Describes a vision of a distance learning environment, and emphasizes the use of computers for active communication, participation, and collaboration of instructors and students. Identifies educational activities and matches them with corresponding systems capabilities. (14 references) (Author/DGM)

Explores ideas on how technology can enhance instruction, and explains how these ideas apply to the developmental student. Discusses new materials, technologies, and applications in developmental education and reviews what already exists. Includes information on telecourses, interactive TV courses, video conferencing, Internet support, Web…

Describes the Hewlett Packard (HP) E-Mail Mentoring Program. Lists the program's four main components (teacher contacts, student participants, HP employee members, HP itself) and the application process. Relates how a library media specialist at Rosholt (Wisconsin) High School experienced the program. Concludes with the benefits of…

Introduces the 4-E model that predicts an individual's likelihood of using a telematics application for a learning-related task can be expressed in terms of four main sets of factors: educational effectiveness, ease of use, engagement, and environment. Tests this model through a survey of 550 people involved with educational and training…

Presents the development and application of a new content analysis scheme that focuses on evaluating videoconferencing to support remote tutoring of small groups. Despite an element of subjectivity, the proposed scheme is thought to provide a useful tool capable of identifying the educational impact of variations within a videoconference learning…

Describes the United Kingdom Open University's FirstClass(TM) Computer conferencing system and its role in student support, taking as an example the way it is used for course choice. Suggests that while there are students who use it freely and apparently derive benefit from it, there are also substantial issues to be addressed about its relative…

Long distance, or wide area, computer networking can change teaching and learning dramatically. Teachers and students with access to a computer, a modem, and phone lines are freed from the physical limits of a school building and time schedules. They can communicate with peers and gain access to electronic resources, making individualized…

Analyzes the experiences and experiments of the Open University (OU), United Kingdom, in the use of computer conferencing over 10 years. Provides a framework for considering educational uses of the medium and describes several innovative applications. Highlights the main issues involved in implementing this technology. (Author)

Describes the potential of a FirstClass server in audioconferencing courses at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks using telecommunications, e-mail, student-to-student interaction, submission of assignments, e-mail, timely instructor feedback, and the transfer of files and multimedia documents. Student surveys indicated some positive aspects of…

Explains how students are able to interact with a team of interplanetary scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) by using the Iowa Communications Network (ICN). Discusses the professional development component in detail. (DDR)

Enumerates the reasons that a college campus needs data communications networks and the benefits that will derive. Explains the recent surge in data communications and identifies new products and services. Offers guidelines for decision making, network design, and expanding instructional delivery systems. Considers alternatives available to small…

Describes efforts underway at Pennsylvania State University to link branch campuses using compressed videoconferencing. Discusses the plans for using this technology for a variety of administrative and instructional purposes. Outlines the costs associated with developing such a system. (TW)

Describes the development of a network of 10 sites in Minnesota involving two-way interactive television systems. Discusses the instructional uses of the system, including its potential for use in community education. Outlines the efforts underway at three educational cooperatives which are using the system for instructional and administrative…

Explains the videotex technology and its current uses in business, banking, news, and entertainment. Describes a project underway at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in which the potential of using videotex in education is being explored. Provides examples of videotex use in indepentent study, courses, and home study. (TW)

Reviews technological applications successfully used for distance education by the R. Jan LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications in the Dallas County Community College District (Texas). Applications include videotape and live interactive telecourses, satellite and network teleconferences, and telecommunication resources for businesses,…