(2005). Individual Participation in Organizational Information Commons: The Impact of Team Level Social Influence and Technology-Specific Competence. Human Communication Research, v31 n2 p212-240 Apr. This research extended earlier public goods research on individual incentives to use an organizational information commons that was based in Marwell and Oliver's (1993) collective action model. A revised theoretical model that incorporated team-level social influence and technology-specific competence was proposed. The model was tested using online survey data from 150 individuals in 13 work groups across 5 organizations. The research demonstrated that perceived team member behavior and technology-specific competence were positively related to individual use of intranets, over and above the collective level influences modeled in earlier research. These findings supported a more \socialized\ model of individuals' motivations to participate in organizational information sharing via collective repositories and suggested that management could boost levels of intranet usage through group level social influence and technology-specific training…. [Direct]
(1987). AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes, Provisional Data from the National Health Interview Survey: United States, August 1987. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics. No. 146. This document presents provisional data for all Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) questionnaire items from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for August 1987. It notes that the AIDS questionnaire was designed to provide baseline estimates of public knowledge and attitudes about AIDS transmission, the prevention of AIDS virus infection, and changes in knowledge and attitudes over time. A section on selected findings reports that over 99% of respondents had heard of AIDS; 89% were certain that AIDS leads to death; 83% were certain there is no cure for AIDS; over 90% were aware of AIDS transmission through sexual contact with a person with AIDS or through sharing a needle for drug use with someone having AIDS; over 70% had heard about blood tests for AIDS; 90% felt they personally had no chance or a low chance of getting AIDS; and almost 90% realized that both celibacy and restricting sexual activity to a monogamous relationship with a person who did not have AIDS… [PDF]
(1989). AIDS/HIV-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, and Risk Behavior. Minnesota Student Survey Report, 1989. The Minnesota Student Survey, including questions on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus transmission and sexual activity, was completed by approximately 88,000 6th-, 9th-, and 12th-graders during the 1988-89 school year. Sexual activity questions were not asked of sixth graders. Over 90% of high school students knew about sharing needles and sexual intercourse as means of AIDS transmission. Among sixth graders, 87% knew about needle sharing and 79% knew about sexual intercourse as means of transmission. While students were knowledgeable about ways that the AIDS virus could not be transmitted, some still held erroneous beliefs that AIDS could be transmitted through blood tests, vaccinations or insulin injections, mosquito bites, and kissing. Although few students believed the AIDS virus could be transmitted through casual contact, only a minority said they would sit next to a student with AIDS in the school lunchroom. Most students reported obtaining information about… [PDF]
(1991). Private Sector Involvement in Vocational Education: A Survey of General and Program Advisory Committee Members. The Massachusetts Council on Vocational Education surveyed 500 members of business and industry in 125 program advisory committees regarding involvement in the Job Training Partnership Act. The purpose of the survey was to document private sector perspectives on the content and value of their participation on vocational-technical education committees. The rate of return was 36 percent; findings were based on 142 completed questionnaires. Findings showed over half had served on a vocational education committee for 3 years or longer. Over half served on committees affiliated with regional vocational-technical schools. In 8 of 24 activities, respondents had some significant involvement; many of those activities required review, planning, and information sharing. Respondents ranked their overall level of participation and the effectiveness of their participation slightly lower than moderate. The greatest barrier for committee participation was limited time of participants. The majority… [PDF]
(2005). What Is FRBR? It's Not a Small Rodent, Explains Linda Gonzalez, but a Striking Way to Improve Catalogs. Library Journal, v130 n7 pS12 Apr. Catalogers, catalog managers, and others in library technical services have become increasingly interested in, worried over, and excited about FRBR (the acronym for Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records). Staff outside of the management of the library's bibliographic database may wonder what the fuss is about (FERBER? FURBUR?), assuming that FRBR is just another addition to the stable of acronyms that catalogers bandy about, a mate or sibling to MARC and AACR2. FRBR, however, has the potential to inspire dramatic changes in library catalogs, and those changes will greatly impact how reference and resource sharing staff and patrons use this core tool. FRBR is a conceptual model for how bibliographic databases might be structured, considering what functions bibliographic records should fulfill in an era when card catalogs are databases with unique possibilities. In some ways FRBR clarifies certain cataloging practices that librarians have been using for over 160 years, since…
