Are instant messaging and text messaging killing language? To hear what the popular media say, a handful of OMGs (oh my Gods) and smiley faces, along with a paucity of capital letters and punctuation marks, might be bringing English to its knees. Although journalists tend to sensationalize the linguistic strangeness of "online lingo," quantitative…

Outlines how word processing programs can be used to create flexible programs for teaching reading and writing skills. Describes two curriculum development projects in the U.S. Department of Education Basic Skills Program that used word processing to develop an integrated language arts program. (MD)

Arguing that children need access to word processing to reap the same benefits as adult writers, a fourth-grade teacher convinced her administration to provide one computer per child during their writing workshop periods. Having portable word processors liberated student writers by making the mechanical aspects of writing easier. Students could…

Discusses the uses of the computer and how it is changing society. In the classroom computers teach new skills and can provide instructional microworlds and minilaboratories in which students carry out experiments. Includes suggestions for preparing written assignments and an outline for a course on preparing teachers for using computers. (MD)

A Maryland middle-school teacher can no longer imagine a math classroom without computers, word processing programs, graphing calculators, graphic design programs, and colored printers and monitors. Aided by these devices, her students made great leaps toward the 21st-century technology goals spelled out by the Department of Education in 1995.…

Contends that business education, including keyboarding, accounting, word processing, and business fundamentals, will have a crucial role in preparing productive citizens in the emerging service-related economy. (TE)

Although instructional technology has made large gains in the last 15 years in terms of the quantity and quality of computers available in schools, major questions remain about the effects of all this technology on student achievement. The author has conducted a series of studies to address these questions. By analyzing test score and…

Many South Chicago schools are successfully using older technologies, including photomechanical language-lab consoles, revamped and networked PCs, and "ancient" software packages rivaling today's expensive, repackaged products. Re-use is cost-effective. Schools should differentiate among computers' capabilities. Despite big industry's…

Despite countless networking and interactive possibilities, the most commonly assigned use of classroom technology during 1997-98 was word processing, followed by Internet research and information gathering. Schools' reliance on general-purpose computing devices will eventually yield to lower cost, hand-held, and networked devices. (Contains 10…