|
|
Pub Date: |
2013-03-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Cost Effectiveness; Outcomes of Education; Workplace Learning; Foreign Countries; Industry; Human Capital; Productivity; Technological Advancement; Models; Regression (Statistics)
Abstract:
One of the central problems in managing technological change and maintaining a competitive advantage in business is improving the skills of the workforce through investment in human capital and a variety of training practices. This paper explores the evidence on the impact of training investment on productivity in 14 Canadian industries from 1999 to 2005. Our productivity analysis demonstrates that in 12 out of 14 industries, training had a positive effect on productivity. However, when the analysis is put within a financial context, the return on investment was positive in only four industries. Faced with negative rates of return, why should managers in most of the industries in the study promote investment in training? Probably the best explanation is that new technology requires an investment in training. The investment in training is necessary just for the firm to maintain its current labour productivity. Employee turnover necessarily impedes the efficacy of training, because trained workers leave, and untrained workers arrive. Thus, training in this instance again is necessary just to maintain current labour productivity. (Contains 4 tables and 1 footnote.)
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info:
Help |
Tutorial
Help Finding Full Text
|
More Info:
Help
Find in a Library
|
Publisher's website
|
|
|
Pub Date: |
2013-02-18 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
|
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Humanities; Computer Uses in Education; College Faculty; Teacher Attitudes; Interdisciplinary Approach; Technological Advancement; Scholarship; Cooperation; Research; Teacher Student Relationship; Web Sites; Integrated Curriculum; Social Networks; Interprofessional Relationship
Abstract:
A persistent criticism of the digital-humanities movement is that it is elitist and exclusive because it requires the resources of a major university (faculty, infrastructure, money), and is thus more suited to campuses with a research focus. Academics and administrators at small liberal-arts colleges may read about DH and, however exciting it sounds, decide that it ill suits their teaching mission. In fact, teaching-focused colleges have significant advantages over research universities in pursuing the digital humanities. With shallower administrative hierarchies and less institutional inertia, liberal-arts colleges can innovate relatively rapidly and at lower cost. They usually have more collegiality across disciplines and divisions, and between faculty and staff members. It's easier to build coalitions and to organize project teams at small colleges. Because of their teaching focus, they have lighter expectations for faculty research: Faculty members are more likely to be able to experiment with projects that may not lead to traditional scholarly publications. Some liberal-arts colleges even have a culture of faculty-student collaborative research, which translates perfectly into the project-building methods of the digital humanities. And the great variety of missions among liberal-arts colleges allows each of them to develop projects serving communities that might otherwise be neglected. All in all, participating in DH is not more difficult at liberal-arts colleges than at research universities; it simply presents a different set of challenges and opportunities. Since 2008 the author has been part of an effort to build a DH program at a liberal-arts college in the Midwest. In this article, he offers some casual suggestions for program building in this emerging field: (1) Stop calling it "digital humanities"; (2) Show how digital humanities supports the liberal arts; (3) Build a support network with like-minded colleagues; (4) Integrate digital humanities into the curriculum; (5) Show how digital techniques support faculty research; (6) Celebrate the accomplishments of students and colleagues; (7) Seek the support of the higher-ups; (8) Invest in faculty and staff development; (9) Seek external partnerships; and (10) Strive to be a "servant leader".
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info:
Help |
Tutorial
Help Finding Full Text
|
More Info:
Help
Find in a Library
|
Publisher's website
|
|
|
Pub Date: |
2013-01-07 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
|
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Notetaking; Reading Writing Relationship; Communication (Thought Transfer); Information Dissemination; Documentation; Technological Advancement; Information Technology; Electronic Publishing; Access to Information; Information Management; Educational History; Educational Psychology; Conferences (Gatherings)
Abstract:
Considering how much attention people lavish on the technologies of writing--scroll, codex, print, screen--it's striking how little they pay to the technologies for digesting and regurgitating it. One way or another, there's no sector of the modern world that is not saturated with note-taking--the bureaucracy, the liberal professions, the sciences, the modern firm, and especially the academy, whose residents, transient and permanent, have more right than anyone else to claim that taking notes is what they do. Taken, made, jotted, foot, or head: Notes are necessary interventions between the things people read and the things they write. (Contains 6 endnotes.)
