(1975). Why Use a Minicomputer? Some Factors Affecting Their Selection. A study of computer facilities in British libraries highlighted the respective benefits and disadvantages of using the parent institution's central computer or using a dedicated minicomputer. The large computer's technical advantages include greater opportunities for sharing or buying operational software, and the availability of experienced staff. The maintenance problems are not for the library to solve. The computer is capable of handling the large sorts and large files characteristic of library processing. Greater availability of higher level languages speeds up the development of a system and aids the unavoidable change to new equipment. With a minicomputer the library has control over access, is independent of the idiosyncrasies of the computer center, and is secure for the life of the equipment. The system will be tailor-made for the library but capable of expansion. In exchange for these benefits, the library has the responsibility of selecting, financing, operating, and…
(1970). The National Biomedical Communications Network as a Developing Structure. The National Biomedical Communications Network has evolved both from a set of conceptual recommendations over the last twelve years and an accumulation of needs manifesting themselves in the requests of members of the medical community. With a short history of three years this Network and its developing structure have exhibited most of the stresses of technology interfacing with customer groups and of a structure attempting to build itself upon many existing fragmentary unconnected segments of a potentially viable resource-sharing capability. In addition to addressing these topics, the paper treats a design appropriate to any network devoted to information transfer in a special interest user community. It discusses fundamentals of network design, highlighting that network structure most appropriate to a national information network. Examples are given of cost analyses of information services and certain conjectures are offered concerning the roles of national networks. (Other papers… [PDF]
(1997). Rat Bags and Dragon Ladies. This qualitative study focuses on the classroom interactions of a high school science teacher and a resistant learner in a Grade 10 science class in Australia. Data are presented in the context of a creative nonfiction story based on experiences in a rural Australian high school. In the story, a science teacher lives up to the expectations of students, parents, and administrators by requiring a disruptive student to follow classroom rules. The teacher seeks advice from parents, teachers, and administrators for handling the resistant learner. By reflecting on action and having a network of support, the teacher adjusts her management style to help the student internalize socially acceptable classroom behavior. Implications of this research include: (1) issues relating to classroom behavior may take precedence over science curriculum and instructional strategies; (2) some students may fail to find relevance in the science curriculum; and (3) sharing classroom stories of resistant… [PDF]
(2000). Education for All: A Global Commitment. A Report of the United States to the International Consultative Forum on Education for All. This document constitutes the United States Education for All 2000 Assessment Report. The report was organized and prepared with the oversight of an eight-member commission made up of representatives of both government and private organizations in the United States. As the United States continues to improve its educational system, it remains deeply committed to engagement in international education and to sharing its experiences with others. The following activities, essential to improving education over the next 15 years, offer opportunities for collaboration with other countries as the nations of the world work together toward the goal of increased opportunities for education for all: (1) increase educational quality; (2) increase access to formal schooling and other forms of education; (3) strengthen the skills of new and experienced teachers; (4) explore the strengths of various educational technologies and enhance access to them; (5) increase international comparisons and… [PDF]
(1998). BRIDGE: A Simulation Model for Comparing the Costs of Expanding a Campus Using Distributed Instruction versus Classroom Instruction. Documentation and Instructions. These instructions describe the use of BRIDGE, a computer software simulation model that is designed to compare the costs of expanding a college campus using distributed instruction (television or asynchronous network courses) versus the costs of expanding using lecture/lab type instruction. The model compares the projected operating and capital costs of the two types of campuses over a period of years, with cost projections based on the values of approximately 100 parameters that describe the general context of the simulation, and the resource requirements and associated costs of the lecture/lab and mediated campuses. The instructions provide a step-by-step guide to using the BRIDGE software, including the adjustment of default settings. Five appendixes provide information on the implications of various combinations of remote sites and campus course-sharing options, average section enrollment versus average annual enrollment, faculty salary calculations, distribution of faculty… [PDF]
