This article features an interview with Pierre A. Lévy, Professor in the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, Canada. He occupies the Canada Research Chair in Collective Intelligence where he is engaged in research on the design of a universal system for semantic addressing of digital documents. He completed his MA at the Sorbonne…

Larry Johnson has been the CEO of the New Media Consortium (NMC) for nearly a decade, and he has worked in higher education for more than twenty-five years. Before joining NMC, he served in roles that include faculty member, dean, provost, and president. In this interview, he talks about the position of NMC in distance education and the challenges…

Traditionally, at least according to popular wisdom, learning took place in venues that were custom-designed for the purpose. The purpose, given the evidence of the artefacts with which we are confronted, seems to have been the educational equivalent of the production line that so succinctly characterised the industrialisation of society. One…

If there is a salient defining condition of the modern age, it must surely be our tenacious belief in technology. We shall argue that our insatiable infatuation with the computer or "compuphilia", as we herein dub it, represents a serious and growing threat to the mental health of school children. Computers may make communication easier, but they…

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic…

This article presents an interview with Jeremy Koester, an eighth grade math teacher and football coach at Alamo Heights Junior School in San Antonio, Texas. In this interview, Koester describes his use of technology in his classes and describes his dream of advancing Second Life (SL) as a distance education environment. SL is a "3-D virtual…

As the focus shifts to learning in the workplace, emphasis is being placed on "infonuggets," chunking, or granularization: delivery of bits of training and information as needed on the job. Some delivery methods include electronic performance support systems, the Internet, and computer simulation. (SK)

Computer technology has impacted both the study and idea of history in a number of ways. The Internet has provided numerous web-sites for students to read, see and look into for historical information. Historians, both professional and public have also begun to utilize the computer in a variety of ways, both in academic terms as well as leisure…

The concept of bridging the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world draws symbolically on nineteenth century diffusion theories of linear progress and twentieth-century theories of modernization and development. This paper examines information and communication technology (ICT) policies and public-access postings on…

Discussion of virtual reality and cyberspace focuses on applications in school media programs. Examples of fiction for adults and children dealing with these concepts, as well as related materials for educators, are suggested. The vast range of resources available to library media specialists through the Internet is also considered. (MES)

Despite recent British government moves to equip all Primary Schools with fast broadband connections to the Internet, it would seem that many schools as yet make little use of the increased capacity this affords other than to incorporate more and more rich multimedia in the form of interactive games or animated presentations to illustrate…

As it was initially implemented, e-learning did little other than supply facts and information, offering limited opportunity for interactivity and problem-solving. Designers need to find ways to address past limitations and bring the engagement of classroom training to the web. One method that merits attention is scenario-based learning. The…