eLRN

Literature Tracking
Research




SITE NAV

Content
Continuing Education
Education
Find
Library
Literature Tracking
Net Tutorials
Newsline
Organizations
Research
Special Reports
Technology
White Papers 		Title: Keeping Your Gaze on the Goals of IT
Abstract: John Makulowich briefly describes 10 sites that focus on research in information technology.
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
    A key source for top-notch publications, conferences and the views of IT experts.
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
    Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA The key R&D hub for the U.S. Defense Department, it pursues research that few companies on their own dare ? that place where both risk and reward are sky-high.
  • Online Dissertation Services
    You can search and order resources at this Web site.
  • Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer
    A portal for more than 600 federal laboratories and centers as well as their parent departments and agencies. Chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 to push and strengthen the commercialization of technology nationwide.
  • The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    A valuable part of the Institute for gathering a perspective on IT is the IEEE History Center, which promotes the history of information and electrical technologies.
  • MIT Media Lab
    Innovative projects from world-class researchers. Laboratory projects include Electronic Publishing, Interactive Cinema, Personal Information Architecture, Tangible Media, Nanomedia, Media That Learn, Digital Life, Opera of the Future, Society of Mind and Machine Listening.
  • National Academies
    The National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council created by the federal government as an adviser on science and technology.
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology Information Technology Laboratory
    NIST develops many of the standards that affect the direction of IT research, including advanced information networks, digital cinema, electronic publishing, pervasive computing, computer hardware and software and digital communications ITL tests are used by IT developers and users to evaluate how products perform and to assess their quality.
  • World Wide Web Consortium
    Over the last five years, W3C developed more than 20 technical specifications for the Web. W3C activities are organized into four domains: Architecture, User Interface, Technology and Society, and Web Accessibility Initiative. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, founded W3C at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.
  • Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
    Xerox PARC conducts research on three strategic themes. These are Smart Matter, which explores new ways of designing and manufacturing devices; Networks and Documents, which focuses on the digital document, and Knowledge Ecologies, which delves into how knowledge in documents can be used effectively as well as new roles for documents in organizations.
Source: USA Today, January 23, 2001.
Keywords: Research, Internet

Title: Cato Institute Report Recognizes Scientific Learning as a Company Helping to Bring About Revolutionary Change in Education
Abstract: In a policy analysis issued on November 20, the Cato Institute recognized Scientific Learning Corporation (Nasdaq: SCIL) as a company helping "to bring about revolutionary change in education." The November 20 policy paper is designed to provide a snapshot of the contributions of noteworthy for-profit companies in the K-12 and post-secondary education markets. According to the policy paper, "Edupreneurs: A Survey of For-Profit Education," the Company's Fast ForWord computer-based program, which is based on 25 years of brain research, "has been shown to dramatically improve the language and reading skills of children aged 4-13, particularly children who have difficulties reading and processing speech."

To underscore the benefits of the Fast ForWord programs, the paper cites a study of 23 students in the Philadelphia public school system who tested well below average in the language skills critical to reading prior to the training. After 4 to 10 weeks of training, "70 percent of the students had moved into the average range. Moreover, the average student gained three and a half years of language skills." The analysis went on to say: "Scientific Learning is an example of how the profit motive spurs innovative research and development to the benefit of students. By funding research on how information is transmitted and processed by the human brain, companies like Scientific Learning could radically alter the way educators attempt to transmit knowledge to children and adults alike."

Founded in 1977, the Cato Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. that seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of more options that are consistent with traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, and peace. The Institute undertakes a range of activities, including publishing policy papers and holding policy forums, to help achieve greater involvement of the public in questions of policy and the role of government. For more information on the Cato Institute and its policy analysis No. 386, "Edupreneurs: A Survey of For-Profit Education," visit the foundation's Web site at http://www.cato.org.

Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Scientific Learning offers CD-ROM and Internet programs developed by leaders in brain research. The Company's Fast ForWord family of intensive computer-based training programs for language and reading "train the brain" to learn faster. These training programs use patented technologies to adapt to each student's skill level, allowing students of all ages to make gains in language and reading in just weeks, rather than years. Educators can track the progress of each student through the Company's patented Internet tool. To learn more about Scientific Learning's family of neuroscience-based products, visit the Company's Web sites at http://www.ScientificLearning.com and http://www.BrainConnection.com, or call toll-free 888-665-9707.
Source Scientific Learning, November 29, 2000.
Keywords: Research, Internet, Distance Learning.

Title: Changing Girls' Attitudes about Computers
Abstract: A 102-page report, "Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age," released in Washington by a commission of the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation addresses the disparity between women and men in mastery of the new technologies. According to the 14-member commission headed by Sherry Turkle, a sociology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology fewer women are preparing for careers in technology, a growing and lucrative field. The report, which was based in part on focus groups involving girls in middle school and high school, said a major problem is that many girls are disenchanted with computing. The report recommends a number of ways that girls could be encouraged to take an interest in technology viz. Teachers should use computers in innovative ways throughout the school curriculum, they should receive better training in ensuring that girls as well as boys use the equipment, computer games and educational software should display less gender bias and support should be given to efforts to start computer clubs and summer-school computer classes for girls. The report cites the following statistics that suggest a declining interest in computer science amongst girls. Last year, only 17 percent of the students who took the easier of the two Advanced Placement computer science exams were girls -- and they generally did not perform as well as the boys. And from the 1980s to the mid-1990s there was a decline in the percentage of undergraduate degrees in computer science awarded to women, to 28 percent from 37 percent.
Source: Pamela Mendels, Technology Cybertimes, New York Times, April,12, 2000
Keywords: Research, Computers, Girls, Schools

Title: Kids Use Internet at School to Play More than Work
Abstract: A new study released by N2H2 of Seattle (a maker of filtering software) provides statistical information about how kids nationwide are using the Internet in classrooms. The study monitored 350,000 students in 43 major cities. Despite the size of the Web, half of all school-based traffic goes to just 100 sites. Of the top 300 Web sites accessed from school, 35.9 percent are search engines, 20.7 percent are entertainment sites, 15.5 percent are educational sites, 11.3 percent are commercial sites, 5.8 percent are district home pages, 4.4 percent are news sites and 3.0 percent are community sites. N2H2 said they are still analyzing the data and will report more details from the study at an education technology conference on March 1.
Source: Karen Thomas, "Online Schoolkids Search, Play All Day" USA Today, February 17, 2000, D3.
Keywords: Research, Internet, Students, Search Engines

Title: Most Schools Logged On, Report Finds
Abstract: A U.S. Department of Education Survey of 1,000 public schools shows that 95 percent of the nation's public schools are connected to the Net, up from 35 percent five years ago. However, school access does not always mean classroom access. The survey of 1,000 public schools found:
1. 95 percent are connected to the Internet. The percentage includes staff offices not available to students. The situation in classrooms is different, with 63 percent now connected, up from just 3 percent in 1994
2. 39 percent of classrooms in schools with many poor students have Internet access, compared with 74 percent of classrooms in schools with few poor students.
3. The ratio of students per instructional computer with Net access decreased from 12 to nine from 1998 to 1999.
4. Students were more likely to have to share access in larger schools, where the ratio of students to a computer with Net access was 10 to 1; in the smallest schools, that ratio was 6 to 1.
5. The ratio in the poorest schools was 16 to 1, compared with 7 to 1 in schools with the lowest concentration of poverty.
6. Access speeds: By 1999, schools were six times as likely as in 1994 to use faster dedicated-line networks, 63 percent, or other high-speed access, 23 percent, than simply dial-up connections, 14 percent.
Source: US Department of Education, February 17, 2000.
Keywords: Research, Schools, Internet, Technology
LINKS

Asia
Bankruptcies
Census
Companies
Copyright
Countries
Europe
Finance1
Finance2
Government1
Government2
IPO's
Manufacturers
News1
News2
Patents1
Patents2
SEC
Sports
Telephone
Trade Shows
Travel
Weather