Search

The rapid progression of science and technology has brought both remarkable conveniences and innovations and potential risks to us. To address these risks within science education, this study aims to identify the tendency of students' risk perceptions across different technologies. For this purpose, we developed a survey addressing three key components of risk perception (i.e., risk recognition, risk assessment, and risk management) and the educational need for risk education. 311 responses were collected from elementary, middle, and high school students and statically analyzed. The results indicated that students showed various risk perception patterns depending on the technology. There were significant perception gaps between boys and girls regarding vaccines and antimicrobial technology. It was also found that high school students' perceptions of the benefits of the technologies were higher than elementary and middle school students' perceptions. Based on these findings, we discuss pedagogical implications for risk education in science classrooms.

This paper provides an alternative lens of viewing digital technologies and networked spaces in outdoor intercultural learning, by introducing the Taoist philosophy of Ziran (nature) and Wuwei (inaction). The application of digital technology to outdoor learning has become prevailing and triggered critical debates and discussions among scholars and practitioners. The majority of the perspectives are, however, oriented in Western ideologies, and very rarely has any research considered this issue in the context of outdoor intercultural learning. A mini-ethnographic study was conducted to reconcile the nature-technology dichotomy during an EU-exchange sail-training voyage. Methodological implications are provided for conducting fieldwork in outdoor learning research, in line with the Ziran-Wuwei principles. The findings suggest that educators and facilitators follow the dialectical, relational, and contextual orientations to manage the (non)use of digital devices to maximise learners' outdoor experiential engagement and reflections.

Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are widely used in behavioral sciences to examine how humans value attributes of a technology, how those values drive decisions, and how they make trade-offs. The method has increasingly been used to inform technologies and interventions for addressing critical issues (e.g. disease and hunger). Different formats and symbols are used to deliver DCEs and represent attributes, respectively (e.g. questionnaire presenting two vaccines with different photos representing risks). When these formats or symbols are unfamiliar to respondents, they are unlikely to understand DCEs, raising questions about the validity of findings and their contribution to future technology and interventions. This research note offers a pathway to develop more robust DCEs with participants. In doing so, participant understanding of the experiment is increased and more accurate depictions of their choices are captured.

Engineers provide essential services to society, solving pressing challenges through technological inventiveness. Students new to engineering often cite the lure of creative problem solving as attracting them to the discipline. However, traditional engineering curricula typically focus on a narrow application of fundamentals for solving closed-ended problems. Too often, engineering programs do not encourage inventive expression in problem solving. Not surprisingly, the attrition rate for engineering programs is unusually high. Recently, engineering education has shifted its focus to new, more engaging practices that incorporate hands-on methods, boosting prospects for students to engage in creative problem solving. Because service learning provides opportunities for applied work, incorporating it into engineering education programs in can engage students positively and lower attrition rates. Moreover, since engineers are fundamentally involved with social improvement, then engaging students in activities that expand their understanding of the potential impact their skills may impart to a community is not only prudent but best practices. This paper explores two case studies of community-based service learning engineering projects, highlighting community partnerships, analyses and decision-making that helped drive designs and outcomes. It explores how both the communities and students benefitted, focusing notably on the influence these activities had on student understanding of their work, academic and/or professional direction and social consciousness. These are analyzed via longitudinal reporting of students incorporating lessons learned several years post-project. The service learning projects took place in marginalized communities in Denver and Costa Rica. In the Denver project, engineering students designed, built and installed low cost solar heaters into an area with poor housing stock. In Costa Rica, students built a solar water heater for a local school.

During COVID-19, academic library employees pivoted to predominantly remote work. Associate deans, associate university librarians, and equivalent managers at the top 50 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions were interviewed about benefits, challenges, pre-pandemic norms, necessary conditions, and the future of flexible work arrangements (FWAs). The findings suggest that successful FWAs require adequate technology and effective managerial communication and depend on the types of positions and individuals involved. Most managers believe FWAs will increase in academic libraries in the future. FWAs provide benefits for both organizations and employees and will likely have a positive impact on library space, recruitment, and retention. At the same time, careful communication and compassionate leadership are needed for successful FWAs.

