Interactive multimedia (IMM) and problem-based learning (PBL) are both promoted in response to the current need to offer authentic and effective professional education. An emphasis on collaborative work in PBL contexts may have discouraged the application of IMM, more commonly designed for individual use. This paper describes preliminary…

This paper outlines CLEW (collaborative learning environment for the Web). The project combines MUD (Multi-User Dimension), workflow, VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and educational concepts like constructivism in a learning environment where students actively participate in the learning process. The MUD shapes the environment structure.…

This paper describes a computer-supported environment designed to facilitate distance learning through collaborative problem-solving. The goal is to encourage distance learning students to work together, in order to promote both learning of collaboration and learning through collaboration. Collaboration is defined as working together on a common…

In 1989, a consortium of four community colleges in Southern California (i.e., Cerritos College, Mt. San Antonio College, Rancho Santiago College, and Rio Hondo College) received a Title III grant of $2.5 million to support the development of innovative teaching and learning programs. The specific goals of the project are to increase the academic…

The purpose of this practicum was to increase homework productivity and reinforce basic skills in a third-grade class. Other objectives were to relieve the burden of parents who were unable to help their children with homework and to improve communication between parent, teacher, and child. Homework assignments were made daily by the teacher.…

An overview is provided of the evaluation of the Lighthouse Project, an education enhancement project that began in one urban and two suburban districts. Its methodology was the context for showing how the focus on the results of a standardized achievement test in mathematics inhibited the implementation of mathematics reform in the elementary…

Integration of environmental education and second language instruction is discussed, with two purposes: to describe educators' efforts to protect the planet's deteriorating environment, and to explore what destructive attitudes and actions that have led to environmental devastation have their counterparts in language education methods. The…

This essay on the necessity of colleges and universities to become truly inclusive institutions focuses on particular issues affecting black students. These include the concept and policy of affirmative action, the dangerous implications of "hate speech," and the exploitation of black athletes by universities. The essay urges the use of…

The educational potential accessible with the aid of international communications networks and computer-mediated communication was explored with Finnish secondary school students in an ethnographic study that also investigated gender differences and quality of education. Subjects were 108 students (46 males and 62 females) from six classes in…

The Practitioner Center, an innovation which provides a vehicle for a transactional approach to teacher growth and professional development, incorporates the concept of peer leadership with "teachers teaching teachers" and teachers acting as coaches. The organizers of the practitioner center decided on a 5-part format which is covered in…

Several strategies are presented that have been used in computer-literacy courses and been found to be successful for reducing computer anxiety and increasing computer confidence in preservice teachers: (1) give them an overview; (2) speak in their language; (3) find the friendliest computer system; (4) have them play; (5) make the computer fit…

The Global Thinking Project at Georgia State University and the Department of Middle Secondary Education and Instructional Technology sponsored a Symposium on Global Thinking Research, in November, 1993. The following 11 papers were presented at the symposium: (1) "Teaching Students to Think Globally" (Jack Hassard); (2)…

Cooperative learning, as it was constructed in three seventh-grade classrooms in a multi-ethnic middle school, was examined as part of a dissertation study that focused on cooperative learning as embedded in its sociocultural context. Data were gathered using ethnographic methods, including participant and nonparticipant observations, document…

This paper is a summary report of a study of the effects of training in conflict resolution and cooperative learning in an alternative high school in New York City. Three of the school's four campuses participated, with Campus A receiving conflict resolution training, Campus C receiving cooperative learning training, and Campus B receiving…

A way in which second language teachers can use analysis of student discourse to understand how small group interaction defines students' roles relative to each other is demonstrated in a case study. The study compared the participant role of a 21-year-old Japanese male student in an intensive English second language program in two different…