Describes how San Diego State University created a collaborative, objective, and quantitative metric, or rubric, to support its decision-making process regarding a Web portal. Discusses how the rubric was used to score different portal software systems during demonstrations and as a checklist and inventory to describe potential options. (EV)

Describes how the University of the South Pacific has created a satellite-based computer network aimed at greatly expanding its offerings to students on remote islands. (EV)

This interview with Allan Ellis focuses on a history of computer applications in education. Highlights include work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; the New England Education Data System; and efforts to create a computer-based distance learning and development program called ISVD (Information System for Vocational Decisions). (LRW)

Describes one teacher education college's experiences with designing and implementing technology standards for teachers, as required by the International Society for Technology in Education. Addresses program rationale, initial implementation, division of content, feedback from faculty and students, and effects on instruction. (JPB)

Reports on the Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Education (PETE), an NSF-funded project to promote reform in mathematics and science teacher preparation that features the redesign of teacher preparation to reflect current research on learning and teaching. Concludes that new tools of technology have the potential for enhancing education but…

Describes two strategies for implementing active learning in physical chemistry, one involving supplementing the traditional lecture course with heavily computer-based active learning exercises carried out by cooperative groups, the other using cooperative learning almost exclusively supplemented by occasional mini-lectures. Both approaches seemed…

Explores how the alliance between Microsoft and Blackboard, a company whose software helps colleges put their courses on the Internet, is making some college officials wonder what the deal means for their operating systems and budgets, and for higher education in general. (EV)

This article reports on the design, implementation, and usage of the CourseMarker (formerly known as CourseMaster) courseware Computer Based Assessment (CBA) system at the University of Nottingham. Students use CourseMarker to solve (programming) exercises and to submit their solutions. CourseMarker returns immediate results and feedback to the…

This paper introduces a recently developed e-learning design and development tool called Learning Designer[TM] (version 1.0). Learning Designer assists learning designers and developers to build e-learning courses with Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant learning objects using decision-making aids and recommended templates…

Libraries are all about facilitating the intersection of people and information. According to this author, many librarians, however, still teach information literacy in the same way that their older colleagues taught bibliographic instruction. Teaching, despite technology and educational research, has still focused on the lecture. Librarians are…

In this article, the author offers criteria for evaluating WebQuests that are intended for use by students in the elementary grades. There are two general areas that teachers should consider: (1) Pedagogy--whether a WebQuest is developmentally appropriate and educationally useful for their students; and (2) Scholarship--whether the content is…

The interest in new media for teaching and learning has highlighted the potential of innovative software and hardware for education. This has included laptops, hand-helds, wireless systems and Web-based learning environments. Most recently, however, this interest has focused on blogs and blogging. Weblogs, or blogs, are Web pages often likened to…

A theme for this year's Techtalk is keeping up with technology, emphasizing both professional development and new technology. This first column will look at the how and why of professional development. A second column will highlight wireless technology. The National Association for Developmental Education's Executive Board (NADE, 2001) resolved…

Founded in 2000, the Localization Generalist Certificate Program at Austin Community College (ACC) was the recipient of the 2004 ClientSide Excellence Award in the category of Localization Educational Services. It is the only community college program of its kind and one of only a handful of programs worldwide. What is localization and why is it…

Although it has become very common to use World Wide Web-based information in many educational settings, there has been little research on how to better search and organize Web-based information. This paper discusses the shortcomings of Web search engines and Web browsers as learning environments and describes an alternative Web search environment…