Describes the design and development of training materials to encourage the use of telecommunications by Florida teachers that was funded by the Florida Department of Education. Topics addressed include the need for training materials; electronic mail; booklets; computer tutorials/simulation; the use of HyperCard; and results of an effectiveness…

Describes a study that examined the communication patterns of teachers who used UNITE (Unified Network for Informatics in Teacher Education), an electronic mail system designed to encourage curricular collaboration and resource sharing. Highlights include computer-mediated communication, use of UNITE by librarians, and recommendations for…

Notes that, whereas technology in the classroom has served primarily as a means of making learning more efficient without affecting broader aims, that role is changing as a new pedagogy emerges, one that alters both the means and ends of education. Outlines four general themes that distinguish the emergent pedagogy and the role of technology in…

Describes the introduction into a fourth-grade classroom with access to technology, a new pedagogy emphasizing prior learning, social interaction, and learning processes. Notes the tensions that arose within the class as well as between the class and segments of the local educational system, as well as specific incentives and impediments to change…

Notes that the emergence of powerful microcomputers, along with accessible authoring systems, allow teachers the opportunity to extend their classroom game design efforts into digital media. Argues that these efforts, for effective and efficient design, should be informed by guidance from literature on instructional game design, educational…

Describes ways in which current software for the early childhood classrooms can be enhanced to better match the developmental abilities of children and the playful ways in which they naturally learn. Offers six suggestions for improving future software options, including decreasing the need for adult instruction and interaction, and designing…

Videotaped four- to eight-year olds as they interacted with computer software at different levels of developmental appropriateness. Facial expressions and other affective behaviors were analyzed as a function of age, presence of a peer, and appropriateness of software. Found that responses were mediated more by age, gender, and social condition…

Studied four-year olds' writing development over a school year by analyzing their output on a word-processing program. Found a combined increase in productivity, complexity, and accuracy. Results suggest that these increases may be attributable to the word processing program and not solely to novelty, maturation and incidental learning, or teacher…

A teacher describes his experiences during an outdoor expedition with urban students from the Free School in Albany, New York. Time spent at the school's camp is intended to narrow the gap between experience and learning, promote principles of "self-regulation" and "work democracy" encouraging students to manage their own behavior and make…

A teacher discusses the negative effects of collective socialization on students in government controlled public schools. Suggested ways to deconstruct mass schooling include requiring educators in nonteaching positions to teach, simplifying the curriculum, making student learning relevant, keeping schools small and independent, getting rid of…

An environmental educator stresses the importance of teaching children that the Earth is permanent and will always have life and that life will always have an ecology. Educators are wrongfully promoting fear instead of developing an understanding of nature that motivates children to take environmental action. (LP)

A parable illuminates the important interrelationship among aspects of outdoor education: adventure education, outdoor activities, environmental education, and deep ecology. A second parable illustrates the importance of understanding and connecting with nature and how this can be achieved through direct experience with the natural world. Includes…

Stresses the value of silence, the right to have silence, and how technology has manipulated the sound environment and therefore taken silence out of common availability. Discusses noise pollution and the manipulative use of sound for private gain. Suggests taking action to restore the right to silence. (LP)

The author describes his visit to an elderly Inuit and the interaction resulting from his request to buy an old harpoon that the Inuit had used in hunting. He concludes that, no matter how long he lives in the village, he will never completely understand the Inuit culture, nor will they completely accept him. (LP)

The author describes her experiences leading remote wilderness canoe trips for a coed camp; differences in leadership styles when trips are led by two women, by a man and a woman, or by two men; and her own camping experiences as a youth when camp leaders were cast into stereotypical gender roles. (LP)