This document reports on a research and development project to develop and evaluate learning materials using a technological approach to science education and an in-service education and training (INSET) package designed to introduce this technology package to teaching. The evaluation aimed to identify effective INSET strategies in terms of…

This paper discusses the amount of vocabulary required by students learning in a second language to comprehend academic texts, explaining that a wide vocabulary is essential for reading comprehension and for speaking and writing clearly. It highlights an assessment of the vocabulary levels of students entering Hong Kong University, which found…

The Monash University (Australia) Transition to Tertiary Writing Project seeks to produce a World Wide Web-based resource for first-year students to facilitate their transition to the kinds of thinking and writing valued at the university. The background research on which this language and academic skills (LAS) project is based centers on three…

This paper presents some preliminary findings from a study with the two aims of examining gender differences in online participation and methods for obtaining better online debate. A number of research methods were used. The study involved a WebCT conference for a total population of 123 second-year undergraduate students at the University of…

The University of Wollongong (Australia) opened a new campus and two new access canters on the south coast of New South Wales in 2000. The combination of distance with limited funding, after seed funding was expended, provided opportunities to rethink teaching and learning strategies. Competition from traditional distance education providers in…

This paper analyses a case study of a pair of students working together, who were asked to produce conjectures and to validate them within the dynamic geometry environment Cabri. Our aim is to scrutinize the students' reasoning, how the gap from perception to theory is filled, how Cabri influences the reasoning. We have singled out a sequence of…

If the public policy goal to connect all schools to the information highway becomes a reality, public education as Canadians have known it--a shared social responsibility and a generally shared social experience--could be lost. This volume of contributed papers brings into focus the new context within which the struggle to technologize education…

This document contains two papers on globalization versus localization from ICCE/ICCAI 2000 (International Conference on Computers in Education/International Conference on Computer-Assisted Instruction). The first paper, "Implementing Modern Approaches to Teaching Computer Science: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" (Jill Slay and Kam W. Li),…

This document contains the full and short papers on multimedia and hypermedia in education from ICCE/ICCAI 2000 (International Conference on Computers in Education/International Conference on Computer-Assisted Instruction) covering the following topics: learner-centered navigation path planning in world Wide Web-based learning; the relation…

In partnership with the Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Vista School District, 1 of 10 districts in Newfoundland, Canada, established the Vista School District Digital Intranet (VSDDI) to deliver Web-based advanced placement courses to rural students. Advanced placement mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry courses are delivered…

Educational technology units must continually monitor their strategic plans to ensure that they are aligned with the realities of their institutions. Strategic dissonance occurs when previously successful strategies are no longer achieving the same positive outcomes. The Virtual Retina CD-ROM project is used in this paper as an example of…

The REPRESENTATION Project, 1998-2000, carried out research within elementary schools in six European countries: Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and England. Altogether, 31 schools participated, ranging from large inner city schools in Paris and Amsterdam, to a 20-student school in a Greek village. In each school, one class of…

This paper addresses distance learning and academic values from the author's perspectives as student, part-time scholar, and president of the Open University (United Kingdom). The following six propositions are discussed: (1) new technologies may change higher education; (2) new technologies are always superseded by newer technologies; (3) most…

This case study identifies key barriers for staff on the path to an e-University and suggests ways to unlock them. The focus of the evidence-based research is an e-University pilot development in virtual learning in progress at the University of Greenwich (England). Documentary evidence for the study included feedback from 12 sub-projects in the…

This study investigated Australian preservice teachers' use of computers during teaching practice. Participants were 46 graduates entering a preservice elementary teacher education course at an Australian university in 1999. Data were collected using the Personal Computer Efficacy Questionnaire at the beginning of the course. The School Computer…