Through ongoing rapid-fire changes in the nature of communications, the social, professional, and political landscapes of our time are rapidly transforming. But the prevailing paradigm in most schools and school systems is a relic of the industrial revolution. Schools and school systems must adopt a new paradigm for learning if they are to remain…

Twelve high schools in North Carolina piloted a 1:1 learning initiative, where every student and teacher received a laptop computer with wireless Internet access provided throughout the school. The overall goals of the initiative were to improve teaching practices; increase student achievement; and better prepare students for work, citizenship,…

East Carolina University recently hosted the first Virtual Worlds in Education Conference, a meeting held entirely in Second Life. The conference provided 135 faculty and administrators from around the world the ability to communicate and share their experiences on teaching, learning, and technology support in an online, multi-user virtual…

Many universities are providing video content such as lectures on the Web. The trend away from strong restrictions on instructional content toward more open-access policies offers exciting possibilities for extending classrooms beyond the campus but also brings new management challenges. This article describes some of the opportunities and…

Based on survey data on North Carolina schools in 1984-85 and on site visits and interviews in selected schools, leadership and commitment of policymakers and educators are found to be as important as demographic and financial characteristics of school districts for providing computer access and appropriate uses. (9 references) (MES)

Discusses synchronous communication in learning via the World Wide Web and considers arguments for advantages of asynchronous approaches. Describes a synchronous Web-based professional development program for mathematics teachers in North Carolina and discusses the nature of online communication. (LRW)