Focuses on effective technology training for library staff. Discusses helping staff overcome technophobia; suiting technology-based jobs with staff members' needs and capabilities; providing a policy/procedure manual to guide the training; the steps that should occur in training; aligning training with in-house library resources and services;…

Describes findings of a report issued by the United States Department of Commerce that revealed the "digital divide" between households of different races and income levels is growing. Highlights two partnership projects offering computer training and equipment donations. (AEF)

Explores situated cognition, arguing that the construct of "community of practice" is useful as an analytical lens in which to examine the domain of educational technology. Traces the history of educational technology, and how it is embedded in a larger social and political environment that excludes those who exist on the margins from…

Focusing on languages for the Dublin Core, examines the experience of some related ways to seek semantic interoperability through simplicity: planned languages, interlingua constructs, and pidgins. Also defines the conceptual and organizational problem of maintaining a metadata standard in multiple languages. (AEF)

Examines implications of the Year 2000 Problem for libraries in the next millennium. Discusses planning ahead for on-time subscription service delivery; preventing a domino effect on cataloging service; vendor preparations; examples of librarians' perspectives; checking for compliance; and a bibliography of sources. (AEF)

Describes methods for developing and delivering library instruction in an electronic format. Discusses using a customized Web site as a backup for live instruction; creating a computer-generated slide presentation to accompany a live lecture or to be placed on the Web; writing a self-paced Web tutorial; and developing a complete online library…

The problems associated with integrating limited-English-speaking students into English-speaking college classrooms are difficult to resolve. Beginning in fall 1998, the American College Testing Programs' new computer-adaptive English-as-a-Second-Language Assessment Battery, designed for use in postsecondary education programs, will help identify…

Explains what XML (Extensible Markup Language) is; where to find it in a few years (everywhere from Web pages, to database management systems, to common campus applications); issues that will make XML somewhat of an experimental strategy in the near term; and the importance of decision-makers being abreast of XML trends in standards, tools…

Describes Apex (Assistant for Preparing Exams), a tool for evaluating student essays based on their content. By comparing an essay and the text of a given course on a semantic basis, the system can measure how well the essay matches the text. Various assessments are presented to the student regarding the topic, outline, and coherence of the essay.…

Analysis of the responses of 467 public school speech-language pathologists to a questionnaire concerning computer applications identified the types of hardware available to respondents, factors that respondents felt were important in choosing software, and the type and degree of computer training respondents had. The questionnaire is appended.…

Describes the development and current status of virtual reality (VR) and VR research. Market potentials for VR are discussed, including the entertainment industry, health care and medical training, flight and other simulators, and educational possibilities. A glossary of VR-related terms is included. (LRW)

Describes a graphic modeling, natural language processing system, VerbalImage, which mimics features of human shape reasoning. Subjects read the same text description and were able to recognize the image generated by the computer from among a series of other computer-generated images. Performance on task was as good as for a control group…

Defines a "geek" as a person in love with technology, computers, and the Internet, and suggests ways that technology-training professionals can discover their "inner geek" to improve their ability to design appropriate learning and performance systems. Presents actions to take and examples for game playing; exploring; embracing technology;…

This study evaluated three tutorial modules, equivalent in content but different in mode of presentation, for introducing elementary statistics concepts. Fifty-seven college students participated in one of four randomly assigned conditions: paper-and-pencil, basic computerized, computerized multimedia, or control group. Participant evaluations…

Describes the Tufts University Health Sciences Database, which combines course delivery, digital library, knowledge management, and curriculum management systems. (EV)