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The Internet and WWW continue to be the hot topics of research and application in the papers received by AJET for consideration and publication. In the past 6 months, over 75% of the submissions have related to innovative uses of these new technologies in teaching and learning, and we are pleased to offer you the some of the best of these in this issue. This issue also contains several papers which have explored teaching and learning using other information technologies.
In his paper entitled, The anatomy of practice in the use of mailing lists: A case study, Martyn Wild reports the findings from a study of two listservs being used by teachers in Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as by teachers across the globe. The study reports the ways in which use of the mailing lists helped to create vital, energetic and occasional communities for professional development activities, building curriculum and information resource libraries and facilitating informal communicative networks, serving the social, professional and personal needs of the participating teachers.
Susan Rodrigues, from the University of Melbourne, and her colleagues have provided a paper that reports on teachers' use of CD-ROMS. The paper suggests that while teachers are often familiar with the potential of CD-ROMs as classroom resources, many teachers have yet to realise this potential in their own classroom. The paper describes how access to hardware and software continues to dictate teachers' practices, and results in CD-ROM use being promoted in terms of individual student assignments. The paper argues the need for other strategies such as whole class or group work in classroom settings.
A paper from Paul Newhouse at Edith Cowan University provides a nice complement to others in this issue. In his paper, Examining how teachers adjust to the availability of portable computers, Paul describes outcomes from a study he undertook exploring the use of low cost, high powered portable computers in a whole school setting. Paul's study addressed such issues as the impacts of student owned, portable computers on students, teachers, the curriculum, and the classroom learning environment. The paper presents some insightful and interesting findings and provides useful information to inform and guide teachers and schools planning moves in this direction.
Andy Pitman and his co-researchers from Macquarie University have provided us with a paper entitled, Internet based teaching in geography at Macquarie University: An analysis of student use. This paper describes the design and implementation of a first year course using information technology via the Internet or Intranet. The course is composed of a variety of information technology based applications including course materials, bulletin boards, email, quizzes, access to the World Wide Web and multimedia packages linked together using a single Internet browser interface. The paper describes a study of how students used the system and provides some valuable insights into student learning.
Mary Rice, and her team from Deakin University describe the development and evaluation of a "virtual laboratory" (V-lab) for introductory practical studies of human structure and function in the movement sciences. Their paper identifies some of the key elements and technologies involved in the development process of the V-lab and describes student and staff responses to its initial implementation bases on a systematic evaluation using quantitative and qualitative methods.
We hope that you enjoy reading these papers and find this issue of AJET useful for your research and teaching.
Ron Oliver
AJET Editor
The Australian Journal of Educational Technology is published twice a year jointly by the Australian Society for Educational Technology and the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. Members of ASET, ASCILITE and International Society for Performance Improvement, Melbourne Chapter receive AJET as a part of their membership benefits. AJET's 1999 Editorial Board, nominated by ASET and ASCILITE is:
For details on submission of manuscripts, subscriptions and access to the AJET online archives, please see:
© 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. ISSN 0814-673X.
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