bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Teleconferencing and Distance Learning
Authors: Harris N D C , Tarrant R D 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis paper looks at teleconferencing as a potential strategy in education and training. The possible uses are outlined with supporting briefcase studies both from the UK and USA. The types of teleconferencing available in the UK, their costs and a simple means of calculating costs are included. Some guidelines are given to prepare for and organize a teleconference.
Distance Teaching by Cyclops: an educational evaluation of the Open University's telewriting system
Authors: McConnell David , Sharples Mike 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe trend towards courses with low, widely scattered student populations in the Open University makes the provision of face‐to‐face tutorials difficult. Telephone tuition is being used as an alternative. One major drawback of this is the lack of a graphics facility for communicating writing and drawings.To help overcome this the Open University has developed a graphics telewriting terminal called Cyclops which allows for the live transmission of writing and drawing by telephone.This paper describes the Cyclops telewriting system and explains how it has been used in a two‐year trial project, funded by British Telecom, for tutoring Open University students in the East Midlands region of England. Preliminary findings from the evaluation of the trials are discussed and suggestions for setting up similar distance‐teaching systems are offered.The two‐year trial of Cyclops is proving that telewriting tutorials are both educationally effective and acceptable to a large number of students and tutors.
Study Skills at a Distance—ten years on
Authors: Rouse Sam , Lewis Roger 
Published: October 2006

Abstract How to Study Effectively was probably the first distance learning course in the UK to help students to acquire learning skills. It has consistently attracted large numbers of students. Sam Rouse has tutored the course for the whole of its life and this paper reports the result of an evaluation he recently carried out. Samples of three student groups, all enrolled in 1972, were asked for their views on the course after a ten year gap. A group of‘normal’enrollers is compared with two more special groups, one of TUC sponsored students and one of intending ordinands in the Church of England. Why did they enrol? How many assignments did they complete? What did they think of the course? What differences if any has it made to their lives? The paper concludes with three case studies of students, one from each group. The full report, And Having Studied Effectively, is published by the National Extension College.
Education and the Ultimate Machine
Authors: Voelker Bill 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe computer, still less than 40 years old, is shaping radical changes in the manner in which we work and play, think and feel, plan and manage. As the ultimate machine (much as the brain is the ultimate, irreplaceable organ) it is laden with emotional implications. And reasonably so, for our success in attempting to integrate it humanely into society will determine the future course of human conflict and development. There is no turning back. And upon the shoulders of educators will fall a major share of the responsibility for directing this inevitable computer‐induced change.
The Seminar as an Instructional Strategy in Distance Education
Authors: Peruniak Geoffrey S 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe data from this study indicated that those students who attended one seminar early in the course and those who did not tended to be different subsets of the course population. There was some evidence that seminar attenders progressed more rapidly through the first part of the course and had higher completion rates than non‐attenders. However, seminar attenders appeared to take longer to complete the course than non‐attenders. The results from the study were strictly correlational and it was not possible to determine the extent to which seminars attracted high performance students or contributed to higher performance.
Training Teachers to Select Educational Computer Software: results of a formative evaluation of an Open University pack
Authors: Preece Jenny , Jones Ann 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn this paper we consider the problem of training teachers to select suitable educational programs to use in their classroom. We argue that selecting good programs is difficult, requiring both skill and experience, and that training teachers to do this has been largely neglected, both by the available literature and by in‐service training courses. We describe an Open University course (Open University Press, 1984) which addresses this issue and report on a formative evaluation of an activity within the course in which teachers examined three commercially available educational software packages.We conclude by emphasizing the importance of a sound framework in which teachers can develop selection skills so that they can go beyond the superficial technical features of the programs to consider whether the underlying pedagogy is sound and suited to their needs.
Learning Styles and Strategies of Postgraduate Students
Authors: Ford Nigel 
Published: October 2006

