Several years' experience with the NEA School Renewal Network discloses six necessary conditions for successful interactive networking: encouragement of affinity group development, equal portions of "high touch" and "high tech," the availability of qualified facilitators, an empowering network structure, a distributed expertise…

The Co-Nect (Cooperative Networked Educational Community for Tomorrow) project is a winning K-12 design with 3 components: a restructured school community featuring self-managing clusters of students, teachers, administrators, and community members; a radically transformed curriculum based on key-concept projects and seminars; and a flexible and…

Supplements a previous column's laundry list of bad technology ideas with further provisos: fixating on processor speed; relying on user support; developing non-visionary long-range technology plans; leaving people out of long-range planning; and concentrating technology at the center of a network. (MLH)

Educational technology can be a catalyst for creating new learning structures. For the past six years, Central Harlem's Earth Lab project has been designing, implementing, and observing effects of a local area network system intended to facilitate collaborative work in elementary earth science. System coordinates small groups, promotes teacher…

According to Thomas Stewart's book, intellectual capital comprises three broad categories: human, structural, and customer. Structural, or organizational capital, is knowledge that does not leave at night (with workers, or human capital). Developing a "best practices" database using Lotus Notes software would preserve and access schools'…

Presents results of informal research on smart homes and appliances, structured home wiring, whole-house audio/video distribution, hybrid cable, and wireless networks. Computer network wiring is tricky to install unless all-in-one jacketed cable is used. Wireless phones help installers avoid pre-wiring problems in homes and schools. (MLH)

Reports on results of 2-year study of educational use of technology at 2 San Francisco Bay Area high schools. Finds little impact on students' school experience. Discusses several reasons for this finding: Traditional school structures, time constraints, and competing educational priorities. (Contains 10 references.) (PKP)

To attract and retain high-quality teachers, the education system must address science teachers' sense of professional isolation, administrators' lack of receptivity to thoughtful teachers' ideas, egalitarian salary compensation schemes, and lack of professional recognition. An outstanding chemistry teacher-turned-pharmaceutical saleswoman is…

Computers dedicated to supporting beginning teachers are like first aid kits. Both are inexpensive, simple to use, and intended to address minor problems and prevent the development of more serious complications. Both rely on self-analysis and are nonevaluative. Electronic networks offer the assurance of easily accessible, nonjudgmental resources…

How did educators become enslaved to networked computers and mesmerized by iridescent screens? The computer encourages endless acquisitions, some motivated by intellectual avarice, others by petty jealousies incited by colleagues raving about the latest "innovation." How much computer literacy is sufficient? What other literacies must…

Shows how schools can help students navigate the Internet's complex, often disorganized information landscape and decide about important issues affecting their lives and times. Students must become "infotectives" adept at framing essential questions, planning a cyberspace voyage, collecting pertinent information, changing course, exploiting…