Describes innovative distance-learning programs involving NYNEX, a New York telephone company, and discusses their educational implications. Highlights include The Living Schoolbook project that links elementary and secondary schools with high-performance computers, distance learning at the New York Institute of Technology, and online classes…

Defines distance education; provides a historical background; discusses emerging modes of instruction, including interactive television, computer-mediated communication, electronic mail, and national and international networks; and considers the future of distance education, including the use of the Internet, multimedia, and a new paradigm for…

Discusses the use of the Internet for ready reference and considers limitations, reference policy, and cost issues. Highlights include general reference sources; database searching on the Internet; Gopher; bibliographic control and access to Internet resources; personnel issues; and levels of service. (Contains 30 references.) (LRW)

Describes the experiences of Documents Center staff at the University of Michigan Library in maintaining an information service, namely the Department of Commerce Economic Data gopher. Topics include how the service evolved, logistics of obtaining and posting files, developing staff skills, and file selection. Provision of enhanced access and…

Examines the current status of online developmental courses. Features descriptions of programs at several colleges, including the names and e-mail addresses of individuals to contact for further information. Describes the hardware requirements for offering online courses as well as how such courses typically operate. (MAB)

Proposes a user-centered framework for intranet design based on an understanding of people, their typical problems, information behaviors, and situated contexts. Argues that by adopting such an approach, intranets can be designed which facilitate organizational information access and use. (Author/AEF)

Describes the pedagogical framework of an interdisciplinary, international project entitled NINTER (Networked Interaction: Theory-Based Cases in Teaching and Learning). Discusses a pedagogical model for teacher and staff development programs in a networked environment; distributed cognition; cognitive apprenticeship; challenges for educational…

Describes a study that evaluated a network-based hypertext discussion tool (HDT) for teaching literature to adolescents by investigating whether the incorporation of the HDT into students' homework routine raised achievement over traditional discussion and text-based homework. Considers student feedback and attitudes toward learning with the HDT.…

Describes the work of the Classroom Environment Committee at Binghamton University (New York) that created classroom standards for multimedia technology when renovating classrooms. Discusses data display, network connections, screens, laptop computers, lighting, furniture, design considerations, and the need for communication with faculty. (LRW)

Discusses the use of electronic communication networks in education to foster literacy development and considers how innovations are introduced and accepted. Describes electronic communication networks in a college classroom used on a local area network to improve students' abilities to write, read, and engage in collaborative problem solving…

Describes projects in Lawrenceville, New Jersey schools that incorporate multimedia networks into the curriculum. Highlights include digital video projects with English as Second Language students; strategic planning; use of new technology by other groups, including the school board; broadband issues; new vendor relationships; and intellectual…

Discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and computer-assisted language learning and explains how second language learners become communicatively fluent through a text-based CMC setting. Highlights include how asynchronous and synchronous CMC can support learners' cognitive processes; and models for combining text-based CMC with spoken…

Explains "Parole in Jeans", a computer-based project developed to promote literature and foster collaborative poetry and story writing in lower secondary schools in Italy, Topics include network-based collaborative production; integration of literary writing and network communication; email; and the organizational model for the online…

Describes access management problems associated with networked information systems and the two major architectural approaches used to address them, including discussion of related policy issues such as privacy, accountability, and collection of management data. Focus is on the concerns of colleges and universities and on developing practical…

Discussion of assessment in online distance education focuses on network-delivered model answers and peer review as additional formative feedback on assessment. Concentrates on the development of a critical approach to writing and the ability to communicate within a discipline in a course at the United Kingdom's Open University. (Author/LRW)