This paper describes the characteristics of "smart schools" and offers guidelines for developing such schools. Smart schools are defined as having three features: (1) they are computer networked via local area networks in order to share information through teleconferencing, databases, and electronic mail; (2) they are connected beyond…

Alberta (Canada) is experiencing a phenomenon common to many other regions the world over: there is a movement of population away from rural areas to urban centers. Such migration has a profound impact on rural schools and school systems in these areas, including a decrease in school population, school staff, and school programs. In an attempt to…

Part of the always-changing field of microcomputers is the growing use of electronic mail/message systems (EMMS), a general term for describing the transmission of messages using computers and telecommunications facilities. As a result of these advances, it is possible for administrators, teachers, staff, and students to have immediate access to…

This report on technology in education has been prepared, primarily for TVOntario staff, to highlight new and growing educational applications and to summarize recent evaluations of earlier application efforts. The descriptions of trends and developments are classified by media format. Representative applications of the media include: (1)…

These proceedings contain 10 keynote papers and more than 100 papers from an international conference on the theme of developing distance education. The keynote papers are: (1) "Communications Technology" (Yoshia Abe); (2) "Continuing Education. New Needs and Challenges for Distance Studies" (Urban Dahllof); (3) "Distance…

During 1985, the Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education (VTAE) expanded its delivery of instruction via television. Approximately 3,000 persons at 170 sites throughout the United States and Canada participated in the VTAE's Technical School of the Air. In addition to delivering six to eight courses per semester, the network…

Three telecourse programs offering high school credit courses via interactive satellite communication are described and evaluated. German by Satellite and Physics by Satellite from Oklahoma State University feature biweekly 40-minute broadcasts with audio interaction via regular telephone lines and microcomputer voice recognition software at…

Four issues of this newsletter focus primarily on the use of communication technologies in developing nations to educate their people. The issues included in this collection are: (1) No. 56 (1987-1), which highlights agricultural, health, and educational projects that have used radio, telecommunications, and interactive video to train trainers…

This document provides an overview of Alaska's Legislative Teleconference Network (LTN), which was created to broaden two-way contact between constituents and state legislators through the use of telephone, teleconferencing, and data communications. An executive summary precedes the main report, which focuses on the two entities of the Legislative…

This guide was developed to help administrators and educators plan and implement videoconferences and credit courses using the Iowa State University studios (WOI). In a short narrative format, the guide leads the reader through the videoconference or course process. The guide is organized in three sections. The first section presents an overview…

This study compared teachers instructed in use of Landsat satellite maps through one-way television and simultaneous telephone group conferencing to another teacher group instructed directly. Thirty teachers of intermediate children in Edmonton and Sherwood Park, Alberta, received 5 hours of instruction about Landsat maps over a 2-week period;…

A 3-year project to provide rural Alaska teachers with access to the University of Alaska-Anchorage's Special Education Program used distance education in learning applications as well as in developing a knowledge base. Previous Alaskan distance education programs had been criticized as "second class" compared to traditional on-campus…

Three articles address different uses of computers in education. British inservice training for primary school teachers using microcomputer-based adventure software is described; fundings of two Canadian projects using computer teleconferencing are reviewed; and the use of computer-assisted instruction for primary school mathematics education is…

Discusses the telecommunications systems in operation at Buena Vista College in Iowa. Describes the systems' uses in linking all offices and classrooms on the campus, downlinking satellite communications through a dish, transmitting audio and video information to any set of defined studio or classroom space, and teleconferencing. (TW)

Since the fall semester of 1995, students at Baylor University (Waco, Texas) taking Japanese and students at Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics have had opportunities to communicate with each other and learn together in a real-world situation. Until the fall of 2000, the format limited them to e-mail communication; however other Internet tools are…