Includes four articles that focus on networking in developing nations: "The Reconfiguration of International Information Infrastructure Assistance Since 1991"; "International Assistance for Networking in Less-Developed Countries: The IDRC Example"; "International Assistance for Internet Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa";…

Discusses the theoretical links between motivation and learning and the use of information technology resulting from the installation of a new computer network in a secondary school. Results of evaluation by both teachers and pupils show improved teaching and learning and increased enjoyment of learning. (Author/LRW)

For many school districts, planning, developing, and implementing a technology infrastructure has become very expensive, time-consuming, and knowledge-intensive. Following Hartford, Connecticut's example, districts should expand cooperative purchasing, try outsourcing, develop vendor partnerships, and use regional educational service centers. (MLH)

Explores technology planning possibilities via interviews with a district-level technology director, a state instructional technology director, and a state administrative technology director. Schools' biggest planning challenges are funding, professional development, and technology integration. The Web browser is becoming a "universal…

Internet II will take three to five years to develop, will be 1,000 times faster than Internet I, and will cost at least $500 million. Key developers are universities, several federal agencies, and leading computer and telecommunications firms. Internet II will support face-to-face communications technology to facilitate "real-time" networking.…

Describes a project that offered customized training in Internet access and networking to enable participants to implement specific technology-related projects in their communities. Highlights include intergenerational partnerships, hardware and software, laptop computers used as file servers, and a sidebar that describes some of the resulting…

Considers what library outreach means in the age of networked information and suggests that outreach should focus more on libraries and librarians as resources for advice on how to search in general, rather than where to find familiar information. Discusses use of the Internet and search engines. (LRW)

Offers insights about online conferences from a participant's perspective. Topics include the development of computer-network technology that has improved online conferences; advantages, including early access to conference papers, participants' degree of control, increased interaction, convenience, and cost effectiveness; and suggestions for…

Presents and applies a teacher professional-development-oriented analytical framework to provide clarity to the discussion of what role network-based communication may play in teacher professional-development experiences. A table presents a summary of advocacy and adversarial claims in network-based professional development by areas of…

Describes the VISION (video indexing for searching over networks) digital video library system which was developed at the University of Kansas as a testbed for evaluating automatic and comprehensive mechanisms for library creation and content-based search and retrieval of video over local and wide area networks. Discusses experimental results.…

Presents results from two computer-based knowledge-mapping studies developed by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST): in one, middle and high school students constructed group maps while collaborating over a network, and in the second, students constructed individual maps while searching the Web.…

Examines issues concerning collaborative assessment of adult learners' formal coursework in a networked learning context. Considers how to make assessment a learning event in the context of lifelong learning, especially in the field of continuing professional development. (LRW)

Discusses the variety of performance measures available for information retrieval systems, search engines, and network filtering agents. Considers how measures of performance at a point in a search can be formally compared, develops criteria related to document orderings, and discusses equivalent ordering and precision and recall. (Author/LRW)

Describes streaming media, an audio/video presentation that is delivered across a network so that it is viewed while being downloaded onto the user's computer, including a continuous stream of video that can be pre-recorded or live. Discusses its use for nontraditional students in higher education and reports on implementation experiences. (LRW)

Looks back at the innovations/tribulations that went into the making of Merit Network, Inc., Michigan's pioneering Internet provider. Today, Merit is serving as the GigaPoP organization for its two current Internet2 members, Michigan State University and University of Michigan, and will provision a vBNS connection for Wayne State University.…