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This convergent mixed method study investigates learner engagement during a blended, transmedia curriculum called CryptoComics, which is designed to teach 3rd-5th graders about cryptology and cybersecurity. Curriculum design is presented through the lens of four engagement facilitators: (1) anchoring the curriculum with a comic book, (2) blending digital and unplugged media, (3) supporting situational interest via a transmedia narrative, and (4) designing for social-cultural relevance. Latent profile analysis is used to develop profiles of learner engagement using quantitative indicators of cognitive and emotional engagement collected across 204 students at 13 implementation sites in the Eastern U.S. Qualitative indicators of engagement include teacher weekly check-ins submitted by 17 teachers working at the 13 implementation sites, student interviews, and classroom observations of 26 students participating in the curriculum at two local sites. Quantitative and qualitative results converge to suggest the majority of the students participating in the curriculum were highly engaged cognitively and emotionally. Qualitative data (1) suggest some third graders may be less cognitively engaged due to challenging content, (2) provide evidence for how the design of the blended, transmedia curriculum supported, and some cases hindered, engagement, (3) highlight the importance of transitions between blended learning components in facilitating engagement, and (4) uncover questions regarding one of the quantitative measures selected as an indicator of cognitive engagement.

Society's future depends on informed perspectives of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI related skills, a prognosis that greatly impacts K-12 education. To best prepare students to be AI savvy, there is a need to integrate AI tools, skills, and lessons into the K-12 curriculum. In order for teachers to develop the knowledge and skills, and have the self-efficacy for using AI in instruction, they must be well prepared and informed of what AI is (and what it is not) and its potential role in K-12 education. This study explored teachers' (mis)conceptions relative to their intentional and informal learning. Our research provides important implications for teacher preparation and in-service professional development regarding AI in our society and implementation of AI tools and processes in K-12 education.

This design case discusses the complex collaborative design reasoning processes involved in developing an online interactive learning tool for learners of all ages to explore and understand the role of flagellate plants in our society. The learning tool consists of a main website (the "Voyager") and an interactive, dynamic map of the evolutionary relationships between thousands of flagellate plant species (the customized "OneZoom" web application). The design and development of this innovative learning tool required expertise in collaborative design, design reasoning, project management, theories of learning and instructional strategies, software development, and web usability. Collaboration platforms used by the project team involved "GitHub" and "Slack." Domain knowledge needed to complete the project included botany (flagellate plants), web programming ("Python" and "JavaScript"), and database management ("MySQL"). The project included a team of international experts who negotiated design strategies and solutions over the course of a year and produced and improved prototypes until converging on the final product. This article explains the challenges faced during these processes and presents solutions and lessons learned from this experience.

Anticipation Guides (AGs) help learners to activate prior knowledge before an instructional unit. As a pre-learning strategy, AGs motivate learners to explore learning materials by challenging, activating, or corroborating their prior knowledge and predictions about a subject. While AGs have mostly been used in reading instruction, in this study, we evaluated the extent to which their use can influence visual attention distribution and learning in a multimedia environment. Eye tracking data from 17 participants randomly assigned to a treatment (with AG) or control group (without AG) demonstrated a significant difference in visual attention distribution but not on learning outcomes. Learners who used the AG exhibited larger numbers of transitions between text and images on the screen. The relevance of this study is two-fold: a) it contributes to the literature on anticipation guides as a learning strategy to activate prior knowledge; and b) it contributes to the literature on eye tracking methodology to support research on allocation of visual attention distribution in a multimedia learning environment.

K-12 teachers and students are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and mostly ill-prepared to deal with them. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased these risks because of the reliance on digital technology in education and increased free time young children and adolescents spend online. Simultaneously, the U.S. is facing an extreme shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Given the rise of cyberattacks and the need for cybersecurity professionals, a concerted effort to prepare preservice teachers to integrate cybersecurity education across the K-12 curriculum is needed. In our vision for 2025, all preservice teachers across the country are prepared to integrate age-appropriate cybersecurity concepts, skills and career awareness in the curriculum regardless of their content area or grade level specialization. We propose a repository of stand-alone activities and full curricula developed through collaboration among K-12 educators, teacher educators, and cybersecurity experts that could be adopted across teacher education programs. We use the elementary grades as a context for providing examples of some activities that might be included in the repository. We also provide recommendations for developing such a repository and for individual teacher educators who want integrate cybersecurity education in preservice teacher education right now.

