Compares seven mid- to high-end multimedia authoring software systems that combine graphics, sound, animation, video, and text for Windows and Macintosh platforms. A run-time project was created with each program using video, animation, graphics, sound, formatted text, hypertext, and buttons. (LRW)

Proposes and illustrates a method of identifying key words in text, and leads from this proposal to the notion of key key words (words that are key in many texts). Notes that a key key word has associates: words that are key in the same texts as a given key key word. Notes that these associates can be grouped together in clumps. (18 references)…

Highlights some popular search engines and presents guidelines on making queries, narrowing a search, using quotation marks and how and when to used advanced searches. Discusses special search tools for World Wide Web and CD-ROM products and homework assistance software. Lists the network locations of five popular search engines. (AEF)

From 1988 to 1996, employment in high-technology industries shifted toward services. Growth in these industries accounted for all of the net increase in research and development employment in the United States. (SK)

Discusses the use of a dynamic geometry software package to improve teaching of graph theory in basic graph sketching and in isomorphic, bipartite, and planar graphs. (JRH)

Examines screen capture, the technique of transferring an on-screen image or monitor display to a text or graphics file using a built-in utility feature or specialized software. Discusses uses of screen captures; kinds, sources, common, and uncommon features of software; and the simplest ways to screen capture on Macs and Windows-based computers.…

Describes a collection of systematic theory-based analyses of a system prototype that inherited its control mechanisms from preexisting systems. Demonstrates that collective use of system and user modeling techniques provides insight into a complex design problem, enabling the examination of design decisions for users and implementation. Discusses…

Provides an applications-oriented view of algorithmic historiography and how it relates to understanding scientific paradigms. Discusses HistCite[TM], a program that allows scholars to identify significant works on a given topic; paradigm shifts; a genealogic approach; citation analyses; correcting variations in citations; and bibliographic…

Discusses Web design accessibility from the perspective of a librarian who is legally blind. Explains problems encountered with the growing use of graphics as opposed to text-based sites and suggests steps that librarians can take to help make the Web more accessible. (LRW)

Calls for principals to collect data on student performance that go beyond scores on high-stakes tests. Explains reasons for selecting student assessment data that are reliable, universal, and understandable. Describes three advantages of commercial electronic assessment programs: quick feedback, ease of use, and multiplicity. (PKP)

Describes research conducted with Hong Kong university students that investigated challenges to collaboration during computer-assisted instruction as evidenced by discourse. Evaluates videotapes of the students according to a set of discourse markers and suggests implications for software designers, teachers, and students to enhance collaboration…

Compared the performance of four polytomous item response theory (IRT) and three linear models for constructing adjusted grade-point-average (GPA) measures. Studies involving cohorts of 1,255 and 1,796 college students and an additional 1,823 and 1,879 college students. Discusses implications of findings for correlation of grade-based measures and…

Reports the results of a survey conducted shortly after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through its U.S. Library Program, awarded a statewide grant of computers and software to public libraries in Louisiana, to gather data about the grant's impact on library staff. A copy of the survey is appended. (Author/LRW)

Describes the use of Autodesk Revit, a computer software system for design and documentation of buildings, in the planning of the University Center of Chicago, a large residence hall involving the cooperation of DePaul University, Columbia College, and Roosevelt University. (EV)

Focuses on the role of tools provided by a computer microworld (C.AR.ME) on the strategies developed by 14-year-old students for the area measurement of a non-convex polygon. Interprets and classifies student strategies on a transformation and comparison task into categories in terms of the tools used for their development. (Author/MM)