A course entitled "Communicating through Multimedia" was designed as a capstone experience for upperclassmen. It was a team-taught interdisciplinary course in the application of multimedia technology. Students in the course came from three disciplines--speech communication, mass communication, and management information systems. The…

This collection of 18 papers on assessing infants and toddlers includes the views of parents, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers. The following papers are included: (1) "Toward a New Vision for the Developmental Assessment of Infants and Young Children" (Stanley I. Greenspan and Samuel J. Meisels); (2) "Charting the Continuum…

This book presents an introduction to the range of technology that can be used to assist in the education of students with visual impairments, with descriptions of the main features of approximately 45 systems. After an introductory chapter, Chapter 1 identifies four key uses for technology: in communication, in the production of materials, to…

Materials presented here include a variety of resources for teachers of Esperanto: a brief guide to Esperanto teaching, including suggested teacher qualifications, a listing of instructional materials and resources, including serials, with details of publication, activities in preparation for teaching, grade-level class activities, notes on…

Experiences with the whole language approach to English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction in a Lebanese kindergarten are described. Children's literature was selected for use in instruction, in part because few appropriate commercially prepared materials were available and in part because it presents appropriate language in an entertaining,…

This paper argues that the ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech-community cannot be satisfactorily described or explained in purely behavioral terms, that they constitute a behavioral manifestation of a tacit system of cultural rules or scripts, and that to understand a society's ways of speaking, it is necessary to identify and…

The increasing linguistic and cultural diversity of U.S. public schools requires teachers to be more sensitive to how symbols and figures of speech are used to maintain an effective cross-cultural communication. The purpose of this paper is to address and discuss the role of sociocultural factors that shape the insights and perspectives of diverse…

Second language tests claiming to assess communicative competence are widespread, despite the vague nature of the construct. Sociolinguistic or intercultural competence is gradually gaining attention in the classroom, but testing has not kept pace, partly because of difficulty in defining the related skills. An opinion is that speech act theory…

The Toronto-born Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment System (CSILE) is an advanced computer-supported cooperative learning system being developed at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. This system has been refined by working closely with teachers and students engaged in an educational approach called…

A reform-oriented teacher education model and its effect on the eventual classroom practice of preservice program graduates is examined. An ethnographic description is provided of the program, which emphasized an experiential philosophical base that permeated both the program and the compulsory educational milieu of the training site. Research…

The existing education indicators for performance and achievement fail to provide relevant information about what young adults at the end of education need in terms of skills, and in particular, whether they will be able to play a constructive role as citizens. Does education provide the basic knowledge and skills needed for living an individually…

This paper briefly describes the author's dissertation research covering the history of women as visual and audiovisual educators (1920-1957), outlining her historical methodology and tracing sources for such research. The methodology used was a discourse analysis of selected audiovisual textbooks and audiotapes of founders in the audiovisual…

In 1992 and 1995, Iowa received statewide Star Schools grants to demonstrate the use of fiber-optic technology to provide live, two-way, full-motion interactive instruction which allows greater levels of interactivity than previous forms of distance instruction. The grant allowed the state to equip over 100 fully interactive video classrooms in…

This document is a resource for distance education research in Iowa, including information on developing, implementing, and administering distance education systems. This second edition contains the original 16 research papers published previously, as well as 8 additional, more recent research studies. The first section describes distance…

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), the National School Boards Foundation, NSBA's Institute for the Transfer of Technology to Education, and Apple Computer, Inc., launched "The School Board of Tomorrow Exhibit" at NSBA's 1996 annual conference and exposition in Orlando, Florida. This handbook summarizes the communication technologies…