This report summarizes an analysis of options for connecting the nation's public K-12 schools to the national information infrastructure (NII)--or information superhighway. It incorporates insights drawn from visits to schools and interviews with educators, policymakers, and technology experts around the country, as well as from a review of the…

The penetration of computer and telecommunications technology into daily life has resulted in a paradigm shift from an industrial to a post-industrial society. That has created a fourth "generation" of media--hypermedia--to go with the previous three of speech, print, and video. Hypermedia is said to be the only generation that is…

Literature has indicated that computers have a potential to support children in all stages of development. To enhance children's learning through technology, it is important to understand how children use computers. This study explores the use of interactive multimedia by three- to five-year olds. Through a close examination of the young…

Effective use of media and technology is a challenge and an opportunity for educators. The traditional educational paradigm presents a situation where educators provide instruction based on their knowledge and experience. The technology-based paradigm provides access to modern storage technologies at a student workstation, so that students can now…

A demonstration project explored the use of speech synthesis and speech recognition in writing-based classes held by two Philadelphia literacy providers. The project examined the use of high quality speech synthesis (the computer reads words from the screen in an understandable voice) and speech recognition (the computer responds to verbal…

The RAND Critical Technologies Institute (CTI) was asked to report on the progress federal agencies have made and the problems encountered in implementing Executive Order 12999, which streamlines the transfer of excess and surplus federal computers to schools and nonprofit organizations. This documented briefing presents the findings from that…

This report presents an overview of some of the major issues facing California higher education as it moves into the Information Age. It reviews previous California Postsecondary Education Commission reports on educational technology back to 1979, noting the changing emphasis of those reports from a preoccupation with distance learning to a…

This practicum project used a combination of strategies to improve creative thinking skills in second- and third-grade gifted students. Sixteen students were targeted for the intervention. Over a 12-week implementation period, students participated in 90-minute interventions twice weekly. The intervention was comprised of 30-minute creative…

This study addresses some basic questions about students' strategies for seeking and using information from the World Wide Web. The questions pertain to the effects of environment and attitudes on students' use of online resources to find information and the development of a typology of strategies. The focus of the study was on describing student…

Course structures and educational practices in Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) member institutions were examined through a survey of all 58 DETC institutions. Usable responses were obtained from 55 (95%) of the institutions. Among the study's main conclusions were the following: (1) 52% of distance education students are male, 42%…

Growing out of the need for better instruction for classroom teachers in the use of educational software, the Teachers Software Institute (TSI) was designed to provide intensive software training to teachers who could serve as mentors in the use of computer technology and specific software. The paper examines the background of the program and the…

This paper reviews the literature on factors affecting students' performance in undergraduate statistics courses for the social sciences. Statistics anxiety and attitude have been linked to one's performance in statistics classes. Math factors, such as anxiety and attitude, may have an impact on performance in statistics classes, but the…

Based on the assumption that a hands-on approach would enable students to better grasp the usefulness of concepts presented, a course and laboratory component in non-experimental research methodology, statistics, and computer applications for beginning students was implemented at Ursinus College, in Pennsylvania. The course meets 3 hours a week…

Operation Soft Boot was a program designed to develop a computer literacy curriculum for use with adult basic education (ABE) students at their educational level. Computer literacy instruction included a review of the component parts of a personal computer system and their operation and a review of basic keyboarding skills. Instruction also…

This paper describes an activity-based program that teaches students in grades 4-12 about the importance of Maine agriculture in their lives. Specifically, the goal is to increase student awareness of how the foods they eat are planted, harvested, and processed. The emphasis is on crops grown in Maine such as potatoes, broccoli, peas, blueberries,…