Predicts the effects of information technology (IT) on libraries of the future. Discusses negative implications for school libraries. Describes four emerging roles for media specialists: (1) showing students and staff how to navigate information networks; (2) teaching users how to evaluate and select information; (3) designing information systems;…

Proposes a useful concept of relevance as a relationship and an effect on the movement of a user through the iterative stages of their information seeking process, and that users' relevance judgments can be plotted on a Three-Dimensional Spatial Model of Relevance Level, Degree and Time. Discusses implications for the development of information…

Proposes a user-centered framework for intranet design based on an understanding of people, their typical problems, information behaviors, and situated contexts. Argues that by adopting such an approach, intranets can be designed which facilitate organizational information access and use. (Author/AEF)

Discusses the research design for an educational evaluation of the Alexandria Digital Earth ProtoType (ADEPT), a digital library of geo-referenced information resources. Reviews the deployment of digital libraries in educational settings, the role of information technology in developing students' scientific thinking, and evaluation of digital…

Examines expectations about a computerized student management-information system (SMIS) and how these perceptions influence effective use. Investigates relationships between design, use and effects in developing a model for understanding strategies for effective implementation and use. Focuses on a public school district in Texas. (AEF)

Presents an overview of "Q&A," a Web-based question-answering system that mediates interactions between an expert and a question-asking user. Discusses the system's components and features; details of the implementation; evaluation; and future work. (AEF)

Focuses on instructional and learning systems in distance education. Highlights include: learner-centeredness of distance education; instructor's role; relevant content to individual needs; balancing roles of instructors and learners; personalizing instruction; ramifications for instructional and learning system design; and architecture of dynamic…

Describes a scalable system for searching heterogeneous multilingual collections on the World Wide Web. Details Searchable Database Markup Language (SearchDB-ML) for describing the characteristics of a search engine and its interface, and a protocol for requesting word translations between languages. (Author)

Describes a security architecture, Oasis, which runs on a middleware platform extended for asynchronous operation; shows how the interoperation of independently developed services may be supported under the Oasis architecture. Uses the provision of digital academic library services as an example. (Author/AEF)

The Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX; www.alex.state.al.us) is a network-based education system designed and implemented to help improve education in Alabama. It accomplishes this goal by providing a single location for the state's K-12 educators to find information that will help improve their classroom effectiveness. The ALEX system includes…

At present, the design of computer-supported group-based learning (CSGBL) is often based on subjective decisions regarding tasks, pedagogy and technology, or concepts such as "cooperative learning" and "collaborative learning." Critical review reveals these concepts as insufficiently substantial to serve as a basis for CSGBL design. Furthermore,…

Despite the multiple potential benefits of asking students working on programming tasks to consider human factors, most programming assignments narrowly focus on technical details and requirements. Female students in particular may be attracted to assignments that emphasize human as well as technical factors. To assess how students respond to…

Educational Adaptive Hypermedia Applications (EAHA) provide personalized views on the learning content to individual learners. They also offer adaptive sequencing (navigation) over the learning content based on rules that stem from the user model requirements and the instructional strategies. EAHA are gaining the focus of the research community as…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an e-learning content adaptation toolkit--ELCAT--that helps to achieve the objectives of the KTP project No. 3509. Design/methodology/approach: The chosen methodology is absolutely practical. The tool was put into motion and results were observed as university and the collaborating company members…

A considerable amount of experiences in teaching object-oriented concepts using the Java language have been reported to date, some of which describe language pitfalls and concrete learning difficulties. In this paper, a number of additional issues that have been experienced as difficult for students to master, along with approaches intended to…