With the recent rapid advances in information technologies, (36)______ resea

With the recent rapid advances in information technologies, educational researchers at every level and in every discipline have developed new methods, tools, and environments for instruction. As the Internet, e-mall and multimedia have already be come parts of most college students’ lives nowadays; applying these new information technologies to engineering and science instruction is a great challenge for teachers and researchers. Although the effectiveness and impact of new information technologies on education use not yet well comprehended and documented the promises and visions they hold for improving education are ex citing. For example, computer-mediated networks provide distance education with a new medium for bringing teachers students and learning materials in different locations together.  Students at home and in work places can have access to learning material at any time. Individual students can communicate with their teachers and talk without the relative nervousness of having to meet at specific places and times. Students can work on learning materials at their own pace and discuss them with other people when they have questions. In other words, they can learn individually but not a lone; they are physically separated but study together through computer networks.