Discusses reasons for the failing of the computer in schools and universities, including: hardware emphasis, little focus on learning, little focus on students, software-based failure (elitist programs and weak interaction), the "idea of the moment," relation between information and learning, failure of teacher education, lack of empirical…

The goal of excellence in subject matter applications of computers is still distant. More often than not, the computer becomes the object of study rather than a tool for the in-depth study of a subject. Discussed is what needs to be done to have knowledge-based systems of pedagogically excellent software. (MT)

Refutes Seymour Papert's premises because they: (1) maintain that computer criticism goes through developmental stages; (2) overlook the fact that the computer's newness in education affects the way people speak of computers; and (3) deny the necessity that teaching LOGO, like other pedagogies, should be accountable to experimental research. (PS)

Agrees with Seymour Papert that conventional experimentation has shortcomings when used to study effects of educational programs. Cites three research methods that, in combination, can compensate for the shortcomings of both conventional research and the computer criticism suggested by Papert. (PS)

The article attempts to provide a rationale for the use of computer assisted learning with handicapped and nonhandicapped students and suggests implications of computer assisted learning. Computer usage is differentiated from computer assisted learning; computer assisted learning is compared to other methods; and limitations of computer assisted…

This paper focuses on three distinctive ways in which educational software can support learning dialogues in primary classrooms. After a re-capitulation of published research on Initiation, "Discussion," Response, Feedback (IDRF) exchanges, where the computer is used to stimulate discussion and then direct it through using feedback, we ask if…

Ohio's Model Industrial Technology Systems (MITS) project was initiated in 1987 to achieve the following: identify good activities in the areas of physical, communication, and bio-related technology; standardize the activities' format; and provide a coding system for their eventual use in a hypermedia system. To date, 220 activities have been…

Discusses advantages and disadvantages of two types of research methodologies used to study the effect of LOGO in classroom settings: the treatment methodology and computer criticism. Stresses the importance of testable consequences. (PS)

Question and answer column about the CD ROM medium discusses: (1) optical storage devices available; (2) language teaching applications; (3) types of courseware available; (4) costs to hook up a CD ROM drive as a peripheral to an existing system; (5) how to go about developing and mastering a disk; and (6) mastering and replication costs.…

After 30 years of failing to live up to the promises of its proponents, instructional technology has finally started to play an effective role in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education. Asserts that students in courses delivered entirely with technology have begun to outperform students in traditional lecture-based courses, a…

The computer and its attendant software, in combination with cooperative learning principles, provide all students, regardless of English-language proficiency level, greater opportunities for peer communication than are available within the traditional classroom setting. (IAH)

Responds to the article, "Blackboard's COURSEINFO: Supplementing In-Class Teaching with the Internet," by David M. Fahey. Focuses on the benefits and drawbacks to using this software to have a paperless course Includes an overall review of COURSEINFO. (CMK)

Although computers have been used in education for 20 years in the United States and Europe, they have not been widely used in the less developed countries of the world because the initial investment and operational costs of computers have been too high. Should advances in hardware technology continue to reduce such costs, some educational…

The recent influx of computer programs to aid students in writing has created some confusion between the linear, directed process of problem-solving and the less directed, more chaotic process of putting words down on paper. Though problem-solving and writing-as-process have some points in common, they cannot be taken as equivalent, because…

Citing articles which focus on the negative impact of computer uses in education, this article makes its case for the uses of computers in the classroom. Drill and practice instruction is described. Questions for future research are posed. (JL)