(2005). Cooperation in Outdoor Recreation: Are We Working Together toward Common Purposes?. Journal of the Wilderness Education Association, v17 n3 p13-14 Win. The design of this study was to measure the extent of cooperation among groups involved with outdoor recreation programs on college campuses. To measure cooperation between the groups, a 15 question survey, titled \Cooperation in Outdoor Recreation,\ was developed. Survey topics ranged from consistency of curriculum to cooperation in the use of equipment to consultation over legal liability concerns to coordination of facilities/employment to sharing of expertise to perceptions between groups. The survey was mailed to 280 individuals involved in the field of outdoor recreation. A one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the relationships between the groups involved with outdoor recreation programs on college campuses and the topics measured by the \Cooperation in Outdoor Recreation\ survey. The data reveals the results of two of the 15 questions contained in the survey. Each of the three groups \strongly\ agreed that nationally, an attitude of… [Direct]
(2004). New Directions in the Moral Education Curriculum in Chinese Primary Schools. Journal of Moral Education, v33 n4 p495-510 Dec. An analysis is presented of the problems that have existed for over 20 years in the moral education curriculum in primary schools of China. These include the separation of moral education from children's lives, the moralizing and memorization used as the basic methods of teaching and learning, and the overlaps between courses on society and ideological moral character. The paper then introduces the main innovations in the contemporary reform of the primary moral education curriculum, including lifelong moral education as its theoretical foundation and making the development of children's morality relate to life, with 'real' everyday life events as source materials for textbooks. Embodied in the textbooks are some new ideas behind the revised educational objectives, such as putting oneself in another's position, ecological interdependence, 'win-win', dialogue, sharing and diversity. As the curriculum is child centred so the textbooks use a dialogical pedagogy. In conclusion the paper… [Direct]
(2004). Regarding Whiteness: Exploring and Intervening in the Effects of White Racism in Teacher Education. Equity and Excellence in Education, v37 n1 p31-43. This study examines the beliefs of nine white English-only speaking preservice teachers who tutored English language learners of Mexican origin as part of a university field service requirement. Over the course of a semester, participants were interviewed at length about their own reasons for becoming teachers, their beliefs about the children, and the ways in which race influenced their lives. Participants also were observed tutoring, and their learning journals were analyzed. Through various means of data collection, it became apparent that the good intentions of the participants were consistently undermined by the whiteness and the racism that influenced their beliefs about and behaviors with the children. The researcher consequently decided to intervene in the study, sharing data with participants and encouraging them to see the ways that whiteness and racism influenced their tutoring experience. Critical Race Theory and Critical White Studies together make up the theoretical… [Direct]
(1964). GROUP GUIDANCE FOR HIGH SCHOOL. A GROUP GUIDANCE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THE STUDENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF REALISTIC IDEAS ABOUT HIMSELF AND TO HELP HIM PROMOTE PLANS FOR HIMSELF WITHIN THIS CONTEXT. EMPHASIS ON THE NEEDS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL TO MAKE HIS OWN DECISIONS INCREASE FROM AGE/GRADE LEVEL TO AGE/GRADE LEVEL. MANY OF THE PRACTICALITIES OF SUCH DECISION-MAKING ARE BEST SERVED IN GROUP GUIDANCE SESSIONS. THE SESSIONS HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF SHARING WITH OTHERS, PROVIDING INESCAPABLE GUIDANCE SERVICES AND STRUCTURE FOR THE COUNSELOR. MODULAR MATERIALS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO ASSURE GUIDANCE SERVICE OF OVER A 4-YEAR PERIOD WITH WEEKLY REGULARITY. THE UNITS PROVIDED ARE–NINTH GRADE–"GETTING THE MOST OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL," TENTH GRADE–"DEVELOPING MYSELF FOR THE FUTURE," ELEVENTH GRADE–"TAKING A LONG LOOK AHEAD," TWELFTH GRADE–"LIVING IN AN ADULT WORLD." SESSION MANAGEMENT SUGGESTIONS ARE PROVIDED FOR USE IN PLANNING AND OPERATING A GROUP GUIDANCE PROGRAM. A…
(1970). Development and Testing of a High School Business Game. Final Report. A computer based business game to be used as a teaching tool in high school business-related courses was designed, developed, and tested. The game is constructed in modules that can be linked together in a variety of ways to achieve a different decision configuration for different class needs and a changing configuration over time to parallel the progression of the class. During the course of the project, a business environment was simulated with a mathematical model. The model was programed in FORTRAN IV, installed on a time sharing computer system, and documented for high school participants and a game administrator. The model was carefully tested prior to a full administration in a high school economics class. It was found that the model developed had the advantages of stability, rationality, and controllability, although it was found to be too competitive in the marketplace allowing the results of teams' decisions to be extremely separated. (Author/SP)… [PDF]
