This report records tasks completed during the last 3 years by the Commonwealth of Learning, which has promoted, supported, advanced, and enriched the practice of distance and open learning Commonwealth-wide since 1989. It begins with two messages: "There Will Have To Be Another Way" (H. Ian Macdonald) and "Achieving Goals, Working…

Two Australian agencies planned, developed, piloted, and evaluated an online resource for teaching independent living skills to adult students with a mild intellectual disability using technology and the Internet. The resource, called Life Online, is a package of support resource materials tested in regional classrooms in Victoria, Australia.…

This guide features information about the latest initiatives by the U.S. Department of Education, an update on specific programs for schools and teachers, and a list of services and resources, both at the Department's headquarters in Washington, DC, and nationwide. Introductory pages provide information on nine of the Department's latest…

Addressed primarily to elementary school teachers working with children in grades one through three and grounded in developmentally appropriate practice, this book provides a practical framework for making teaching effective and learning meaningful for children in these early grades. Chapters in Part 1 of the book each present one of six teaching…

This book demonstrates how lifelong learning has become a rapidly developing reality as learning communities emerge in which business and industry, schools, colleges, universities, professional organizations, and local government are cooperating and building dynamic new environments to foster learning. The following are among the topics discussed:…

The adult literacy community is undergoing a period of rapid change due to the expanding role of information and communication technologies (ICT). Developments in instructional and educational design and enhanced technical capabilities have impacted on the range of online learning being offered. The online learning environment has evolved into a…

The extent of vocational education and training (VET) teachers' knowledge about and experiences of online learning and teaching was examined in a collaborative research project undertaken with leading practitioners of VET online in technical and further education (TAFE) in South Australia in 2000. Eighteen VET practitioners considered at the…

These papers examine various perspectives on the gender debate in education: (1) "'Too Strong for a Woman': The Five Words That Created Title IX" (Bernice R. Sandler); (2) "Feminists Discover the Hidden Injuries of Coeducation" (David Tyack and Elisabeth Hansot); (3) "Images of Relationship" (Carol Gilligan); (4)…

English is not the most widely spoken language in the world, but it is the most widely used by non-native speakers, making the teaching of English as a Second Language a very important endeavor. This book provides an overview of English language teaching, giving the reader a general background on the issues related to language…

A growing awareness of the potential importance to education of media such as radio, television, and motion pictures, is reflected in the notable increase in published literature on the subject.. This first revision in 4 years of the Office of Education's "Radio and Television Bibliography" contains significant additions in virtually every aspect…

Interactive television (iTV) is a new media technology that has great potential for supporting second language learning, particularly for independent adult learners. It has many characteristics demanded by modern second language (L2) learning theories and is technologically quite sophisticated. However, in order for it to succeed it needs to fit…

There is little doubt that the advent of collaborative technologies in recent years has brought some significant changes in the way students learn, communicate, and interact with one another. In recent years, this emergence has sparked increased interest for research into the role and impact of instructional technologies on group learning. Despite…

This paper discusses a framework for designing online tasks that capitalizes on the possibilities that the Internet and the Web offer for language learning. To present such a framework, we draw from constructivist theories (Brooks and Brooks, 1993) and their application to educational technology (Newby, Stepich, Lehman and Russell, 1996; Jonassen,…

This paper reports on a study carried out in Thailand investigating the relationship between students' use of an e-learning system and their learning outcomes in a course on Business Statistics. The results show a clear relationship between accesses to the e-learning system, as measured by number of "hits", and outcomes, as measured by…

Open and distance learning (ODL) is increasingly being regarded as a viable policy option for developing countries with limited educational resources for buildings, books and trained teachers, seeking to increase accessibility for large numbers of learners in education and training opportunities. Advocates of ODL as an appropriate solution to…