Describes a 1994 survey about an introductory class in online communications at Wright State University. Discussion includes a profile of respondents, prior online experience, personal development, impact on personal and professional knowledge and skills, impact on communication, and barriers and limitations to the effective use of…

Discusses the availability of virtual communities on the Internet. Stresses that there are online environments for nearly everyone, and offers advice for those designing new communities by relating experiences from the development of the specialized MediaMOO, a multiuser dungeon. Discusses restricting access, shaping development of the community,…

Provides a brief history of the Internet, highlighting its academic roots, and describes a survey conducted to determine how and why academics use the Internet. Information gathered, presented in seven tables, shows frequency of use; types of resources accessed; levels of computer experience; use of nagivational aids; and reaction to the survey.…

This case study offers insights into the process, pitfalls, and advantages of utilizing an Internet electronic discussion list to form a communication community in an undergraduate course that discussed gender differences. Results of an online evaluation are discussed and the use of electronic communication is considered. (Author/LRW)

Explores obstacles to Internet usage, presents what is known about them, and considers strategies for avoiding or ameliorating their effects. Obstacles discussed include unrealistic expectations; lack of understanding of the effects of organizational culture on networking; lack of awareness of social effects of networking technologies; and lack of…

Students in a third-year introduction to German literature course chatted over networked computers, using "FirstClass" software. A brief description of the course design is provided with detailed information on how the three chat sessions were organized. (Author/VWL)

Explores the results obtained from using a computer network for real-time synchronous discussion in a course for students of English as a foreign language. Found that computer conferencing had noticeable effects on students' motivation for language learning. (Author/VWL)

Presents an exploratory case study with preservice teacher education students of an experience in collaborative discourse mediated through an educationally designed network-based application. Topics include computer mediated communication; text-based communication; small group discussion; and software design, including the design of IdeaWeb that…

Discusses the Internet and how it works, beginning with its origins in the U.S. military and covering such issues as clients and servers, upload and download, and the World Wide Web. (Author/PVD)

Discusses a typology that can be used to guide educators in selection of cyberspace tools to accomplish specific tasks. The typology consists of four main divisions of properties: number of people communicating; real-time communications; permanency of communications; and automatic delivery to audience. These four divisions result in 16 possible…

Focuses on the use of one networked technology, synchronous computer-mediated interaction, in the second-language (L2) classroom. The scope is intentionally limited to research concerned with evaluating the potential benefits of computer-assisted classroom discussion (CACD) in terms of L2 acquisition theory. Findings stemming from the existing…

Describes tele-immersion, a new medium for human interaction enabled by digital technologies. It combines the display and interaction techniques of virtual reality with new vision technologies that transcend the traditional limitations of a camera. Tele-immersion stations observe people as moving sculptures without favoring a single point of view.…

San Jose State University is planning to ban Skype, a popular Internet telephone service, from the campus network because of concerns about security and bandwidth. University administrators say that the technical aspects that make Skype effective also make it dangerous and potentially crippling to a university's network bandwidth. Skype has a…

This paper explores how educators are using multimedia for distance learning, beginning with definitions of the concepts of multimedia, hypermedia, hypertext, distance education and distance learning. Three types of telecommunications technologies are described: multimedia with broadcast television, multimedia with interactive video (television),…

Many organizations grapple with a glut of electronic information spawned by stockpiles of incompatible computers. This book offers solutions in information sharing and computer interaction. Rather than being about the Internet per se, it is about approaches that are characteristic of the Internet and the managerial and technical aspects of…