Describes instructional strategies used in project-based introductory instructional design courses taught at Purdue and Florida State Universities. Discusses use of reflective summaries instead of quizzes, in-class demonstration of sample student projects, project-based application assignments, "mastery approach" (students revise and…

Assesses informal learning in experiential settings. Elementary teachers (n=20) from public and private schools participated in an on-site seminar involving experiential learning in science centers, a wildlife refuge, and a zoological sanctuary. The significance of instruction provided by guides, types of exhibits, and the use of informational…

Recounts the creation of an ethnographic study of literacy acquisition among nomadic pastoralists in Gujarat (India). Describes the project's goals and methods, research problems, and experiments with Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community Techniques (REFLECT) methods for literacy learning. Concludes with suggestions for future…

Asks how the "Art in America" radio programs illustrate the way educational mass media emerged from its forerunners of adult education, museums, libraries, and distance education. Discusses the precursors to the program, its production, the programs as education and as entertainment, and how listeners learned from radio. (DSK)

A visit to Ketchikan, Alaska, reveals a floating, one-teacher logging-camp school that uses multiage grouping and interdisciplinary teaching. There are 10 students. The school gym and playground, bunkhouse, fuel tanks, mess hall, and students' homes bob up and down and are often moved to other sites. (MLH)

Analyzes the Chautauqua movement's influence on the development of higher and adult learning in the United States through the latter part of the 19th and into the early 20th centuries, including correspondence education, summer sessions, extension services, university presses, and the introduction of culture to the rural masses. Links to current…

Examines the following study habits of postgraduate students who learn under the distance-education system of Madras University: learning patterns at home; kind of participation during the semester; learning habits before the examination; ways they answer during the examination; reasons for studying by distance education; and reasons for joining…

Continues discussion of a distance-education systems model (presented in previous issues). Examines societal systems, the next level of this hierarchical model. Discusses responding to social needs, social and economic change in the 1990s, and distance and higher education in the 1990s. Provides samples of newspaper articles, one of the main…

In contrast to the big industrial mode of distance education, an approach to distance education called "little distance education," is described that is consistent with the traditional goals and values of creating knowledge through a critical community of learners. Discusses meeting the needs of a new market for continuing distance professional…

In 1995, Texas adopted the Safe Schools Act, designed to allow disruptive students' removal from class, while ensuring a safety net for students who otherwise might evolve into undereducated criminals. Participating staff report successes with individual students who function better in the disciplined environment of an alternative educational…

Various forms of alternative education include elements that are incompatible with each other; alternative educators must clarify their principles and follow their own paths. For example, Kinokuni Children's Village (Japan) is a "free school" that has blended elements of the philosophies of Neill, Dewey, and its founder Hori. (SV)

In one Nevada county, classroom troublemakers are sent to alternative education programs where they learn to follow directions. The programs take chronically disruptive adolescents and offer them a full continuum of services and supports in the hopes of returning them to the regular classroom at a later date. Though not all students respond, some…

To address diminishing resources and increased training demands, the Operational Training Unit (OTU) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has saved almost $2 million by developing a distance education course to replace one full week of training at the FBI Academy. Discussion focuses on major issues faced by OTU in designing/delivering this…

Argues that it is important for beginning teachers to receive part of their training in a small school like Latino Youth Alternative High School at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Relates how the program functions; gives Latino students' and tutors' reasons for appreciating it. Includes responses about teacher-student relationships as key to a…

Distance learning in graduate courses was studied from the perspectives of three professors and their students in the studio and at remote sites. Identifying differences in the perceptions of studio students, remote students, and teachers, this study highlights issues requiring research and debate as distance education becomes more prevalent. (SLD)