This paper explores teaching and learning applications at the intersection between Universal Design for Learning, Assistive Technology, and mainstream educational technology. Informed by the SETT framework in which the technology choice is informed by student, environment, and task (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2017; Zabala, 2005), this paper is designed for a learner-profile consistent with learners who need concrete and visual approaches to optimize receptive and expressive communication. The visual and interactive approaches shared here include Universal Design, graphic organizers, and comic strip creations, and may appeal to teachers of students on the autism spectrum as well as others who are responsive to visual supports. While it is not possible to predict the exact nature of the environment and tasks at hand for these students, the paper leaves those decisions in the hands of the readers. Approaches and suggestions shared here reflect practitioner experience, findings from the literature, and data from a 2016 course, in which a small number of diverse students reinforced the concept that UDL approaches increased their engagement and success.

The aim of this research is to examine the adequacy of tools and teaching materials as well as physical and technological conditions in science classes according to the views of science teachers. To this end, qualitative research methods are designed according to phenomenological design. The sample of the research consists of 16 science teachers working in the academic year of 2017-2018 in Mugla province. Semi-structured interview techniques were used to analyze the collected data using descriptive analysis. According to research findings, most of the interviewed teachers stated that class size is appropriate. Teachers have emphasized that there are deficiencies in physical and technological conditions. Especially in some schools, it has been discovered that there are no labs, computers or Internet and smart boards. It was also determined that the teachers had classroom arrangement as a conventional fixed row arrangement for desks. There is little place in the learning-teaching process for posters, banners, and models.

The technological advancement occurring in the world today has a potency to create positive and negative side effects especially on children. The positive side may entail increased empathy and acceptance of diversity through modelling the prosocial behaviours, while the negative can be manifest in aggressive behaviour, risky sexual behaviour, and substance abuse. These challenges pose a need to draw a particular attention to children's rights of protection and care in relation to the use of technology. This paper sought to critically explore the way in which children adapt technology skills and the way they respond towards media influences. The findings revealed that the adaptive technology skills are needed in providing a considerable guidance for child protection and careful engagement towards digital information as part of their rights to natural growth and development.

The article reviews the use of Web 2.0 environment in teacher education, emphasizing the constructivist social pedagogy approach. Pedagogical abilities of Web 2.0 tools are discussed, demonstrating their applications in teaching various subjects, especially to assist collaborative and creative learner-oriented teaching. Contributions of these tools to teaching-learning are described in three collaborative environments-based courses. The tools included: forums, collaborative synchronous lectures, Wiki environment, a closed Facebook group, blog writing, collaborative documents writing, using smartphones in lessons and location-based activities, class YouTube channel for student-teachers' clips and debates, structuring collaborative knowledge and online anonymous peer assessment regarding discussion on digital citizenship, group data collection through surveys etc. Intertwining various environments to assist course teaching increased student-teachers' awareness of effective exploitation of these environments for teaching objectives. Pedagogical considerations for choice of tools, environments, and applications are discussed. Conclusions relate to the contributions of ICT, contents, and pedagogy integration to teacher education.

Community colleges have embraced distance education as a means to provide increased flexibility and access to their large numbers of non-traditional students. Retention rates and student achievement measures alone may not reflect all of the benefits and opportunities that online learning, blended or hybrid learning, and technology enhanced learning may afford these students. Online learning resources should be viewed as a tremendous value added benefit for community college students, not only for the content conveyed, but also for fostering the digital readiness, cultivating the professional personas, and encouraging the self-directed learning needed to succeed in the digitally-driven workplace.

It's easy to imagine no gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students are at a given school, and, therefore, no need exists to court controversy and potential challenges by providing LGBTQ materials. LGBTQ students are everywhere, though, and they are at increased risk for a host of issues, including bullying, assault, and suicide. Representing LGBTQ perspectives in the library helps future-ready students chart their own paths.

