Describes a study that was designed to examine the emotional consequences of providing information about the likelihood of a frightening media event to children in kindergarten through third grade. Facial and physiological indicators of fear were measured, and implications for understanding media-induced fear and for selecting effective coping…

Reviews studies that were carried out with children to compare cognitive processing of audio and television stories, and describes a study conducted in the Netherlands where children aged 10-12 either watched a television film or read a print version of the same story and then retold the story in writing. (23 references) (LRW)

Offers a critical overview of the cultural and educational benefits and dangers of digital media for young people. Argues that public debates on this issue have "veered from utopian hype to moral panic." Provides accounts of previous research on children's engagement with computer games and creative use of multimedia in the home. (CR)

This report looks at the state of media literacy as seen by educators from all levels - elementary, middle, and senior high - and points to some of Cable in the Classroom's timely and useful resources. These tools can help schools empower students to become thoughtful users of media for learning and for their lives. Educators report using a…

This workshop kit consists of: (1) 30-page "Leaders Guide and Handout Masters"; (2) 12-minute videotape, "Lines in the Sand"; (3) special 24-page issue of the journal "Media & Values" on the theme "The Media: in War and Peace"; and (4) an 8-page booklet on the basics of media literacy, "From…

A study extended a previous study (Sparks and Spirek, 1988) by examining children's individual differences in coping with stressful mass media. The investigation proposed that scores on the Children's Coping Measure (CCM) are related to the intensity of negative affect children experience while watching a frightening program. Eighty-two fifth and…

Because of a need for information about the structure, staffing, physical space, and types of activities of media service departments at colleges and universities, a study was conducted to gain a snapshot of media service programs at 4-year institutions with student enrollments between 5,000 and 10,000 students in 1992 and 1993. A 47-item…

After a brief review of the characteristics of distance education, this paper provides a review of the literature covering the research of the 1980s on teaching, learning, educational planning, organization, and policy formation as it relates to the use of communications technology in contemporary distance education. The main focus is on…

This collection of 33 conference papers and 10 abstracts provides a critical assessment of the current applications of interactive multimedia in museums, an analysis of museum requirements, and an exploration of technology issues. Two papers discuss the parallel attributes of museums and software technology and the possibilities of the virtual…

The 1992 presidential campaign put the idea of the electronic town meeting firmly on the political scene, and each of the presidential debates during that campaign experimented with the town meeting format. This paper reviews the tradition of town meeting democracy in the United States and proposes ways to carry that tradition on with the help of…

Current issues in educational communications and technology are addressed in this collection of 31 papers, in which research reports predominate. Topics discussed include factors related to the learner, e.g., aptitude, recall, computer anxiety, field dependence/independence, reading ability, learning strategies, and cognitive style. Presentation…

The supplantation approach of this study hypothesized that media attributes may serve to bridge the processing link between learner aptitude capacity and the demands of a concept attainment task. Subjects were 492 males aged 16-21, drawn from a College of Technical and Further Education in Melbourne, Australia. All subjects were trade apprentices,…

This document provides: (1) a synthesis of more than 180 research studies cited in the "Research Windows" column that appeared in "The Computing Teacher" journal between 1985 and 1989, and (2) reprints of the columns themselves. In the synthesis section the studies are grouped into five general categories with various subheadings containing…

This report begins by examining the transition from the industrial society to the informatics society which began in the 1960s, when the newspaper's monopoly on information was destroyed by radio and television, followed by the development of an information-based economy. The salient features of the new area are identified as: (1) the ever…

To determine the influence of media on learning, a study explored students' preferences, perceived difficulty, and learning in relation to a variety of activities. A randomly selected panel of 611 students, grades three through ten, was drawn from the nine schools (six elementary, two junior high, and one senior high) that make up an entire public…