Provides a descriptive list of web sites that can provide teachers with a good starting place for Internet exploration. Includes: Big Sky Science Gopher menu; Dem Dry Bones; EE Link: Environmental Education on the Internet; Energy Quest; ERIC Science Gopher; Exploratorium Science Snackbook; and Newton's Apple. Twenty sites are described, with web…

Advice is given and sources of information are suggested for use of the Internet and World Wide Web. Services for news, business and commerce, literary offerings, online magazines, travel, and online instruction are included. The information is intended for new users of this information technology. (MSE)

Describes a methodology for collecting and extracting linguistic forms from documents authored by healthcare consumers. The forms were mapped to concepts and the resulting terms were analyzed. Although the case study uses examples from a "consumer medical vocabulary," procedures are applicable to investigating non-professional vocabularies in…

In Writers in Electronic Residence, published authors mentor and critique writing from students across Canada via the Internet. Motivation and reinforcement are the primary feedback for the youngest writers, and gradually, critiques become more specific as children's writing develops. In addition to hearing from two or three mentors, children…

Discusses the role of the Internet in rural schools, both for use in the classroom and for developing professional relationships. Reports results of a qualitative study of seven elementary school teachers who used the Internet to offset their rural isolation, deal with social justice and equality issues, develop learner-centered instruction, and…

Suggests that the Internet plays an important role in socialization and that children need to be recognized as active participants rather than passive recipients of multimedia texts and messages. Argues that there needs to be a shift away from the current emphasis on restriction to a focus on communication between adults and children. (LRW)

Describes a study of college women (n=20) who participated in an experimental version of an introductory physics course that used a Physics Careers Web site. (Contains 21 references.) (DDR)

Details the use of online homework assignments designed to more actively engage students in a general education geoscience course. Concludes that students come to class better prepared and that both groups benefit from a problem-based learning approach. (Contains 17 references.) (DDR)

Describes the AstraZeneca-Exeter Science through Telematics (AZEST) project and reports that the Internet has much potential as a communication channel for the provision and discussion of INSET materials for primary science in the UK. Evaluates websites dedicated to primary science at the local level, concept mapping for stimulating discussion,…

Describes the digital divide, the technology gap between the people who have technology (information haves) and those without technology (information have-nots). Discusses that the first digital divide is access to technology; and addresses the second digital divide, computer use, focusing on computers at school and at home. (CMK)

Discusses the importance of how the divide in access is approached and the problems in addressing both digital divides (access and computer use). Argues that sociologists of education have an important role to play in this issue and describes that role. Includes references. (CMK)

Responds to the article, "Blackboard's COURSEINFO: Supplementing In-Class Teaching with the Internet," by David M. Fahey. Focuses on the benefits and drawbacks to using this software to have a paperless course Includes an overall review of COURSEINFO. (CMK)

Describes a study that developed and field-tested the Classroom Community Scale, which measures the sense of community in a learning environment, and to determine its validity and reliability for use with university students taking distance courses via the Internet. Considers gender and ethnic groups, and a copy of the scale is appended.…

Explores how students who design Web sites and work with computer end users can be introduced to accessibility approaches and empowered to promote them in organizational contexts. Discusses Internet accessibility challenges to people with disabilities; legal issues; and the social context of technology and technological education. (Contains 70…

Data on rural-urban differences in access to telecommunications technology suggest that the U.S. "digital divide" is diminishing. However, major shortcomings in telecommunications infrastructure persist in rural America, and more serious barriers to rural development are related to human capital shortages. These may be resolved in some…