Proposes a model on which activities in children's educational software could be evaluated based on Multiple Intelligences theory. Proposes that, when evaluating the types of activity in children's educational software, one should ask whether it contains at least some of the activities in the model for each learning activity. (Author/SLD)

Describes a computer program that simulates the emergence of affiliation networks in preschool groups and examines theoretical issues raised by the model. The simulation implies that triadic interactions are not essential in the formation of affiliative structures and that polyadic friendship groupings can be understood as sets of dyadic…

Discusses large-scale software development and describes the development of the Designer Assistant to improve software development effectiveness. Highlights include the knowledge management problem; related work, including artificial intelligence and expert systems, software process modeling research, and other approaches to organizational memory;…

Describes the evaluation of a new model for software evaluation that emphasizes the collection of student performance data to determine the extent to which students learn the knowledge a software package intends to teach. Discussion covers the results of two studies, evaluation criteria and methods, evaluator subjectivity in decision making,…

Introduces and demonstrates a quick-prototyping model for educational software development that can be used by teachers developing their own courseware using an object-oriented programming system. Development of a courseware package called "The Match-Maker" is explained as an example that uses HyperCard for quick prototyping. (Contains…

Introduces a new way of looking at concepts called Hazyspace that focuses on the messiness of real life and the indeterminancy of concepts as key features in understanding the conceptual domain of human beings. Although Hazyspace has general applicability to education, this discussion focuses on use of the term to describe how new users…

Discussion of instructional design for training focuses on the lack of tools that support the developmental phases of analysis, design, and evaluation. Topics include a standard instructional systems design model and an integrated software support system called "Designer's Edge," which focuses on the common activities of instructional…

Virtual reality (VR), as an emerging visualization technology, has introduced an unprecedented communication method for collaborative design. VR refers to an immersive, interactive, multisensory, viewer-centered, 3D computer-generated environment and the combination of technologies required to build such an environment. This article introduces the…

A personalized e-learning framework based on a user-interactive question-answering (QA) system is proposed, in which a user-modeling approach is used to capture personal information of students and a personalized answer extraction algorithm is proposed for personalized automatic answering. In our approach, a topic ontology (or concept hierarchy)…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe a project to provide an online web portal that can be used as a front-end for all university users--students, teachers, staff--and services, library, administration, e-learning, and e-mail. Design/methodology/approach: The profile model proposed is mainly inheritable, defined by profile components with…

Self-regulated learning (SRL) has become an important topic in education during the last three decades. At the same time, advances in technology have made it possible to create complex Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs). While there is some evidence that these TELEs have the potential to foster SRL, there is only little research on…

Objective: To examine whether the communication process between diabetes health professionals and people intensively self-managing their type 1 diabetes influenced behavioural change. Design: Telephone interviews to provide insight into the communication process and its influence on diabetes intensive self-management behaviour. Setting:…

This research effort compared and contrasted two conceptually different methods for the exploration of human anatomy in the first-year dissection laboratory by accomplished students: "physical" dissection using an embalmed cadaver and "digital" dissection using three-dimensional volume modeling of whole-body CT and MRI image sets acquired using…

Less than one half of one percent of all processors manufactured today end up in computers. The rest are embedded in other devices such as automobiles, airplanes, trains, satellites, and nearly every modern electronic device. Developing software for embedded systems requires a greater knowledge of hardware than developing for a typical desktop…

The ever increasing availability of mathematics education software and internet-based multimedia learning activities presents teachers with the difficult task of deciding which programs are best suited for their students' learning needs. The challenge is for teachers to select pedagogical products that not only promote significant mathematical…