Discusses the use of Channel One television news broadcasts in the middle school classroom, focusing on the circumstances under which students learn from Channel One, attitudes toward Channel One, and implications for teachers who wish to make effective instructional use of the programming. (JPB)

Examines Internet security risks and how users can protect themselves. Discusses inadvertent bugs in software; programming problems with Common Gateway Interface (CGI); viruses; tracking of Web users; and preventing access to selected Web pages and filtering software. A glossary of Internet security-related terms is included. (AEF)

Technology has potential for teaching soft skills--typically those that are culture, gender, and model based. Authoring software for training is still being refined and interactivity is not where it needs to be for many applications.(JOW)

Reports that student computer programmers from Russian universities, despite outdated equipment, poor facilities, and meager salaries, recently dominated the International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals with the team from St. Petersburg State University winning first place. Western companies are developing arrangements with Russian…

Investigated the impact of new television services on children's social behavior in a broadcast television-naive community. Surveyed children at age 3-4 and again at age 7-8 after the introduction of television. Found that children's responses on the Preschool Behavior Checklist and Rutter Behavior Questionnaire indicated that after television,…

Discusses the results of a survey to gain insight into the relationship between the acquisition of Object Technology (OT) concepts and previous software development experience. Indicates that the fundamental concepts of OT and the management of OT projects are not difficult to understand while analysis and design topics are harder. (Contains 18…

Discussion of the need for training in new information technologies focuses on the development of a distance education model for training teachers in computer literacy. Explains individual and collaborative learning support and the authoring module, and presents the results of preliminary evaluations. (LRW)

In introductory computer science courses, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is commonly used to teach basic object-oriented design. However, there appears to be a lack of suitable software to support this task. Many of the available programs that support UML focus on developing code and not on enhancing learning. Programs designed for…

Discusses Logo, an education philosophy and accompanying family of programming languages. Explores Logo in the institutional and organizational cultures of United States and United Kingdom mainstream schools after its introduction in the early 1980s. Addresses how Logo was received in the educational arena and implicated in the politics of…

While the importance of "expressive writing," or informal, self-directed writing, has been well established, teachers underutilize it, particularly in technical writing courses. We introduce the term expressive/exploratory technical writing (XTW), which is the use of informal, self-directed writing to problem-solve in technical fields. We describe…

This article presents a project-based case study that was developed for students with diverse backgrounds and varied inclinations for engaging technical topics. The project, called History Places, requires that student teams develop a vision for a kind of digital library, propose a conceptual model, and use the model to derive a logical model and…

Mathematical knowledge can be categorized in different ways. One commonly used way is to distinguish between procedural mathematical knowledge and conceptual mathematical knowledge. Procedural knowledge of mathematics refers to formal language, symbols, algorithms, and rules. Conceptual knowledge is essential for meaningful understanding of…

Ethnic music is a strong indicator of cultural identity. Central and Eastern European ethnic groups have historically been associated with folk music traditions, such as polka, and radio broadcasting patterns in the United States reflect continued demand for and support of this music. Data from the 2000 Census was used to generate maps of the…

Many believe that girls lack the confidence and motivation to persist with computers when they face a challenge. In order to increase the number of girls and women in information technology careers, we need a better understanding of how they think about and solve problems while working on the computer. In this article, we describe a qualitative…

Distance education created new challenges regarding the delivery of large size isochronous continuous streaming media (SM) objects. In this paper, we consider the design of a framework for customized SM presentations, where each presentation consists of a number of SM objects that should be retrieved and displayed to the user in a coherent…