Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

This paper describes a multi-user role-playing environment, referred to as "e-drama", which enables groups of people to converse online, in scenario driven virtual environments. The starting point of this research, is an existing application known as "edrama", a 2D graphical environment in which users are represented by static…

Negotiation skills are essential in everyday life, whether in a professional or personal context. Negotiation enables two parties to address misunderstandings and avoid conflicts through an exchange that depends as much on the interpersonal skills of the negotiators as the tactics employed. Acquiring these skills requires not only sound conceptual…

Choi and Clark (2006) argue that learning is attributed to the instructional method rather than the specific medium used to deliver instruction (i.e., the pedagogical agent). Additionally, they consider pedagogical agents as unnecessarily expensive tools, whose instructional affordances can be replicated by less expensive options. In this response…

Helping parents, teachers, and librarians choose the best non-violent, non-sexist videos for children, this book presents brief descriptions of more than 800 videos (for children up to 12 years old) that were selected (out of more than 2500 screened) for their life-affirming content, cultural diversity, and lack of violence and sexism. Each film…

The most common use of computers in distance education is in the preparation of a visual image that is somehow transmitted to students. This paper addresses some design considerations for computer-produced visual displays that are intended for either local or distant audiences. Advice is offered on all three basic components of information…

The purpose of this paper is to report specific motivational requirements within each motivation category of Keller's ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) model (1991) based on data collected on students' reactions to a computer-assisted learning lesson that incorporated motivational strategies in its design. Interview techniques…

The first section of this paper on World Wide Web applications related to dynamic geometry addresses dynamic geometry and teaching, including the relationship between dynamic geometry and direct manipulation, key features of dynamic geometry environments, the importance of direct engagement of the learner using construction software for…

The effects of visual grouping strategies involving animated and static graphic presentations on learning were studied. Also studied was the ability of students to learn a scientific rule presented incidentally in an animated sequence in the hope of replicating results from previous research. A total of 39 fourth graders participated in an…

Since their introduction into schools, educators have tried to utilize computers in classes in order to make difficult topics more comprehensible. Chemistry educators, when faced with the task of teaching a topic that cannot be taught through experiments in a laboratory, resort to computers to help students visualize difficult concepts and…

Music videos, with their characteristic visual energy and frenetic music-and-dance numbers, have caught on rapidly since their introduction in 1981, bringing prosperity to a slumping record industry. Creating images to accompany existing music is, however, hardly a new idea. The concept can be traced back to 1877 and Thomas Edison's invention of…

To help educational television (ETV) practitioners achieve maximum clarity, economy and purposiveness, the range of techniques of television graphics is explained. Closed-circuit and broadcast ETV are compared. The design process is discussed in terms of aspect ratio, line structure, cut off, screen size, tone scales, studio apparatus, and…

In 1972, a study was undertaken to test the reactions of media-inexperienced children in the Jamaican highlands to their first exposure to video-cassette-delivered episodes of "Sesame Street." Children were randomly selected from three different age groups: three to five-year-olds, six to eight-year-olds, and nine to eleven-year-olds.…

Designed as an introductory film text for high school and early college students, this book contains twelve chapters, each dealing with one of the following subjects: "Citizen Kane," the history and production of the film, film and cinematic terms, the image on the film, the image of the world through film, editing, sounds, the director,…

This booklet is intended for teachers who are now teaching units in film production as part of a program in communication or who wish to begin work with filmmaking in such a program. The first section is intended to serve as a brief introduction to film theory, while a major portion of the rest of the booklet is devoted to film projects which may…