GED: Moving Into the Electronic Age

The purpose of this study is to find a direction as the Community Continuing Education/General Education Diploma (CCE/GED) department goes into the electronic age. Not only has the General Education Diploma test become computer based, the process of studying, preparing and communicating has also required one to use desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones, email, and webinars daily. The goal is to promote the department and its services to the younger generation (18-25 years old) who are completely comfortable using electronic devices, and to the older generation (40+years) who may know a little bit of electronic communicating but who are still fearful of it. The department has a webpage within the college’s website and, until recently, has not fully utilized it. The goal is to use the internet in both the capacity of information gathering as well as information dissemination. A survey is available for participants to complete on the departments webpage or by hand on printed paper copies. This survey will assist the department in establishing an understanding of how the participants become aware of the departments services, how to enhance students’ experiences and overall achievement(s) in addition to tracking them after they leave the program. Additionally, the group created a Community Needs Assessment for adult learners who are not pursuing a General Education Diploma, which includes suggestions of both old and new topics of information community members, are interested in acquiring. One of the results is tutors now realize how beneficial information technology can be to the program overall as well as to individual staff members and participants within the program

Development of Higher Education in Albania: The Case of the Public University Libraries in Efforts to Build Digital and Electronic Services for the Academic Community

Between the obligation of carrying out their mission to ensure the quality development of higher education and the right to function as important centers where knowledge is taken, developed and transmitted, this paper will examine the technological developments of university libraries as an important part of higher education. Digital and electronic experiences applied in Albanian universities libraries will be brought to the attention of the public. This paper is based on the questionnaire survey conducted at public university libraries in Albania. Opinions of librarians regarding ICT application were elicited using a structured questionnaire, followed up with interviews. In the case of non-response by libraries is consulted their official web sites to have a more complete information. In addition, secondary sources were consulted as domestic and foreign literature in this field. Results show that: 1) the level of application information technology in public university libraries in Albania is acceptable. The most important and serious problem is the lack of the unique University Library ICT Policy; 2) serious handicap is the lack of educated librarians in using information technology; 3) the proportion of university library activity goes more digital, so the digital collection becomes reality in the public university libraries. This paper brings conclusions that contribute to: a) national information communication technology policy for university libraries and b) the creation of an integrated system for management and transmission of knowledge at the national level for all Albanian university libraries

A web-based collaboration approach for teaching in medicine

Teaching medicine requires developing a vast range of manual, intellectual, visual and tactile skills as well as taking into account large amounts of factual information. Traditional medical teaching and individual learning in particular, can be complemented with electronic web based systems. One of the main impacts of e-Teaching in education resides in the fact that it provides opportunities to create resources that turn the learning process flexible. This implies a different relation between teachers and students and even between institutions, in the sense that the students participate on their own formation and the vertical hierarchy tends to become increasingly more horizontal. Awareness of the knowledge constructing process is increased, and consequently more satisfaction gained from learning. In this paper we describe a webbased collaboration approach for teaching that is being developed to simulate conversational dialogue in the area of Medicine, that enables the integration of highly heterogeneous sources of information into a coherent knowledge base accessed from web-based interfaces, either from the tutor’s point of view or the development of the discipline in itself, i.e. the system’s content is created automatically by the physicians as their daily work goes on

Implications for Library and Information Science Education

published or submitted for publicatio

From library skills to information literacy

The application of new technologies and the acquisition of new sources and methods of information dissemination, as well as the provision of libraries services, requires the special education of the users in order to take advantage of these sources and services. In this paper, an investigation of the Greek academic libraries and their user education sessions is attempted. This research aims to explore the user education sessions offered by the libraries, with special regards to the education, the type of user education sessions and their contents. For the collection of the elements, the questionnaire method is selected. The current situation as much as it concerns the libraries and the applied teaching methods at the Greek education institutions, is presented

E-Voting in an ubicomp world: trust, privacy, and social implications

The advances made in technology have unchained the user from the desktop into interactions where access is anywhere, anytime. In addition, the introduction of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) will see further changes in how we interact with technology and also socially. Ubicomp evokes a near future in which humans will be surrounded by “always-on,” unobtrusive, interconnected intelligent objects where information is exchanged seamlessly. This seamless exchange of information has vast social implications, in particular the protection and management of personal information. This research project investigates the concepts of trust and privacy issues specifically related to the exchange of e-voting information when using a ubicomp type system

The OU goes digital

Describes how the Open University is embedding electronic library resources and services into e-learning

Cutting Red Tape in Health Care: How Streamlining Billing Can Reduce California's Health Care Costs

Examines inefficiencies in the state's administrative systems and proposes streamlining key processes and integrating health information networks to cut costs and add value. Offers case profiles of networks in Utah and New England as best practices

Mobile - First News: How People Use Smartphones to Access Information

This report is based on a research study conducted with Nielsen and commissioned by Knight Foundation to explore how people use mobile platforms for news

Reviews

John Stephenson (ed.), Teaching and Learning Online: Pedagogies for New Technologies, Kogan Page, London, 2001. ISBN: 0–7494–3511–9. Softback, xi + 228 pages. £19.99