Communicative Language Teaching, popularly known as CLT, has become a newly adopted methodology in the teaching and learning context of Bangladesh. This methodology, since the initiation, has encountered and is still encountering a number of hurdles that need to be dealt with best care and feasible strategy. Of all methods, most of the educational institutes be- it secondary or higher secondary are inclined to accept and apply the CLT in classroom, though there has been a lack of resources, materials and language experts. Ignoring the reality, the policy makers would like to follow the other countries, though they are self-sufficient and self-dependent on their strategic plans and strong funds who have already executed CLT with success. This paper attempts to present the reality behind the implementation of CLT in the language teaching and learning environment and outlines the malpractices widely obvious in educational institutes of Bangladesh. This paper also focuses on the strategic points, data collection and analysis and probable remedy regarding the real picture of CLT in Bangladesh.

This study reports Chinese preservice teachers' perceptions of appropriate technology use in early childhood education (ECE). China provides an interesting but understudied research context as research into technology use in the early years is western-centric and the contemporary Chinese ECE is characterized as a hybrid combining traditional Chinese values and Western influences which differ from each other in a rather fundamental manner. Interpretive analysis of qualitative interviews with eight purposefully selected preservice teachers revealed three intertwining determinants as appropriate technology use: objective, time and context. Both, Chinese cultural traditions and Western educational ideas were evident in shaping the participants' perceptions of appropriate technology use, with the former being the major influence in restraining the preservice teachers' vision and understanding of technology integration. Implications for teacher education, educational policies and future research are discussed.

The objectives were: (1) the components of the technology competencies of university lecturers were studied. The researchers also described and analyzed (2) the development of a training program for enhancement of the technology competencies of these lecturers. Also, the researchers evaluated (3) the program they had constructed. The sample population consisted of 859 lecturers with academic ranks at government and autonomous universities in survey research and 28 Ramkhamhaeng University (RU) lecturers for evaluated the training program. The training program was constructed such that it would be congruent with the results of the study of the components of technology competencies. While evaluating the training program form testing the knowledge, capabilities, and attitudes of the lecturers, It was found that: (1) Three components of the technology competencies of university lecturers were described by 69 variables. The factor loading of the components were ranged between 0.427 and 0.798 and the variance could be explained at 64%. (2) The mean scores for the technology competencies of university lecturers in the aspects of knowledge, capabilities, and attitudes after the completion of the program were higher prior to its commencement at the statistically significant level of 0.05. (3) In respect to the level of appropriateness of the program, the lecturers participating in the program viewed the overall level of appropriateness as high. These studies suggest that providing lecturers with the appropriate training should help increase their technology competencies.

Bill Rupp offers practical wisdom from his perch as a Montessori parent of four children and as a self-proclaimed digital immigrant who has spent over twenty years in the information technology field. His list of "Considerations before Making Rules for Technology Use" builds on a positive environment of conversation and communication with wise suggestions for placement of computers, time limits, access, and a screen/life balance. Suggested guidelines for schools and a guide for the ideal times for schools to re-evaluate technology rules will be valuable to administrators and teachers at all schools. [This paper was presented at the NAMTA conference titled "A Montessori Integrated Approach to Science, Mathematics, Technology, and the Environment" in Portland, OR, Mar 31-Apr 3, 2016.]

Higher education institutions (HEI) are established to address human resource needs by producing graduates with the relevant knowledge, skills and attitude for the labour market and improving the country's ability to maximize its long-term economic, social and political developments. The fetters of higher education are the challenges bedeviling its growth and development. This paper focuses on appropriate technology and innovations needed to break these fetters. Desktop research was used for data collection and textual analysis was deployed to analyze data. Results showed there were inadequate skilled lecturers, poor mentorship scheme, inequitable access, irrelevant curriculum, scarcity of lecture halls, inadequate research initiative and low ICT-mediated education. It is recommended that learner-centred and a problem-based instructions must be adopted, lecturers should be mentored and trained in the art and skill of teaching; assessment method must challenge students to perform at higher cognitive level of understanding, ICT-driven education should be adopted to impact equitable access, quality and cost of education.

