Several papers have been published on the use of a CD as a grating for undergraduate laboratories and/or for high school and college class demonstrations. Four years ago "The Physics Teacher" had a spectacular cover picture showing emission spectrum as viewed through a CD with no coating. That picture gave the impetus to develop a system that can…

The motion of the planets in their orbits can be demonstrated to students by using planetarium software programs. These allow time to be sped up so that the relative motions are readily observed. However, it is also valuable to have the students understand the real speed of the planets in their orbits. This paper describes an exercise that gives…

In this article, the author provides a job description of teacher-librarians. In this information age, teacher-librarians make sure that children grow up and thrive in a world that requires not just knowledge, but the ability to tap into vast collections of information. Teacher-librarians also teach what is called information literacy. This…

ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) are now widely used in schools: However, despite predictions, they have not revolutionized teaching and learning. Why is this? Does it matter? Should we care? This paper outline seeks to answer such questions and why we should care. School ICTs are informed by a range of different, and often…

The application of computers to education has a history dating back to the 1950s, well before the pervasive spread of personal computers (Reiser, 1987). With a mature history and varying approaches to utilizing computers for education, a veritable alphabet soup of terms and acronyms related to computers in education have found their way into the…

A general analysis of reaction mass efficiency and raw material cost is developed using an Excel spread sheet format which can be applied to any chemical transformation. These new methods can be easily incorporated into standard laboratory exercises.

Various modern electronic structure methods are now days used to teach computational chemistry to undergraduate students. Such quantum calculations can now be easily used even for large size molecules.

This article investigates very young children's use of a stylus-driven, electronic painting and drawing on the tablet PC. The authors compare their development in the use of this device with their use of other mark-making media, including those which derive from pencil and paper technologies and also with mouse-driven electronic paintbox programs.…

While PowerPoint is generally regarded as simply software for creating slide presentations, it includes often overlooked--but powerful--drawing tools. Because it is part of the Microsoft Office package, PowerPoint comes preloaded on many computers and thus is already available in many classrooms. Since most computers are not preloaded with good…

Pat Kyle, librarian at the Washington International School (WIS), was presented with a rare opportunity. A private PreK-12 institution in northwest Washington, DC, WIS had committed to a five-year redesign of the school in which she would take an active role, helping build a brand new media center. Having participated in a design workshop at the…

Contrary to system-controlled multimedia learning environments, hypermedia systems are characterized by a high level of interactivity. This interactivity is referred to as learner control in the respective literature. For several reasons this learner control is seen as a major advantage of hypermedia for learning and instruction. For instance,…

Many middle schools use the Web to disseminate and gather information. Online barriers often limit the accessibility of the Web for students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accessibility of home pages of a sample of middle schools. The authors located 165 Web sites using a popular online directory and evaluated the…

We suggest the creation of a Global Web Laboratory (we call it "GloLab") for scientific purposes and teaching experiments online. In this article, we discuss the main principles and problems of building such a global Internet-laboratory. An example of a current working laboratory for teaching magnetism experiments online is also discussed.

The author discusses the copyright law as it pertains to purchasing and using computer software. She presents several case studies and lists consumer responsibilities. (CH)

Among tips suggested for teachers adjusting to the presence and use of computers in the classroom are: teach students about the keyboard; allow students to teach you about using the computer; find out and stay knowledgeable about software and students' interests; and share ideas with other teachers. (CB)