AbstractResearch by Pask has suggested that matching and mismatching teaching strategies with learners’preferred learning strategies may have considerable effects of learning. The study reported here sought to explore the extent to which a group of experienced and successful learners, such as postgraduate students, might be expected to be versatile learners, in the sense of being able to learn equally well from holist and serialist learning materials. Eighty‐three postgraduate students completed two questionnaires designed to assess learning styles. Twenty‐six students also took two tests designed to assess their competence in learning from materials designed to suit holist and serialist learning strategies. Only two out of 26 students scored equally well on the tests of holist and serialist competence. The study also examines the extent to which holist and serialist competence may be predicted by relatively‘quick and easy’questionnaire instruments. In 19 out of 23 cases such competence could be predicted from responses to a number of items from one of the questionnaires. Implications for further research are discussed.
How do Teachers View Their Teaching and the Use of Teaching Resources?
Authors: Chandra Peter 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis paper looks briefly at teachers' views and opinions of their use of various teaching methods and teaching resources. The study was limited to a single secondary school where a questionnaire was given to a small sample of 15 teachers in four departments. What was found was that in the Ideal World (where everything that was needed was available), the reasons given for various teaching methods used were mainly pupil dominated, but when it came to the actual methods being used, the reasons were mainly personal constraints of the teacher or organizational constraints. This dichotomy widened from the humanities field to the sciences field. With respect to the resources used, it could be hypothesised that most teachers felt they were not prepared to use new types of resources especially if they entailed acquiring new technical skills, more preparation, and a change of roles played by the teacher.
A Practical Introduction to Authoring for Computer‐Assisted Instruction Part 8: multi‐media CAL
Authors: Barker Philip 
Published: October 2006

AbstractUntil recently the majority of applications of the computer within conversational computer‐assisted learning and computer‐based training have utilized a keyboard/ cathode ray tube model of human/computer interaction. However, because of its greater scope, instructional designers are turning increasingly to the use of a workstation model of student interaction with computers. Such a model can lead to the implementation of didactic dialogue that is more natural, more exciting and far more flexible. In this paper we show how such a model forms the basic foundations for multi‐ media CAL. We then outline some case studies involving the use of this approach and summarize some author languages that have been designed for use in this area.
Hypertext and compact discs: the challenge of multi‐media learning
Authors: Megarry Jacquetta 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe role of the computer should be organising and representing knowledge to give the user easy access and control, rather than trying to create a model of the learner and seeking to prescribe her route through it. Hypertext is high‐level software through which the learner explores and interacts with knowledge. Users can pursue a variety of suggested trails through the material, or they can create new pathways for themselves and others to follow, by forging new links and even by extending the material. Hypertext is inherently multi‐user, blurring the distinction between author, editor and reader. Hypermedia is a name sometimes given to the multi‐media capability of hypertext, emphasising the way in which users can combine, edit and orchestrate sounds, graphics, moving pictures, texts and computer software, at the click of a mouse.Compact disc technology provides the perfect partner to hypertext, offering extremely dense, robust and flexible storage. Products such as CD‐ROM (compact disc read‐only memory) and CD‐I (compact disc interactive), and technologies such as DVI (digital video interactive), offer immense scope for multi‐media learning. Educational technologists face an urgent challenge to harness the power of this combination.
The impact of society on educational technology
Authors: Boyd Gary 
Published: October 2006

AbstractMuch has been written about the impact of the new technologies on society by Jacques Ellul, Stafford Beer, and many others. But there has been very littleanalysis of the reverse—the impact of evolving commercial, political, and institutional interests, and their ideologies, on the development of technology. Educational technology in particular has been and is being shaped by these societal forces.This article presents a theoretical perspective on the interaction and gives several instances of cultural impact on the development of computer/video‐mediated educational technology in the US, Japan, and the United Kingdom.Increased awareness of societal shaping should lead us to new research areas, and ultimately to more democratic, more fruitful, and more viable educational innovations.
A computer‐based vocabulary program for three categories of student
Authors: Horton Steven V , Lovitt Thomas C , Givens Alex 
Published: October 2006

