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Study abroad programs provide an opportunity for students to accelerate language learning and acquire cultural capital. Evaluations of returnees from study abroad programs however, have revealed that this is not always guaranteed. To promote a more positive academic and culturally-inclusive study abroad experience, one recommendation is for language teachers to focus on students' digital literacy. Given the reported levels of poor digital literacy among Japanese freshmen students, the researchers in this current study were attempting to determine if this wider trend applied to students at their private university in Tokyo. The authors surveyed first-year College of Tourism and Hospitality (CTH) students and will report on their responses to two sections of a computer literacy questionnaire originally created by Son, Robb, and Charismiadji (2011). The first section focuses on self-assessment of digital skills, while the second section reports on the results of a 10-item digital literacy test. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

E-learning has become a crucial component of most tertiary institution's education initiatives (Park, Lee, & Cheong, 2007) and core to most e-learning strategies is the institution's Content Management System (CMS). A CMS has the potential to enhance language courses by facilitating engagement with class content, providing students with opportunities to communicate, promoting student confidence during virtual interactions, fostering deeper connections between teachers and peers, and creating more personalized learning activities. However, getting faculty to use a CMS proves to be challenging (Black et al., 2007). As part of a study by the authors to learn how they might encourage teachers in a campus-wide English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) program to adopt a CMS, this paper reports on results from a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) analysis (Alharbi & Drew, 2014). [For full proceedings, see ED564162.]

A study examined how elementary school children spontaneously construct meaning when reading informational text. In particular, the study explored: what kinds of knowledge they draw on and how they use it to help them understand what they read; and how does what they do influence what they recall. Twenty-nine 6th graders from two elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee, were taught to think aloud as they tried to understand novel information. Subjects' thinking processes were observed as the children read non-narrative informational texts on science and nutrition on a computer screen. These texts were 21-27 sentences in length. Analysis of data showed that children did not take a passive approach to reading. Instead, they drew on prior knowledge and experience to construct a coherent representation of the text information, although a coherent representation did not necessarily mean an accurate one. Children also used other activities to make sense of new information. Some of these activities were: monitoring, integrating across texts, and paraphrasing or rephrasing content. Further research into the nature of students' representations and the relationship of these representations to recall reports is needed. (The experimental texts are appended.) (JW)

A study examined how students use their prior knowledge and experience to help them understand a text, and how that influences what they recall from the text. Subjects, 46 sixth graders from 3 elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee, were tape recorded as they thought aloud while reading either a passage on "sugar" or a passage on "fat." Passages were of similar length and were at grade 5 level of reading difficulty. Subjects also dictated their recall of the passage. Results indicated that the majority of the children's think-aloud comments were some kind of attempt to explain or elaborate on the text, with the largest category being bringing in information from prior knowledge or experience to help understand the text. Results also indicated that: (1) the amount of information recalled from texts was very low; (2) more students included in their recalls information from sentenced adults rated as important in the text; and (3) no statistically significant correlations existed between amount recalled and reading percentile score on the subjects' Tennessee achievement test reading comprehension scores. Two case studies illustrate the relationship between what the children were doing as they read and what their recall reports were like. Individual differences evident in think-aloud protocols led to the conclusion that memory measures such as the recall report do not adequately capture the richness and depth of children's understanding of text. (A figure and a table of data are included; the think-aloud protocols and recall reports of the two case study subjects are attached.) (RS)

A system in which the function of the library is to acquire, store, and organize materials is proposed which separates the reference function into a group of subject specialists backed up by computerized information retrieval systems. This division of labor is caused by the scientific community's need for access to graphic and other specific (not necessarily book) materials. The Canadian National Research Council has been instructed to develop a Scientific and Technical Information services system (STI). The present plan for a national network is to link existing sources of STI services (libraries, document centers, data banks, etc.) into a referral service network which can direct users to the appropriate source or service. (LS)

