This issue of the "Early Childhood Bulletin" explains the developmental and learning implications of play for very young children and outlines ways in which assistive technology can open doors to play for children with disabilities. The importance of incorporating assistive technology into a child's early intervention program through the…

The Technology Mentor Fellowship Program (TMFP), a consortium consisting of 6 rural East Texas school districts, 1 urban Central Texas School district, and Texas A&M University has designed an approach for integrating technology into teacher preparation programs that impacted over 5,000 minority, language-minority, and children of poverty and…

This digest reviews the current state of teacher preparation for using educational technology to improve student performance and achievement, describing promising initiatives for improving teachers' technology training. Though most teachers have some familiarity with computers, many do not incorporate computer skills into classroom instruction.…

The WebNet 2001 conference addressed research, new developments, and experience related to the Internet, intranets, and extranets. The 452 contributions of WebNet 2001 presented in this volume consist of the full and short papers accepted for presentation at the conference. Major topics covered include: commercial, business, professional, and…

This document contains the following papers on graduate, inservice, and faculty use of telecommunications from the SITE (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) 2002 conference: (1) "Behind the Scenes: The Process of Implementing a High School Web-Based Course" (Merry Boggs, Holly Patterson-McNeill, Diehl Boggs); (2) "A Study of…

The aims of CREATIS (Creating the Information Society) were to provide the West Lothian (Scotland) community with the highest quality information technology (IT) learning opportunities, a high capacity communications infrastructure and a hardware base that would: connect West Lothian's schools, libraries and community education centers to the West…

Threaded discussion forums are asynchronous, World Wide Web-based discussions occurring under a number of different topics called threads. By allowing students to post, read, and respond to messages independently of time or place, threaded discussion forums give students an opportunity for deeper reflection and more thoughtful replies than chat…

These two issues of the journal present information on the English Teachers' Association of Israel, report on various conferences, and offer the following articles: "The Winter Conference Report" (Riva Levenchuk and Rananah Gold); "Traditional Creativity" (Simon Lichman); "An Inspector Calls" (Shai Aran); "Using…

This paper describes the evaluation of high quality learning designs, which are being selected for possible redevelopment in a National Project funded by the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC). The project focuses on "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Their Role in Flexible Learning" and is evaluating…

Noting that computers are reshaping children's lives in profound and unexpected ways, this report examines potential harms and promised benefits of these changes, focusing on early childhood and elementary education. Chapter 1 argues that popular attempts to hurry children intellectually are at odds with the natural pace of human development.…

This article describes a collaborative project between an English language class in Japan and one in the United States. The institutions involved were Tokyo International University (TIU), located in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan, and its branch campus, Tokyo International University of America (TIUA) in Salem, Oregon. This project created an…

This is the second in an annual series of reports that summarize financing trends affecting higher education. The report notes that state appropriations to higher education reached $56.7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2000, an increase of 7 percent over FY 1999, and the largest ever appropriated by states for higher education. The 1999 legislative…

This study measured and compared the pre- and post-course differences in college students' attitudes toward and achievement in an asynchronous, Web-based, health profession course. The distance course included 14 Web-based learning modules that students could complete at their own pace prior to finishing the end of the term. The course also…

This paper describes how multiple sources of information were used by two educators to develop new understandings about their roles as teachers of information technology research to a multinational class. The information was gathered from students who provided feedback via an asynchronous Web-based chat space, e-mail, written assignments, and…

This report discusses the outcomes of a project that investigated the computer, information, and learning and adaptive technology needs and concerns of Canadian postsecondary students with disabilities. A series of four bilingual focus groups involving 31 individuals was held. Focus groups included postsecondary students with various disabilities;…