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info:
Help |
Tutorial
Help Finding Full Text
|
More Info:
Help
Find in a Library
|
Publisher's website
|
|
|
Pub Date: |
2013-01-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
|
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Public Libraries; Library Role; Human Capital; Quality of Life; Cultural Centers; Internet; Access to Computers; Immigrants; Urban Areas; Career Readiness; Older Adults; Library Services; Electronic Publishing; Adult Literacy; Games; Library Administration; Technological Advancement; English Language Learners
Abstract:
As more and more New Yorkers turn to digital books, Wikipedia and other online tools for information and entertainment, there is a growing sense that the age of the public library is over. But, in reality, New York City's public libraries are more essential than ever. Far from becoming obsolete, the city's three public library systems--Brooklyn, Queens and New York, which encompasses the branches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island--have experienced a 40 percent spike in the number of people attending programs and a 59 percent increase in circulation over the past decade. Although they are often thought of as cultural institutions, the reality is that the public libraries are a key component of the city's human capital system. With roots in nearly every community across the five boroughs, New York's public libraries play a critical role in helping adults upgrade their skills and find jobs, assisting immigrants assimilate, fostering reading skills in young people and providing technology access for those who don't have a computer or an Internet connection at home. The libraries also are uniquely positioned to help the city address several economic, demographic and social challenges that will impact New York in the decades ahead. Despite all of this, New York policymakers, social service leaders and economic officials have largely failed to see the public libraries as the critical 21st century resource that they are, and the libraries themselves have only begun to make the investments that will keep them relevant in today's digital age. One way or another, New York needs to better leverage its libraries if it is to be economically competitive and remain a city of opportunity. This report takes an in-depth look at the role that New York's public libraries play in the city's economy and quality of life and examines opportunities for libraries to make even greater contributions in the years ahead. (Contains 38 endnotes.)
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
ERIC
Full Text (2326K)
|
|
|
Pub Date: |
2013-00-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Higher Education; College Faculty; Organizational Development; Organizational Change; Foreign Countries; Faculty Development; Professional Associations; Response Rates (Questionnaires); Teacher Surveys; Context Effect; Accountability; Student Diversity; Technological Advancement; Technology Uses in Education; Interdisciplinary Approach; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Responsibility; Teacher Role; Technology Integration; Leadership; Educational Administration
Abstract:
Faculty development has been evolving in focus and form over the past five decades. Originally organized around sabbatical leaves, faculty development now offers a wide array of programs and involves a growing body of highly professional, deeply dedicated professionals. As both faculty members and faculty developers with over fifty collective years of experience in higher education in the United States and internationally, the authors believe faculty development is a key strategic lever for ensuring institutional quality and supporting institutional change in higher education. With higher education institutions and the faculty within them facing new challenges and opportunities, what is the future of faculty development? In this article, readers are pointed to innovations in faculty development that are appearing on the horizon, in the context of changes and challenges confronting higher education institutions. Thoughts about the structures and processes in the practice of faculty development that need attention and some of the pressing issues in the field as a profession are shared. This analysis is drawn from the authors' previous research and writing, as well as the work of others, concerning academic work and workplaces, faculty careers, and faculty development. In particular, this article draws substantially on findings from an in-depth study of faculty development professionals in North America. In that study, developers from the United States and Canada who were members of the oldest and largest professional association for faculty development scholars and practitioners in North America, the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, were surveyed. Formed in 1974, POD's membership currently includes faculty developers from some forty countries, with the largest membership in the United States and Canada. From its outset, POD's purpose has been to support improvement in higher education through faculty, instructional, and organizational development activities. In this article, findings of the study are drawn from to highlight the issues that should be addressed through faculty development in the future. A few issues concerning the study require special note. The survey was sent to the full POD mailing list of members (999 names). Completed surveys were received from 494 developers at 300 higher education institutions in the United States and 31 institutions in Canada, resulting in an overall response rate to the survey of 50 percent. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents were men, and 61 percent were women. Understandably, this census of faculty developers does not necessarily represent the scope and proportion of all faculty developers, but it is representative of the membership of the field's largest professional organization in North America.
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info:
Help |
Tutorial
Help Finding Full Text
|
More Info:
Help
Find in a Library
|
Publisher's website
|
Author(s): |
Clarke, Linda |
Source: |
Technology, Pedagogy and Education, v22 n1 p121-131 2013 |
|
Pub Date: |
2013-00-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Research |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
|
|
|
Descriptors:
Educational Technology; Teaching Methods; Electronic Learning; Online Courses; Learning Theories; Praxis; Computer Mediated Communication; Teacher Education Programs; Virtual Classrooms; Educational Development; Educational Environment; Case Studies; Technological Advancement; Influence of Technology; Research Methodology; Educational Change; Educational Practices
Abstract:
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in teacher education have a short history which is little longer than that of this journal. Twenty years ago they were the province of early adopters only and limited to email and, more unusually, asynchronous conferencing. Today, VLEs are widespread and mainstream, sophisticated and officially sanctioned components of many courses. Research in this field has borne some of the hallmarks of Underwood's seminal critique of research in education technology more generally, namely, failure to construct and build upon the history of the field; failure to use the language and theoretical perspectives of the field; a focus on technology rather than on its impact on practice; and an over-reliance on qualitative methods. The three snapshots which are used as a basis of the study show, to an extent, that the technology has moved from unreliable and primitive, to reliable, ambient and versatile. Less obvious in these snapshots are any substantial changes in pedagogy over time although social learning theories seem to have increasing prevalence in support of collaborative learning praxis. Throughout the sample, it is notable that the impact of teachers' online learning on teaching and learning in schools is still relatively rarely investigated. (Contains 3 tables.)
Note:The following two links
are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software.
Show
Hide
Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info:
Help |
Tutorial
Help Finding Full Text
|
More Info:
Help
Find in a Library
|
Publisher's website
|
|