The vast extent to which quantitative prerequisites vary among post-secondary geoscience programs often presents a challenge for educators and students alike in courses for which math and physics are foundational. This study discusses the design of GEOAppS, a suite of educational numerical models, and its application toward lowering the barrier-to-entry for quantitative concepts in an upper-level post-secondary coastal processes course. GEOAppS is a software package, built in MATLAB®, that provides animated visualizations of course concepts through a graphical user interface. Nineteen students enrolled in the course participated in this study, which used a within-subjects experimental design, in which students alternated between experimental and control treatments, to evaluate the efficacy of GEOAppS at facilitating student understanding of quantitative concepts. GEOAppS was used as the experimental instructional intervention, while complementary, static visualizations (paper handouts) composed the control treatment. For each instructional treatment, students' learning outcomes were evaluated by: (a) a written exercise completed concurrently to the treatment, and (b) a course quiz administered the following week. Results indicate that students' performance on the written exercises was higher when using GEOAppS than with static visualizations; however, no significant difference between the two treatments was present in the delayed testing quiz scores. Additionally, the data suggest the existence of aptitude-treatment interaction, in which lower-performing students benefited more from GEOAppS than high-expertise students. An end of study survey of student perceptions showed that most students perceived greater learning from GEOAppS and preferred using the models to the static visuals.

This study explored how the use of three different pedagogical frameworks (community science, storytelling, and inquiry-based learning) influenced learners' awareness and appreciation of flagellate plants in an undergraduate online botany course. Students' opinions, attitudes, and perceptions toward science were explored using the Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience survey. Qualitative and quantitative results indicated that although most students appreciated all three activities, the storytelling activity produced the most positive perceptions of learning. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that gender and attitudes toward science influenced student perceptions of the activities. Positive science attitudes predicted positive perceptions of the activities, and female students were more likely to report positive perceptions. These results suggest that as a pedagogical framework for organizing learning activities, storytelling holds potential for promoting positive attitudes toward science and science learning, particularly with female learners.

Based on the achievement goal theory, this experimental study explored the influence of predictive and descriptive learning analytics dashboards on graduate students' motivation and statistics anxiety in an online graduate-level statistics course. Participants were randomly assigned into one of three groups: (1) predictive dashboard; (2) descriptive dashboard; or (3) control (i.e., no dashboard). Measures of motivation and statistical anxiety were collected in the beginning and the end of the semester via the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale. Individual semi-structured interviews were used to understand learners' perceptions of the course and whether the use of the dashboards influenced the meaning of their learning experiences. Results indicate that, compared to the control group, the predictive dashboard significantly reduced learners' interpretation anxiety and had an effect on intrinsic goal orientation that depended on learners' lower or higher initial levels of intrinsic goal orientation. In comparison to the control group, both predictive and descriptive dashboards reduced worth of anxiety (negative attitudes towards statistics) for learners who started the course with higher levels of worth anxiety. Thematic analysis revealed that learners who adopted a more performance-avoidance goal orientation approach demonstrated higher levels of anxiety regardless of the dashboard used.

The use of 3D printing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning is a promising way for integrated STEM education. This study examined the influence of 3D printing infused STEM integration on students' interest in STEM careers, which is essential for students to participate in STEM disciplines and future STEM careers. The participants included 26 teachers across six states in the United States and their 1455 students in primary and secondary classrooms. Teachers' lesson plans were analysed to examine the level of 3D printing and STEM integration. Students' interest in STEM careers was measured using a previously validated career interest scale. Cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis indicated that girls were more interested in empathetic STEM careers, whereas boys were more interested in analytic STEM careers. While 3D printing integration level was not a significant predictor, teachers' STEM integration level positively predicted students' interest in both analytic and empathetic STEM careers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the application of the multimedia and modality principles on cued-recall, recognition, and mental effort of college students with and without dyslexia. The study used a Multimedia (Image Present vs. Image Absent) × Modality (Narration vs. Onscreen Text) × Dyslexia (Dyslexia vs. Non-Dyslexia) 3-way factorial design with each independent variable serving as a between-subject condition. A total of N = 148 participants (73 with dyslexia and 75 without dyslexia) were recruited from five different institutions of higher education in the Southeastern United States and systematically assigned to one of four multimedia learning conditions. After assessing our data for statistical assumptions, we employed factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) models on each dependent measure. Our findings show a reverse modality effect for students with dyslexia who performed better than their peers without dyslexia in Onscreen Text conditions. Although performance was better across groups and conditions when images were present, there were no significant interactions related to the multimedia condition. Similarly, there were no significant interactions related to mental effort even though learners with dyslexia exhibited high instructional efficiency in the Onscreen Text-Image Present condition while learners without dyslexia exhibited low task involvement in the Onscreen Text-Image Absent condition. Our results provide theoretical implications and important avenues for future research and practice as related to how multimedia learning influences students with dyslexia. We also suggest studies that could inform the eventual design of adaptive and personalized multimedia learning solutions for learners with dyslexia.

