This paper describes a computer conferencing experiment carried out at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. The conference provided the students an interactive learning environment appropriate for practicing argumentation and developing their argumentation skills. Participants were 31 undergraduate students. Two tutors, who were top students in…

On the third Tuesday of each month, U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley, and Deputy Secretary, Madeleine M. Kunin, host the Satellite Town Meeting--a live, interactive teleconference where renowned national experts, local educators, and community leaders share ideas on how to improve schools and reach the National Educational Goals. It…

Long distance, or wide area, computer networking can change teaching and learning dramatically. Teachers and students with access to a computer, a modem, and phone lines are freed from the physical limits of a school building and time schedules. They can communicate with peers and gain access to electronic resources, making individualized…

This report contains a collection of papers presented at a workshop on telecommunications-based training systems as part of the DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) Action Line III, which addressed research in telecommunications for open and distance education. The following presentations are included: (1)…

Successful learning in a discursive interaction demands that participants be able to follow the interaction from its beginning to its end; instruction on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) poses challenges because, unlike in face-to-face interaction, not all messages are serial. This paper offers strategies and techniques to help ALN teachers…

Advances in technology and health care delivery have included the use of telemedicine and telepsychology for crisis intervention, assessment, treatment, and education of patients. The use of telemedicine and telepsychology is examined for a variety of health care services to rural America. Telehealth has been considered a partial solution to the…

This paper describes the distance education program at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, which has been ongoing for 22 years: offers 325 courses to over 18,000 students annually; and offers three different degrees entirely by correspondence study. Issues and problems that concern the program are discussed, i.e., withdrawal rates, course…

Intended to help public broadcasters make informed decisions on the use of the new technologies to enhance their services and programming, this report outlines the relative strengths and weaknesses of new applications, describes selected options that may be available to public broadcasting, and provides cost and market projections to enable…

Four papers discuss both perceived and tested uses of communications satellites for amplifying access to information and for fostering networking among higher educational institutions around the world. Derived from the work of the Foundation for the International Exchange of Scientific and Cultural Information by Telecommunications (FISCIT), a…

Based on the concept of telecommunications as an effective means for creating a forum on school restructuring, the first video conference in a series of nine focuses on recent research on learning and describes the characteristics of successful learners from three perspectives: cognitive, philosophical, and multicultural. Provided in this…

Based on the assumption that changes in the educational experience require changes in the evaluation of student learning, this fourth guidebook in a series of nine video conferences on school restructuring presents information on the evolution of student assessment. Four shifts in educational assessment are identified: from testing to multiple…

This paper describes an audio teleconferencing system enhanced with a microcomputer-based telewriting system and examines its application in the delivery of university courses in statistics, microcomputer applications in special education, nursing issues, introductory writing, and staff development for teachers. The actual application of the…

An audioteleconferencing system enhanced with a microcomputer-based telewriting system was used for the delivery of an introductory statistics course designed for home study which was offered by Athabasca University. From the instructor's point of view, the telewriter system made supporting the delivery of the statistics course much easier and…

The Telephone Conference Network, sponsored by The Pennsylvania State University's Coordinating Council for Health Care, is designed as a cost-effective format for providing inservice training in geriatric mental health for individuals who serve the elderly. Institutions which subscribe to the Telephone Conference Network are equipped with a…

This report describes educational applications of slow-scan television (SSTV) teleconferencing, which uses a video signal generated from a standard, low-cost, industrial television camera and compressed to a bandwidth suitable for transmission over telephone lines. Following a brief explanation of the capabilities of SSTV and the required…