This report summarizes the activities of the South Carolina Office of Instructional Technology during the 1988-89 school year. Objectives relating to planning, fiscal management, administration, computers, evaluation, dissemination, and reporting for the office's Annual Management Plan are outlined. An advisory system designed to facilitate…

Several competencies and instructional strategies necessary to accommodate the changing role of teachers of mathematics at middle-school level are described. Also provided are teacher-generated and teacher-tested instructional activities that can be used to facilitate student success in learning mathematical concepts. After describing the…

This study assessed the effect of an alternative delivery system using microcomputers. All 19 students enrolled in the University of Georgia's off-campus curriculum development course were assigned to the experimental group, and all 16 students taking the same course on campus were assigned to the control group. All students were vocational…

Research indicates that the educational effectiveness of Microcomputer-Based Laboratories (MBL) may be due to the real time nature of the experience. This article describes a study where kinesthetic feedback was completely removed by giving students only visual replications of a motion situation. If simultaneity of perception is the important…

This report illustrates one way in which the technologies of testing might combine with cognitive science techniques to help steer instruction. Steering testing is brief diagnostic testing that steers, or individualizes, the course of instruction. Steering testing uses simple heuristics for reasoning about the level of a student's competence in a…

A critical review of computer software for computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in Latin presents information regarding user-friendliness, instructiveness, special effects, costs, and availability. Survey responses of first- and second-year Latin students (N=65) at a high school provided data for the comparison of programs. Programs reviewed…

This review of the literature on computer-based instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse students focuses on: (1) effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction; (2) its use in enhancement of traditional education; (3) its use as an expansion tool for critical thinking; and (4) the role of the teacher. The review concludes that the…

This document contains a collection of 85 abstracts, of which 56 are written in English, 27 in French, and 2 in both languages. These abstracts discuss research studies, evaluation studies, needs assessments, and the advantages and disadvantages of distance education and related issues. Some of the titles are: "Activation of learning in…

The data for this paper are drawn from a study of faculty perceptions about courses that are taught in locations away from a college campus, often called outreach, such as military installations, community centers, or business locations. Computer use in such settings presents difficulties in providing logistical support. Faculty were asked about…

After presenting a brief history of computer-assisted instruction (CAI), this paper provides an overview of the current uses of computer technology in instruction at U.S. community colleges. This profile focuses on the ways in which the technology has been spread throughout the curriculum, the characteristics of computer laboratories, and the…

A content analysis was performed to determine the trends and issues in educational technology for the period from October 1, 1987 through September 30, 1988. Sources for the analysis included five leading professional journals in educational technology, papers given at annual conventions of three professional associations, dissertations from five…

This paper presents a collection of experiences from the Canadian educational institutions that offer distance education. The first of four major sections defines the need for an alternative to traditional, classroom-based education, and describes the characteristics of distance education. The second section discusses the three institutions in…

National dropou figures hover around 46 percent, according to the U.S. Office of Education. School business partnerships, including occupational training, counseling, and preemployment experience, have been effective in reducing the dropout rate in many schools. The use of computers in teaching traditional subjects has proved attractive to…

This report summarizes a series of eight research studies related to the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with mildly handicapped students at the junior high or high school level. Through videodisc and CAI the studies isolated the effects of the following design variables: (1) review cycles; (2) size of teaching sets; (3) explicit…

Computer enhanced teaching of computational mathematics on a network system driving graphics terminals is being redeveloped for a mouse-driven, high resolution, windowed environment of a UNIX work station. Preservation of the features of networked access by heterogeneous terminals is provided by the use of the X Window environment. A dmonstrator…