(1989). The New York State Model for Sharing Successful Programs: A Decade of Implementation and Evaluation. To address educational reform needs in New York State, the State Education Department developed a research-based Sharing Successful Practices (SSP) Dissemination model. Under SSP, a program successful in meeting one district's needs can be adopted by other districts with similar needs. SSP has four components: validation, demonstration, replication, and technical assistance. An evaluation of SSP must consider model characteristics as well as what happens after the model is implemented. In the report, several studies conducted over a period of years are synthesized to demonstrate that SSP is an effective tool in bringing about educational change. The report specifically shows that SSP has content and construct validity; is reliable and cost-effective; is more efficient than developing a local program; and is perceived as useful by local school districts. In addition, local school district evaluation data indicate that replicating validated programs is successful. Participation rates…
(1983). Making Work Go Round. Plans for Combatting Unemployment. Special Report. In the Federal Republic of Germany, as elsewhere, the recent unemployment crisis has forced politicians, economists, trade unionists, and experts to consider a number of courses of action designed to reduce working time. Included among these alternatives are the following: adopting the 35-hour work week, shortening working life through early retirement, creating more part-time positions, and lengthening annual holidays. Of all the proposals discussed for a long-term solution of the unemployment problem in the Federal Republic of Germany, the adoption of the 35-hour work week would have the most impact. Because of the country's tight financial position, however, this practice probably will not become a reality. Despite the fact that the debate over the relative feasibility of shortening weekly hours will probably become sharper in the next few months, it appears that the practices of job-sharing and part-time work will become increasingly more widespread as more and more house…
(1985). Financing Child Care: Future Arrangements. Report of the Task Force on Child Care: Series 2. Future arrangements for financing child care in Canada is the subject of the five research studies in this volume. The studies were commissioned as part of an effort to provide detailed analyses of issues of special relevance to child care and parental leave policies and the effects of such issues on the changing Canadian family. Paper 1 provides an historical overview of the evolution of social policy from 1867 to 1967 in four areas: education, health care, maternity leave, and day care, comparing common elements in the program development process. Paper 2 describes the structure of a child care costing model which estimates the costs of the current child care system in Canada, and provides forecasts of costs of a national child care system, given various measures of demand, child/staff ratios, and staff wage rates. Paper 3 examines models of federal-provincial fiscal arrangements in which federal contributions are made to programs under provincial jurisdiction, and proposes…
(1982). The Management of Self-Interest: Phenomenology and Staff Motivation. Coombe Lodge Working Paper: Information Bank Number 1634. Revised. Theorists have named environmental forces, organizational structure, group interaction, individual needs, or some combination of these factors in accounting for organizational behavior. Phenomenology argues that organizations do not exist apart from the people of whom they are composed; in this view their private perceptions and personal self-interests account for member actions. Exchange theory, an extension of the phenomenological approach, suggests that when people engage in social activity with the expectation of reward, interaction tends to involve reciprocal exchanges. Power is, therefore, the ability of persons with unilateral control over resources to require compliance from their exchange partners. Another attempt to explain human motivation has been Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943). Maslow suggests that there is a natural ordering of needs, and that lower level needs tend to take precedence, but, once satisfied, give way to the urgings of higher level needs. Education as…
(2006). Assessing the Impact of a Multi-Agency Project on Afghan Basic Education. Online Submission, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco, CA, Apr 7-11, 2006). This study investigates the impact of activities done in the basic education sub-sector by a consortium of four non-government organizations in four provinces in Afghanistan from January 2004 to June 2005. The evaluation uses the project objectives and components as the evaluation framework, and data collected through survey questionnaires, structured interviews and classroom observations. Results indicate that the local communities were actively involved in basic education planning and management via village education committees; where new schools were built, almost all communities contributed labor and/or collected money to pay for the land; most teachers and principals claimed that attending the teacher training workshops enabled them to become more "professional" in teaching; there was a shared concern over the sustainability of the capacity building activities in project management, monitoring and impact assessment. Results show that the ABEC project has undertaken the… [PDF]
