Digital Citizenship: You Can’t Go Home Again

In the July/August 2011 edition of TechTrends, a group of AECT members and academic professionals explored the state of digital citizenship for students in K-12 through an article entitled: Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village. Identified was a significant need for digital citizenship awareness by parents, educators, and students through a series of interviews, exploration of resources, reports, and surveys. In this current article, the purpose is to provide an updated perspective of the state of digital citizenship in the K-12 academic and professional environments as gathered from re-administering the 2010 survey and interviewing experts quoted in the 2010 article. Results showed the need for teaching digital citizenship at an earlier age, improved digital citizenship awareness by both educators and administrators, and a continued focus on the misuse and abuse of technology.     

Attentional enhancement in matching-to-sample: Facilitation in matching acquisition by sample-discrimination training

In three experiments, we examined how matching-to-sample by pigeons is affected by discrimination versus nondifferential training between the matching stimuli. In Experiment 1A, pigeons responding differentially to the sample stimuli off-baseline acquired accurate matching performances more rapidly than did pigeons responding nondifferentially to those same stimuli. In Experiment 1B, tests involving reversal of the off-baseline requirements demonstrated that the birds were primarily controlled in their matching choices by the sample stimuli. The results of Experiment 2 showed that off-baseline nondifferential training did not retard acquisition relative to comparable training between stimuli unrelated to the matching task. Together, these results suggest that discrimination training can facilitate matching acquisition by enhancing attention to the sample stimuli.     

MathemAntics: a model for computer-based mathematics education for young children / MathemAntics: un modelo de enseñanza de matemáticas asistida por ordenador para niños

Computer-based early mathematics education, especially when implemented on a touchscreen device, can help young children learn basic concepts of number and operations in deep and engaging ways. We have developed MathemAntics — antic or playful mathematics — a software system that works on touchscreen tablets, to serve as a key aspect of mathematics instruction for children from age three to the early grades. This paper discusses the need for such software; describes and analyses currently available software; articulates the theoretical and design principles that form the basis of MathemAntics and can serve as the foundation for new software; presents a case study of a child using MathemAntics; and describes potential use of MathemAntics in a classroom setting. We invite readers to explore, investigate and use MathemAntics themselves.     

Collaborative Multimedia

Six natural history institutions contributed video and other images to produce a single multimedia exhibit about famous paleontology sites throughout the United States. In Mesozoic Monsters, Mammals and Magnolias, users can view videos of the original excavation of each of the sites and also play computer games relating to each location. This project provides a model for how collaboration among museums can reduce the cost of multimedia exhibits while improving quality and making them available to wider audiences.