Evaluates three computer software programs designed to help writing teachers to respond to and comment on student papers. Asserts that these programs do not actually assist teachers in writing comments, but help them to avoid writing comments. Argues that teachers expect too much of the computer as an aid to response. (PRA)

Describes and reviews a software package called "Writers Network," a writing program that contains teacher tools to minimize the difficulty in evaluating student writing and gives student tools to improve their writing. Notes that this program fosters enthusiastic interest in writing across the curriculum in teachers who might have not used…

Reviews two software programs: "The Graph Club" which makes learning graphs "magical and exciting"; and "WiggleWorks," an "exciting" reading curriculum on CD-ROM. (SR)

Discusses the Z39.50 standard (pertaining to client software) that provides information searching and retrieval from remote servers to offer a consistent user interface; reviews currently available client software; and provides a checklist for evaluating Z39.50 client software. (LRW)

Evaluates the newly released Adobe InDesign software, finding that while it brings new life into desktop publishing, it is not yet a "must buy" for publications advisers. Compares specific features that are relevant for student publications, including: character, paragraph, drop caps, define styles, page setup, text wrap, defining and using…

Describes "Focus," a software tool for collecting reader comments more efficiently. Discusses the design and rationale of the software. Notes that results obtained using Focus were compared to the reader feedback collected under the plus-minus method. Concludes that Focus participants appeared to comment more from a reviewer's and less…

Software complexity is the most important software quality attribute and a very useful instrument in the study of software quality. Is one of the factors that affect most of the software quality characteristics, including maintainability. It is very important to quantity this influence and identify the means to keep it under control; by using…

"DaisyQuest" is a software bundle that offers computer-assisted instruction in phonological awareness, targeting children aged three to seven years (or preschool to second grade). The instructional activities, framed in a fairy tale involving a search for a friendly dragon named Daisy, teach children how to recognize words that rhyme;…

Back in the 1990s Malcolm Coulthard announced the beginnings of an emerging discipline, "forensic linguistics", resulting from the interface of language, crime and the law. Today the courts are more than ever calling on language experts to help in certain types of cases, such as authorship identification, plagiarism, legal interpreting…

Web Access Pattern (WAP), which is the sequence of accesses pursued by users frequently, is a kind of interesting and useful knowledge in practice. Sequential Pattern mining is the process of applying data mining techniques to a sequential database for the purposes of discovering the correlation relationships that exist among an ordered list of…

This paper reports on the trial of web conferencing software conducted at a regional Australian university with a significant distance population. The paper shares preliminary findings, the views of participants and recommendations for future activity. To design and conduct the trial, an action research method was chosen because it is…

Although there is a proliferation of information available on the Web, and law professors, students, and other users have a variety of channels to locate information and complete their research activities, the law library catalog still remains an important source for offering users access to information that has been evaluated and cataloged by…

In this article, the author describes a lesson he observed involving a function machine. This function machine was a box with a slot at the top of one side and a large cut-out hole at the bottom of the opposite side. A card with a number written on it (the input) was pushed into the slot and the teacher put their hand through the hole of the other…

Structural equation models are widely appreciated in behavioral, social, and psychological research to model relations between latent constructs and manifest variables, and to control for measurement errors. Most applications of structural equation models are based on fully observed data that are independently distributed. However, hierarchical…

Integrity[TM], an online application for testing both the statistical integrity of the test and the academic integrity of the examinees, was evaluated for this review. Program features and the program output are described. An overview of the statistics in Integrity[TM] is provided, and the application is illustrated with a small simulation study.…