The North Carolina State Board of Education, as part of the Quality Assurance Program established a computer proficiency requirement for diplomas issued to the high school classes of 2001 and beyond. The North Carolina Tests of Computer Skills (multiple-choice and performance) must be administered at the end of grade eight with subsequent…

This study reports the findings of a survey of students enrolled in a distance education English course at Cambrian College. In fall 1999, the college began a trial delivery of freshman English using WebCT software. The trial involved six classes ranging from seven to twenty-one students, with a total of 76 students. The instructor had several…

This paper describes work aimed at catering the content of World Wide Web (WWW) pages to the needs of different users, including elderly people and users with vision and motor impairments. An overview is provided of the AVANTI system, a European WWW-based tourist information system that adapts Web pages to each user's individual needs before…

An evaluation of the "Discovering Democracy" program, launched by the Commonwealth government in May 1997 to provide civics and citizenship education in schools across Australia, recommended developing a Web site to disseminate curriculum resources. This paper defines a prototype by examining the features of Web sites established by…

One of the most promising possibilities of the World Wide Web resides in its potential to support distance education. In 1996, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria developed the "INNOVA Project" in order to promote Web-based training and learning. As a result, the Virtual Classroom Interface (IVA) was created. Several software…

The integration of a corpus-based approach in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) syllabus is one possible course design step in university settings. This paper describes a situation in which Business English is taught by incorporating corpus-driven knowledge and communicative task feedback. Two main goals are pursued in this reciprocal…

A joint-use academic/public library has been established by the University of Southern Queensland (Australia), in a partnership with the Hervey Bay City Council, to fulfill the school's commitment to bringing tertiary education to the region. This report examines this unique relationship (one of only three like it in the world) from its…

This book presents a collection of tips focused around six themes. In "Teaching Techniques," teachers share ways in which they have increased their effectiveness and enhanced their interaction with students. "Content" provides methods of delivering art, science, reading, and other subjects in ways that will inspire and motivate…

This report discusses a project that adapted new automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to provide real-time speech-to-text transcription as a support service for students who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH). In this system, as the teacher speaks, a hearing intermediary, or captionist, dictates into the speech recognition system in a…

This Issue Brief presents data from two surveys conducted through the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Fast Response Survey System (FRSS)a 1999 survey of public school Internet access and a 1999 survey of public school teachers use of computers and the Internetto examine whether teachers who report having classroom access and…

Many national and provincial initiatives are underway to specify the technology skills that students must demonstrate at each grade level. The Government of the Province of Alberta in Canada has mandated the implementation of a new curriculum beginning in September 2000 called the "Information and Communication Technology Program of…

This paper reports on the development and evaluation of "WoundCare: an Interactive Learning Program for Health Professionals" (trial version). The major goal of this project was to develop an interactive multimedia application that could be used by student nurses to enhance learning related to the assessment and treatment of people with…

This paper presents a case study analyzing the instructional design process and interactive World Wide Web product developed by instructional technology graduate students at Virginia Tech to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) CONNECT distance education program. The NASA CONNECT program is described, and the various…

Under the concept of lifelong education, many people from many parts of the social environment will need to be trained and learn about IT (Instructional Technology). The authors have started building a framework for such people, as a distance educational model of self/collaborative learning support. The purpose of this study is to propose and…

This report describes a new approach to teaching science, math, and technology to students, especially girls, with disabilities, who frequently do not have access to appropriate instruction in these critical areas for future academic success. Many specific suggestions, along with a sample lesson that can be used immediately, are presented as part…