Online marking and feedback systems are critical for providing timely and accurate feedback to students and maintaining the integrity of results in large class teaching. Previous investigations have involved much in-house development and more consideration is needed for deploying or customising off the shelf solutions. Furthermore, keeping up to…

Presents participant responses to a doctoral online support group conducted with The Palace software. The Palace allows for online chatting via the Internet, but adds a two-dimensional space that allows participants to be in a virtual room and represent themselves with various digital images. A summary of participants' journal entries and verbal…

Offers criteria for selecting software for a computer-equipped classroom/writing lab: identifying uses, versatility, and ease of use. Concludes with advice for teachers to write their own applications programs. (RS)

Describes the features and use of PSILink's shareware software, which is designed to facilitate use of the Internet's electronic mail, bulletin boards, and USENET lists by librarians whose only access to the Internet is by modem on a personal computer. Directions for obtaining the software and for performing the various functions are given. (two…

Reports on the design and implementation of PBS (Parsing, Boolean Recognition, Stemming), a software module used in conjunction with an intermediary program to interpret natural language queries used for online database searching. Results of a test of the initial version, which is designed for use with bibliographic files, are reported. (13…

Examines the design of three reading software programs to determine their ease of use, format characteristics, and managerial components. Evaluates their text presentation segmentation to determine how closely they conform with current chunking theory in reading. Suggests that teachers directly examine the programs and manuals to determine whether…

Describes keyword, site, protocol, time, client, and user blocking and Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a Web rating system. Provides evaluations of five commercially available filters (Internet filters block content, keywords, sites, or a combination of these) and sample questions to evaluate filters. (PEN)

Reviews three of the most popular qualitative data analysis software packages currently available. Describes the purpose of research, including hermeneutic understanding and storytelling; examines the issue of holistic versus atomistic approaches to data analysis; and lists Web sites that describe qualitative software. (LRW)

This paper arises out of a research study into the online help facilities provided in popular software applications such as word processors. Its particular focus is on experimental methods of evaluating the effectiveness and usability of those facilities. Focus groups, questionnaires, and online surveys had already been used in other phases of the…

Modern information technology and computer science curricula employ a variety of graphical tools and development environments to facilitate student learning of introductory programming concepts and techniques. While the provision of interactive features and the use of visualization can enhance students' understanding and assist them in grasping…

A search was conducted on the Internet for software available for bilingual Spanish-speaking children. The only programs found under this heading were 18 programs for learning Spanish. Five of the least expensive were selected for review using a standardized scale for evaluating children's software. Four of the programs were found to be…

This annual guide provides information on recommended software programs and multimedia applications for K-12 use. An introductory section describes the evaluation process and lists the highest-rated programs for 1998-99. The program entries are organized by the following subject areas: the arts, early childhood, health, language arts, mathematics,…

The National Center for Research on Literature Teaching and Learning's review of 45 commercial hypermedia literature applications from a response-based perspective suggests that applications currently available, though not supportive of response-based literature teaching and learning, indicate how such applications could be developed. Includes the…

Developmental Software Awards were presented to seven computer programs: (1) Kidpix (Broderbund Software), art; (2) FaceMaker, Golden edition (Queue), creative problem solving; (3) My Words (Hartley Courseware) and Paint with Words (MECC), language; (4) EZ Logo, revised edition (MECC) and Learn about Plants (Create and Worlds), math and science;…

World Wide Web browsers are compared by speed, setup, hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) handling, management of file transfer protocol (FTP), telnet, gopher, and wide area information server (WAIS); bookmark options; and communication functions. Netscape has the most features, the fastest retrieval, sophisticated bookmark capabilities. (JMV)