Presents new forms of information technologies (e-mail, CD-ROM, WWW) that can be used in distance education and lead to "global classrooms." Contrasts these forms with traditional distance education, and compares them with regard to social dimensions, and dimensions of sensorial modality and productivity. Discusses global classrooms from…

Assessed the information-seeking behavior of scientists at the University of Oklahoma using an electronically distributed questionnaire, a copy of which is appended. Results indicate a preference for printed peer-reviewed journal articles and the need for libraries to provide access to electronic bibliographic databases. Appendix II lists…

This article discusses how speech-language pathologists are in a strategic position to identify the problems, carry out an evaluation of feeding and swallowing skills, and determine the needs for medical team referral. It focuses on guidelines for obtaining a history, physical examinations, and observing a typical meal. (Contains references.)…

Describes the "American Journey" series of CD-ROM archives that contains hundreds of primary sources, such as letters, diary entries, paintings, posters, and audio recordings. Addresses how to navigate and employ the documents from the archive and the CD-ROM's potential for developing historical thinking. Provides ideas for enhancing history…

Describes an inexpensive method for analyzing the cost-effectiveness of a liberal arts college's journal collection, based on measurements of journal use, journal subscription prices, and course enrollment by academic department. Explains data collection methods and presents results of collection analysis. Discusses the benefits of empirical…

Describes River Watch, an award-winning floating river study project that gives students continuous contact with the river environment. (PVD)

Presents a water-quality monitoring project in a Denver school that has evolved into an experiment using a constructed wetland system to treat the acid-mine drainage from an abandoned gold mine. (PVD)

Compares preservice teachers' and scientists' ratings of the credibility of 31 information sources that teachers might draw upon in teaching science lessons. Discusses differences between elementary and secondary preservice teachers as well as implications for science teacher education and scientific literacy. (Author/LRW)

Presents the findings of a national study designed to determine if large-scale turnover is likely to occur among community college faculty members in the near future. Examines factors affecting faculty members' retirement decisions, the impact and prevalence of early and phased retirement programs, and the steps taken by institutions to prepare…

Discussion of measuring and improving the quality of library public services focuses on a method for quantifying and categorizing patrons' comments from a questionnaire developed at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) library. Topics include Total Quality Management, measures of user perceptions, and defining the service role of libraries.…

Discusses the development of interactive media-delivered training. Highlights include examples; indicators for using multimedia; factors for successful implementation; learning and performance development; evaluating hardware options; technology choices, including interactive videodisc, compact disc interactive, CD-ROM, networked interactive…

Presents descriptions and examples of processes used by French-as-a-Second-Language instructors to teach vocabulary, reporting qualitative analyses of classroom transcripts and pedagogical materials used to teach. Teachers emphasized semantic aspects of lexis; lexical instruction in analytic and experiential classes was characterized by similar…

Discussion of the appropriateness of evaluation criteria and measures for information retrieval focuses on a study that investigated the appropriateness of 20 measures, including precision and recall, for evaluating interactive information retrieval performance representing 4 major evaluation criteria. The importance of user satisfaction in…

Achievement test scores were analyzed in relation to individual- and school-level factors in a national sample of 10th graders (n=2,535) to investigate the relative importance of school and individual factors in determining science learning. Hierarchical linear analyses showed that individual measures accounted for most of the variance. Previous…

This study shows how users access relevant information in a visualized document space and determine whether BiblioMapper, a visualization tool, strengthens an information retrieval (IR) system and makes it more usable. BiblioMapper, developed for a CISI collection, was evaluated by accuracy, time, and user satisfaction. Users' navigation…