Seven pedagogical principles guided the development of a collaborative virtual environment, within an international project called ITCOLE. The progressive inquiry model as a theoretical framework had a large impact on describing these principles. Furthermore, this article describes the two web-based software systems - Synergeia and FLE3 - that…

Purpose: To examine the relationship between deposit of electronic theses in institutional and archival repositories. Specifically the paper considers the automated export of theses for deposit in the archival repository in continuation of the existing arrangement in Wales for paper-based theses. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a…

When compared with, say, blogging, the deployment of learning objects has been slow indeed. While blog aggregation services are recording millions of blogs and hundreds of millions of blog posts, academic learning object repositories number their resources only in the thousands, and even major corporate repositories have only one or two million…

This month's column focuses on online Web conferencing software. This year promises to have the right mix of conditions to create significant growth in the use of these systems among libraries; library consortia, networks, and associations; and other library-related organizations. Travel budgets are being cut, librarian positions are being…

A self-proclaimed technophobe, Kuroly takes the plunge with his eighth-grade class. As a group, they learn PowerPoint, research poets on the Web, and record favorite poems, all of which results in a triumphant series of PowerPoint presentations on favorite poets.

Research shows that technology makes a difference in student motivation, engagement, and active learning. It also helps students develop critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Providing each student with his or her own computing device such as a Palm handheld computer and appropriate software can have a great impact. This…

Monte Carlo methodologies are frequently applied to study the sampling distribution of the estimated proficiency level in adaptive testing. These methods eliminate real situational constraints. However, these Monte Carlo methodologies are not currently supported by the available software programs, and when these programs are available, their…

When the topic of cell division is introduced in the classroom, students can showcase their interpretations of the stages of mitosis by creating a slide show illustrating prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase (see samples in Figure 1). With the help of a computer, they can create a model of mitosis that will help them distinguish the…

In 1990, a group of geologists discovered a large number of shatter cones in southwestern Montana. Shatter cones are a type of metamorphosed rock often found in impact structures (the remains of a crater after a meteor impact and years of Earth activity). Scientists have discovered only 168 impact craters around the world. If rocks could talk,…

This article is a short introduction on how to use Modellus (a computer package that is freely available on the Internet and used in the IOP "Advancing Physics" course) to build physics games using Newton's laws, expressed as differential equations. Solving systems of differential equations is beyond most secondary-school or first-year college…

In this article Harvey Quamen examines how the philosophy of open source software might be of particular benefit to humanities scholars in the near future--particularly for academic journals with limited financial resources. To this end he provides a case study in which he describes his use of open source technology (MySQL database software and…

This paper outlines the design and development process of an online annotation system and how it is applied to the sphere of collaborative online learning. The architecture and design of the annotation system, illustrated in this paper, have been developed to enrich collaborative learning content through adding a layer of information in online…

The modern world is undergoing a fundamental transformation characterized by a lot of challenges, dynamism, globalization, and the increasing influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). These new technologies have implications for all aspects of the society and economy; they are changing the way of doing business, the way of…

Excel assignments were used as extra credit in an intermediate algebra course. Ninety percent of the students had a home computer and seventy per cent were familiar with Excel. There was not a significant linear correlation between the amount of Excel that the students performed and their achievement in algebra. One-third of the students did less…

The motion of a magnet through a coil is analysed through a model of magnetic monopoles. The magnetic flux of a monopole passing through a loop is explained and also its rate of change. By a superposition of voltages produced by the monopoles on the coils the shape of the voltage versus time graph is explained. Also examined is the interaction of…