This paper describes efforts to increase the prevalence, rigor and relevance of Project Based Learning in US schools and internationally. Under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE), US Department of Education, the Buck Institute for Education and partners are offering: 1) an online staff development…

Web sites that support counseling and the use of self-help resources are often used as an integral part of services delivered by organizations. Given the organizational context of these Web sites, effective implementation of these sites within organizations contributes to the overall quality of available resources and services. This document…

This paper presents a research project conducted by the Department of Information Science in cooperation with the Saarland Museum, the art museum of the Federal State of Saarland, Germany. The study had two aims. The first was to evaluate some methods of usability engineering for the Web, and the second was to evaluate the usability of the…

XML, the extensible markup language, is a quickly evolving technology that presents a viable alternative to courseware products and promises to ease the burden of Web authors, who edit their course pages directly. XML uses tags to label kinds of contents, rather than format information. The use of XML enables faculty to focus on providing…

Explains the Big6 model of information problem solving as a conceptual framework for learning and teaching information and technology skills. Highlights include information skills; examples of integrating technology in Big6 contexts; and the Big6 and the Internet, including email, listservs, chat, Web browsers, search engines, portals, Web…

Describes the Online Student Resource Centre Web site, developed at Monash University (Australia), which offers stand-alone tutorials. Outlines the process and philosophy of development of the tutorials, based on a constructivist framework, with guided and self-directed learning paths designed to accommodate a range of learning styles. (LRW)

Describes the use of an outside graphic design firm to redesign the Yale University Library (New Haven, CT) Web site. Topics include division of labor; design principles and technical requirements; related Web sites at Yale; usability testing; coding that conformed to library standards; ease of use; and communication between the design firm and…

Introduces three new metrics that measure the range of use of a university Web site by its peers through different heuristics for counting links targeted at its pages. Results from all three range models that were tested on United Kingdom university Web sites correlate significantly with the research productivity of the target institution.…

Describes how Mahopac Central School District in upstate New York used home-to-school communications software to help improve communications with parents. Software allows parents online access to their child's school data such as course schedule, grades, discipline issues, assignments, and daily attendance via a password-protected district Web…

Presents a new extraction pattern, modified Document Type Definition (mDTD), which relies on analytical interpretation to identify extraction target from the contents of Web documents. Experiments with 330 Korean and 220 English Web documents on audio and video shopping sites yielded an average extraction precision of 91.3% for Korean and 81.9%…

Examines data from the 2002 Campus Computing Survey to determine trends in information technology in higher education and future possibilities. Discusses Web portals; electronic commerce capabilities, including use of credit cards; budget challenges, including budget cuts; and mobile technology and wireless networks. (LRW)

In summer, 2002, the Education Division of the Special Libraries Association held a panel presentation on "Historical and Archival Collections in Education." From that session developed this article which discusses the need for finding aids, publicity, creative uses of the web, and collaborative ways to deal with these issues. Specific references…

This article investigates conditions for increasing active participation in on-line communities. As a case study, we use three generations of facilities designed to promote learning in the area of Educational Modelling Languages. Following a description of early experience with a conventional web site and with a community site offering facilities…

The series of activities presented in this unit of study help students learn by starting with map basics and adding new concepts with each activity. This approach helps students build an understanding of topographic maps while they participate in a variety of hands-on experiences. The unit is meaningful, fun, and engaging for the students, and is…

Each type of Web site can be easily located if teachers understand a few basics about the different types of information found on the Net. This article provides useful tips to science teachers on how to search the Web and where to find the following information: (1) Ready-Reference Sources (2) Current Events Sources; (3) Science Lesson Plans; (4)…