(2006). Urban-Rural Differences in the Availability of Hospital Information Technology Applications: A Survey of Georgia Hospitals. Journal of Rural Health, v22 n3 p242-247 Sum. Context: Information technology (IT) has been identified as a potential tool for improving the safety of health care delivery. Purpose: To determine if there are significant differences between urban and rural community hospitals in the availability of selected IT functional applications and technological devices. Methods: A mailed survey of community hospitals in Georgia assessing the current availability of IT applications (54.6% response rate). Findings: Georgia hospitals reported having 63.6% of 56 possible functional applications computerized but only 52.9% of 41 technological devices. Compared to rural hospitals, urban hospitals had significantly more functional applications computerized (38.0 vs 31.8, P = 0.031) and technological devices available (23.9 vs 18.2, P = 0.016). Urban hospitals had significantly (P less than 0.05) more IT applications available in 4 areas: emergency room services (7 of 10), surgical/operating room (8 of 12), laboratory (7 of 12), and radiology (5… [Direct]
(1978). Journalism and the Educational Views of Alexander Meiklejohn. Alexander Meiklejohn, who died in 1964 at the age of 92, was a constitutional scholar whose major interest was education. Among Meiklejohn's beliefs were the following: the social good should take precedence over individual achievement; the liberal arts college is the institution best suited to carry out an affirmative reading of the First Amendment; Congress should provide for the intellectual and cultural education of all citizens; education must not ignore vocational concerns; there should be "education in followership" for the citizenry, as well as education for leadership; citizens should keep informed about government policies; and individualism must be balanced with dedication to common purpose. Meiklejohn engaged in vociferous criticism of John Dewey and the tenets of pragmatism, finding pragmatism objectionable in its assignation of superiority to observed fact over pondered value; he also fought against the isolation of individual scholarly disciplines, believing…
(2000). Methodological and Ethical Considerations in a Life History Study of Teacher Thinking. This paper discusses some of the methodological and ethical issues that one educational researcher encountered throughout his work, focusing on the importance of understanding teachers' thinking from their perspective (an insider looking out rather than an outsider looking in). It highlights a collaborative research relationship that the researcher had with an experienced high school English teacher, Anna. Using life history, ethnographic, and narrative approaches, the researcher explored the history and evolution of Anna's beliefs about literacy and how those beliefs were related to her teaching practices throughout her career. Anna's story was situated within the larger context of a self-study. The researcher conducted 10 formal interviews with Anna; held dozens of informal conversations with her over 5 years; made over 50 visits to her classroom; spoke with people familiar with her about her teaching practices and thinking about literacy; and examined copies of professional… [PDF]
(1993). Rural Education Directory: Organizations and Resources. This directory lists over 250 organizations and resources related to rural education. Entries are categorized by the following sections: (1) national organizations (associations, networks, centers, and clearinghouses); (2) regional educational laboratories; (3) regional offices of the National Diffusion Network (a federally-funded dissemination system that helps public and private schools, colleges, and other educational institutions improve by sharing information about successful education programs, products, and processes); (4) federal government agencies and resources; (5) state education agencies and organizations with rural programs; (6) state data centers that provide information about small towns and rural areas; and (7) rural journals. Each entry includes the name and address of the resource or organization and, when appropriate, the name of a contact person and a brief description. Also included are indexes by organization name and by state or territory. (LP)… [PDF]
(1973). The Minicomputer as Support for Academic Computing Requirements. A Preliminary Look at Some Results of an NSF-Supported-Experiment to Evaluate Minicomputer Use. The National Science Foundation financed a project enabling 10 small, nonresearch colleges to purchase minicomputers for academic and administrative use. The purpose of the study was to determine whether an owned minicomputer is a better investment for such small colleges than a time-sharing system or a cooperative arrangement. The colleges purchased Digital, Hewlett-Packard, or Data General computers and support hardware and software. The project, which began in 1970, is not finished, but preliminary results indicate that there is a great preference for the minicomputers, and that they have provided satisfactory services for much lower cost. The college found that one full-time person's effort was needed to operate and sustain the systems and that the 16-bit word length is preferred over the 12-bit. In addition, the computing capacity of the minicomputers was reasonably comparable to larger machines. (WH)…