Purpose: Immediately following the declaration of the national emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, the purpose of this study was to examine one month of social media, news media, school district websites' continuity plans and educational affiliate organizations, to unveil K-12 stakeholders' initial response to K-12 remote teaching. Design/methodology/approach: Framed by connectivism theory, the authors used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design to conduct a systematic content analysis of 43,870 tweets, news media, school district websites' continuity plans and educational affiliate organizations. Findings: Initial responses focused on community lockdown procedures, sustaining education, adapting to a remote lifestyle and political tension. The authors revisited included tweets one week later to measure their connectedness, which revealed that educational organizations, which have the largest number of followers, also have the greatest outreach and visibility. Practical implications: Based on the collective decision-making of education stakeholders, the authors provide three remote teaching recommendations and pedagogical implications for sustainable remote teaching practices. Originality/value: The authors construct a blueprint from some of the largest school districts, and consequently the COVID-19 hotspots, to broadly examine emergency preparedness and remote instruction plans.

This article describes a novel method for quantifying fixation disparity and evaluates its role in visuospatial cognition during an authentic learning task, specifically, the determination of molecule chirality in organic chemistry involving mental rotation and pattern comparison. The first study examined the influence of molecular model dimensionality (2D vs. 3D) on chirality determination performance and visual attention of 55 participants. The second study explored how the sustained playing of the tile‐matching game Mahjong, a pattern comparison game, can affect visual attention and visuospatial performance during the chirality determination task of 59 participants. Fixation disparity was one of the eye tracking variables explored. Both studies revealed that (1) individuals with higher fixation disparity underperformed on the chirality task, which involves mental rotation and pattern comparison, and (2) fixation disparity improved over time in participants who played Mahjong. This work provides important implications for using fixation disparity as a possible biomarker of visuospatial performance. We introduced a new method to measure fixation disparity and studied its relationship with visuospatial cognition during organic chemistry chirality learning tasks. Two studies show that poor fixation disparity is associated with low task performance, and fixation disparity and task performance can be improved over time by playing a Mahjong game. Our findings suggest that fixation disparity may serve as a possible index of visuospatial cognition and should be further investigated in different educational contexts and tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many online videos feature an instructor on the screen to improve learners' engagement; however, the influence of this design on learners' cognitive load is underexplored. This study investigates the effects of instructor presence on learners' processing of information using both subjective and psychophysiological measures of cognitive load. Sixty university students watched a statistics instructional video either with or without instructor presence, while the spontaneous electrical activity of their brain was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). At the conclusion of the video, they also self-reported overall load, intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load they experienced during the video. Learning from the video was assessed via tests of retention and transfer. Results suggested the instructor-present video improved learners' ability to transfer information and was associated with a lower self-reported intrinsic and extraneous load. Event-related changes in theta band activity also indicated lower cognitive load with instructor-present video.

