Innovation is thought to improve productivity at the firm level and economic prosperity at the national level. This would seem to have implications for the skills and skills development of employees. However, little is known about the relationship between skills development and innovation. This report is the culmination of case studies exploring…

A report from a progressive think tank measuring the "educational productivity" of more than 9,000 school districts around the country says that districts getting the most for their money tend to spend more on teachers and less on administration, partner with their communities to save money, and have school boards willing to make…

This book of readings on innovation was commissioned by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and looks at the relationship between skills, innovation and industry. In November 2010, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) held a forum in Sydney on the relationship between innovation and…

Mind wandering, defined as shifts in attention from task-related processing to task-unrelated thoughts, is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has a negative influence on performance and productivity in many contexts, including learning. We propose that next-generation learning technologies should have some mechanism to detect and respond to mind…

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social), the Humanities, and the private and public sectors of…

This study presents econometric estimates of the effects of unionism on productivity in 83 West Virginia coal mines in the early 1920s. Results show that unionism significantly reduced productivity at small mines but not at large mines. The author ascribes this effect to systematic differences between small and large operations in the quality of…

Discusses mining Web data to draw conclusions about Web users and proposes a client-side monitoring system that supports flexible data collection and encompasses client-side applications beyond the Web browser to incorporate standard office productivity tools. Highlights include goals for client-side monitoring; framework for user monitoring,…

Productivity, as measured by output per employee hour, grew in 1984 in about three quarters of the industries for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly publishes data. (A table shows productivity trends in industries measured by the Bureau, including mining, transportation and utilities, and trade and services.) (CT)

This report examines the issue of research and development (R and D) as well as technological changes in coal mining, focusing primarily on deep coal mining from 1970 to the present. First, a conceptual framework for classification of R and D as well as technological change is developed. A review of the literature that gives a mixed impression of…

This report documents the central role of the college-educated workforce in improving labour productivity across the economy and supporting an innovation culture in the workplace. It describes critical "enabling occupations" that play a key role in allowing companies to build a culture of innovation in the workplace which they need if…

Discusses the results of a study in which data gathered through interviews with managers at various levels from six coal mining companies were used to compare worker productivity levels with the utilization of company-sponsored training programs. A table summarizing the results and a 14-item reference list are included. (Author/JL)

Handheld computers have gone beyond the world of business and are finding their way into the hands of teachers and students. The empirical evidence suggests that the integration of handheld technology into the K-12 classrooms promotes 1) teacher productivity and 2) student-centered learning. Despite a wealth of anecdotal evidence little research…

Examples from road construction, mining, and other Australian industries show that the corporate sector has responded slowly to the introduction of a national framework for competency-based training. As industry bears more of the costs of training, it has yet to see returns in terms of productivity gains. (SK)

The crisis in Jamaican agriculture is due to environmental factors like climate conditions and to social and economic factors like the plantation system. Along with mining, tourism, and manufacturing, agriculture has a key role to play in the Jamaican economy. Suggests ways to improve productivity by aid to family farms. (CS)

In a survey of the state of the art in ergonomics (human factors) as it has been applied to coal mining, approximately 1,200 references in the published literature both foreign and domestic were located. Abstracts of 49 references were prepared on such topics as the effects of environmental stress on health and productivity, accident prevention…