This document is intended for classroom teachers, resource personnel, administrators and parents. It is one of a series of documents developed to facilitate programming for students in grades 1 to 12 who have special education needs. The six essential components listed in this document are contained in "Standards for Special Education,…

Open source has continued to evolve and in the past three years the development of a graphical user interface has made it increasingly accessible and viable for end users without special training. Open source relies to a great extent on the free software movement. In this context, the term free refers not to cost, but to the freedom users have to…

This paper presents an example of integrating IT skills using an interesting real life problem. We describe how the reverse- and forward-engineering of the USA National Do Not Call registry was used in our capstone course to illustrate the fusion of different (but interdependent) issues and techniques learned in the IT program. The purpose of the…

As with commercial stations, the underlying premise of the college radio station is to serve the community, whether it be the campus community or the community at large, but in unique ways often geared to underserved niches of the population. Much of college radio's charm lies in its unpredictable nature and constant mutations. The stations give…

As part of a larger study, this study provided a critical-interpretive perspective of Whittle Communications' Channel One programming, a microcosm of the growing national trend of commercialism in public schools. Several board meetings held at the East Side Union High School District, San Jose, California, generated the discourse for analysis. A…

Because of the close proximity of countries in the Middle East, broadcast signals freely cross national boundaries, bringing not always friendly endemic populations into contact with each other through radio and television programming--a fact that has not been lost on the governments which fund broadcasting facilities. National anthems are…

The design of a re-usable instructional algorithm for computer based instruction (CBI) is described. The prototype is implemented on IBM PC compatibles running the Windows(TM) graphical environment, using the prototyping tool ToolBook(TM). The algorithm is designed to reduce development and life cycle costs for CBI by providing an authoring…

Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs), are text-based virtual reality environments in which participants separated by great physical distances can communicate and collaborate in programming. Most MUDs started out as adventure games but are quickly being adapted for more "serious" endeavors. This paper presents a case study of the experiences of a…

Public broadcasting in the United States frequently draws criticism from conservatives who accuse it of pursuing an agenda promoting environmentalism, gay rights, affirmative action, reproductive choice, and other liberal causes, and of being hostile to conservative interests such as defense, the pro-life effort, and the promotion of Christian…

With regard to sexual content, an argument is often made that sexual jokes, innuendoes, and behavior on television "go over kids' heads." To address this issue, focus groups were conducted with children between the ages of 8 and 13. Children viewed a tape of a selection of clips containing sexual content from programs aired in 1996…

An optimization model is presented that allows test assemblers to control the shape of the observed-score distribution on a test for a population with a known ability distribution. An obvious application is for item response theory-based test assembly in programs where observed scores are reported and operational test forms are required to produce…

Noting that peaceable classrooms grow out of understanding how children develop ideas about peace, conflict, and violence, this guide is intended to help early childhood educators create a classroom where preschool through grade 3 children learn peaceful alternatives to the violent behaviors modeled for them in society. The guide is based on the…

The Miscellaneous Studies section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 12 papers: "Revelatory Silences: A Critical Analysis of the Structuring Absences in Sydney Pollack's 'Out of Africa'" (Brenda Cooper and David Descutner); "The Cox Fight with the FCC: Gamesmanship, Hidden Agendas, and Personal…

This report analyzes revenues from state governments and combined revenues from state government and state university sources for each state, as reported to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by public broadcasting licenses in the Annual Financial Report survey, Fiscal Year 1997. All revenue amounts contained in this report include cash,…

An item-selection algorithm to neutralize the differential effects of time limits on scores on computerized adaptive tests is proposed. The method is based on a statistical model for the response-time distributions of the examinees on items in the pool that is updated each time a new item has been administered. Predictions from the model are used…