The human brain contains an estimated 100 billion neurons, and browsing the Web, one might be led to believe that there's a Web site for every one of those cells. It's no surprise that there are lots of Web sites concerning the nervous system. After all, the human brain is toward the top of nearly everyone's list of favorite organs and of…

The XX IDEA annual conference has been focused and reflected on different ways and means of meeting various kinds of methodological challenges, new technologies and multi-media developments, newly emerging partnerships and collaboration between emerging sectors on one hand and between the institutions functioning with similar objectives and…

Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-created sensory experience that allows a participant to believe and barely distinguish a "virtual" experience from a real one using computer graphics, sounds, and images to reproduce electronic versions of real-life situations. This digest describes how VR works and discusses applications of VR in…

This document contains both an instructor's guide and a student guide for a city planning learning activity for technology education classes. The instructor's guide provides the following: an overview of technology education, a summary of activities and supplies needed for students to complete the learning activity, a supplies and materials…

Computational science includes the use of computer-based modeling and simulation to define and test theories about scientific phenomena. The challenge for educators is to develop techniques for implementing computational science in the classroom. This paper reviews some previous work on the use of simulation alone (without modeling), modeling…

With the exception of a few key writers, counselors largely ignore the benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive Psychology (CP) can bring to counseling. It is demonstrated that AI and CP can be integrated into the counseling literature. How AI and CP can offer new perspectives on information processing, cognition, and helping is…

Errors in item parameter estimates have a negative impact on the accuracy of item and test information functions. The estimation errors may be random, but because items with higher levels of discriminating power are more likely to be selected for a test, and these items are most apt to contain positive errors, the result is that item information…

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of computers across a wide age range. Extensive use is made of photographs, illustrations, cartoons, and samples of children's work to demonstrate the versatility of computer use in schools. An introduction by Rob Crompton placing computer use within the educational context of the United…

This paper argues that Merrill's instructional transaction theory provides a framework that can decrease learners' problems in using computer simulations by specifying transaction shells rather than frames in designing interactive courseware. The three types of data used in a transaction, i.e., an instructional algorithm, are identified as a…

By employing a concomitant variable, researchers can reduce the error, increase the precision, and maximize the power of an experimental design. Blocking and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) are most often used to harness the power of a concomitant variable. Whether to block or covary and how many blocks to be used if a block design is chosen…

Arguing that what sets the computer apart from all other teaching devices is its potential for interactivity, this paper examines the concept of interactivity and explores ways in which its power can be harnessed and put to work. A discussion of interactivity in human-to-human communication sets a context within which to view human/computer…

This paper addresses the numerous ways that computers may be used to enhance the teaching of accounting and business topics. It focuses on the pedagogical use of spreadsheet software to improve the conceptual coverage of accounting principles and practice, increase student understanding by involvement in the solution process, and reduce the amount…

This final report reviews a program of theoretical and empirical research focusing on the ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition. An integrative framework for information processing and cognitive ability determinants of skills is presented, along with principles for ability-skill relations. Three major patterns of…

The Random Normal Scores Test (RNST) has been suggested as a powerful alternative to the use of the parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA) test when the underlying population is non-normally distributed. The major support for this suggestion rests on asymptotic theory. An empirical analysis of the RNST performed under the F and Chi-square…

Factors affecting a lower-bound estimate of internal consistency reliability, Cronbach's coefficient alpha, are explored. Theoretically, coefficient alpha is an estimate of the correlation between two tests drawn at random from a pool of items like the items in the test under consideration. As a practical matter, coefficient alpha can be an index…