Based on the authors' reflections on experience working at the Open University, approaches to making online learning accessible to disabled students are considered. The considerations are applicable to all concerned with online learning and indeed anyone seeking to trade, disseminate information and mediate services online. In reflecting on the…

This study considered the utility of gender schema theory in examining girls' website design preferences. It built on a previous study which identified eight website evaluation criteria related to biological sex: collaboration, social connectivity, flexibility, motility, contextuality, personal identification, inclusion, and graphic/multimedia…

It is often claimed that computers have the potential to engage and motivate children in ways that conventional classroom teaching does not. Children are assumed to have a natural aptitude and enthusiasm for computers; and the Internet is seen to make learning automatically more interesting and exciting. Over the last few years educational…

As use of the Internet continues to expand, the width of the digital divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" will expand as well. Caught in the forefront of the "have nots" are those living within a region of the south known as the Black Belt. This area contains the greatest levels of poor, uneducated, and…

Patterns of Internet-based menu item selection can occur for a number of reasons, many of which may not be based on interest in topic. It then becomes important to ensure menu order is devised in a way that ensures the greatest accuracy in matching user need with selection. This study examined the impact of menu rotation on the selection of…

Scrapbooking is one of the fastest-growing crafts in the world. Unlike sports or other recreational activities, scrapbooking has no rules; it is a form of creative expression that allows a person to share and preserve his or her experiences and memories in albums that usually consist of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other mementos, in…

In 1998 a Burlington, Vermont partnership of a branch of city government and several educational and environmental organizations received a "metro-grant" to develop a project for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under its Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) Program. One goal was to…

This chapter reviews the strengths and challenges of online education and discusses how effective online education is a blend of pedagogy, technology, and organizational support. The author describes how an effectively coordinated online education program is able to foster meaningful learning experiences through unprecedented opportunities for…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of embedded strategies on promoting the use of self-regulated learning strategies (SRLS) in an online learning environment. Cognitive strategies, performance control strategies, and self-efficacy strategies among SRLS were employed as embedded strategies into online learning. Thirty-four college…

The purpose of this study was to develop a task list from which a self-check readiness evaluation tool could be developed to assist faculty who were unfamiliar with televised distance instruction. The study's results should provide guidance to new faculty in identifying both self-directed and assisted staff development activities in preparation…

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) contrasts with standard interventions for depression by increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms. The authors have tested the effects of these interventions in a variety of settings. In informal student and clinical settings, people not uncommonly reported…

Students learn more from introductory weather and climate courses when they can relate theoretical material to personal experience. The ubiquity of weather should make the link obvious but instructors can foster this connection with a variety of simple methods. Here we describe traditional and web-based techniques that encourage students to…

The provision of public Internet access and related networked services by public libraries is affected by a number of information policy issues. This article analyzes the policy dimensions of Internet connectivity in public libraries in light of the data and findings from a national survey of public libraries conducted by the authors of this…

In this article, the authors attempt to discern the characteristic features of social inequality that are manifested with respect to the access that students from the different social strata have to the new information technologies. They analyze the characteristics of the use of the new information technologies by eleventh-grade students and…

This article features the popular social-networking site MySpace.com and describes how the News Corp., new owner of MySpace.com, is proposing safety enhancements for users between the ages of 14 and 16, to make their profiles available only to their circle of friends. It also shares some strategies that have enabled districts to minimize some of…