(1970). CAI Systems Past, Present, and Future. In considering the development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) systems over the past eleven years, one can see a pattern of interaction between advances in computer hardware and software and continuing efforts to solve the basic problems of CAI: problems of achieving a natural-language capability, of keeping the cost low, and of making coding and editing easier. As new equipment and the higher level languages became available, solutions to one or another of these basic problems have become feasible. Now, in the fourth generation of CAI, we have on line, time-sharing capabilities and a powerful and flexible language that embodies both program logic and instructional content. This pattern gives some hint of how things will proceed in the future: through a continuing iteration between technology–in the forms of the mini-computer on the one hand and the extremely large time-share facility on the other–and further efforts to solve the more complicated needs that face us now. (JY)…
(1996). Workforce Training Issues. The importance of a skilled and highly educated workforce to economic well-being is widely recognized, and the relationship between skills and income is becoming stronger over time. Largely as a result of growing demand for skilled workers, state-level training programs are becoming increasingly important as complements to federal programs. Although the demand for workers with a bachelor's degree or more is growing rapidly, many future workers will not attend college and will require other types of training. Cost-sharing for worker training and improved communication between businesses and students will help facilitate the transition from school to work. The needs of older workers are also important, as the relative size of the workforce aged 45-64 will grow. Finally, small and rural firms may need some special assistance in modernizing because the difficulty of finding highly trained workers may preclude investment in advanced technology. (Contains 6 tables and 65 footnotes.)… [PDF]
(2005). Sharing the Same World: Boys' Relations with Girls during Their Last Year of Primary School. Gender and Education, v17 n1 p75-91 Mar. This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11-year-old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from themselves and girls, I found that most boys categorized girls as different ("they" are not "us") rather than oppositional, and the most common reaction was one of detachment and disinterest. Rather than maintaining that there are two separate worlds, I argue that there are two complementary gendered cultures, sharing the one overall school world, which are further nuanced by social class and race/ethnicity. Although there was a tendency of boys to dominate space and girls were often excluded from playground games, many girls refused to be dominated by boys, and some were able to deliberately exercise power over them…. [Direct]
(2003). What Matters to Alexander Astin? A Conversation with Higher Education's Senior Scholar. About Campus, v8 n5 p11-18 Nov-Dec. Since the mid-1960s, the work of Alexander Astin–Allan M. Cartter Professor of Higher Education at the University of California-Los Angeles and director of the Higher Education Research Institute–has served as both bellwether for and mirror of the American college and university system. He was there to study and shed light on the student protests during the sixties, is now exploring the current movement to bring spirituality to higher education, and has addressed pretty much everything in between. If it matters to higher education–be it issues of access, equality, involvement, and values embedded in educational policies–it has probably mattered to Alexander Astin. In this talk with Charles Schroeder, Astin touches on many of the issues that involved higher education, sharing the deeply held convictions he has developed over nearly half a century of work. In this interview, Astin mostly talked about the need for higher education to focus more on the spiritual and value development… [Direct]
(1992). Reflections from the Backroads…A Collection of Works by Students of Green Sea Floyds High School, 1991-92. Project REACH was established at Green Sea Floyds (South Carolina) High School during the 1990-91 school year as a mechanism for grassroots change in the humanities program. The activities involved in the project were collaboratively developed by students and teachers. The central theme, "Backroads: A Look at Northwestern Horry County," focused on the unique qualities of the students in the Green Sea Floyds area as well as the rich cultural heritage from which students had to draw. Students were involved in producing original work that incorporated information from published materials, interviews, and other materials. The instructional program emphasized the application of learning rather than the memorization and recall of facts. Authentic assessment was stressed, with the teacher sharing with others the job of evaluating what the students had done. Cooperative editing teams and outside mentors contributed to assessment to give each student a more in depth assessment and…