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A research study explored the human resource implications of the emerging economic globalism, including the following questions: How is globalism understood by corporations and colleges in the United States? What are the perceived human resource implications of globalism? and What are corporations and colleges doing today to meet these human resource needs and how successful are their efforts? A case-study approach was employed, with site research through individual interviews and group discussions conducted at 16 universities and 16 corporation sites including manufacturing, construction, and business and technical service firms throughout the United States. The study found that the corporate respondents viewed globalism conceptually and operationally. Organizational and operational changes appear to succeed best when they are guided by an institutional understanding of globalism in the conceptual sense. In addition, corporate respondents placed less emphasis on prior foreign language and cross-cultural experience than did the academic respondents. Four categories of human resource needs were suggested by the results of the research: domain knowledge; cognitive, social, and personal skills; prior work experience and on-the-job training; and cross-cultural competence. Corporate respondents are looking beyond the U.S. job market for candidates, sending new signals to schools, conducting more in-house training, updating models for international careers, and strengthening ties with academic institutions. Colleges are making curricular and extracurricular changes, encouraging faculty development but not hiring faculty with international expertise since many are not hiring at all, and developing many cooperative ventures with colleges in other countries and with businesses. Further changes in these directions are needed to meet the demands of globalism. (Contains 118 references.) (KC)

A Technical Panel on Electronic Records Management (TP/REM), which was established by the Advisory Committee for the Co-ordination of Information Systems (ACCIS), conducted a survey of existing electronic records management practices and standards related to new information and communication technologies and their interrelationships within the United Nations system. The focus is on the management of electronic records rather than on electronic management of non-electronic records, which is already well established in many United Nations agencies. New issues are identified, including how to assure both access to and security of electronic records. This report presents the survey findings for the four main content areas addressed. The first part provides an overview of the roles of three electronic media--telex, facsimile, and electronic mail--in organizational information handling systems; the second part explores in more detail the special properties of interactive computer-based information exchange among the responding organizations that use electronic mail; the third part investigates associated technology issues to learn whether there are commonly emerging questions, problems, or solutions in the areas of hardware, software, storage media, network architectures, or communication protocols--and checks on potential standards for any of them; and the fourth part explores existing policies, guidelines, and training processes for electronic records management or strategies for their development. Questions and answers from site visits to Rome and Vienna and a list of the 36 agencies that responded to the survey conclude the report. (MAB)

A 3 year evaluation report is presented on an Interactive Classroom Television System (ITCS), which creates a visual classroom environment for partially sighted elementary school students (study N=24) using the magnification, brightness, and contrast capabilities of television cameras and monitors. It is explained that the system allows teachers and their partially sighted students to be in continuous two way communication with each other. Results are identified in four areas: (1) academic achievement--examination of standardized test scores showed significant improvement in both reading and mathematics during all 3 project years; (2) achievement related visual skills--students made strong progress in visual motor integration but were unable to close the gap, and only second year participants made substantial gains in visual sequential memory (gains in both areas were among the younger students primarily); (3) psychosocial assessments--some positive change in the areas of self esteem, peer affiliation, and peer attachment; and (4) classroom behavior--observations determined that students spent nearly half their time using the ICTS and that nearly all off the classroom time was spent on task behavior. Recommendations for further research and three policy suggestions are included. Excerpts from teachers' logs and cost analysis information are appended. (PHR)

The report presents the results of an evaluation of the educational impact in two Los Angeles County, California, elementary schools, of Interactive Classroom Television Systems (ICTSs -- closed circuit systems that permit continuous two-way visual communication between teachers and partially sighted students and enable such students to make the fullest possible use of their residual vision). The two ICTS sites and their participants are described, along with the project's evaluation design, the kinds of assessments employed, and the data collection schedule. In general, assessment of project outcomes over two years suggested that ICTS have a strong positive impact on the educational experiences of partially sighted elementary school students in the three areas evaluated: academic achievement, visually dependent skills (visual motor integration and visual sequential memory) and psychosocial mediators of school success (attitudes toward academic evaluation, toward peers, and toward self). (DLS)