In 2008, an educational organization that works in 60 countries across the world, established a pilot project whereby smart classrooms were installed for use in six middle and senior high schools in Israel. In this project, each school received 10 Interactive White Boards (IWBs) (25% of the total number of classrooms in the school), 32 laptops, internet connection, communication software and teacher training. Formative evaluation accompanied the pilot project for two years in order to examine the effects of integrating technology into instruction on teachers, students, and the school community.The findings indicated the following: a) student motivation and engagement in the learning process increased when studying with the IWB; b) teachers reported on their professional development and enhanced technology skills. The findings also showed that the integration of technology into instruction posed some difficulties and challenges, such as a sense of over-burdening among teachers. The main conclusions were the following: a) there is a need to focus on the pedagogical training of the teachers, with an emphasis on the ways that technology can assist interactive teaching; b) in order to help relieve the over-burdening of teachers, a database of instructional tools should be established providing suggestions for lesson plans and instructional materials; c) accessibility to the technology should be extended to more teachers and students by adding smart classrooms to every school in the project.
The study aimed to examine the relationship between alternative approaches towards problem solving/design teaching (structural or functional), students' mental modeling of the design process, and the quality of their solutions to design tasks. The structural approach emphasizes the need for an ordered and systematic learning of the design process stages, while the functional approach emphasizes the teaching and study of design functions (rather than stages). Participants were 80 seventh graders, divided into two groups, who were taught a unit on technological problem solving by either approach in the course of 14 classes (21 h) during a semester. Before, during and after the design process of a technological solution the students represented their perception of the design process. The results for both groups were analyzed in terms of: (a) types of models generated; (b) changes in type of models along the learning/design process; (c) defining characteristics of the design process models. Significant differences between the groups' models were found for most variables examined. The functional approach was more effective than the traditional structural approach for supporting the construction of holistic, flexible, and effective mental models of the design process of technological solutions.
The quality of teaching in higher education is central for preparing students for their future academic and work demands. This includes the integration of information and communication technologies, since it has the potential to enhance teaching and learning processes and is thought improve both the understanding of content knowledge and the acquisition of relevant 21st-century skills. In particular, the use of mobile devices enables active learning at anytime and anywhere. This chapter describes a project of faculty development for integrating mobile learning (ML) into academic studies to accomplish pedagogical goals, as implemented at Beit Berl College, Israel. The chapter presents fundamental guidelines and principles of integrating ML into academic practices; Nine ML workshops that were developed and implemented; A detailed description of one workshop including the learning materials used; and Evaluation of the implementation. A summary of lessons learned from the implementation experience and further recommendations are presented.
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