Today, at the end of 2007, there are evident consolidations in wireless, storage, and virtualization and the path forward seems clearer now than previously. Trends from last year continue strongly, particularly Web 2.0 and the shift to user-driven environments and Internet sites where significant data and video processing is available to those…

Advances in technology and health care delivery have included the use of telemedicine and telepsychology for crisis intervention, assessment, treatment, and education of patients. The use of telemedicine and telepsychology is examined for a variety of health care services to rural America. Telehealth has been considered a partial solution to the…

Several quasi-experimental and experimental studies of learning outcomes associated with Oral Communication across the Curriculum (OCXC) activities have been conducted at Radford University, Virginia. Two such studies assessing the effectiveness of OCXC in non-speech courses highlight the difficulties involved in conducting research into…

Substance abuse is pervasive in both rural and urban settings. Previous attempts to educate America's youth as to its dangers have not reduced the numbers of adolescents involved in the drug culture. The assertiveness-based "Just Say No" campaign attempts to counter peer pressure to use drugs, but is hampered by our society's…

With the emergence of interactive learning technologies, there are many questions which must be addressed concerning young learners. Such sophisticated technology combined with thoughtful instructional design has the potential for both encouraging achievement and stimulating important scholarly attributes such as curiosity and other aspects of…

The Michigan State University Museum used an interactive videodisc (IVD) as an introduction to a special exhibit, "Birds in Trouble in Michigan." The hardware components included a videodisc player, a microcomputer, a video monitor, and a mouse. Software included a HyperCard program and the videodisc "Audubon Society's VideoGuide to…

This discussion of the relationship between two related disciplines--cognitive psychology and instructional design (ID)--characterizes instructional design as a more applied discipline, which concerns itself more with prescriptions and models for designing instruction, while instructional psychologists conduct empirical research on learning and…

The 12 digests of Computers in Life Science Education from 1990 are presented. The articles found in chronological sequence are as follows: "The Computer as a Teaching Tool--How Far Have We Come? Where Are We Going?" (Modell); "Where's the Software--Part 1"; "Keeping Abreast of the Literature" (which appears…

Interactive videodisc training will only come into its own when its effectiveness for improving performance in the workplace is documented through carefully planned and implemented evaluation activities. This paper suggests a model for thorough, fool-proof evaluation to enter each phase of training course production and the rationale for each…

Higher educational institutions are increasingly called upon to make cost-cutting decisions in the types of courses offered, the maximum number of students allowed per section and course delivery modes. Lever (1992) says that this "doing more with less" is one of the core challenges facing community colleges and universities. All of us…

Two recent developments in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), interactive video systems and "intelligent" games, are discussed. Under the first heading, systems combining the use of a computer and video disc player are described, and Compact Discs Interactive (CDI) and Digital Video Interactive (DVI) are reviewed. The…

This paper describes the role of formative evaluation in the development of a museum videodisk project entitled "Earth Over Time," which was sponsored by 15 museums of the Interactive Video Science Consortium. Targeted for 10- to 12-year-old children who have come to the museum with their parents, this earth science videodisk covers…

Based on the concept of telecommunications as an effective means for creating a forum on school restructuring, the first video conference in a series of nine focuses on recent research on learning and describes the characteristics of successful learners from three perspectives: cognitive, philosophical, and multicultural. Provided in this…

Based on the assumption that changes in the educational experience require changes in the evaluation of student learning, this fourth guidebook in a series of nine video conferences on school restructuring presents information on the evolution of student assessment. Four shifts in educational assessment are identified: from testing to multiple…

Computer use in the classroom is minimal for both special education students and other students. Reasons for non-use are that access to computers is limited, the quality of the instructional software is poor, and teachers find it difficult to integrate computer use with more traditional teaching methods. Interactive videodisc technology, while…