Despite the fact that digital technologies are more and more used in the learning and education process, there is still lack of professional evaluation tools capable of assessing the quality of used digital teaching aids in a comprehensive and objective manner. Construction of the Comprehensive Evaluation of Electronic Learning Tools and Educational Software (CEELTES) tool was preceded by several surveys and knowledge obtained in the course of creation of digital learning and teaching aids and implementation thereof in the teaching process. The evaluation tool as such consists of sets (catalogues) of criteria divided into four separately assessed areas--the area of technical, technological and user attributes; the area of criteria evaluating the content, operation, information structuring and processing; the area of criteria evaluating the information processing in terms of learning, recognition, and education needs; and, finally, the area of criteria evaluating the psychological and pedagogical aspects of a digital product. The specified areas are assessed independently, separately, by a specialist in the given science discipline. The final evaluation of the assessed digital product objectifies (quantifies) the overall rate of appropriateness of inclusion of a particular digital teaching aid in the teaching process.

This paper describes the process of conceptualizing and implementing a one-to-one technology initiative at a regional comprehensive university. Organized around the principle that sustainable change requires attention to clear, justifiable goals, attention to key decisions, the development of stakeholder investment, adequate training, building appropriate infrastructure, and a concern for sustainability, the authors provide specific examples detailing how the change initiative in which they participated addressed each of those areas.

This paper describes the prerequisites for development in the area of cross-cultural multimedia didactics. This approach is based on research studies of differences between mentalities, ways of working with educational information, culturally-specific teaching methods and teaching techniques that determine differentiated approaches to the choice of multimedia technologies in education system.

The use of assistive technology in special education has grown over the past four decades. In inclusive settings, assistive technology plays a vital role in providing access to academic content for students with disabilities. As the role of assistive technology in secondary classrooms expands, concerns regarding student autonomy, personal preferences, and the societal implications associated with certain tools increase in significance. This article outlines important considerations for teachers to factor in when making assistive technology selections and identifies three decision-making evaluation tools to aid in the selection process for secondary students with disabilities.

As the number, type, and use of technologies to support learning increases, so do the opportunities for using these technologies for feedback. Learner-centered feedback is a core to the teaching-learning process. It is related to assessment in describing how learners perform in their learning, their gain in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Feedback, types of feedback, guidelines for effective learner-centered feedback, and feedback's relationship to assessment are presented. Methods of providing feedback, for example, automated, audio scribe pens, digital audio, etc., and the related technologies are described. Technologies that allow instructors to make informed decisions about the use of various methods for feedback are discussed.

With thousands of materials having been produced and shared openly and freely on the Internet as Open Educational Resources (OER) or OpenCourseWare (OCW), the focus of the Open Education movement has shifted toward the need to demonstrate how such materials are being used, by whom and with what impact. This paper reports on the uses, the motivation for and perceived benefits of use, as well as the challenges of using or producing OER/OCW among academics at public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa (SA). Findings revealed widespread use of OER/OCW amongst respondents in their teaching endeavors, with a number of reported benefits. Findings also revealed respondents' educational rationale for using or producing OER/OCW. Identified challenges to using or producing OER/OCW are related to licensing issues, institutional challenges or infrastructural problems. The paper proposes several recommendations to advance the use and production of OER/OCW in SA public higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the talking-pen device called the Mimic Me, an educational technology product of a large English conversation school in Japan, as an educational learning tool. The product will be reviewed in terms of its developmental appropriateness for the target audience based on current research. Although the Mimic Me uses behaviorist learning theories to teach vocabulary and short phrases, it could be further enhanced to live up to its full potential as a learning tool. The author proposes alternative ways that the product could be used, as well as possible design modifications that would improve the effectiveness of the product.

With the changing face of higher education comes a demand to include new technological tools. Universities need to build their capacity to respond to new technology-related challenges. The introduction of ePortfolios is a significant strategy in this response. A number of organizational change management models are used to analyze the incorporation of new technologies, such as ePortfolios, into university culture, including Kotter's Model of Change, the LASO Model, and the middle-out approach. This article offers a case study of using a middle-out approach to technology adoption in the context of change management. It argues that such an approach provides links between university faculty values and upper institutional management decision-making that results in a positive and collegial transition to introducing ePortfolios. This study used a staged methodological process, based on faculty and professional staff feedback, literature in the field, benchmarking with similar universities, and external reports of best practices to develop functional criteria customized to the institution's context, an analysis of available and appropriate ePortfolio software, and finally, recommendations to the institution's decision-makers. The distinction is made throughout the article between faculty, who are staff members with teaching and research responsibilities, and professional staff, who provide a range of support to faculty, including teaching support and technical services. Where a particular sub-group is identified, they are named in terms of their primary function. Findings reflect the importance of the individual context and available resources of the institution when assessing new technology implementation and the value of the middle-agent role in facilitating a seamless shift towards change inclusive of both "top" and "bottom" stakeholder groups.

