Since the early 1990s, laptop computers have repeatedly been suggested as a tool to improve instruction and student learning. Meanwhile, several evaluations have shown that laptops helped to increase the amount of independent and collaborative learning. Instruction with laptops was also found to be more student-centered in many cases. However,…

This paper suggests that a way to the new generation of powerful E-learning systems starts on the crossroads of two emerging fields: courseware re-use and adaptive educational systems. The paper presents the KnowledgeTree, a framework for adaptive E-learning based on distributed re-usable learning activities currently under development. The goal…

Originally part of a symposium on educational media for the deaf, the paper reports on one computer-based educational application, the PLATO system. The system began in 1960 and changes over the years are described, as well as current capabilities. Potential uses of PLATO with the deaf, blind, and multiply handicapped, using adapted terminals, are…

Originally part of a symposium on educational media for the deaf, the paper reports on the status of the National Media Center for Severely Handicapped Persons. Listed among the six major objectives of the center is the location and retrieval of instructional media materials. (PHR)

This paper describes some educational media technology and other projects related to deafness funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Brief descriptions of federally funded projects working with closed captioning, telephone access, and automatic speech recognition systems are provided. (PB)

While researchers have studied the impact of technologies on primary, secondary, and higher education, this study asks, "What are the relationships between types of graduate education and the role of communication technology?" The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the current communication issues for distance education at the…

This paper reviews the literature on multimedia research focusing on what it says about the role of multimedia in instruction and whether extant research is sufficient and valid. The following topics are reviewed: definitions of multimedia; using multimedia research to evaluate multimedia programs; concerns over research; and suggestions for…

This introduction to a symposium on the status of research in instructional technology discusses the ongoing debate among developmental researchers as to the instructional effectiveness of media. The controversy dates from the publication in 1983 of an article by Richard E. Clark, who presented the position that media do not really contribute to…

This paper begins with a short description of the British Open University which covers the programs of study (undergraduate, continuing education, and higher degrees); mediums of teaching (correspondence texts, broadcast television, audiocassettes, radio, face-to-face or telephone tutorials, audioconferencing, summer schools, home experiment kits,…

This paper is the introduction to an inquiry into the relationship of post-structural reader theories to cognitive theories in the study of educational media. Basic concepts in reader and cognitive theories are defined, including the notions of "meaning" and "learners." Similarities and differences in the theories are…

This review identified over 140 media/attitude studies and categorized them according to the type of media and type of attitude investigated. This categorization made it possible to determine if identifiable relationships existed between instructional media and attitudes of viewers. The literature on experiments dealing with three types of…

More than a dozen CAI modules which teach the uninitiated user how to use the interactive Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) are described. The modules are based on the principle of incrementally increasing difficulty, self pacing, and student involvement. The first half of the set introduces the student to interactive computing,…

This document lists audio-visual materials that college teachers can use in journalism classes. The titles, length, rental costs, and sources for these materials are organized by content under the following categories: news/documentary, entertainment, history, international, print journalism and photojournalism, and regulation/freedom of…

According to the theory of Piaget, until the age of two the chief developmental factor of a child is the permanence of an object or the ability to retain mental images. Between two and six he begins to use mental images, and as he develops the ability to retain a mental image he begins to imitate things from the past which he has seen or…

This paper discusses an approach to teaching composition using a student-recorded cassette tape. A general outline is given for using the cassette tape in the classroom to help students improve their reading, punctuation, written dialogue, and sentence patterns. Cassette tapes can also help students to avoid stilted and awkward repetition and to…