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Undergraduate research (UR) is an integral part of the culture at Queensborough Community College, CUNY (QCC), an urban community college with a diverse student population. Since 2015, more than 400 students participate in undergraduate research experiences each year, working with more than 40 faculty mentors from several academic departments. Although a large proportion of this research occurs within STEM fields, the social sciences, nursing, business, arts, and the humanities are also represented and have increased research activity each year. This article describes the various approaches of QCC to institutionalize, promote, and support UR; approaches to handling the challenging aspects of sustaining UR at a community college; and recent initiatives to expand UR across disciplines.

Technology integration in K-12 classrooms is usually teacher-centered and has insufficient impact on students' learning. The purpose of this project is to facilitate science teachers' use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as cognitive tools to shift their practices from teacher-centered methods to constructivist, student-centered ones. This paper describes the outcomes and lessons learned from an application of design-based research (DBR) in the implementation and refinement of a teacher professional development (PD) program that is a key component of the project. The results revealed teachers' positive changes in their classroom practices and positive impact on students' ICT skills and science learning. Design principles for future professional development programs aimed at preparing teachers to adopt a cognitive tools approach are described.

While access to computers, other technologies, and cyber-enabled resources that could be leveraged for enhancing student learning in science is increasing, generally it has been found that teachers use technology more for administrative purposes or to support traditional instruction. This use of technology, especially to support traditional instruction, sits in opposition to most recent standards documents in science education that call for student involvement in evidence-based sense-making activities. Many see technology as a potentially powerful resource that is reshaping society and has the potential to do the same in science classrooms. To consider the promise of technology in science classrooms, this research investigated the impact of a professional development project focused on enhancing teacher and student learning by using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for engaging students in reformed-based instruction. More specifically, these findings revealed positive teacher outcomes with respect to reformed-based and technology-supported instruction and increased ICT and new literacies skills. When considering students, the findings revealed positive outcomes with respect to ICT and new literacies skills and student achievement in science.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the popular assumption that the "digital natives" generation surpasses the previous "digital immigrants" generation in terms of their technology experiences, because they grow up with information and communication technology. The assumption presumes that teachers, the digital immigrants, are less technology savvy than the digital natives, resulting in a disconnect between students' technology experiences inside and outside of the formal school setting. To examine the intersection of these generations and their technology experiences, this study used a mixed-methods approach to survey and compare middle school science teachers' (n = 24) and their students' (n = 1,060) inside-outside school technology experiences, and conducted focus group interviews to investigate any barriers that prevented them from using technology in school. The findings imply that the concept of digital natives may be misleading and that the disconnect between students' inside-outside school technology experiences may be the result of the lack of sufficient teacher training concerning technology integration strategies.

Due to the rapid advancements of information and communication technologies (ICTs), educational researchers argue that multimodal and new literacies should become common practices in schools. As new ICTs emerge and evolve, students need the new literacies skills and practices to successfully participate fully in the civic life of a global community. Are teachers prepared to integrate ICTs in the classroom to develop students' new literacies skills? The purpose of this study is to suggest a new literacies framework that guides ICTs integration and supports scientific inquiry, as well as investigate middle school teachers' confidence to practice new literacies in science classrooms. The study adopted mixed-methodology design, surveyed 32 middle school science teachers' ICTs and new literacies skills, and randomly observed 15 teachers' new literacies practices in the classrooms. The results revealed that even though teachers have high confidence in using ICTs, the meaningful technology integration and new literacies practices were scarcely observed in their classroom practices.

The use of games in educational contexts has recently received growing attention; however, many teachers struggle with finding a right context to adopt games in the classroom. To strengthen teachers' beliefs about the educational value of games, this article explains the similarities and differences between new literacies and gaming literacy and defines gaming literacy from the "play" and "design" perspectives. This article presents examples of game use that will help teachers cultivate learners' new literacies through gaming, understand how the game debriefing process can help scaffold students' learning, and identify factors affecting the adoption of games in educational contexts. The audience for this article includes teachers and teacher educators who would like greater clarification regarding gaming literacy and its positive effects on the learning and development of new literacies. (Contains 5 figures.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare high school students' global literacy level in metropolitan areas of China and the USA. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a global literacy instrument to surveyed 2,157 New York City (NYC) high school students and 2,220 Chinese high school students. This paper adopted an independent sample t-test and an ANOVA to identify significant differences regarding demographic features on the Likert-scale items, and used the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the degree of association between factors. Findings: From this global literacy scale, compared with NYC high school students, Chinese students have greater awareness of comprehending and appreciating cross-cultural perspectives, becoming global citizens, and exhibited greater approval of the performance of their own country's interconnectedness and interdependence with other countries. Students in the two countries exhibited similar confidence in using new literacies. Practical implications: Students would pay close attention to global issues if they were aware of how these issues affect their daily life and future. With critical-thinking abilities, students would be in a better position to make decisions that contribute to the common good. With awareness of diverse cultures, students could learn the values, strengths, and weaknesses of people. With fluency in new literacies, students could research and analyze information from multiple resources, and collaborate with others through the use of technology. Originality/value: This paper profiles the global literacy of US and Chinese high school students, describes factors correlated with both US and Chinese students' global literacy, and suggests students' preferences regarding "global education"-related activities. (Contains 15 tables.)

