The Illinois Community College Board created the Telecommunications Ad Hoc Task Force (TAHTF) to examine the current status of telecommunications in the Illinois Community College System (ICCS), to determine the feasibility of establishing a statewide telecommunications network, and to recommend policies for the development and use of such a…

The kinds of representations and associations that elementary and secondary educators are building of the Internet and the ways in which these representations vary depending on their use were studied. Subjects were teachers from the Center for Technology in Education (New York) national telecommunications survey who had responded that they used…

This report, published in its entirety (OTA-TCT-578) and in a summary form (OTA-TCT-579) containing only the first chapter of the complete report, focuses on key topics and issues that are central to the successful use of electronic delivery by government. The review conducted by the Office of Technology Assessment concludes that the movement…

The 1992 presidential campaign put the idea of the electronic town meeting firmly on the political scene, and each of the presidential debates during that campaign experimented with the town meeting format. This paper reviews the tradition of town meeting democracy in the United States and proposes ways to carry that tradition on with the help of…

This plan brings common purpose and effective statewide coordination to video telecommunications activities in Washington State. The Department of Information Services (DIS) is designated the lead agency in the statewide coordination of video telecommunications through its enabling legislation. The plan outlines a structure to link and measure…

The purpose of this guide is to help computer network users get over the hurdle of new technologies. Every Internet user is different, but most network activities depend on the mastery of three basic skills: using electronic mail (e-mail) to communicate with other Internet users; logging in to remote computers with a service called Telnet, and…

The revolution in digital communication is bringing about profound changes in the ways people live, learn, and work. Three topics that address these changes are discussed. First is a set of ideas about the nature of information and information processing. Second is an Australian National Framework for competence in language, literacy, and numeracy…

The purpose of this symposium on research in distance education was to continue the process of building the network of scholars and climate of cooperation and communication necessary for further development of distance education and to provide an opportunity for discussion. Four main areas of focus for the symposium were learning and…

This document is the summary report of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) conference on federal libraries in the electronic age. The conference focused on the adjustments federal librarians must make to work with their agencies' computer, telecommunications, technical information, and records management professionals to…

This study investigated the need for distance learning in Pennsylvania's rural schools, examined types of distance learning programs and technology currently being used, and identified factors that could enhance or inhibit the use of distance learning in rural schools. Data collection included (1) a literature search, (2) surveys administered to…

Intended for use by educators of handicapped individuals, this publication uses the form of an allegory to describe the process of learning to use computers, and provides guidelines for novices who want to utilize computers in the classroom. The need for self-awareness, initial planning, and acquisition of basic knowledge about computers is…

Developed by the Telecommunications Committee of Chemeketa Community College (CCC), this report recommends the development of a telecommunications network to supply instruction by television, computers and telephone to homes, businesses, and CCC branch campuses. The report begins by stressing the advantages of a telecommunications network and its…

Three decades of applications of information technology and library automation at Ohio University are chronicled in this paper. The first major development highlighted is the founding of OCLC (the Ohio College Library Center) as a cooperative cataloging device in the 1960s. OCLC's growth is traced from when it was a small organization of two staff…

This monograph examines the effectiveness of university-level audioconference courses and distance education in Alaska. It discusses some of the problems of distance education and examines different perspectives on audioconferences. Teachers and students, both Native American and non-Native, offer their opinions on audioconferencing as an…

Libraries are becoming information access points, not just book repositories. With greater distribution of printed materials, increased use of optical disks and other compact storage techniques, the emergence of publication on demand, and the proliferation of electronic databases, libraries without large collections will be able to provide prompt…