Discusses cultural discontinuities that affect learning effectiveness revealed by the increase in globalization of distance education. Considers the theoretical basis of such discontinuities, describes a study of West African extension students and print-based instructional materials, and suggests implications for instruction and research as well…

Discusses the impact of the World Wide Web in terms of epistemology. Topics include technological innovations, including new dimensions of virtuality; the accessibility of information; tracking Web use via cookies; how the Web transforms the process of learning and knowing; linking information sources; and the Web as an information delivery…

Discusses instructional design and explains the multi-channel learning environment which was developed to allow the use of various media to provide alternative learning paths to accommodate differences in learning styles and media preferences. Highlights include taxonomies of learning; social aspects of learning; self-learning in distance…

Calm or crying 9- and 12-week-olds sat facing a researcher who gazed into their eyes or at their forehead and delivered either a sucrose solution or pacifier or delivered nothing. Found that combining sweet taste and eye contact was necessary and sufficient for calm 9- and 12-week-olds to form a preference for the researcher, but not for crying…

Discusses the barriers to interdisciplinarity: (1) differences in the characteristics of disciplinary knowledge; (2) differences in disciplinary traditions to teaching and learning; (3) different approaches to student learning; and (4) different conceptions of teaching and learning. Addresses lifting these barriers to interdisciplinarity. (CMK)

Reports on a series of exploratory studies dealing with learning in total enterprise simulations among undergraduates. Examined the validity of simulations as learning tools; measured relationships between learning about the simulation and economic performance in the game; and explored whether some players learn more than others from the same…

Reports on a pilot research project in the United Kingdom that monitored student responses to learning about global futures and found much more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. (Contains 16 references.) (YDS)

It is a relief to read an analysis of the Internet that is not yet another contribution to the hyped-instrumentalist discourse typified by a "gee-whiz" ethos touting efficiency gains and the lasting technical transformation of education. Hubert Dreyfus' (2001) "On the Internet" is at one and the same time, philosophical, post-Nietzschean and also…

Computer-based instruction (CBI) was considered the technological phenomenon to revolutionize education and training. Today, the Internet and computer technology are reported to have significantly altered the education landscape (Johnson & Aragon, 2002). The rapid advances in technology, the need for lifelong learning, and the growth of…

This paper describes the global feedback in ActiveMath, a Web-based adaptive learning environment for mathematics and beyond. It addresses some of the cognitive foundations and the architecture of the suggestion mechanism with its components. This architecture separates components for diagnosis from components for suggestions and different types…

A self-assessment schedule has been developed for first-year geography students at Curtin University of Technology. Its purpose is to guide students towards independent learning by encouraging them to reflect more on "what" and "how" they learn. Results of the 2003 and 2004 trials showed that the self-assessment schedule had a…

This study was undertaken to explore the effectiveness of the learning-cycle method when teaching direct current (DC) circuits to university students. Four Physics II classes participated in the study, which lasted approximately two and a half weeks in the middle of the spring semester of 2003. Participants were 120 freshmen (55 females and 65…

Given that the average librarian is a Boomer and over 50, there is a gap of one to two generations between most of the profession and a growing group of primary users, whom librarians need to understand in order to serve well. The generation in question, which some call Millennials, but this article will refer to as NextGens, is made up of…

This research reports on prospective middle school teachers' perceptions of a "best mathematics class" during their involvement in an inquiry-designed mathematics content course. Grounded in the prestigious Glenn Commission report (U.S. Department of Education, 2000), the study examined the prospective teachers' perceptions of effective…

Community college leaders face new and diverse challenges, often requiring different orientations to leadership than were effective previously. Yet, focusing on leadership as a series of career stages through which particular skills and techniques are learned often leaves leaders without the capacity to do the adaptive work required of their…