Purpose: When facing greater demands in the international job market and the innovative development and use of technologies, the youth needs a new set of skills and attitudes to succeed in an increasing well-educated global workforce. It is essential that educators prepare high school students' global literacy. In this paper, the authors survey high school students in New York City (NYC) to learn about their global literacy levels and to summarize results and interpret implications for educators. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a global literacy instrument to survey 2,157 high school students. They adopted an independent sample t-test and an ANOVA to identify significant differences regarding demographic features on the Likert-scale items, used cross-tab analysis to present the profile of participants, and used the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the degree of association between factors. Findings: From this global literacy scale, NYC high school students have relatively strong awareness of the importance of comprehending and appreciating cross-culture perspectives, have strong confidence in using new literacies to resolve problems, but have relatively low willingness to become a global citizen. Practical implications: The findings of the study support the need to improve education quality, to strengthen world languages programs, and to advocate "new literacies" practices in classrooms. Originality/value: The paper surveys high school students to learn about their global literacy levels, and to investigate factors associated with the formation of their global literacy. Most importantly, the paper adds the concept new literacies into the component of the global literacy definition to reflect the influence of technology on the high school students' global awareness. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

Second Life (SL) (http://www.secondlife.com), a 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), is developed and maintained by its users. Over six million users from over 100 countries have become residents in SL. Non-profit and profit organizations and academic institutions have built islands, established a presence there, and explored the related benefits to their target users. Educators and students who are not familiar with the virtual learning environment should have an opportunity to learn about the rationale of using SL in teaching and learning. This paper summarizes the merits of adopting SL in teaching and learning, issues of SL use, and the use of the instructional-design principle relative to the design of SL learning activities. The authors discuss the process of applying ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation), a generic and simplified instructional systems design model, to the creation of SL learning activities for online learners, and how these activities reflect the SL capabilities. (Contains 1 figure.)

Originally, blogs served as personal journaling tools. Recently, blogs have facilitated the formation of online communities and have thus expanded to more extensive uses in education. Little has been learned about using blogs as a collaboration tool in educational contexts. In this article, the authors share their experiences with using blogs to expand in-class discussions in a teacher-education program. They address the differences between using blogs and using discussion boards, the advantages and limitations of using blogs to exchange ideas, lessons learned about using blogs to expand guided discussion of limited in-class conversations, and their observations of learners' perceptions of using blogs to enhance discussion.

This pilot study investigates how the use of audioblogs can help to meet an instructor's need to improve instruction in English as a second language (ESL). In this study, the instructor uses audioblogs to manage oral assignments, to interact with learners, and to evaluate performance outcomes. Learners record oral assignments through cellular phones, and maintain an individual audioblog in which they submit and archive the oral assignments. The instructor interacts with each learner through the individual audioblog to enhance his or her learning according to individual needs. Using mixed methodology (survey, open-ended questions, interview, and analysis of blogs), this study explores how the instructor's interaction with learners through audioblogs improves learners' oral English performance. The results indicate that the use of audioblogs meets the instructor's instructional needs, providing an efficient and effective way to evaluate students' oral performance and permitting individualized oral feedback. In addition, learners enjoy the ease of using audioblogs and believe that audioblogs assist their language-learning experience. This study also discusses the challenges that users of audioblogs face in the process of English-language instruction, and the implications of audioblog in language learning. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

Literature suggests that developing a community of learners is the key to a successful online-learning experience. In this study, the instructor of a multimedia authoring course adopted a synchronous communication tool (Yahoo Messenger) to interact with learners orally on a weekly basis and, thereby, to establish a sense among the learners that the class was a learning community. This study adopts mixed-methodology (the Classroom Community Scale, open-ended questions, and grades) to compare the learners' development of a sense of community with both the outcomes of the learners' group-centered online learning and the outcomes of the learners' group-centered face-to-face learning. The results indicate that in neither of the two groups did a sense of community contribute to the improvement of hands-on skills. Providing clear instruction with constant and accurate feedback is the key strategy by which instructors can help online learners improve their hands-on performance.