AbstractTwo experiments were designed to test the effectiveness of a computer‐based vocabulary program. In Experiment One, high school students classified as learning disabled and remedial were given a 60‐item pre‐test made up of terms normally taught by their teacher. After selecting the 35 most difficult terms, 28 of them were assigned to a computer program involving a pre‐test, practice, post‐test sequence, and using cumulative review, mouse‐controlled responding, and configuring responses to focus student attention. Seven terms were designated as control items by placing them in post‐tests but not in the computer program. Students were given three computer sessions on consecutive school days, with a written multiple‐choice post‐test following each session. Results indicated a significant gain on computer items after the second computer session for the youngsters with learning disabilities, and after the first session for remedial pupils. Performance on control items did not improve across measures for either group.In Experiment Two, a pre‐test/post‐test control group design was arranged to investigate the effects of the same computer program used to teach health terms to general education high school students. The results were similar to those of the first experiment.
Computer‐aided publishing and open learning materials
Authors: Kember David , Kemp Neale 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe authors discuss the potential impact of computer‐aided publishing hardware and software on the production of distance education and self‐instructional study material. They compare the capabilities of computer‐aided publishing systems with those of other equipment. General typographic design criteria are raised.The implications of the availability of computer‐aided publishing systems are then discussed in relation to the production of printed learning materials. Computer‐aided publishing systems have benefits in revealing instructional design strategies, aiding development and revision, and in the production and incorporation of graphics. However, an ability to operate the software does not guarantee the production of high quality printed materials. The knowledge and skills of the graphic designer are as necessary as ever.
Computers and language learning: misguided assumptions
Authors: Dudley‐Marling Curt , Searle Dennis 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThere has been a rapid increase in the availability of computer assisted instruction (CAI) software for teaching oral language skills. Despite the growing popularity of CAI in education, such an approach to language teaching fragments and isolates language learning from the context of its use and conflicts with current theory and research in language development and learning. The greatest potential for microcomputers in language learning may be as a medium for increasing student opportunities for using language by bringing students and teachers together around a shared activity.
Project Comptown: educational intervention and action research
Authors: Peled Elad , Peled Zimra , Alexander Gad 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe introduction of computers into education raises questions such as: are computers in education effective? If they are, in what sense? What are the most effective strategies for using computers in education? How should teachers be encouraged to use them?To answer these questions a large‐scale experiment (Project Comptown) was carried out in Israel, to test ways and means under real rather than laboratory conditions. This project is a research‐oriented educational intervention, applying massive computerisation of schools and their ‘close environment’ to two localities in Israel (Arad and Ashkelon). Our starting point was the premise that computerisation of education is an inevitable process. Consequently, turning the computer into a ‘cultural tool’ in schools becomes a major challenge, aiming to narrow the gap between ‘school culture’ and ‘real‐world culture’. The main objectives for Project Comptown are: [1] To create a computer culture in schools; [2] To use the computer's potential for innovative teaching and learning, both inside and outside schools. To achieve these, we identified a number of principles which we considered pre‐conditions for an ‘appropriate’ computer strategy in schools.
Must computer courseware evaluation be totally subjective?
Authors: Micceri Theodore , Pritchard William H , Barrett Andrew J 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn today's complex computer training market, flashy presentations frequently prove the most important purchasing element while instructional design and content take a back seat to form. Courseware purchasers obviously require an objective and generic measure of computer assisted learning (CAL) courseware. Since any such measure must include a human evaluator this is a difficult objective to attain. Funded by a grant from the Westinghouse Corporation, the Center for Interactive Technologies, Applications and Research (CITAR) at the University of South Florida attempted to break complex concepts such as instruction, management and user interface into component pieces small enough for objective evaluation. A study involving ten CAL packages produced agreements among an average of seven of eight raters and reliabilities around. 70, while an investigation of traditional perceptual evaluation procedures by the same raters on the same courseware produced far lower estimates for both agreement and reliability. Seeking reasons for these differences, a detailed investigation of courseware summaries showed that evaluators tend to pay more attention to the presentation than to the instructional aspects of the courseware. This phenomenon apparently has less influence on the low inference CITAR evaluation model which produces relatively consistent evaluations of CAL courseware.
Teaching social studies to learning disabled high school students: effects of a hypertext study guide
Authors: Horton Steven V , Boone Randall A , Lovitt Thomas C 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study investigated the effectiveness of a computer‐based study guide using hypertext software to increase textbook comprehension among four learning disabled students enrolled in a remedial high school social studies class. The program provided four levels of instructional cues that matched students to their highest level of independent interaction with a textbook passage, based on item‐to‐item responses to computer‐generated questions. Using alternative forms of a 45‐item multiple‐choice test, a pre‐test/post‐test design was arranged, with a retention test given after a 30‐day period. Fifteen questions were designated as control items by placing them in the 45‐item tests but not in the computer treatment. The computer program consisted of three separate lessons administered across consecutive class sessions, with each followed by a written 15‐item multiple choice test containing 10 computer questions and 5 control items. Results indicated a significant gain for pupils on computer items from pre‐test to post‐test and from pre‐test to retention test, while no significant change occurred on control items across measures. A single‐case analysis revealed a consistent relationship between gain scores on computer items, reading time on computer, and the number of instructional cues required by students. Two types of non‐linear pathways that teacher might consider when constructing study guides are discussed.
Predictive text entry with PAL and children with learning difficulties
Authors: Newell Alan F , Booth Lynda , Beattie William 
Published: October 2006

