The Virgil Independent School District and Reorganization

The Virgil Independent School District, Virgil, South Dakota is a small school district as are so many in South Dakota. The district has attempted over a period of thirty years to provide the high-school educational facilities need for its children and for the children in the surrounding community. Immediately following World War II the cost of providing an adequate education began to rise. A bond issue in 1946 prolonged the financial inadequacy until 1952. At this time the school board decided some ways or means must be found to provide a solution to the school district’s financial problems or the high school would have to be closed. The Problem: The 1951 South Dakota State Legislature passed a School District Reorganization Law in order to equalize both the tax burden and the educational and financial problems if they could reorganize the district within the provisions of this law. The writer undertook the problem to show how the Virgil Independent School District through its Board of Education and the County Reorganization Committee attempted to reorganize and solve its educational and financial problems under the provisions of the School District Reorganization Law of 1951. The Purpose of the Study: After two years of personal contact with the reorganization attempt of the Virgil District as Superintendent of School, the writer believed an objective reviewing of what took place during the two years would be of help to the Board of Education, the County Board of Education and others interested in school reorganization for the state of South Dakota and Beadle County. Although the reorganization plan for Virgil was not accepted, it was thought a report of what happened would be of some value. This attempt was one of the forerunners of many other attempts at reorganization in South Dakota. Reorganization is new in South Dakota as a statewide project. The writer hopes that, by showing the procedures and methods used, the mistakes made, and the reasons for the final outcome, this study may be helpful to others who will be attempting school district reorganization in the future

Computer Supported Collaboration: Is the Transfer of Cognitive Structures Mediated by Mode of Communication?

The objective of this study was to observe evidence of structural transfer among subjects in a group problem-solving activity and determine whether mode of collaborative technology or use of a priming agent affected the nature of transferred structures. Evidence for structural transfer is found in three theoretical perspectives: organizational ditransitive (linguistic) verb structures, adaptive structuration theory, and mental model transfer theory. Dependent variables included various grammatical structures and coefficients derived from pretest and posttest scores on David Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory, modified for the experiment. The combination of changes in grammatical frequencies and learning style may suggest that one or more media or the priming agent may affect structural transfer. Results indicate that groups using the GroupSystems collaborative technology produced less overall linguistic content than did subjects using a generic chat system, but employed more complex language as indicated by frequency of the organizational ditransitive verb structure. Also, subjects supplied with an organization chart (priming agent) during the group problem-solving session experienced greater change on the learning styles inventory than did those participating in the session without the chart. These findings suggest that mode of communication and use of priming agents may contribute positively or negatively to the transfer of structures among group members. Researchers, collaborative system designers, organizational leaders, trainers & educators, and frequent collaborative technology system end-users should be aware of these potential affects. Suggestions for future research are provided. Relationship of theoretical foundations of structural transfer to constructivism is discussed

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2 and reports on five research projects.National Institutes of Health Contract 2 R01 DC00117National Institutes of Health Contract 1 R01 DC02032National Institutes of Health Contract 2 P01 DC00361National Institutes of Health Contract N01 DC22402National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC001001National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC00270National Institutes of Health Grant 5 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant R29-DC00625U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-88-K-0604U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-91-J-1454U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1814U.S. Navy - Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division Contract N61339-94-C-0087U.S. Navy - Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division Contract N61339-93-C-0055U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-93-1-1198National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Ames Research Center Grant NCC 2-77

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction and reports on fifteen research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant RO1 DC00117National Institutes of Health Grant RO1 DC02032National Institutes of Health Contract P01-DC00361National Institutes of Health Contract N01-DC22402National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant 2 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00270National Institutes of Health Contract N01 DC-5-2107National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00100U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Contract N61339-94-C-0087U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Contract N61339-95-K-0014U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Grant N00014-93-1-1399U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Grant N00014-94-1-1079U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Subcontract 40167U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1814National Institutes of Health Grant R01-NS33778U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-88-K-0604National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NCC 2-771U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-94-1-0236U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Agreement with Brandeis Universit

Pandemic Influenza and Acute Care Centers: Taking Care of Sick Patients in a Nonhospital Setting

The ongoing spread of H5N1 avian influenza in Southeast Asia has raised concern about a worldwide influenza pandemic and has made clear the need to plan in advance for such an event. The federal government has stressed the importance of planning and, in particular, has asked hospitals and public health agencies to develop plans to care for patients outside of traditional healthcare settings. These alternative or acute care centers (ACCs) would be opened when hospitals, emergency departments (EDs), and clinics are overwhelmed by an influenza pandemic. The University of Michigan Hospital System (UMHS), a large tertiary care center in southeast Michigan, has been developing a model for offsite care of patients during an influenza pandemic. This article summarizes our planning efforts and the lessons learned from 2 functional exercises over the past 3 years.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63368/1/bsp.2008.0030.pd