This publication contains the substance of all papers submitted at the fall 1974 Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England (ATMNE) conference. As the title indicates, the focus of the publication is directed toward mathematical applications. The 25 papers cover topics ranging from applications at the elementary school level to those involving college level mathematics. Subjects of the papers include: function concepts in intermediate grades; mathematical modeling for election decisions; mathematics applications to music, art, grocery store arithmetic, vocational-technical school, economics, communications, ecology, and traffic flow; research and applications; Euclidian geometry; audio-tutorial instruction; computing pi; tanagrams; UISCM materials; the Developing Mathematical Processes program; and computer approximations. Some of the articles include bibliographies and/or references. (JBW)

The AAMP (administrative abilities matched to problems) system is simply one or more school administrator(s) designated by the school system's computer information system as having those abilities, preferences, and characteristics required to solve a particular system problem. An AAMP is formed on the basis of information provided concerning the characteristics of the problem in relation to the stored model of the school system and the stored information about each administrator. Once an AAMP is formed, the objective is to design a solution to the problem and to relate the solution to the existing school system. During the process of designing a solution, AAMP has available an information model of the school system as well as problem-related information from a variety of sources stored in or retrievable by the computer system. (Author)

Areas of liability that relate to the daily practice of continuing education professionals are summarized. Areas of the law with the greatest potential for litigation involving the institution and its employees are identified, along with 16 preventive measures that protect the educational practitioner and institution from frivolous litigation yet protect clients and academic institutions. The nature or degree of risk is defined in law partially by the legal status of the institution (public or private) and the individual's personal liability (whether an act was committed as an authorized agent of the school or whether the individual is entitled to immunity). Three generic sources of liability are addressed: tort and contract liability, criminal liability, and liability that results from violation of constitutional rights (or protections) or statutory and regulatory laws. Specific topics include negligence, defamation, fraudulent misrepresentation, civil rights, and consultants' activities. It is concluded that knowledge of the consequences of negligent acts and violations of statutory protections, coupled with a formal program of risk management, can assist continuing education professionals. Appended are a glossary of legal terms and concepts and a list of selected cases and references. (SW)

Although the mail survey has been widely criticized as a viable research methodology, it remains the most feasible approach for retrieving data from large, widely-dispersed populations. This paper suggests that there exists a readily accessible body of pragmatic recommendations which, if adhered to throughout the instrument design and data collection phases, may dramatically increase response rates where mail surveys are employed. The paper employs a content analysis of three recent studies of diverse higher education topics. Each achieved a high rate of return from dissimilar respondent groups located in divergent geographical locations. (Author)

A case study reviewing the process of establishing Penn State Great Valley (the first permanent campus facility erected in a corporate park in the United States) is presented. This is a tangible symbol of the degree to which American universities are reaching beyond traditional boundaries to serve adult learners who are place bound and often well into active careers. Information is provided as follows: introduction (case study focus and profile of Penn State Great Valley (formerly King of Prussia Center for Graduate Studies and Continuing Education); strategic planning: genesis of Penn State Great Valley (strategic planning process, external assessment, internal assessment, and strategic planning goals and action plan); establishing a permanent location (authorization to proceed, ad hoc planning stage, and fiscal analysis and debt service); operating budget model; and facility siting and design. The developer-university partnership is discussed, noting that the concept for Penn State Great Valley was the result of a detailed strategic planning process which conceived the new facility as a strategic opportunity for Penn State in Pennsylvania's major metropolitan area. Penn State Great Valley is a timely response to a unique set of environmental conditions. It appears that developer-university partnerships forged to create unique adult learning campuses established as part of business settings may offer useful options for responding to these requests for expanded services. Two attachments are: (1) scatterplot of fall, 1984 credit student enrollment displayed by residential address, and (2) scatterplot of fall, 1984 credit enrollment displayed by employer address. (SM)

The metropolitan Miami area is a thriving bilingual community that uniquely exemplifies the utility of Spanish for business careers. Miami is unique in its large Latin population, the success of this population, and the proximity of Miami to the Caribbean and Latin American markets. The impact of the Latin population of Miami on education and employment in international trade is examined. Numerous statistical tables are presented on area employment in 1975 and 1980 in a variety of economic sectors. The data show rates of change for both total and international sector employment in each industry. The substantial Latin population accounts for the majority of bilingual education enrollments in elementary and secondary schools and stimulates a range of educational activities such as enrollment in university level Spanish language classes. Changes in employment patterns between 1975 and 1980 illustrate the increased role of international business and tourism, which in Dade County reflects primarily the impact of the Latin community. While total employment increased only 19 percent over this period, international sector employment increased 141 percent. The economic success of the Latin population is strongly tied to adherence to their culture. Thus, increased bicultural sensitivity and orientation are required on the part of the Anglo population of Dade County if it is to participate in the growing opportunities in international trade. (RW)

