Argues that effective sociology courses should point to a central contradiction of a social problem or institution. Contends that organizations and organizational theory are prime choices for this role. Concludes that changes in the way work is designed and managed result in more creativity and productivity. (CFR)

Describes an initiative to develop and incorporate early Chinese scientific ideas into the teaching of physics in Hong Kong schools. Provides the background and rationale for the development and gives as an illustration an account of some of the scientific ideas included. Ideas include the Chinese magic mirror, force and motion, and atomic theory.…

Critiques the technologized teaching and learning environments of higher education. Considers the issue of access in relation to learning theory, critical theory, and poststructuralism. Raises questions about embodied nature of teaching and learning and its potential to produce or counter marginalization. (MMU)

Discussion of the adoption of new learning technologies focuses on the need for new frameworks to understand instructional design and use. Highlights include learning resources; hypertext, the Internet and the World Wide Web; consideration of context of use; participatory design; and dynamics between designers and teachers and between teachers and…

Discusses human/computer interaction research, human/computer interface, and their relationships to information literacy. Highlights include communication models; cognitive perspectives; task analysis; theory of action; problem solving; instructional design considerations; and a suggestion that human/information interface may be a more appropriate…

Describes a model for developing interactive multimedia instructional applications called the instructional system development life cycle (ISDLC). Focuses on the pre-design analyses, including task/concept analysis, audience analysis, objectives analysis, constraints analysis, and cost/benefits analysis, that will ensure a pedagogically effective…

Presents some ideas for using the World Wide Web to create more challenging and meaningful learning activities for students. Topics include emphasizing how to link topics to context, rather than emphasizing the information content; using essential questions and authentic assessment; and student needs and abilities. (LRW)

Discusses inconclusive results in educational research about how mediated instruction affects the learner. Topics include the influence of microcomputers; flaws in comparative studies that concentrated on the physical attributes of the medium rather than instructional design issues; aptitude treatment interaction analysis; and media attributes and…

Describes ongoing work in designing modular software components based on open standards and a specific instructional design theoryuinstructional transaction theory. Focuses on applied technological solutions to overcome identified limitations of current authoring environments, including proprietary architectures, instructional design theory…

Describes Instructional Technology Foundations, a graduate Instructional Systems Technology (IST) course at Indiana University (IU). Students learn to compare/contrast conceptual definitions of instructional (IT) and models of instructional design (ID). Students are required to generate their own working definition of IT from a personal…

Evaluated an instructional model designed to promote responsibility among college students (n=197). Students were instructed with verbal presentation only, combined verbal and visual presentation, or verbal and visual presentation coupled with student self-monitoring in journal entries. Significantly higher test scores and fewer disruptive…

Describes formative research methodology and how it can be used for procedural instructional design theory. Compares formative research with formative evaluation for instructional products and discusses objectivity, trustworthiness, construct validity, and the need for greater use of formative research methodology. (Contains 32 references.)…

This letter to the editor favorably comments on an article by Jerry Willis and Kristen Wright, "A General Set of Procedures for Constructivist Instructional Design: The New R2D2 Model" ("Educational Technology, March-April 2000). The writer notes that though the article's purpose is to describe an alternative to the conventional ISD model, it also…

In a recent attempt to infuse her instructional design course at Penn State with the problem-based approach, the author began using real-world cases as the centerpiece for the class. This article describes the course requirements, how cases work, and probably pitfalls to this approach. Two sidebars include an Occupational Hearing Conservation…

Discusses the development of various technologies up through the Internet, and notes that the means have been confused with the ends. Argues that educators and users should first focus on the learning material's content and on performance design that delivers useful results, before selecting the means of delivery (the Internet). (AEF)