This special issue containing 10 articles addresses the application of technology, including educational media, telecommunication, and computers, to the education of hearing impaired students.

Presents results of a study of the impact of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) program on children in India. Significant gains in language development and a greater interest in acquiring knowledge were found among children who viewed the SITE programs. (JMF)

This article explains the benefits, technology, and future associated with optical fibre transmission systems in the telecommunications networks of western countries. (Author/SA)

Increasing demands on the broadcasting industry to serve the public interest are discussed in reference to the rewriting of the 1934 Communications Act. Recommended major public interest provisions are detailed and their implications for educational broadcasting are discussed. An annotated list of telecommunications agencies is included. (BH)

Summarizes the results of a study of the adoption/diffusion of Internet- and Web-based telecommunications throughout the Boulder Valley School District (Colorado). Discusses elements of the diffusion process; participatory design of the training program; expansion of communication networks; experimentation and reinvention; collaborative resource…

Since 1993, an Israeli junior high school has been conducting a regional computer communications class with a special multimedia-based curriculum. Students express what they know via text, videos, pictures, sound, and animation and demonstrate their ability to apply knowledge in research and documentary projects. Although staff encountered some…

Discusses the value of a service called "Language Line" and its potential to attract and educate business about the benefits derived from hiring employees with language skills. Language Line provides a national telephone-based service that provides interpretation for speakers of different languages. The article makes a case for the use…

Describes and analyzes communication technologies of a peripheral state, the Philippines, in the context of its historical integration within the world economy and dependent association with the United States. Analyzes functions of new communication technologies in the production of state power, including using communications for accumulation,…

Discusses humanities projects that can be facilitated by communications technology: multiple language representations, providing cross-platform multilingual font sets and distributed multilingual enabling technologies; high-quality images and tools for archival image annotation, search, and retrieval; three-dimensional representations to provide…

This supplementary insert describes developments in computer uses in education. Feature articles discuss connecting rural schools to computer networks through affordable wireless transmission, using the Internet to teach foreign languages, and forging links between the school and home through technology. Other columns discuss updates on the…

To provide college students with a conceptual model of how their network connects to the Internet, and enable them to understand the principles of sending e-mail and using other telecomputing resources, signs were created using a graphics program with different icons representing each network component. The signs were then attached to students who…

The paper outlines how the principles of the "Thinking Actively in a Social Context" (TASC) model have been adopted to provide an extension program through Telematics, which delivers lessons to remote sites using teleconferencing equipment, fax machines, and computers linked by modems. Describes use of the TASC model for remote…

Examines whether the Internet will be an equalizer or will increase social stratification, whether the Internet will be a boon to rural areas, and how it can be made more appealing or acceptable to rural areas. Discusses the "missionary movement" model of economic change and rural issues related to access to infrastructure, censorship,…

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down parts of the Communications Decency Act as violating the First Amendment. The law was predicted to wreak havoc on the Internet and connected campus computer networks. The 1996 law was aimed at protecting children from pornography but threatened the availability of a wide range of materials,…

Explains how Texas A&M University libraries developed a wireless network, including problems encountered, and describes three wireless services currently being delivered using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, and wireless laptop computers. Topics include costs versus value; data security and access; wireless access points;…