Group treatment, education, support, and organizational and community participation are now available through telephone and computer technology. A review of professional, popular, and social psychology literature, and a conceptual framework for social work practice is presented. Ways to prepare social workers and guidelines for practice are…

Studies the electronic contributions of academic and practitioner public relations professionals on the listserv called PRForum. Examines 200 messages for dialectic interacts (two or more messages on one topic); analyzes further in terms of the applied model of speech act theory. Assesses the impact of language creation via technology, especially…

Describes a broad framework for examining economic aspects of the Internet; the framework consists of four sets of processes, services, and participants, including information creation, use, communication, and value-added information processes. Each process involves several economic measures and relationships among these measures. Examples are…

Looks for appropriate interaction analysis/content analysis techniques that assist in examining the negotiation of meaning and coconstruction of knowledge in collaborative learning environments facilitated by computer conferencing. Reviews strengths and shortcomings of existing interaction analysis techniques and proposes a new model based on…

Draws upon the metaphor of "apprenticeship" to explain how individual cognitive development of children and adults alike can be enhanced by mentoring relationships within a particular educational "culture." Proposes that computers and related technologies can be instrumental in creating socially interactive and reflective learning communities.…

University portals provide a new computerized interface between colleges and constituent groups. This article discusses: campus portals and possible features they may contain, nine strategies for portal projects, collaborative mechanisms to develop and implement portal projects, criteria for determination of campus portal readiness, potential…

Describes a survey on factors influencing the use of computer mediated communication (CMC) by teachers in secondary schools in Brussels (Belgium). Results show predictors of CMC use included language teaching (due to a CMC project oriented toward language teachers), the willingness of teachers to adopt technological innovations, and perceived CMC…

Investigates the use of asynchronous (mailing lists) and synchronous (chat sessions) Internet-based communication and its impact on teachers' attitudes toward collaboration, activity completion rate, and test performance. Also examines the impact of collaboration on activity completion rate and teacher performance measured by objective tests. The…

This essay proposes the theory of normative behavior and presents general discussions of two communities-the online world of virtual communities and the world of feminist booksellers associated with the Women in Print Movement-that can be used as test cases for that theory. (Contains 73 references.) (AEF)

An intranet is a system which has "domesticated" the technologies of the Internet for specific organizational settings and goals. Although the adaptability of Hypertext Markup Language to intranets is sometimes limited, implementing various protocols and technologies enable organizations to share files among heterogeneous computers,…

Discusses the history and current uses of the JACC (Journalism Association of Community Colleges) NEWS Internet-based mailing list. Describes the service's origins as a dial-up bulletin board, its functioning as an Internet newsgroup, its future, and a related community college wire service. (MAB)

Describes a study that examined the impact of the use of electronic mail and a newsgroup on practicing physical education teachers and physical education doctoral students at Ohio State University. Topics include the effect of electronic communication on teachers; problems with electronic networking; and teacher perceptions, especially regarding…

Investigates issues fundamental to computer-assisted, multicultural education. Studied Asian American middle school students who corresponded electronically with culturally dissimilar students. Findings indicate that students of different ethnic backgrounds may have different attitudes about and knowledge of computers, cross-cultural communication…

Focuses on computer systems that support groups who complete tasks together despite separations in space, time, or variations in team size. Reviews the literature on the history of the technology, application packages, case histories, and current research, and includes a synopsis of activity in academic and commercial institutions. Contains 217…

Investigates social support for older adults in the computer-mediated environment. Finds that: satisfaction with Internet providers of social support was significantly higher for high Internet users than for low Internet users, whereas low Internet users were more satisfied with their non-Internet support networks than high Internet users; and…