Describes a project that explores the use of interactive computer software for teaching Einstein's special theory of relativity to secondary students. Also describes ways to use computers to help students visualize and experiment with otherwise inaccessible phenomena. (ZWH)

SimuFlite Co. nearly went under when a state-of-the-art computer-based training simulation for airplane pilots took too long to develop and was not liked by participants. The revamped program emphasized live instructors, technical manuals, and videotapes. The program's failure illustrates the disadvantages of computer-based training. (SK)

Describes various electronic technologies available for classroom use, including videocassette news reports, educational computer games based on knowledge of geographical and historical trivia, and other software programs developed expressly for schools. Nintendo Company is being watched for optical disk developments, and "virtual…

Computer-assisted language-learning literature points to a need for experimentation with innovative learning structures to realize the full potential of recent technological developments. Reports on a research project that addresses these concerns by exploring the experiences of 23 French second-language learners as they worked independently with…

Describes a simulated student that learns by interacting with a human tutor. Tests suggest that simulated students, when developed past the prototype stage, could be valuable for training human tutors. Provides a computational cognitive task analysis of the skill of learning from a tutor that is useful for designing intelligent tutoring systems.…

Describes SIVAS, a computer-based system for driver education based on visual simulation that was developed in Spain to support theoretical concepts about driving in driving schools. Explains how teachers can select pre-built scenarios related to driving lessons in order to make up a lecture. (Author/LRW)

A formative small-group (n12) evaluation of a pair of opposed computer simulations modeling the thinking of historical ideologies (communist insurgency and counter-insurgency) suggests simulations had value in stimulating and modifying assessments of roles within real-world settings. Explores basic objective of having the simulation user develop a…

Demonstrates the use of simulation systems for studying diagnostic problem solving and presents results from two empirical studies in which undergraduates diagnosed faults that occurred in a computer-based, dynamic simulation. Discusses dual problem space search that includes generating and testing hypotheses; suggests implications for designing…

This article describes a study into the role of heuristic support in facilitating discovery learning through simulation-based learning. The study compares the use of two such learning environments in the physics domain of collisions. In one learning environment (implicit heuristics) heuristics are only used to provide the learner with guidance…

The purpose of this research was to explore how adult users interact and learn during an interactive computer-based simulation supplemented with brief multimedia explanations of the content. A total of 52 college students interacted with a computer-based simulation of Newton's laws of motion in which they had control over the motion of a simple…

Background: Most policy doctrines promote the use of scientific inquiry in the K-12 classroom, but good inquiry is hard to implement, particularly for schools with fiscal and safety constraints and for teachers struggling with understanding how to do so. Purpose: In this paper, we present the design of a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE)…

This paper presents a study that used narrative inquiry to explore staff experiences of learning and teaching in immersive worlds. The findings introduced issues relating to identity play, the relationship between pedagogy and play and the ways in which learning, play and fun were managed (or not). At the same time there was a sense of imposed or…

This article describes three connected projects in physics: (1) a very successful course at the university level; (2) a collection of several thousand multimedia materials, its status and evaluation, and its dissemination; and (3) Web experiments--experiments that can be operated remotely from a distance via the Internet. (Contains 4 tables and 10…

Managing the pedagogical aspects of the "computational turn" that is occurring within the Humanities in general and the disciplines associated with cognitive science and neuroscience in particular, first implies facing the challenge of introducing students to computation. This paper presents what has proven to be an efficient approach to bringing…

Animated demonstrations are increasingly used for presenting the functionality of various computer applications. Nevertheless, our understanding of whether and how students integrate this technology into their learning strategies remains limited. Although, several studies have examined animated demonstrations' learning efficiency, this study aims…