The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground--shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location--is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web. This OCLC membership report explores this web of social…

Podcasting (an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/podcast) is becoming increasingly popular in education. Although podcasts enable students and teachers to share information anywhere at anytime, the most frequent application of the technology to date has been to…

The concept of a community of practice (CoP) is prevalent in several venues for teachers' professional development, especially in online environments. However, there are few descriptive accounts that effectively represent a CoP in a manner that will be of use to other designers. In order to illuminate potential difficulties which may arise when…

Students are, increasingly, digital content producers, and participate extensively in evolving online social networks. The emergence of the former represents subtle changes in students' experience of images, audience, copyright, ownership of learning, and technology. Experiencing the latter places students in an awkward position in terms of…

Australia wide, all school systems are in the process of providing teachers with computers and there is an expectation that new teachers will possess the expertise to use them in their teaching. In addition to using computers for basic word processing and data manipulation, early-career science teachers need to be able to use a range of…

Developmental changes in computer training in response to new software and services make the problems of training computer novices more complicated. This paper focuses on methods for training the "haves" and "have nots." The "haves" are those who have had computer technology training in a previous era. The "have nots" have Internet access but no…

This introduction to the Internet explains what it is, how to use it, and how it can be useful to those with an interest in competency-based education. The Internet is a network of over 14,000 networks as of August 1993, with 1,000 being added per month, and at least 1 million machines and 20 million people connected to it. There are several…

Job advertisements listed in "American Libraries" and "Library Hotline" from January 1993 to January 1997 and archived through the Hypertext Archives for LIBJOBS from August 1995 to January 1997 were examined to determine the job opportunities and qualifications for systems librarians. The job opportunities were analyzed in…

This study aims to: (1) determine if a relationship exists between faculty characteristics and attitudes concerning various forms of instructional technology; (2) document information regarding instructional technology training; (3) determine if a relationship exists between faculty characteristics and attitudes concerning distance education; (4)…

A recent master's level course in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State University pushed the envelope on using instructional Internet technologies. This course utilized several in-person sessions (both on- and off-campus), e-mail, and a dedicated World Wide Web site. The majority of classes were held over…

Describes the development of the Hagerstown (Indiana) public library's Web site. Highlights include writing successful grant proposals for funding; software from Microsoft; community support; free community access to the Internet from home computers as well as at the library; problems encountered; and future plans. (LRW)

An article and four sidebars examine tools that help information professionals perform efficient Internet searches. Topics include search engine features, integrated software applications, document management and creation utilities, the speed of online communications, intelligent agents for filtering information, cross-platform networking…

Software programs and Internet and World Wide Web addresses that are available to facilitate data sharing by colleges and universities are listed. Included are government sites, institutional research offices and services, and information on emerging technologies that offer promise in this area. (Author/MSE)

As an aid to humanities librarians, this article reviews 14 Internet databases, available without subscription, that support research in the fields of art and architecture. Each site entry includes name, Internet address, access instructions, special software instructions whenever relevant, an outline of scope, a discussion of usefulness, and a…

Provides advice for making school Internet-use guidelines. Outlines responsible proactive use of the Internet for educators and librarians, discusses strengths and weaknesses of Internet blocking software and rating systems, and describes acceptable-use policies (AUP). Lists resources for creating your own AUP, Internet filtering software, and…