This article discusses open source projects which may free universities from expensive, rigid commercial software. But will the rewards outweigh the potential risks? The Kuali Project involves multiple universities writing and sharing code for their financial and operational systems. Another, the Sakai Project, is a community source platform for…

The spaces in which public deliberation most often takes place are institutionally, technologically, and scientifically complex. In this article, we argue that in order to participate, citizens must be able to invent valued knowledge. This invention requires using complex information technologies to access, assemble, and analyze information in…

In this article, we address the choice of suitable instructional units that might serve as the basis for cross-cultural analyses of classroom practice. Our argument draws on analyses undertaken as part of the Learner's Perspective Study (LPS). The database comprised a three-camera video record of sequences of 10 consecutive lessons in each…

Computer-assisted instruction systems have been broadly applied to help students solve math word problem. The majority of such systems, which are based on an instructor-initiating instruction strategy, provide pre-designed problems for the learners. When learners are asked to solve a word problem, the system will instruct the learners what to do.…

This study describes special education alternative route (AR) teacher preparation programs. The authors developed a national database of programs and collected information on program sponsorship, length and intensity, features, and participant demographics. Most of the 235 programs in the database were in states that had significant shortages of…

The National Child Count of Children and Youth who are Deaf-Blind is the first and longest running registry and knowledge base of children who are deaf-blind in the world. It represents a 25-plus year collaborative effort between the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB), its predecessors and each state deaf-blind project throughout the…

Plagued by long-term poor student outcomes, a number of reforms have been implemented within the Philadelphia School District to improve performance, including the use of charter schools. The number of charter schools in Philadelphia has risen from four to more than 60 over the past decade, and these schools now serve over 30,000 students. Debate…

Five papers from the sessions of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 1992 conference on classification, indexing, and cataloging are presented. Three papers deal with knowledge classification as it relates to database design, as it is practiced in India, and in a worldwide context. The remaining two papers focus…

This report provides a brief history of the design and development process that the Syracuse University Kellogg Project followed in creating the Kellogg Library and Archive Retrieval System (KLARS), an information storage and retrieval system designed to computerize archival research. This system was developed to preserve, organize, and facilitate…

This paper provides a commentary on the RAMP guidelines on curriculum development in the teaching of information technology, which were developed as a result of the UNESCO seminar on harmonization held in Paris in October 1984. This report is divided into three parts: (1) basic working assumptions for curriculum planning in the face of information…

Reviews two software packages, "Solutions Unlimited" and "BASIC Data Base System." Provides a description, summary, strengths and weaknesses, availability and costs. Includes reviews of three structured BASIC packages: "True BASIC (2.0)"; "Turbo BASIC (1.0)"; and "QuickBASIC (3.0)." Explains…

This paper outlines the market developments, governmental promotion policies, and efforts by private industries for online database services in Japan since the late 1970s. The combination of these efforts over the years has resulted in an online database service market of US$20 billion annually, of which approximately one third is Western online…

Internet resources provide a library of information to community college practitioners. Guides to these online resources include Yahoo!, Alta Vista, and Hotbot. Community college Internet sites, valuable research tools, are available for the American Association of Community Colleges, the League for Innovation in the Community College, the…

Describes how the database software QUEST was used with 10- to 11-year-old students in London by utilizing a multidisciplinary, project-based approach. The collection, collation, and interpretation of data are emphasized, and areas of educational development that benefited are discussed, including language, self responsibility, and hypothesis…

Describes a local automated bilingual circulation system using personal computers in a local area network that was developed at King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia) for Arabic and English materials. Topics addressed include the system structure, hardware, major features, storage requirements, and costs. (nine references) (LRW)