Portfolio authoring tools within teacher preparation institutions have changed dramatically as portfolios have moved from paper to electronic formats and now to the Web. This study used Engestrom's Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (1987) to examine how portfolio tools, along with external influences and institutional contexts, mediate the…

This paper presents a goal-based scenario approach to teaching introductory database concepts to undergraduates using two different scaffolding methods. One method, termed "worked-out examples," attempts to reduce extraneous cognitive load by requiring students to complete increasingly complex missing parts of worked out examples. The other…

The standards in this document are for digital video and broadcast production programs and are designed to clearly state what the student should know and be able to do upon completion of an advanced high-school program. Digital Video and Broadcast Production is a program that consists of the initial fundamentals and sequential courses that prepare…

This document is intended for classroom teachers, resource personnel, administrators and parents. It is one of a series of documents developed to facilitate programming for students in grades 1 to 12 who have special education needs. The six essential components listed in this document are contained in "Standards for Special Education,…

Open source has continued to evolve and in the past three years the development of a graphical user interface has made it increasingly accessible and viable for end users without special training. Open source relies to a great extent on the free software movement. In this context, the term free refers not to cost, but to the freedom users have to…

This paper presents an example of integrating IT skills using an interesting real life problem. We describe how the reverse- and forward-engineering of the USA National Do Not Call registry was used in our capstone course to illustrate the fusion of different (but interdependent) issues and techniques learned in the IT program. The purpose of the…

The popularity of web-based learning systems has encouraged researchers to pay attention to several new issues. One of the most important issues is the development of new techniques to provide personalized teaching materials. Although several frameworks or methods have been proposed, it remains a challenging issue to design an easy-to-realize…

This student book presents information, games, and activities designed to develop computer literacy and skills. The text is aimed at middle elementary level students but may be adapted for use with younger or older students. Topics are presented in sequence to provide a complete knowledge base. However, each topic is presented with clarity that…

Advances in information and communication technologies give us the ability to reach out beyond the time and place limitations of the traditional classroom. However, effective online teaching is more than just transferring traditional courses to the World Wide Web (WWW). We describe how we have used "off the shelf" software and the infrastructure…

This paper describes applications of logic programming technology to the teaching of the inductive method in computer science and mathematics. It discusses the nature of inductive thought and its place in those fields of inquiry, arguing that a complete logic programming system for supporting inductive inference is not only feasible but necessary.…

Modern computing systems exploit graphical user interfaces for interaction with users; as a result, introductory computer science courses must begin to teach the principles underlying such interfaces. This paper presents an approach to graphical user interface (GUI) implementation that is simple enough for beginning students to understand, yet…

Because college radio offers a less structured environment, a natural habitat is created which provides for broadcasting experimental shows such as Starship Earth, an environmental radio show on East Stroudsburg University's (Pennsylvania) college radio station, WESS 90.3 FM. Environmental problems, issues, and solutions are discussed on the show.…

This paper addresses the television program "Cheers" and demonstrates one way of interpreting the complexity of messages within the program. The interplay of visual messages within the "Cheers" programming is referred to as intertextuality, or the relation of one text to another to express an idea. Two basic types of…

A study examined the effectiveness of the Children's Television Act of 1990 in altering the marketplace for informational and educational children's programming on commercial broadcast television. Producers and distributors of nationally available series that commercial broadcasters were using in 1993 to meet the requirements of the Act were…

The originators of municipal radio station WNYC foresaw radio as a means of extending city government and an instrument to educate, inform, and entertain the citizens. Because the municipal radio concept emerged in the early 1920s, before the medium's industrial structure was entrenched, an opportunity existed to develop an innovative model of…