As professional, academic and accrediting bodies have periodically reviewed the need for and content of foundational college curricula in information management, a broad-based consensus has emerged as to what is to be covered in the standard management information systems (MIS) course. Within U.S. business schools today, there is little debate over the need for MIS courses and the topics addressed therein. On the other hand, those who teach information management continue to face challenges in connecting their sometimes highly-technical subject matter to the rest of the business school curriculum and more importantly in winning over their students to the fact that MIS plays a central role in the successful operations and competitive standing of all organizations. This lack of connection manifests itself very clearly in the serious drop witnessed over recent years in business school student interest in MIS as a major area of study and as a post-graduation career option. The purpose of this article is to present a framework for thinking about and teaching MIS that in the view of the authors better integrates the learnings of a MIS offering with the rest of the business school curriculum. The framework includes business needs, information requirements, and information systems elements. The objectives of this framework are three fold: (1) to more accurately relate the processes and technologies of information management to the operational, managerial, and strategic needs of the enterprise; (2) to provide the student with a lens through which to better appreciate the connections between the effective deployment and use of MIS and the realization of the organization's goals and objectives; and (3) to better enable the team of instructors who typically teach these courses within a business school program to provide a uniform and substantive MIS learning experience for their students while at the same time allowing individual instructors flexibility in their coverage of course materials. To these ends, the authors provide a historical context for the creation of their integrative learning and teaching model, an explication of the model itself, and then several illustrations of the application of this model in the teaching of representative business cases. We also outline course, student, and instructor-related benefits of employing the framework.

The study was aimed at designing and developing a Physics module based on learning style and appropriate technology in secondary educational setting by employing Isman Instructional Design Model and to test the effectiveness of the module. The paper draws attention to the design principles which employs Isman Instructional Design Model. The prototype module was tested among two teachers and 14 participants. The findings from interviews with the teachers and students show a positive response in Physics when their learning styles are matched with appropriate technology. In the evaluation phase, two instruments were used to collect data for this study. The pre-posttest designed to identify students' achievement score and Felder Silverman's Learning Style Inventory to measure students' learning style. Findings from evaluation of the module conducted among 120 participants involving 30 participants of each learning style (visual/verbal, active/reflective) suggested that the module is effective for visual, active, reflective and not for verbal learners. The researchers also compared the effectiveness of the module according to gender. The verbal and reflective modules were effective for female learners and not for male learners. The findings from this study suggest that Isman Instructional Design Model which pays attention to instruction from the learner perspective than from content perspective is suitable in designing and developing Physics module based on learning style and appropriate technology in secondary educational setting in Malaysia. The findings of this study is also hoped to provide insights to promote teaching and learning of Physics based on learning style and appropriate technology. (Contains 13 tables and 2 figures.)

Media technologies, including the Internet, cell phones, and video games, offer new avenues to reach Native youth on sensitive health topics. Project Red Talon, a sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV prevention project that serves the 43 federally recognized tribes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, used community-based participatory research methods in partnership with the Northwest tribes to review existing technology-based interventions and generate recommendations for designing interventions that reflect the culture, needs, and organizational capacities of participating tribes and Native youth. These findings are now being used to guide the development of technology-based health interventions targeting American Indian/Alaska Native teens and young adults. (Contains 1 footnote and 2 tables.)

