1994, which provided laptop computers to all incoming freshman. The…

This article describes a study that examined the conceptions of three New Hampshire superintendents as to the institutional conditions they believe impact teachers' ability to integrate technology. Common thinking was found. They agree if integration is to be successful, teachers need a better understanding of how these technologies can be applied…

This report describes how early childhood preservice teachers appropriate, master, and/or resist learning to use technology in teaching. The data collected were part of a three-year study supported by the National Science Foundation of an entire teacher education program to investigate how preservice teachers (PSTs) become socialized to the role…

This study examined young children's differential access to computers in school and home and the varying conditions that affect how children experience computers. The sample consists of 9,840 public school children who attended kindergarten and first grade. Lower and higher poverty schools are about equally likely to have computers available for…

This paper examines the process of establishing and sustaining content-focused technology inquiry groups, a teacher professional development model where groups of teachers with similar content and grade areas identify problems of practice and inquire into technology-supported solutions. Through a longitudinal case study of an urban arts-humanities…

The article documents a two-year interpretive case study of fourth through sixth grade students engaged in a problem-based telecollaboration exchange between classrooms in Laramie, Wyoming, and Monteverde, Costa Rica. Problem-based learning was viewed in concert with a constructivist perspective to guide examination of global issues. The…

Forty-one primary student teachers were divided into two groups and were instructed how to integrate certain Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in learning activities. Only one group was guided to use Filamentality, a fill-in-the-blank interactive Web site, and to organize Internet information in a Hotlist and a Scrapbook.…

In the last 20 years, substantial investments have been made in educational technology. Not surprisingly, in today's zeitgeist of educational accountability there have been increasing calls for empirical, research-based evidence that these investments are affecting the lives of teachers and students. This paper examines the ways in which teachers…

Two versions of a Web site on the United States Constitution were used by students in separate high school history classes to solve problems that emerged from four constitutional scenarios. One site contained embedded conceptual scaffolding devices in the form of textual annotations; the other did not. The results of our study demonstrated the…