This paper describes various types of distance education technologies and their use in rural Australia. Communications and information technologies may be categorized as distributive or interactive. Correspondence education is a distributive form of distance education, involving the postal service and, at times, educational television or radio.…

The information highway is an exciting place for children and families to visit, explore, and learn together. This book teaches parents basic knowledge about the Information Highway and how to use it with children. The following topics are covered in this book: (1) What is the Information Highway? (2) What is Telecommunications?; (3) Why You &…

This paper discusses a vision of the transformation of the library from a repository of printed material to a digital library serving as a complete information center where distant learners can obtain support for their educational aspirations. Future information centers will be distant learner-centered. Factors discussed include: (1) distance…

Educators are finding new and interesting ways to use computers as tools to educate and learn. For students to compete in the global community, it is imperative that educators embrace and use the World Wide Web in their curriculum. Hillside Elementary School in Minnesota uses the Internet, in a project called Web66, as a medium for student…

Clinical supervision is a commonly accepted model used by supervisors of local school district teachers. Schools of Education at Harvard University (Massachusetts), the University of Virginia, and the University of Kansas, among others, have initiated clinical supervision projects using e-mail and the Internet, and have also created…

Students can make authentic contributions to the World Wide Web (WWW) and learn critical evaluation skills by publishing reviews of WWW resources. A project which served as a pilot study was implemented where high school students wrote and published reviews of resources they used as part of an inquiry-based science curriculum. Students were…

Along with the growth of electronic communication in higher education, is the rise of virtual classrooms. Virtual classrooms exist because of technologies such as electronic mail, listservs, chat rooms, and World Wide Web pages. This qualitative research study examined one graduate course which was offered entirely over the Internet. Data from…

MOO stands for "Multi-user domain, Object-Oriented." Early multi-user domains, or "MUDs," began as net-based dungeons-and-dragons type games, but MOOs have evolved from these origins to become some of cyberspace's most fascinating and engaging online communities. MOOs are social environments in a text-based virtual reality…

Constructivist teaching has become a dominant theme in educational literature in response to the positivist model of education that is prevalent in schools. In order for K-12 education to become more constructivist, there must be a qualitative change in teaching practice from didactic to self-directed student learning. The use of online technology…

This paper presents a model of collaborative graduate distance education that has been facilitated by the Center for Continuing Education and Summer Programs at the University of Montana and designed to provide graduate training for professionally isolated classroom teachers and administrators. Thirty practicing elementary, middle, and secondary…

The challenges and opportunities presented by fiscal constraint, new technologies and an information "explosion" require that universities and their libraries develop a system by which scholars and students can access information when it is needed. This discussion paper in English and French, is the first of a series of papers intended…

The University of Wisconsin-Madison began to offer computer conferencing as a service to the campus for the fall 1995 semester. The university's End User Computing Group developed a set of policies to address such questions as: who is eligible to use the service; the Division of Information Technology's responsibilities; customer responsibilities;…

This paper discusses a model of integrated instruction and assessment called SMART (Special Multimedia Arenas for Refining Thinking). SMART involves interactive use of the Internet and multimedia software. The Internet serves three important functions: it acts as a formative assessment tool by providing individualized feedback to students, creates…

This paper discusses the use of World Wide Web-based conferencing in the Collaborative Teacher Education Program (CTEP) at Indiana University. The CTEP, a program offering distance education coursework to in-service teachers in rural communities throughout southern Indiana, is described, and some of the obstacles and limitations involved in…

This report focuses on distance learning projects conducted by the Centers for Professional Development of Teachers (CPDTs) in Texas, examining projects that closely interface with CPDTs, emphasizing the trends and issues that have emerged, and noting the effect these projects have had on education in general. The report begins by describing the…