The first of two papers describes the techniques used at a school of nursing to develop 98 independent learning modules for an on-going, statewide, continuing education project designed to meet the needs of professional nurses practicing in the field. The paper focuses primarily on the administrative problems related to the project; e.g., test…

Briefly describes a study of five New York City high schools conducted to determine the impact of microcomputers in schools. Interviews and surveys were used to address issues including student and teacher attitudes toward computers, teaching methods, teacher-student interactions, and differences between computer instruction and regular classes.…

Outlines research conducted at Brigham Young University to identify effective, efficient computer-based drill and practice instructional strategies for teaching paired associate or multiple discrimination tasks. A sophisticated computer-based drill and practice is contrasted with a simple flashcard strategy. Research supporting the sophisticated…

Discussion of adapting established classroom practices to new online environments identifies the instructional strategies that lead to successful classroom teaching and describes an online system, WebTeach, that provides structured teacher-learner interactions and is used at the University of New South Wales. (Author/LRW)

Describes the development of courses at the University of Central Florida that are a mix of traditional classroom instruction and online courses. Discusses course assessment methods to help meet student needs; faculty incentives to participate in the assessment process; administrative support; and accountability. (LRW)

Reviews literature relating to educational courseware evaluation and the need for context-bound evaluations. Highlights include the promise of educational technology; implications for online learning; technological developments, including use of the Internet in education; comparing modes of delivery; examples of context-bound evaluations; and the…

This discussion of the educational potential of audiotape and videotape cassettes in distance teaching considers each medium individually, with examples of how the Open University has tried to exploit them in its teaching, and comments on some major differences between the two media and their implication for education. Characteristics of…

The strong potential of videodisc technology for improving the education of the hearing impaired is described in this report on the Media Development Project for the Hearing Impaired (MDPHI) at the University of Nebraska. The topics covered include: (1) the history of the use of technology in deaf education; (2) the history of videodiscs and their…

Outlines changes in infrastructure that may be needed when breaking from traditional instructional methods to distance education methods. Highlights include differences in classroom presentations, including interaction; the role of the instructor and instructional support, including libraries; problems with multi-campus sites; and locus of control…

Explains a social studies lesson for third graders that uses KidPix, a computer software graphics program to help students make maps and map keys. Advantages to using the computer versus hand drawing maps are discussed, and an example of map requirements for the lesson is included. (LRW)

One interesting aspect of teaching students to use PowerPoint and similar graphics packages effectively is that graduate students who are already in the workforce often have bad presentation habits that they need to break. In this article, the author discusses ways of breaking these bad habits. Using storyboards is one way to keep students from…

This discussion of questions related to the most appropriate role for the computer in undergraduate postsecondary education begins by describing the Educational Testing Service's evaluations of two large-scale funded projects intended to stimulate the incorporation of computer assisted instruction (CAI) into undergraduate instruction--the…

Using 280 5th graders as subjects, an experiment was carried out to answer the following questions: (1) do certain indentified television formats have effects on cognition? (2) Is mastery of various cognitive skills correlated with extraction of knowledge from a television message which employs the corresponding format? It was hypothesized that:…

Children starting school today have already been trained to learn by television, and the skills they have developed may not be suitable for the print-oriented learning required in school. Differences in learning from electronic sources and from books are discussed, as are strategies teachers can use to help children adjust. (PP)

Reviews the literature related to creating effective learning groups in face-to-face and virtual environments for distance education using research from cooperative learning, computer-mediated communication, organizational development, and group dynamics. Highlights include creating the groups, structuring the learning activities, and facilitating…