Suggesting the need for a balance between literature and intentional skills instruction, this book provides grade 3-6 teachers and administrators with a theoretical base for creating a balanced reading program and gives educators a chance to step into actual classrooms where teachers have successfully implemented effective programs. Each chapter…

In this speech, President Clinton asserts that educational enterprise is now more important than ever and that a candid assessment of it is needed. The American educational system faces unique challenges--a more diverse student population in terms of income, race, ethnicity, and background; fractured authority and financing; schools burdened by…

A 3-D contingent scaffolding model of a hypermedia system is proposed which gradually weans learners off the technical support of instructors or more knowledgeable peers as they master certain skills. The model permits the instructor to vary his or her support in response to the learner's performance in a learning task consisting of a sequence of…

The introduction of affordable multimedia computers with CD-ROM capacity, videocassette recorders, and connections to the Internet and the World Wide Web have expanded opportunities to help society develop visual literacy. Art images are a natural choice for the teaching of visual literacy. At Northern Illinois University, a course was added in…

Adding new chapters on emergent literacy, special needs children, and technology in the reading/writing classroom, the second edition of this book emphasizes that teaching children how to read and write is not enough--teachers must create an environment that invites children to want to read and write for real, communicative purposes. Chapters in…

Educational supervision has historically sought to improve the quality of teaching. This book is a text for undergraduate and graduate students who are engaged in the study of issues in educational supervision; it is a compendium of informed commentaries on current issues written by prominent scholars in the field. The first part (12 chapters)…

More and more, schools are looking to student portfolios as a valid, reliable, and authentic form of assessment. This collection offers practical, well-researched answers to a variety of philosophical, organizational, and implementational questions surrounding portfolio assessment. Articles in the first section provide a rationale for student…

This paper reflects on a two-semester experiment using computer technologies in the university political science classroom. The instructor incorporated electronic mail (e-mail), the Internet, and an on-line conferencing program into the course requirements for an upper-division course on the Supreme Court and an introductory honors tutorial on…

Selecting hardware and software for adult literacy instruction is a complicated task requiring careful attention to the integration of various computer models, software packages, and instructional objectives. Decisions surrounding the acquisition and maintenance of technology are further complicated by limited funding, expertise, information, and…

This paper presents examples from 10 internal consultancies provided by the author within the Open University (United Kingdom) that reveal how teams develop and are integrated into the systems of a complex institution. These consultancies included: providing consulting services to a course team; counseling with a course team chair; serving as a…

As enrollments decline, many institutions rush to implement distance education programs, often with only crude or solely administrative guidelines for program development. The following seven principles of good practice can be useful to guide initial program development: (1) programs should have purpose, direction, leadership, and clearly…

This biennial directory lists a variety of selected resources in the field of postsecondary education and disability, including independent organizations, governmental agencies, and technology-related resources. Listings usually provide name (or title), address, electronic-mail address, telephone number, facsimile number, and a brief description.…

Educational technology tends to be characterized by a lack of targets; therefore, it is time for education to define its targets in aspiring to the school of the future and consider the option of calling in experts from other fields to help in problem solving. This paper predicts that while classroom design may not change too much, classrooms will…

Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and the Extended Learning Institute (ELI) undertook a project to develop the mathematics, science, and engineering courses required to complete an entire Associate of Science degree in Engineering through home study distance education. The project's ultimate goal was to create asynchronous learning…

A software tool called 3D-LAB has been developed for learning and teaching three-dimensional geometry. With this microworld, educators and students can display three dimensional solid objects, rotate them, modify them, open them up, draw points and segments, and measure lengths, areas, volumes, and angles. The major characteristics of this tool…