Several computer programs were developed to solve various versions of the quadratic capacitated facilities location problem. Matrices, which represent various business costs, are defined for the factors of sites, facilities, customers, commodities, and production units. The objective of the program is to find an optimization matrix for the lowest cost, given the restrictions of the problem. The algorithms, COMPAT and SWITCH, are devised to solve portions of the problem with the subroutines, CHANGE and MUNKRES. These programs are tried on several different problems, and the different results are compared. Suggestions for future research, particularly using Gilmore's branch and bound technique, are made. (WH)

This paper examines a debate that occurred in the province of Québec between1996 and 2003 around the implementation of public policies regarding community economic development (known as social economy in francophone areas) and their ability to respond to and take into account women's unpaid domestic and community work. Although the demands of the women's movement were finally set aside by government, the genesis of this debate remains interesting in that it mobilized local and regional authorities as well as women's groups for over 5 years. It was important as an enactment, though short lived, of a radical feminist agenda in a neo-liberal environment. This paper will present the results of an extended case-study on this experience that covered nearly half of Québec's territory; data was obtained through direct observation, archives, open-ended interviews of key-informants and focus-groups of social entrepreneurs and employees of CED projects. Empirical as well as theoretical results of this research will be presented. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important sources of social capital is the variety of people in a person's entire social network, including weak as well as strong ties. However, there are several kinds of variety, known to have different consequences. This paper distinguishes five kinds of variety: (1) the number of different occupations in which the focal person knows anyone, (2) the number of middle class occupations in which the person knows anyone, (3) the number of working class occupations in which the person knows anyone, (4), the number of occupations in which the person knows a man, and (5) the number of occupations in which the person knows a woman. We show both some common patterns and some variations in how these different kinds of social capital are related to age, gender, education, work and family roles, voluntary association participation, and area of residence, using the 2004 Canadian federal election survey. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A useful means of increasing the S/N ratio when using laser generated ultrasonic surface waves is to generate in a circular annulus and detect at the center of the circle with a laser interferometer. We have generated in a circle or arc, to study electroplated chromium coatings on steel. The coating and substrate properties can be discussed in terms of the velocities of different surface wave frequencies. The velocities and hence the dispersion curves were obtained by a wavelet technique in specimens where coating quality and heat treatment were varied. Analytically we formulate the problem as a finite plate on an unbounded medium using three-dimensional dynamical equations. Generation is in a circle or an infinite line. To distinguish the response due to a cracked or weakly bonded interface we compute the dispersion curves under different boundary conditions. Our experimental data is discussed in terms of these results. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developmental course of physical aggression in children may be substantially altered by their receiving some form of non-maternal care, such as group daycare. However, the causal effects of daycare on a child's behavior are not yet well understood. Central to this uncertainty is the inability to account for selection effects in daycare choice in most known studies. We attempt to control for such selection by using a propensity score-based approach, which matches children based on their likelihood of entering daycare, based on multiple observable covariates, including maternal and paternal, familial and child-specific risk factors. Our aim is to test for an age of entry effect as well as a duration effect. The analysis is based on a longitudinal sample of n=2,223 Quebec children who are followed from birth through 60 months. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of new personal technologies since the latter part of the twentieth century, the nature of social support seems to be changing. Using data collected in spring and summer of 2004 in the East York section of Toronto this paper measures the impact of personal technologies such as the Internet, on the provision of five types of support: emotional, minor services, major services, financial and informational. We also compare rates of exchange and reciprocity, looking specifically at how new technologies have mediated these forms of support between network members. We use these data to address the debate about the role of proximity in providing and receiving social support. The literature suggests that certain forms of social support require individuals to be in close proximity to each other. Exploring the role of the Internet within this debate lends support to the idea that individuals do not necessarily have to be close to each other to give or receive support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]