Recently, webinar (web seminar) tools (e.g., Elluminate, Adobe Acrobat Connect, Live Meeting) have been attracting more and more attention with the advancement of online learning technologies because webinar tools facilitate real-time communication and enrich the interactivity in an online learning environment. Corporations have long adopted webinar tools for real-time meetings; however, we need research-based data to understand how webinar tools can be successfully integrated into an online learning environment. To strengthen our understanding of appropriate webinar training and teaching strategies, this qualitative study investigates the perceptions of student-trainers who use webinar tools. The results show that student-trainers are satisfied with their webinar-facilitated delivery of conceptual knowledge. Webinar provides a nearly face-to-face environment that increases participants' social presence and facilitates multi-level interaction. This paper presents suggestions regarding webinar-session implementation strategies.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the priorities of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to focus on preparing for the "new literacies." According to the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, "new literacy" is the ability to use ICTs to develop 21st century content knowledge and skills critical for success in the workplace and in life. The "new literacy" is an additional set of basic skills essential for surviving in a digital networked environment. The Internet and ICTs are changing today's definition of literacy. To become fully literate in today's world, students must become proficient in the new literacies of ICTs. This article provides a brief overview of several types of instruction that support development of ICT skills. The strategies skills and technology are also summarized in this article. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

Collaborating closely with a 10th-grade science teacher, we designed a Web-based learning environment (Web-LE) to improve student motivation to learn science. Factors believed to enhance intrinsic motivation (challenge, control, curiosity, and fantasy) were integrated into the instructional design of the Web-based learning tool. The Web-LE was implemented in the teacher's 10th-grade classroom as a three-day student-centered learning activity. Data collection methods included individual student interviews, teacher interviews, motivation questionnaires, and observations. This study revealed multiple forms of evidence that the Web-LE and the associated learning activity improved student motivation. This study illustrates the benefits of educational researchers working closely with teachers using design-based research methods to successfully solve instructional problems and identify reusable design principles. Design principles for the integration of intrinsic motivation factors into the development of similar Web-LEs are presented as well as directions for future research.

Online learning courses are generally text-based. Particularly for students who are learning multimedia skills, these courses can be problematic because demonstration and hands-on activities are important in the field of multimedia authoring. This study uses action research techniques and describes the application of onscreen-action-capture software to the design of hands-on demonstration animation. This article (1) explores the teaching of multimedia skills in an online learning environment, (2) compares the use of the software in an online learning environment to use of the software in a face-to-face learning environment, and (3) proposes strategies by which instructors can encourage students to complete hands-on activities in an online learning environment.

This article describes practical issues related to the design and the development of a Web-Based Learning Environment (Web-LE) for high school students. The purpose of the Fossilization Web-LE was to help students understand the process of fossilization, which is a complex phenomenon and is affected by many factors. The instructional design team faced the challenge of designing an environment that could enable its users to construct knowledge actively by manipulating the various variables of organisms, ecological systems, and physical burials. An effective user interface is essential to the enabling of students who try to explore knowledge presented in the learning environment and who, in monitoring their own learning progress, hope to avoid overwhelmingly complicated content. The analyses of both the interaction of learning activities and the design of system functions are discussed. In addition, a usability test was conducted so that the effectiveness of the interface design could be examined. The findings reveal that target users are satisfied with the usability of the Fossilization Web-LE and consider use of the user interface to be easy. At the end, several practical applications in the design of instructional software's user interface are suggested.

The article offers information on the use of Second Life (SL) in teaching and learning, a three dimensional (3D) multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). Advantages of using SL are summarized including enriched learning experience, strengthening a sense of social presence, and promoting constructivism. It discusses the application of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE), a generic and simplified instructional systems design model to the learning standards of Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) in SL learning. Moreover, challenges on using SL are stated including the need to upgrade computer to run smoothly SL and number of participants should not exceed the instructor's ability to give individual attention.