Provides advice and suggestions for educators or parents who are trying to decide what type of computer to buy to run the latest computer software for children. Suggests that purchasers should buy a computer with as large a hard drive as possible, at least 10 megabytes of RAM, and a CD-ROM drive. (MDM)

This instructional module presented by the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) provides guidelines for teachers and other test developers to help them construct test item banks. Setting up an item bank and using it are described, with a consideration of software that can be used. (SLD)

Two studies with a total of 82 students (grades 5-7) with learning disabilities found that, unaided, students corrected 9% of their errors; with spelling checkers, they corrected 37% of errors. Spelling checkers failed to identify about 30% of errors. Students usually selected the correct word from spelling checker suggestions. (Author/DB)

Undergraduate students used an intelligent collaborative learning system with the Jigsaw method of cooperative learning, and were monitored by the group leader as they developed algorithmic projects. The system components and operation are described. Students thought that the system, although slow, was easy to use and useful for collaborative…

Describes four stages of multimedia development: (1) preparation; (2) instructional design; (3) production; and (4) evaluation. Discusses strategies and recommendations for each of the steps as identified by the staff of the Educational Technology Laboratory at the Medical University of South Carolina. (AEF)

Describes a language generation system, which, given data files describing a natural language, generates utterances of the class the user has specified. The system can exercise control over the syntax, lexicon, morphology, and semantics of the language. This article explores a range of the system's potential applications to second-language…

Discusses a school study of the evolution of a child language. A software program was developed to challenge Italian children in sentence structuring, motivate their sentence production in a game, provide feedback on the linguistic structure and the game context, and classify linguistic productions. (26 references) (Author/CK)

Describes a course that weaves the learning of how to use the chemical literature with a discussion of the chemistry of the elements. The use of computer programs and games enables students to explore trends of properties among the elements. (DDR)

A theory of how people detect and correct their own performance errors during skill practice is proposed. Blame assignment, error attribution, and knowledge revision are identified as three cognitive functions in explaining error correction. The theory is embodied in a computer model that learns cognitive skills in ecologically valid domains. (SLD)

Describes how the Muskoka Board of Education in Bracebridge, Ontario, revised its purchasing and budget-management system to coincide with its new site-based management policy. The district developed individual school budgets, established an online computing network, and acquired software that permitted remote-site entry. (LMI)

High school biology students (n=261) completed 1 of 4 versions of the hypermedia courseware, "The Ecology and History of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Analysis failed to detect any statistically significant differences in achievement among the four groups, but did detect a significant difference among student ability levels. Supports…

Explores how computers and cooperative language learning have dovetailed over the last 15 years, resulting in a phenomenon that may be called cooperative computer-assisted language learning (CCALL). Within the context of computer use, implications of the cooperative learning model are examined for three groups: language learners; courseware…

Describes the demonstration of DYASIM, a program that performs various statistical computations to assess the degree of similarity of dyadic data, in classroom settings to illustrate the conceptual difficulties associated with measuring dyadic similarity. Presents the demonstration within the context of the similarity-complimentarity debate on…

Application service providers sell schools Web-based access to sophisticated computer applications that might be too costly to purchase or would require more expensive computers. ASPs serve data and software through the user's desktop computer via a connection to the Internet. Applications and provider names are specified. (MLH)

What uses of computers have effects on student engagement that seem most predicative of important learning? This research provides some evidence about this, examining empirical associations between kinds of software students use, teachers' pedagogical motivations behind their use, and one measure of student engagement: teachers' estimates of the…