Using self-determination theory, this study investigated the influence of a multimedia-enhanced informal biodiversity awareness event on the evolving culture of science and internal and external motivation to take environmental action among the members of a small community in Southeastern US. The event was hosted by a local life and science museum and featured three main components: a) opening session by experts in biodiversity; b) animated video about biodiversity; and c) follow-up conversation with scientists. Motivation for Environmental Action survey was used to examine public's motivation to take action to protect biodiversity prior to and upon finishing the event. Semi-structured interviews were employed to investigate public's evolving culture of science. Ordinal regression analysis suggested that public's internal motivation was positively associated with a greater number of actions taken to protect biodiversity. University students were less likely to take actions to protect biodiversity than other members of the public. Interestingly, the increase in internal motivation was larger for students than for non-students, suggesting that even a relatively short informal biodiversity awareness event can impact community's motivation, especially among those who were not particularly motivated to take actions to protect biodiversity prior to the event.

This study investigated the effects of multimedia and modality design principles using a learning intervention about Australia with a sample of college students and employing measures of learning outcomes, visual attention, satisfaction, and mental effort. Seventy-five college students were systematically assigned to one of four conditions: a) text with pictures, b) text without pictures, c) narration with pictures, or d) narration without pictures. No significant differences were found among the four groups in learning performance, satisfaction, or self-reported mental effort, and participants rarely focused their visual attention on the representational pictures provided in the intervention. Neither the multimedia nor the modality principles held true in this study. However, participants in narration environments focused significantly more visual attention on the "Next" button, a navigational aid included on all slides. This study contributes to the research on visual attention and navigational aids in multimedia learning, and it suggests such features may cause distractions, particularly when spoken text is provided without on-screen text. The paper also offers implications for the design of multimedia learning resources so as to improve learning for all students.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the lecture and discussion teaching methods and digital game-based learning on student achievement in agriculture and mathematics regarding a unit on swine diseases in animal science courses offered through secondary agricultural education programs in Oklahoma. Three research questions guided the study, which utilized a quasi-experimental, between-groups design. No statistically significant differences (p >0.05) were found between the counterfactual group and the treatment group regarding animal science competency and mathematics achievement. As such, the researcher failed to reject the null hypotheses aligned with the study's research questions. However, this study demonstrated that teachers using a serious digital game in the context of animal science did not diminish their students' achievement. As a result, it can be recommended that teachers should consider incorporating this teaching method into their existing pedagogical practices without fear of decreasing student learning and achievement. Another implication for practice is the importance of providing prolonged and sustained professional development opportunities for in-service teachers to learn how to use a digital game-based delivery method effectively to increase student achievement in agriculture and mathematics.

The flipped classroom instructional strategy is thought to be a good way to structure learning experiences to improve student learning outcomes. Many studies have been conducted to examine the effects of flipped classroom on student learning outcomes compared to the traditional classroom, but the results were inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to examine the overall effect of the flipped classroom instructional strategy on student learning outcomes in relation to a set of moderating variables including student levels, publication types, study durations, and subject area. This meta-analysis examined studies that compared classrooms that used the flipped classroom instructional strategy and classrooms that did not. Seventeen databases were searched to identify literature meeting our inclusion criteria and resulted in 55 publications with 115 effect size comparisons on cognitive student learning outcomes published between 2000 and 2016. Overall, we found a statistically significant effect size (g = 0.193; p < 0.001; with a 95% confidence interval of 0.113-0.274) in favor of the flipped classroom instructional strategy. The effect size data were normally distributed and exhibited statistically significant heterogeneity. The effect sizes were significantly moderated by subject area such as mathematics, science, social sciences, engineering, arts and humanities, health, and business. No evidence of publication bias was detected in these data. A full discussion of the findings and implications for educational practice and research were provided.

As teammates adjust their cognition and behavior, synchronizations of information can be observed across verbal, postural, and neurophysiological systems. This study explored the synchrony of mutually interacting brains, or team neurosynchrony, during cyber-enabled collaborative problem solving. Mixed-sex dyads defined and solved an authentic problem using either a social script or an epistemic script. Alpha-band phase-locking value, or the absolute value of the sum of the phase differences of electrodes at a particular time and frequency across a number of epochs, was used as a measure of team neurosynchrony. Contrary to our hypotheses, analyses revealed greater alpha-band phase-locking values between the central and parietal electrodes of dyad members in the epistemic script condition. Mean alpha phase-locking values were positively correlated with collaborative problem solving performance and negatively correlated with time spent on the problem solving process, suggesting that epistemic scripts were more effective scaffolds of collaborative problem solving compared to social scripts in this study.

