Discusses how today's technology is encouraging schools to invest in furnishings that are adaptable to computer use and telecommunications access. Explores issues concerning modularity, wiring management, ergonomics, durability, price, and aesthetics. (GR)

Describes how Clarion and Edinboro universities bundled their university-related telecommunications services with residence hall services and sought a vendor consortia to install and manage those services. In return for long-term contracts granting the right to sell services, the two consortia invested money to install data networks in the…

Considers the definition of critical literacy as a subset of information literacy and discusses how schools can become information literate with the rise of communications technologies. Highlights include continuous learning; metacognitive processes; critical and creative thinking; and learning communities. (LRW)

Discusses the educational uses of Electronic Data Exchange and a decision-support system. Describes purpose and products of partnership between Association of School Business Officials, International (www.asbointl.org/) and National Forum on Educational Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov/forum/). (PKP)

This paper describes the use of an activity theory (AT) framework to analyze the ways that distance part time learners and mobile workers adapted and appropriated mobile devices for their activities and in turn how their use of these new tools changed the ways that they carried out their learning or their work. It is argued that there are two key…

Objective: The current study determined the viability of using the telephone to facilitate assessment of children using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for children for DSM-IV (ADIS-C-IV). Method: Diagnoses established during telephone administration of the ADIS-C-IV-Parent version were compared with diagnoses obtained during standard…

The Wireless Online Tutoring System (WOTS) is a web-based, synchronous groupware system that has been developed to facilitate student collaboration in group projects. It supports interactive and collaborative structured-diagramming and is equipped with group awareness features such as remote cursors, locking, and textbased instant messaging. Users…

There is a need to incorporate constructivist environments in the pedagogical practice. A constructivist learning environment allows students to build up their own knowledge (based on previous one) while working jointly among them in a reflexive process directed by the teacher. Wireless interconnected handhelds can introduce a space that favours…

We present three studies in mobile learning. First, we polled 333 Japanese university students regarding their use of mobile devices. One hundred percent reported owning a mobile phone. Ninety-nine percent send e-mail on their mobile phones, exchanging some 200 e-mail messages each week. Sixty-six percent e-mail peers about classes; 44% e-mail for…

This project describes the trialling of a new form of cooperative learning strategy, in the form of a game known as "EcoRangers". "EcoRangers" is a multi-player game designed to run on mobile phones, written specifically for education. "EcoRangers" is one of the first, if not the world's first, instances of this…

Telementoring, also referred to as e-mentoring or online mentoring, has been carried out in a wide range of K-12 environments and continues to grow in popularity. Through a review of several studies, we argue that the potential for telementoring to support deeper and more authentic school learning will not be fully realized unless researchers pay…

When we planned the editorial calendar with the topic ubiquitous computing, we were thinking of ubiquitous computing as the one-to-one ratio of computers to students and teachers and 24/7 access to electronic resources. At the time, we were aware that ubiquitous computing in the computer science field had more to do with wearable computers. Our…

This article describes new presentation tools and game shows that can make the classroom into a learning stage. RM Easiteach Studio, a presentation software from RM Educational Software, provides teaching tools for use on any interactive whiteboard. Classroom Jeopardy[R] from Educational Insights includes a scoreboard/base control unit, three…

In "The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture," sociologist Manuel Castells argues that information and communication technologies are associated with a new kind of economy, society, and culture that he calls "informationalism." In this new economic order, knowledge generation, information processing, and symbolic communication--"the…

There is a sense of anticipation in higher education technology circles these days, a feeling of prickly excitement that hasn't been experienced since the heady days of the dot-com boom. For the past five years, the landscape has been littered with funding shortfalls, problems with network capacity and security, and the never-ending scramble of…