The headline was dramatic enough to cause a ripple in the reading public. "Students who use computers a lot at school have worse maths and reading performance," noted the BBC news article, citing a 2004 study by Ludger Woessmann and Thomas Fuchs (Fuchs and Woessman, 2004). It was not long before the blogosphere took notice. Taking the…

The authors examined a narrative approach that may lead to improvements as faculty develop their skills to use the internet for delivery of instruction. The design of this study relied on an interview process that empowered both researchers to create their own narratives as they constructed their concerns and motivations about online pedagogy. The…

Two of the author's favorite Appalachian women serve as thought mentors to help see the practical and educational opportunities available in cyberspace for meeting the critical shortage of teachers serving the Appalachian women and children of today. In classrooms and homes throughout Appalachia, women and children are logging on to computers to…

Each of the four issues of the newsletter of the Texas Association for the Gifted focuses on a theme: leadership, evaluation and assessment, curriculum issues, and accountability issues. Issues usually contain theme-related major articles, columns by the Association's president and executive director, a column examining related research, answers…

Asynchronous learning (ASL) tools are being used at colleges and universities in many countries around the world, but the majority of implementations are to enhance or support the traditional classroom environment rather than to provide asynchronous on-line classes. This paper presents a succinct review of some major issues that have caused this…

As computers become more prevalent and computer skills more necessary, there continues to be a "digital divide" between those with computer access and skills and those without. These differences are less pronounced in skills where children's access to computers and the Internet are more prevalent. Noting that few studies have focused…

This paper summarizes the experiences of an instructor and teaching assistant who introduced online communication strategies in a graduate seminar. This paper drew on the findings of a previous paper (Schwier & Balbar, 2002), and examined how to construct structured discussions of content using synchronous and asynchronous communication in…

In traditional face-to-face classrooms, teachers lead their students through discussions using strategies that promote reflection and further exploration of issues and topics. The same holds true in the online class. There are specific techniques and strategies used in facilitating learning through discussion in both types of classes. The…

This paper addresses issues related to the development and preservation of tacit knowledge (i.e., institutional knowledge rooted in actions and experiences) for technology integration. Results of a 1999 survey of teacher preparation programs in Texas are presented. The survey asked administrators in colleges of education to identify skills that…

This document is a report on WebReady, an online program that provides students with the essential skills needed to function effectively in Internet-based classes. The WebReady program consists of seven interactive lessons that instruct students on how to: (1) use the full capabilities of the Web browser; (2) perform critical searches on the…

This report provides a summary and analysis of activities and trends of virtual schools (i.e., educational organizations that offer K-12 courses through Internet- or World Wide Web-based methods) across the United States. The study provides analysis of trends based on an online survey of state-approved or regionally accredited schools conducted…

Historically, research has shown that a reader's recall of ideas from text is enhanced when the reader uses relations among concepts to organize information. Text structure is a term used to describe the various patterns of how concepts within text are related. Knowledge of text structures assists a reader to comprehend text by allowing the reader…

While much has been written about the theoretical basis for constructionism attempted in more traditional school settings, the Constructionist Learning Laboratory at the Maine Youth Center (the state facility for adjudicated youth ages 11-21) offers the first opportunity to document a full-scale implementation of constructionism in an…

CapBIT 97, Capacity Building for Information Technologies in Education in Developing Countries, from which this publication derives, was an invited IFIP working conference sponsored by Working Groups in secondary (WG 3.1), elementary (WG 3.5), and vocational and professional (WG 3.4) education under the auspices of IFIP Technical Committee for…

This publication reports on the fall 1997 conference of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL). It provides an account of the keynote sessions and concurrent sessions, a bibliography of published works related to each session, and summaries of other portions of the conference. The keynote sessions included: (1)…