As educators, the authors continually strive to improve the quality of time spent in class with their students. As chemistry teachers, they know that lectures are necessary to convey content, but experiential learning is more effective at constructing and solidifying knowledge. Podcasting and vodcasting their lessons at first proved to be an…

Reliable information on emerging technologies for learning is as vital as it is difficult to come by. To meet this need, the International Society for Technology in Education organized the Emerging Technologies Task Force. Its goal is to create a database of contributions from educators highlighting their use of emerging technologies to support…

Over the last year, the number of reported cases of confidential information lost because of stolen laptops, lost USB flash drives, misplaced PDAs, and simple human error has significantly increased. These trends have school districts concerned with issues of violating private information. Laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act…

In today's rapidly changing world, people must continually come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Success is based not only on what one knows or how much one knows, but on one's ability to think and act creatively. In short, people are now living in the Creative Society. Unfortunately, few of today's classrooms focus on helping…

Education technology leaders are ever seeking new ways to eliminate the traditional social and geographic boundaries that hinder communication and collaboration for both K-12 students and educators. Larger districts with geographically dispersed schools often find that innovative ideas for technology use and integration are balkanized into…

Now more than ever, education leaders must focus strategically on educational technology professional development (ETPD) for teachers. Research evidence indicates that 30 hours of focused professional development is required to change teachers' professional practice. So despite positive opinions about the importance and efficacy of educational…

Electronic communication is a powerful tool teachers can leverage to improve learning. In this article, the authors explain how they used chat and discussion forums to improve their mathematics classes, and how others can adapt their strategies across the curriculum.

Learning is becoming more personal, yet collaborative and networked, portable and situated, ubiquitous and durable--and increasingly at odds with formal education, as more and different types of learning are happening outside of the classroom. In this article, the author provides a glimpse of what the not-so-distant future of education might…

The convenient format, delivery, and accessibility of information offered by podcasting has made it a hot new trend. One of its limitations in educational applications, however, is its implementation primarily as a push technology--one that simply feeds users information. Podcasts tend to focus listeners inward and rarely encourage human…

The previous article reviewed the range of educational technology professional development session and program goals. In this article, the second part of four-part series, the author presents and explains educational technology-related professional development (ETPD) models. ETPD models can be classified into five general types of professional…

Educators in K-12 and university settings have begun to embrace blogs for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. Blogging provides technical advantages that paper diaries do not, including the elimination of the notebooks themselves and the possibility of linking to relevant materials online rather than just citing them. In addition, the…

Even those teachers with the best intentions of taking advantage of the Internet to support learning may have obstacles before them. In researching the problem, the author has heard their complaints and understands some of the difficulties. However, creating a classroom Web site is not as difficult as one might think. In this article, the author…

Educational technology-related professional development (ETPD) can be designed in many different ways. It varies by general purposes and goals, specific learning objectives, curriculum content, the student grade levels for which the strategies and tools presented are appropriate, professional development model(s) used, how it is matched to…

Proving that technology works is not as simple as proving that a new vendor for art supplies is more cost effective. Technology effectiveness requires both the right software and the right implementation. Just having the software is not enough. Proper planning, training, leadership, support, pedagogy, and software use--along with many other…

Each August, teachers from around the state gather for the Arizona K-12 Center's Tech Camp, a week-long immersion in technology for the classroom. The Arizona K-12 Center's mission is to improve teaching and learning in Arizona's schools through high-quality professional development and teacher leadership. The formula Tech Camp follows is a simple…