This article recounts the development of a paradigm for a virtual university that is, one in which delivery is inextricably linked to the political, technological, social, and economic context of the institution at the University of North Carolina (Wilmington). It explains how, in just five years, a conservative, traditional, regional institution…

This paper describes the implementation of data conferencing to provide visual stimuli to students in the Homebound Program, a college degree program designed to accommodate students who are unable to come to campus for classes. The data conference system, a simpler, more cost effective alternative to video conferencing, transmits still images as…

This book provides an analysis of teaching and learning and the network of issues and concerns that underpin distance education. It reviews several existing models that permeate current practice, and that will influence future practice, and relates these to pedagogics. The book provides not only an overview of historical developments but explains…

Intergenerational learning communities develop when learners from one class create materials that learners from later classes can use. If information for a class is collected and maintained in an electronic archive, each successive class, or generation, can use that material and build upon it. The compilation of documents results in a…

Instruction Support (IS) at Arizona State University is a multidisciplinary group integrating academia with information technology. Unique features having to do with the status of computing at the university have led to the establishment of the IS Lab, which has produced a series of successful initiatives regarding World Wide Web courses. The four…

This paper describes issues encountered in a series of large-scale implementations of instructional technology in schools and vocational centers across the nation. Three tutors, the Word Problem Solving Tutor (WPS), MAESTRO, the Writing Tutor, and the science tutor, Instruction in Scientific Inquiry (ISIS) were developed. These systems were…

There is an obvious growth in the use of distributed and online learning environments. There is some evidence to believe that collaborative learning environments can be effective, especially when using advanced technology to support learning in and about complex domains. There is also an extensive body of research literature in the areas of…

This research explored the challenge of how students might successfully perform real laboratory experiments over the Internet without being in a laboratory. Numerous distance learning environments were surveyed, and the effectiveness and disadvantages of laboratory facilities currently available over the Internet were assessed. Full and part-time…

This paper describes the use of commercial application and programming software to provide language students with self-access materials used in their own time. In all cases, it assumes such students will be unsupervised. The idea is that in place of buying expensive and restricted commercially produced authoring packages, a teacher with limited…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administered a short survey of public school teachers in 1999 that included items on teachers' use of computers and the Internet. This report draws on that survey to describe teachers' use of education technology in their classrooms and schools, availability of this technology, their training and…

Discusses the use of computers for nine different tasks in biological education: information retrieval, data accumulation, data analysis, simulation and systems analysis, decision making, experimental control, course review, computer-managed instruction, and word processing. (PEB)

Describes an interdisciplinary college level program which uses computer simulation exercises to teach about foreign policy and global issues. In the foreign policy simulation, political science and foreign language students role play national decision makers. In the international futures simulation, students debate demographic, economic, energy,…

Provides a brief overview and sources of more detailed information on National Science Foundation (NSF) projects investigating the use of computers in science education. Selected projects are discussed which exemplify efforts being made to improve science instruction at all levels: K-graduate, and professional continuing education for scientists,…

Presents an annotated list of 27 computer-oriented references for researchers and for teachers using computers in the classroom. Resources focus on various aspects of mathematics curriculum/instruction as well as research studies. The former include teaching calculus with computers, guidelines for using computers in statistical instruction, and…

Argues that to use computers to help teach the writing process, English teachers must develop both short- and long-term plans for computer usage and must insist on helping to select their school's hardware and software. (MM)