This ERIC Digest examines some of the trends and issues in academic information systems design and describes the policies of several universities that are taking creative advantage of these systems as educational tools. The current emphasis on microcomputers in campus information networks instead of terminals connected to a mainframe computer is…

Formerly reserved for use by scientists, researchers, and computer buffs, computer networks now have capabilities that make them extremely useful to science teachers and their classes. This digest is designed to provide educators with some basic background on computer communications and to provide a few examples of computer networks that are…

Based on the premise that computer networks are changing the way people think and interact, this Digest discusses some features of electronic discourse as a relatively new form of discourse and examines the current research on computer mediated communication text. The Digest suggests further research on how other features of electronic discourse…

According to an instructor of basic writing in the Writing Lab at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, he can teach differently in a computer-networked writing lab than he did in a conventional classroom. Because the room is designed to teach writing and nothing else, it offers a congenial workspace where the teacher can interact with…

Due in part to the 1989 passage of the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendments, new programs designed to educate college administrators, faculty, and students about alcohol and other drug abuse have taken new directions and dimensions, involving both campuses and local communities in the process. The higher education community has…

Electronic technologies and collection development are two of the top concerns in library and information science today. The challenges of integrating electronic resources and technologies into the process of collection development are many, and many-faceted. Beyond task-oriented considerations, such as the selection process itself, there are…

Videotex is a generic term used for any electronic system that can be used to retrieve both print and graphic computer-based information via video display monitors or specially adapted television sets. Both one-way (broadcast videotex) and two-way (interactive videotex) exist; these can be used as an information source, a delivery medium, a…

Career services centers are discovering many of the world-wide job and career information resources currently available through the information highway and its primary thoroughfare, the Internet. The problem for students is that many do not have convenient access to on-line computer systems. The Career Services Center at the University of North…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released its first call for proposals for the National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL) program early in 2000. Building on work supported under the multi-agency Digital Libraries Initiative, this program aims to establish a national digital library that will…

This digest discusses how libraries of all types are using the facsimile (or "fax") machine to meet users' information needs. A definition of facsimile technology includes the components of a fax machine, the four types of fax machines, and the recent development of the "fax board," which allows a computer to transmit…

While the overall effect of the impact of technology on health, physical education, recreation, and dance education (HPERD) in the areas of research, classroom, teaching, and distance education is not yet fully assessable, the presence of technology in so many different aspects of the profession makes it important to more clearly recognize and…

MOO stands for "Multi-user domain, Object-Oriented." Early multi-user domains, or "MUDs," began as net-based dungeons-and-dragons type games, but MOOs have evolved from these origins to become some of cyberspace's most fascinating and engaging online communities. MOOs are social environments in a text-based virtual reality…

A content analysis was performed to determine the trends in the field of educational technology for the period October 1, 1994 through September 30, 1995. Sources for the analysis included five leading professional journals in educational technology, papers given at annual conventions of three professional associations, dissertations from five…

The Internet is an international computer network encompassing thousands of smaller interconnected networks. This digest describes various uses of the Internet and its impact on libraries, as well as Internet-related library issues. The Internet applications of electronic mail (E-mail), telnet, and file transfer protocol (FTP) are briefly…

This digest is intended to help vocational educators learn to make the best use of the World Wide Web. Among the vocational education-related websites and uses of the web profiled are the following: a website that Minnesota high school students can use to search for career opportunities and check local classified ads; a website through which…