Students 8 and younger have access to screens everywhere--on smartphones, tablets, handheld games, and laptops, to name just a few places. How do you know if students are using these tools effectively? Are the students participating in digital environments in ways that encourage critical thinking, active engagement, and contribution, or are they…

Given the power of instructional technology and the ubiquitous nature of technology in society and the workplace, what are the social implications associated with teachers' decisions to use, or not use, technology to enhance teaching and learning? Despite current U.S. educational goals and the documented effect of the achievement gap, little…

In this article, the author talks about the net generation (NG) of learners and how the net generation media specialist could help students in their needs. The NG media specialist creates a program that serves students who are diverse economically, culturally, and academically. Thus, if the NG media specialist provides resources, facilities, and…

High-quality multimedia products make use of technology to further the understanding of a topic in ways that traditional media cannot accomplish. This article describes the use of multimedia in collaborative student projects dealing with an area of study in the standard curriculum for their state or country. The projects facilitated the…

In this article, one school district shares its experiences with computer-based testing and the immediate access to data it can provide. The Barren County School District in Glasgow, Kentucky, has partnered with the Northwest Evaluation Association to use their computer-based Measure of Academic Progress (MAP). The MAP testing platform is…

Wiggins' view of understanding requires students to integrate facts, information, knowledge, and applications to develop understanding. Understanding, from this perspective, is an extensive web of interrelated ideas, experiences, and beliefs that transforms information from simple, memorized facts into knowledge that can be the basis for action.…

Imagine if teachers could view their students' thinking, like peeking inside a pot of cooking stew to see if it is done. Wouldn't it be nice if they could know what their students were learning, while they were teaching them? Most teachers use a variety of classroom techniques to understand what their students know and can do. Tests, quizzes,…

In high school biology, students are challenged by many molecular concepts and structures. They meander through a number of molecular structures, some in macromolecular form: carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, nucleotides. Student difficulties arise in part from inability to visualize what they can't easily see. Students struggle moving from…

Standard methods of teaching an introductory course in computer science, designed to introduce computer programming as a tool for mathematicians and engineers at the university level, are unnecessarily complicated and difficult. They lack a common thread that unifies each unit of material and frequently make use of mathematical notation, technical…

The job of overseeing a school district's technology program has grown exponentially in recent years as computers, the Internet, and other technology applications have become essential to the daily operation of schools. What are the essential skills needed to oversee a school district's technology program? The Consortium for School Networking…

Technology offers a number of opportunities for connecting classrooms with the world. The advent of the Internet has offered unprecedented prospects for classroom connections, but the recent diffusion of digital cameras throughout society offers instructional possibilities as well. This document provides a detailed examination of digital…

Sixth grade language arts teacher Ms. Jones has just finished teaching a unit she's taught for the past 10 years. She uses the works of O. Henry to teach literary elements. Not much has changed about this unit over the years; the learning objectives and concepts covered have stayed the same. But something is different this year. Students are…

Project-based learning (PBL) provides a way of learning that seems to be particularly attractive to students who are struggling with conventional school assignments. This document proposes an approach to PBL in which the goal is to focus on thinking, making thinking processes visible to teacher and students.

This article discusses three compendiums of Ed Tech research giving readers a fairly broad overview of where the field stands today. But, just as with technology, research is constantly moving forward. New and exciting ways to use technology and valuable data to support different kinds of technology use are continually being discovered. The texts…

Digital texts are not new. In 1991, a videodisc-based program called Windows on Science became the first state-adopted electronic textbook in the United States. It was an interactive, multimedia-based program that enhanced the classroom learning experience with video and audio. Unfortunately, technology changed rapidly and videodisc players went…