Individuals with dyslexia face numerous challenges in school and daily life. Although effective intervention may reduce those challenges (Mather & Wendling, 2011; Shaywitz, 2003; Snowling & Hulme, 2012), most individuals with dyslexia benefit from additional supports that allow them to learn and function independently. The term assistive technology (AT) refers to the services and devices that enable people with disabilities to accomplish daily living tasks; assist them in communication, education, work, or recreation activities; and ultimately, help them achieve greater independence and enhance their quality of life. The National Assistive Technology Research Institute found that although schools do tend to consider AT during individualized education program (IEP) meetings, it is less common that they follow through adequately with assessment, selection, implementation, and evaluation (Bausch, Ault, & Hasselbring, 2015). This may be because most members of the typical IEP team have had little or no preparation specific to why or how assistive technology may benefit learners with different needs despite the fact that such training is mandated within Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) (Edyburn, 2004). AT for students with dyslexia most often mediates the disability in areas of challenge. Specifically, AT can mediate challenges with reading, writing, and spelling. AT helps provide options for students to access content and information in different ways. Text-to-speech software, for example, can be beneficial for students with dyslexia who exhibit weak decoding skills, low levels of fluency, and strong listening comprehension skills. Technologies are being developed more and more rapidly each year, and this is particularly true of technologies designed for individuals with dyslexia. One of the best ways to identify AT for students with dyslexia is for educators to speak with special education and technology experts in their schools or districts about what ATs are available and how others use them to support students with dyslexia. Research has suggested that AT may help mediate some of these challenges. Students with dyslexia benefit when teachers understand how AT may mediate their reading and writing challenges, acquire basic technical knowledge, and learn about specific ATs, strategies for locating ATs, and suggestions for how to support students in using ATs.

This study presents a strengths-based framework for designing virtual reality experiences tailored to the needs and abilities of autistic individuals. Recognizing the potential of virtual reality to provide engaging and immersive learning environments, the framework aligns the strengths and preferences of autistic users with the affordances of virtual reality platforms. Drawing on the existing literature and empirical findings, the framework highlights key areas of alignment, including visual perception, anxiety management, attention to differences, concrete thinking, and response to positive feedback. The framework emphasizes the importance of involving autistic individuals in the co-design and co-creation of virtual reality technologies to ensure a more tailored and preferred user experience. By adopting a strengths-based approach and actively involving autistic individuals, the design and implementation of virtual reality interventions can better address their unique needs and foster positive outcomes. The study concludes by advocating for continued research and collaboration to advance the field of virtual reality technology for autistic individuals and to work toward shared goals with the autistic community. Virtual reality has been studied for its potential in supporting individuals with autism, but existing research often focuses on deficits and lacks consideration of individual preferences and strengths. This article introduces a framework that emphasizes the strengths and abilities of autistic individuals when designing virtual reality interventions. It builds upon an existing taxonomy of educational technology affordances and extends it to align with the unique needs of autistic individuals. The framework provides guidance for incorporating virtual reality technology that supports and amplifies autistic strengths, such as visual perception and response to positive feedback. The framework has implications for practice, research, and policy. For practitioners, it offers a tool for designing virtual reality experiences that cater to the strengths of autistic individuals, enhancing engagement and educational outcomes. Researchers can utilize the framework to guide the development of user-centered virtual reality interventions and expand our understanding of the potential benefits of virtual reality for autistic populations. Policymakers and educators can consider this framework when incorporating virtual reality into educational settings, ensuring that virtual reality technology is used in a way that aligns with the strengths and needs of autistic learners. Overall, the framework promotes a strengths-based approach in utilizing virtual reality technology for individuals with autism, fostering inclusivity and maximizing the benefits of immersive experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this exploratory study was to examine levels of technology integration, self-efficacy, and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in preservice and inservice agricultural education teachers in Oklahoma. The findings of this study suggest that intrapersonal factors, such as self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest, interact with teacher motivation to integrate technology and influence their TPACK. Further, the results suggest that experienced inservice teachers view technology tools as a mechanism to engage students and achieve instructional gains, whereas novice and preservice teachers tend to perceive technology tools primarily as a mechanism for improving classroom management. Implications include continuing to support and enact a shift in preservice teacher education from direct lecture and modeling-based instruction to more hands-on, constructivist methods of teaching that incorporate a variety of mastery experiences.

