Twenty Years of Edtech

An opinion often cited among educational technology (edtech) professionals is that theirs is a fast-changing field. This statement is sometimes used as a motivation (or veiled threat) to senior managers to embrace edtech because if they miss out now, it’ll be too late to catch up. However, amid this breathless attempt to keep abreast of new developments, the edtech field is remarkably poor at recording its own history or reflecting critically on its development. When Audrey Watters recently put out a request for recommended books on the history of educational technology, I couldn’t come up with any beyond the handful she already had listed. There are edtech books that often start with a historical chapter to set the current work in context, and there are edtech books that are now part of history, but there are very few edtech books dealing specifically with the field’s history. Maybe this reflects a lack of interest, as there has always been something of a year-zero mentality in the field. Edtech is also an area to which people come from other disciplines, so there is no shared set of concepts or history. This can be liberating but also infuriating. I’m sure I was not alone in emitting the occasional sigh when during the MOOC rush of 2012, so many “new” discoveries about online learning were reported—discoveries that were already tired concepts in the edtech field

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson: Title VII Liability for Sexual Harassment

In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson,! the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of sexual harassment for the first time. The Court held that when sexual harassment creates a hostile or offensive working environment, it is actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court interpreted Title VII as demonstrating a congressional intent to preserve the economic, psychological and emotional benefits of employment. This interpretation has been advanced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and in lower court opinions. The Supreme Court rejected the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that an employer is strictly liable for hostile environment sex discrimination regardless of the circumstances of the case. Instead, the Court stated that courts must look to agency principles for guidance in determining employer liability, and must examine the totality of the circumstances. Notice or absence of notice to the employer of the harassment will not be dispositive of the liability issue

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson: Title VII Liability for Sexual Harassment

In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson,! the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of sexual harassment for the first time. The Court held that when sexual harassment creates a hostile or offensive working environment, it is actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court interpreted Title VII as demonstrating a congressional intent to preserve the economic, psychological and emotional benefits of employment. This interpretation has been advanced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and in lower court opinions. The Supreme Court rejected the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that an employer is strictly liable for hostile environment sex discrimination regardless of the circumstances of the case. Instead, the Court stated that courts must look to agency principles for guidance in determining employer liability, and must examine the totality of the circumstances. Notice or absence of notice to the employer of the harassment will not be dispositive of the liability issue

The development of service provider's BPO-IT framework

Purpose The decision to operate BPO-IT organisational model by a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider has far reaching benefits. The purpose of this paper is to develop a service provider’s BPO-IT framework that provides in-house IT function (software) required to process client services. Design/methodology/approach The multi-case study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method research approach. In the first instance, seven BPO service provider organisations were investigated in the qualitative phase and 156 in the quantitative phase, respectively. Findings The adoption of the developed framework indicates that it could reduce failures in BPO relationships through reduced turnaround time in processing client services, improved quality of service, reduced cost, improved client and provider’s competitiveness, and confidentiality of client operations. Outsourcing clients could lay the foundation for a successful relationship by adopting a selection process that could choose the right provider. Originality/value The paper reveals BPO-IT organisation’s operation towards in-house provision of software required to process client services. A research exploring BPO service providers from a top outsourcing destination like India could provide offshore outsourcing clients the information to move towards onshore outsourcing. </jats:sec

A brief overview of international trends in Open Access

Definition and stakeholders Open Access can be defined as access to research-based publications that are peer reviewed, permanently and promptly accessible without payment, and re-usable on the sole condition of crediting the author(s). Achieving Open Access (OA) involves all the stakeholders of the research life cycle to begin with the authors who are the initial copyright holders of the publications and then the publishers who coordinate the peer review. Libraries build and maintain the national and institutional infrastructures that facilitate prompt and permanent access. Research funders define conditions for granting financing; mandating access to the resulting publications may be among these conditions. Service providers encourage the reuse of scientific and scholarly findings. Ultimately, legislators may set rules for access to knowledge in our knowledge-permeated democracies

What has the internet ever done for employees? A review, map and research agenda

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which employees have benefitted in the internet age and to identify research gaps that surround such activities.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is a combination of a systematic literature review and an empirical analysis of secondary data drawn from press reports of emergent employee internet activities.FindingsThe internet continues to provide fresh and exciting opportunities for the employee to explore in relation to furthering employment‐related interests. However, the internet very much represents a “double‐edged sword” in that the many advantages of the internet can be quickly cancelled out by employer attempts to monitor, control, and exploit for themselves such activities, for their own ends. It is also evident that a full assessment of some activities cannot be made without further research.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is reliant on extant literature and resources that are known to have limited scholarly application.Practical implicationsA broad and eclectic discussion of employee internet activities is likely to be of interest to academics and human resource practitioners whose interests are based on a blend of employee relations practices and new internet‐based technological developments.Social implicationsThe study addresses how a distinct actor in employee relations has faired in an age denoted by shrinking opportunities for collective action, yet also denoted by rapid developments in empowering user‐generated and social networking forms of information communication technology.Originality/valueThis paper synthesises literature and data from a wide range of largely incongruous academic and non‐academic sub‐disciplines to provide a fresh and authoritative account of emergent employee behaviour.</jats:sec

Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) [CFDA 84.418P]

Over the past two decades, New York State (NYS) has been actively and collaboratively engaged in systems change across three primary domains: 1) to develop a comprehensive employment system to reduce barriers to work and improve employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities; 2) to enhance the post-school adult outcomes of youth with disabilities, by collaboratively advancing evidence-based secondary transition practices at the regional, school district and individual student levels; and, 3) to support the return-to-work efforts of individuals with disabilities who receive Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). These domains have been supported by numerous federal and state initiatives including: the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS)-sponsored Transition Systems Change grant; the SSA-sponsored State Partnership Initiative (NYWORKS); two Youth Transition Demonstrations (YTD); the Benefits Offset National Demonstration (BOND); and, three cycles of funding for the National Work Incentives Support Center (WISC); the US Department of Labor (DOL)-sponsored Work Incentive Grant, Disability Program Navigator Initiative, and Disability Employment Initiative; three rounds of funding from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) for Medicaid Infrastructure Grants (MIG, NY Makes Work Pay); the NYS Education Department (NYSED) sponsored Model Transition Program (MTP); and three multi-year cycles of the statewide Transition Coordination Site network. Most recently, NYS has sponsored the Statewide Transition Services Professional Development Support Center (PDSC); the NYS Developmental Disability Planning Council (DDPC)-sponsored Transition Technical Assistance Support Program (T-TASP), NYS Work Incentives Support Center (NYS WISC), and NYS Partners in Policy Making (PIP); the NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH)-sponsored Career Development Initiative; and others. The growing statewide and gubernatorial emphasis on employment for New Yorkers with disabilities developed over the past two decades stemming from these initiatives, supported by service innovations and shared vision across state agencies and employment stakeholders, establishes a strong foundation for implementing and sustaining a research demonstration to “Promote the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income” (PROMISE). The NYS PROMISE will build upon NYS’ past successes and significantly support NYS in removing systems, policy and practice barriers for transition-age youth who receive SSI and their families. The NYS OMH through the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene (RFMH), with their management partners the New York Employment Support System (NYESS) Statewide Coordinating Council (SCC) and Cornell University Employment and Disability Institute, along with the proposed research demonstration site community, join the NYS Governor’s Office in designing and implementing a series of statewide strategic service interventions to support the transition and employment preparation of youth ages 14-16 who receive SSI

The Beacon, September 4, 2007

Vol. 21, Issue 9, 16 pageshttps://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/student_newspaper/1162/thumbnail.jp