AbstractNine case studies were conducted to evaluate the usefulness of a predictive text entry program within a classroom environment. The program, PAL, was found to be very successful in eight of the cases. For children with poor motor control, the key‐saving aspects speeded up text creation. Of even greater significance was the extent to which children with severe spelling problems were helped. They were able to produce much higher quality written work with a substantial reduction in the number of spelling errors. This provided great motivation for the children, and teaching staff commented on their improved confidence and attention span, as well as stimulation of language and vocabulary development. One of the children was on the verge of being classified as a non‐reader and, although progress was slow, a significant improvement in the child's work was observed.
Artificial intelligence in education: evolution of the teaching—learning relationship
Authors: Garito Maria Amata 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn this paper some of the implications of the exploitation of Artificial Intelligence techniques in the educational field are presented, and the evolution of the changing quality of interaction between student and teacher is illustrated. Such historical changes are presented as a consequence of the introduction of new technologies in education. Particular aspects of Intelligent Educational Systems are presented, pointing out the innovative features of such systems compared with traditional applications.
Student reactions to courseware: gender differences
Authors: Ring Geoff 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe primary aim of the study was to investigate student reactions to the use of courseware as a learning tool in the classroom, particularly the effect of gender. The study involved young school students in a systematic and documented courseware review process. Students as a whole were enthusiastic about using courseware as a tool for learning in the classroom, with a large majority of students endorsing both its motivational appeal and its educational value. Despite this overall positive attitude, however, the data showed important differences between the reactions of male and female students to courseware, male students being more confident about using computers as a learning tool than female. The major implication for educational practice is that teachers, while trying to instil a confident attitude in all their students towards using courseware, should be aware of the particular need to build confidence among female students.
Self‐paced learning with video for undergraduates: a multimedia Keller Plan
Authors: Rae Andrew 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe Keller Plan for self‐paced learning has been shown to be effective in enhancing learning, especially in basic science and mathematics, but it is little used nowadays. The author reports on its use with extensive electronic backup (25 half‐hour videotapes, an interactive videodisc and computer delivered tutorials). He found that in this way improved examination marks can still be obtained while the amount of tutorial support can be reduced to an economic level.
Recalling structured text: Does what goes in determine what comes out?
Authors: Hartley James 
Published: October 2006

AbstractEighty‐eight 12–13 year old children studied a short passage for five minutes which was printed in either a‘chunked’or a‘traditional’format. The children were then asked to write out the passage from memory. It was found that‘chunking’did not significantly affect recall. However, the format of the presentation affected the format of the recall. Forty‐four out of 44 children in the chunked condition recalled their text in a chunked format, and virtually all of the 44 children with the traditional text wrote out their passages in the traditional way.
Cognitive Theory and the Use of Computers in the Primary Classroom
Authors: Knight Bruce Allen , Knight Cecily 
Published: October 2006

AbstractResearch investigating the role of computers in the primary classroom is closely linked to the body of knowledge concerned with theories of learning and child development. Research is presented as an attempt to provide scientifically supportable reasons why computers are effective in education. Having established a theoretical base for computer use in primary classrooms, this paper then examines the educational application of cognitive theory to classroom instruction.
The Relationship Between the Social Environment of Organizations and the Climate for Innovation and Creativity
Authors: Turnipseed David 
Published: October 2006

Relationships were examined among the social environment of organizations, employee satisfaction (both job‐related and personal), and perceptions of a creative work environment. The subject organization was a manufacturing facility in the United States which produced parts used in automobile production and operating in a dynamic market economy. Creativity was desired and verbally encouraged, but no attention was given to organization development, nor were there any intervention efforts designed to promote a creative environment.Results from environmental and climate inventories indicate that there are significant linkages between the social environment of the organization and satisfaction with the organization and personal lives, and the potential for innovation. Pride in the work, freedom, and other personal variables were also found to be related to an innovative climate.