The lab applications, which were started to be applied through mid 19th century, not only provide a new point of view but also bring about a new dimension to the lessons. At early times they were used to prove theoretical knowledge but lately they turned into environments where students freely discover knowledge as an individual or in groups. The activities that have come up with the recent form of labs substantially contributed to training ideal students for constructivist approach, who research, inquire, test, seek solutions, wear scientist shoes and deeply reason about the concept of concern. However, on the present stage of our educational system, these activities cannot be included in science lessons for several reasons. At that point virtual labs emerged as an alternative solution for the problems of the instruction in science courses. Thanks to virtual labs presenting different disciplines in a flexible manner, the interaction between the teacher and the learner become 7/24 independent from time and place. This article presents a study that provides insight in the appropriateness of Virtual and real laboratory applications on constructivist learning environment using interactive virtual chemistry laboratory (VCL) development was used in academic year of 2009-2010 for a six week period. The sample of this quasi-experimental study was 90 students from three different 9th grade classrooms of an Anatolian Secondary school in the center of Trabzon city. The student groups were randomly attained as one experimental and two control groups. The data collection tools of the study were; questionnaire of teaching philosophy (QTP), Semi-structured interviews and unstructured observations. The results showed that virtual chemistry laboratory software was just as effective as real chemistry laboratory and it positively affected the facilitating of constructivist learning environment. It was determined that the students in experimental group conducted the experiments as precise as the real ones; they felt themselves safe during the experiments; they could relate the experiments with daily life; they had the opportunity to investigate both macro-molecular and symbolical dimensions of the experiments. It was speculated that using virtual chemistry laboratories as a supportive complement in education will become an indispensable instructional material in terms of both the economy of the nation and the persistency of the learning. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

Technological innovation is transforming the prevalence and functional impact of child disability, the scale of social disparities in child disability, and perhaps the essential meaning of disability in an increasingly technology-dominated world. In this article, Paul Wise investigates several specific facets of this transformation. He begins by showing how technological change influences the definition of disability, noting that all technology attempts to address some deficiency in human capacity or in the human condition. Wise then looks at the impact of technology on childhood disabilities. Technical improvements in the physical environment, such as better housing, safer roads, and poison-prevention packaging, have significantly reduced childhood injury and disability. Other technological breakthroughs, such as those that identify genetic disorders that may lead to pregnancy termination, raise difficult moral and ethical issues. Technologies that identify potential health risks are also problematic in the absence of any efficient treatment. Wise stresses the imbalance in the existing health care delivery system, which is geared toward treating childhood physical illnesses that are declining in prevalence at a time when mental and emotional conditions, many of which are not yet well understood, are on the rise. This mismatch, Wise says, poses complex challenges to caring for disabled children, particularly in providing them with highly coordinated and integrated systems of care. Technology can also widen social disparities in health care for people, including children with disabilities. As Wise observes, efficacy--the ability of a technology to change health outcomes--is key to understanding the relationship of technology to social disparities. As technological innovation enhances efficacy, access to that technology becomes more important. Health outcomes may improve for those who can afford the technology, for example, but not for others. Hence, as efficacy grows, so too does the burden on society to provide access to technology equitably to all those in need. Without such access, technological innovation will likely expand disparities in child outcomes rather than reduce them. (Contains 68 endnotes and 2 figures.)

TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge) has emerged as a clear and useful construct for researchers working to understand technology integration in learning and teaching. Whereas first generation TPACK work focused upon explaining and interpreting the construct, TPACK has now entered a second generation where the focus is upon using the construct in both research and development projects. In this paper, the TPACK construct is defined and several current research and development projects that use the TPACK framework are described. The strength of the TPACK framework in research and evaluation work in technology integration is discussed, along with future directions for this work. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Purpose: This paper aims to define Information Technology (IT) desirability and determine IT relationship with organizational commitment. The existence of such a relationship between IT & organizational commitment can guide the organizational leaders to promote and to develop the IT potentials in order to improve the performance of employees, and elevate job satisfaction, commitment and organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: The design of the research is descriptive--correlational and the statistical sample consists of 84 educational service experts working at educational service offices in the University of Isfahan. They were selected based on purposeful sampling. Findings: The results showed that among IT desirability components, two components of training and fitness had a significant relationship with continuance commitment (one of the organizational commitment dimensions). Research limitations: Since the statistical sample was selected purposefully and the research was done on educational service experts, any generalization of the results to other organizations and employees requires caution. Practical implications: Since the results of the research show the existence of only one of the dimensions of organizational commitment (continuance commitment) and two components of desirability of IT (fitness and training), managers can try to improve the levels of these dimensions of IT. Originality/value: Many researchers have investigated different effects and relations between IT and employees, but in this research the aim has been to investigate a more complete account as well as different aspects of employees' perceptions about IT (i.e. desirability of the system).