Much attention has focused on technology acceptance in the classroom, with little investigation into how parents make decisions about their children's use of portable technology to support reading development in the home. Applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, this study identifies predictors of parents portable technology adoption intentions to support children's reading development in the home. Participants were parents from two elementary schools within 46 classrooms in the southeastern United States. Phase one of data collection included 120 parents who responded to a validated survey that identified predictors and behavioral intention to adopt technology. The regression model explained 64% of parents have intentions to use portable technology to develop their children's reading skills, with social influence and attitude as the most important predictors. Surveys indicated 99% of children used portable technology to support reading in the home, therefore phase two included explanatory interviews to examine adoption predictors. Interview data specified social influence ensued from the child's school and parent community; attitude resulted from children's affinity to use technology. Though parents' intentions indicated continued portable technology use, parents preferred their child read print books. Interview data also revealed parents perceived an increase in performance expectancy when their child used portable technology. This study highlights the need for teachers and school administrators to be cognizant of educational requests on home learning, influences of the broader parent community on parent intentions to adopt educational technology, and children's enjoyment reading with portable technology.

This study examined the use of Twitter for online discussions in one asynchronous online, journalism class. A content analysis of the transcripts of the tweets from 25 undergraduate students was performed, coding for social presence using the social presence density measurement tool, one of the three aspects of the community of inquiry framework. Participants generated 1096 unique tweets over a 12-week course. Additionally, the community of inquiry survey was administered at the end of the course. Internal consistency measures and correlation analysis were used to identify the relationships between the social presence density scores and the community of inquiry survey results, which showed significant positive relationships exist between teaching, cognitive, and social presence, and the nature of the tweets. Results also underscored that social presence could be established on a micro-blogging platform, making it a potentially useful tool in an online learning environment.

There has been a lack of research on how people with individual differences learn with multimedia materials, in particular with regard to individuals with dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by subpar ability in reading, spelling, writing, word recognition, and phonological decoding. This population could potentially benefit from multimedia learning materials according to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and Orton-Gillingham multisensory instructional approach. This study examined how learning in four multimedia conditions influences dyslexic college students' ability to recall and recognize information. Seventy-three college students with dyslexia were assigned to one of the four conditions that integrated the modality (spoken text vs. on-screen text) and multimedia (picture present vs. picture absent) principles. They completed a cued-recall and a content recognition test. The results indicated pictures facilitated recognition, which validated the multimedia principle. On-screen text led to a superior performance in recall and recognition compared to spoken text. This finding suggested the modality principle did not hold for participants with dyslexia in this study, which is especially surprising given that dyslexics have difficulty processing written text. Possible explanations of the findings are discussed.

This study addressed some of the challenges of supporting self-regulated learning in community college online English composition. This course used a flexible learning design, providing a choice of procedural scaffolds to support self-regulation of learning tasks by students. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of two procedural scaffolds, a custom-designed, interactive checklists tool and a non-interactive calendar tool, and the core assignment submission and metacognition of online English composition students. Measures included clickstream data for procedural scaffold usage, a count of core assignment submissions, and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory scores. Results indicated that use of the custom-designed interactive checklists tool better supported submission of core assignments by students than the non-interactive calendar tool. While metacognition awareness scores increased across the study, no significant association with procedural scaffold use was found. Implications for future practice support the continued and extended use of interactive procedural scaffolds to support online students through task completion for complex processes such as academic writing.

This study examined how parents' reports of children's technology use in the home varies by a child's gender or grade level. Framed by technology adoption models, this mixed-method study gathered parent reports of their elementary child's use of portable technology for entertainment and learning in the home, collected from 120 surveys and 13 individual interviews with survey respondents. Results across the four 2×2 ANOVAs yielded three significant main effects: gender and entertainment devices, gender and entertainment apps, grade level and learning apps. No significant effects were found among any of the interaction variables or within the ANOVA summary for learning devices. Interview data revealed girls are interested in reading with Kindle, whereas parents are reluctant to provide boys with portable technology because of their preference to play games. Strategies are provided for teachers, support specialists, and parents to improve how children use technology. Implications for app developers are suggested.