Considers the idea of interactivity and its parameters, suggesting that historians must raise their expectations for educational software used in teaching their students. Presents a taxonomy of interactivity for computer tutorials stating that students need motivation, opportunity, and a means to learn. (CMK)

Discusses the use of Blackboard COURSEINFO at Miami University (Ohio). Focuses on the promotion of courseware intended for supplementing traditional teaching, but not replacing it. Describes the content of COURSEINFO and includes graphics, displaying sections of COURSEINFO. (CMK)

Reviews the literature on groupware (a type of software that supports people working together by facilitating group processes) illustrating the strengths of the software for group learning. Describes a case study where groupware was used in a macroeconomics course during an economic impact project. (CMK)

Explains the design and development of an educational virtual environment to support the teaching of planetary phenomena, particularly the movements of Earth and the sun, day and night cycle, and change of seasons. Uses an interactive, three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment. Initial results show that the majority of students enthused about…

Studied how 29 Canadian junior high school students aged 11 to 14 used technology to design and produce toys. Findings show that the project-based unit allowed students to use technology in meaningful ways, and that computer use allowed some shifts in traditional gender-technology relations. (SLD)

A strategy game is an online interactive game that requires thinking in order to be played at its best and whose winning strategy is not obvious. Provides information on strategy games that are written in Java or JavaScript and freely available on the web. (KHR)

Explains that thinking like a physicist involves an understanding of the scientific methods of inquiry and the ability to use these methods in investigations. Describes two simple experiments in which high school and college students measure physical constants and make an easy analysis of their experimental data by applying the tools offered by…

Introduces an alternative method to determine the mechanics of a moving object that uses computer vision algorithms with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera as a recording device. Presents two experiments, pendulum motion and terminal velocity, to compare results of the alternative and conventional methods. (YDS)

Describes the implementation of a new laboratory-based, interdisciplinary undergraduate course on linear dynamical systems. Focuses on geometrical methods and data visualization techniques. (Contains 20 references.) (Author/YDS)

Describes the Delta Health Education Partnership, an interdisciplinary distance education program intended to recruit, educate, and retain interdisciplinary groups of primary care health practitioners to increase access to health care in medically underserved and health professional shortage areas of the lower Mississippi Delta. It spans six…

College students learned about botany through an agent-based multimedia game. Students received either spoken or identical on-screen text explanations. Results reveal that students scored higher on retention, transfer, and program ratings in narration conditions than in text conditions. The media--desktop displays or headmounted displays--did not…

Offers a cave-mapping problem and discusses how to solve it. Presents the problem and necessary geologic background and a spreadsheet algorithm to solve the problem. (KHR)

Examines teachers' working identities, highlighting gender inequities among teachers, within school systems, and in society, especially in relation to computers. Highlights tensions central to teaching in relation to new technologies, emphasizing gender inequities that structure understandings of teaching. Documents how, for the teachers studied,…

Describes how probability is treated in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) "Principles and Standards of School Mathematics". (YDS)

Considers how in an effort to bridge the gap between the literacy learning of adults enrolled in work preparation programs and the electronic demands of the workplace, it is important that instruction is embedded in the types of literacy demands encountered in the workplace. Develops and assesses the impact of instruction on writing quality in…