This paper highlights features, uses, and training issues related to AltaVista Forums, a World Wide Web-based conferencing tool. An overview of the features of AltaVista Forums is provided; highlights include asynchronous online discussions, chats, document attachments, URL posting, a calendar feature, and mail-to listings. Pricing and system…

The Alliance Library System (ALS) is one of 12 regional library systems in Illinois, providing a full spectrum of support services for 300 member libraries of all types (public, school, academic, and special) located in west central Illinois. This paper describes the process by which ALS implemented a voice/video/data network connecting their four…

The Networked Classroom was implemented by the Southern Interior Telecommunications Project (SITP) to provide computer mediated communication (CMC) to teachers and students in the southern region of British Columbia. The Networked Classroom uses telecommunication networks to link teachers and students from different locations, to support their…

Classroom practitioners need to move their attention away from the technological and logistical competencies required for audio conferencing (AC) to the required communicative competencies in order to advance their skills in handling the psychodynamics of audio virtual classrooms which include audio alone and audio with graphics. While the…

The New York State Technology Network Ties (TNT) systems is a statewide telecommunications network which consists of computers, telephone lines, and telecommunications hardware and software. This network links school districts, Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), libraries, other educational institutions, and the State Education…

This report summarizes four audioconferences held in the spring and summer of 1993 by the Child Care Action Coalition (CCAC) to address the implication of the Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988. The FSA was designed to reduce welfare costs by providing training, education, and child care to recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children…

Developments in telecommunications that are being used or could be used in education are reviewed, and the roles institutional researchers can play are explored. Possible roles cited include: identifying existing resources on campus, conducting market research on the needs of potential users, facilitating telecommunications planning efforts,…

A study was conducted to determine the attitudes of Ohio county extension agents toward satellite video teleconferencing. (Several county extension offices across the state participate in live satellite video teleconferences produced by The Ohio State University. Teleconferences cover a variety of extension education topics, from agriculture to…

This collection of conference papers consists of a series of five case studies conducted in Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. In Denmark, an exploration of computer conferencing in distance education included an examination of the pedagogical motives for using computer conferencing, the availability of computers in study centers, and…

Intended for trainers who have little knowledge of information technology (IT) and its use in education and training, this information sheet describes IT as consisting of three elements--information handling, communications technology, and information transformation--and explains how these elements contribute to the conveying of information. To…

This report summarizes the results of the 1985 Higher Education Utilization Study (HEUS-85), which provides current estimates of the availability, use, and support of instructional telecommunications technologies--video, audio, and computers--in the nation's colleges and universities, and describes the availability and use patterns of these…

Essentially concerned with distance education as innovation in higher education, this paper identifies specific aspects of this innovation through references to three Canadian institutions offering university level courses for credit. It is primarily concerned with Athabasca University in Alberta, a distance education university which originally…

A key to the group dynamics process in teleconferencing is interaction and the use of interactive technologies. The user of teleconferencing for instruction has to accept several underlying assumptions: lecture is not necessarily sound instruction, especially for adults; teleconferencing is easy; and teleconferences require planning. Benefits are…

This paper argues that recent developments in technology hold considerable promise for distance education. Audiocassettes, audiographics (the combining of natural sound, via the telephone or audiocassettes, with computer-generated graphics), videocassettes, and computer conferencing are used as examples to identify factors that should be…

This publication highlights 48 recent ERIC listings which help to explain the variety of emerging technologies for the delivery of information in educational settings. Specific technologies addressed include cable television, electronic mail, satellite communication, teleconferencing, videodisc, and videotex. Entries were selected for inclusion…