Although the term "technology" means different things to different people, most would generally agree that it is about "stuff." For some it may be more complex than this, and for others it may simply involve using or studying high-tech gadgetry, such as computers and iPhones. Understanding the interdependence between design and culture is a critical part of technology education. In order to know what one wants and needs for the future, it is important to have a good historical and cultural understanding of technological change. Although many countries include historical, societal, cultural, and environmental emphases in their technology curriculum, these can be lost in the drive to design, make, and create. This article provides justification and examples for these notions to be key parts of a technology program. It demonstrates the ease with which contemporary technological notions can be linked to topical, local, and cultural products and issues. (Contains 2 figures.)

Education traditionally has been defined as a one-way relationship between teacher and learner. However, new technologies are dramatically changing that relationship in a multitude of ways. In this article, the authors describe some of these changes and explore one example of the intersection between technology and pedagogy, describing a college course in which students compose the course text using the wiki platform. The process described proceeds from the premise that the needs and capacity of learners in the information age have been transformed and discusses one way that using an appropriate technology may address them. For this wikibook, the creators of the content become the prime users of the content as well. The authors discuss both the philosophical underpinnings and practical implications of this approach. Evaluation of the project suggests that the methodology produces an active, credible learning process. This study explores the advantages and disadvantages of this wiki process to provide context concerning the efficacy and utility of employing particular types of Web 2.0 tools. The course development rationale points to its potential for radically changing how students and teachers interact with the phenomenon of ubiquitous learning.

Wikis offer many benefits, such as two-way flows of information, early and consistent feedback, and greater student group collaboration, in an educational setting. Some researchers have already reported on the use of Wikis in their classes. However, instructors must choose an appropriate Wiki platform in order to receive all of the benefits of their use. Failure to do so can lead to significant frustration on the part of both students and the instructor. Using a framework put forth by Schwartz et. al. (2004), this paper reports on the use of various Wiki platforms in an introductory information systems class. Lessons learned from this experience are discussed.

It is no coincidence that many of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" (National Academy of Engineering, 2007-2010)--such as carbon sequestration--address environmental problems that were precipitated by human inventiveness and engineering achievements. Although people recognize their dependence upon environmental processes to provide essential resources and ecosystem services, such as food and air purification, their understanding of the interconnections between the environment and technological activities has often been insufficient to predict technological impacts upon the environment. As evidence mounts that technological actions threaten the viability of ecosystems and public health, it is imperative that all citizens improve their environmental literacy and technology assessment skills if they are to break this untenable cycle and make progress toward sustainability. Practicing technology educators need professional development opportunities to enhance both their environmental and technological literacy. The EnviroTech Project, made possible by a grant by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Ball State University, aimed to address this need. EnviroTech was a web-enabled professional development project, which occurred in the spring of 2009. This document describes the results of EnviroTech in terms of the impact it had upon a cohort of 19 practicing technology teachers. The mission of EnviroTech was to develop (1) understandings of environmental processes and systems; (2) skills for identifying, analyzing, and assessing the impacts of technology upon the environment; and (3) skills in the use of guided inquiry, an instructional strategy where teachers structure and scaffold the examination of problems and gaps in knowledge. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

The Open University, an open distance learning institution, is increasingly using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that requires internet access. This paper investigates how the move to a VLE has affected one group of students who do not have internet access--offender learners studying in prison. Members of the armed forces and secure hospital patients also have restricted access to the internet. E-learning practitioners design courses on the assumption that students will have easy internet access and other appropriate technology. This is not always the case. This paper reports on an action research project that identified alternative approaches to learning activities that required internet access. Project initiatives enabled six offender learners to complete a course that had previously been classified as unsuitable for study in prison. The use of alternative approaches opens up the possibility of distance learning for students who would otherwise be excluded from distance e-learning courses. The author proposes an EDO framework, classifying activities as "Essential", "Desirable" or "Optional". The framework highlights activities needing alternative approaches if a student is to complete the course successfully. By applying the framework, practitioners can design and deliver a course that utilises technology appropriate to the student's environment. (Contains 1 figure.)