Six-year followup study of five rural Missouri communities found that community viability in terms of maintenance as trade and service center had become disconnected from demographic variables such as school enrollment. Unexpectedly, leaders of more viable places were not better educated or demographically different from other leaders, but had…

The purpose of this study was to determine certain attitudes of students who had received instruction via an interactive distance education environment utilizing compressed video technology. Subjects were students enrolled in courses offered by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and other members of the Mississippi Community College network.…

TayNet is a local service provider established to support the development of businesses in Tayside (Scotland) by providing local access to the Internet. This article discusses the network's hardware and software components, evaluates the pilot phase, provides performance and connection statistics for 45 audit participants, and describes technical…

Describes the way in which a new applied-physics course introduced in British Columbia as part of a program in applied academics can be seen to construct different networks in different contexts. Employs actor network theory (ANT). Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Outlines ideas for building interactive home pages for economics classes. Illustrates how to link the home page to course materials, sources of economic data and information, as well as lectures and spreadsheets. Discusses using Internet technology to communicate with, engage, and assess students. (MJP)

Marking the 25th anniversary (August 26, 1996) of WorldCat (the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Online Union Catalog) OCLC and the U.S. regional networks sponsored an essay contest for librarians and library users to write essays describing their impressions of the OCLC Online Union Catalog. Four prize-winning essays from Michigan, Kentucky,…

Describes the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) advisory committees in terms of research, public, college and university, and special libraries. All four of the type-of-library advisory groups work to shape OCLC policies and programs, according to the particular needs of each group. OCLC's financial and programmatic success depends upon…

This article reviews research on the social functioning of students with learning disabilities (LD) and draws implications for the inclusion of students with LD in regular education classrooms. Social skills, self-concept, friendships, and social networks are addressed. It argues that the social dimensions of placement decisions for these students…

Discussion of the use of information and communications technologies in education focuses on networked learning. Highlights include virtual universities; lifelong learning; learning models; learning styles; motivation for learning; research in information behavior; information skills; and the developing role of networked learner support. (Contains…

Provides an overview of information policy, including its importance, its key instruments, and its complexity. Information policy issues that may create new roles for libraries include the ramifications of the public's right to information, the organization and retrieval of electronically networked information, information literacy training,…

Provides the rationale for establishing a connection to the Internet. Describes Internet services, including e-mail, telnet, file transfer protocol (FTP), USENET, gopher, Archie, and World Wide Web. Identifies reasons why the Internet is a valuable tool. Outlines steps for establishing a connection and discusses the future of the Internet. A…

Describes some of the author's observations about information technology trends and their impact on her two grandchildren's classroom experiences. Topics include the shift from acquisition to information access, the shift from paper to electronic format, networked communications and computerized collaborative projects, and the emerging portability…

Adolescents ages 13-15 in Zimbabwe (n=132) and the United States (n=97) completed a measure of perceived social support. In Zimbabwe, adolescents perceived support as coming from a variety of persons, while U.S. adolescents saw their parents and best friends as sources of most social support. (SLD)

Describes California's Educational Development Network (ED>Net), an experimental effort to use the existing community college infrastructure to enhance the state's economic development activities. Highlights ED>Net's focus on developing organization, process, and individual skills in the current workforce. Indicates that ED>Net is…

Explores possibilities of inner-city networking, and provides a description of the federal government's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP). The authors also enumerate the challenges faced by inner-city communities establishing such networks and describes TIIAP-funded programs meeting those challenges that…