Designing Training for Global Environments: Knowing What Questions to Ask

As instructional design professionals are being asked more frequently to develop interventions for global environments, they must account for many complex intercultural communication and corporate globalization strategy variables. Simple rules of etiquette and stereotypes about particular cultures are tempting but dangerous assumptions upon which to base the design and delivery of training for multicultural learners. On the other hand, a full understanding of the subtle cultural differences that could impact global training is beyond the expectations to which instructional designers could reasonably be held. A more sensible approach than trying to know all the answers is knowing what questions to ask in the needs analysis and assessment phases. Based on a synthesis of literature and instantiated by several short examples, a framework for identifying important issues for instructional design and delivery in global settings is presented.     

Standards for the academic veterinary medical library.

The Standards Committee of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section was appointed in May 2000 and charged to create standards for the ideal academic veterinary medical library, written from the perspective of veterinary medical librarians. The resulting Standards for the Academic Veterinary Medical Library were approved by members of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section during MLA '03 in San Diego, California. The standards were approved by Section Council in April 2005 and received final approval from the Board of Directors of the Medical Library Association during MLA '04 in Washington, DC.     

Design and evaluation of a personal digital assistant- based alerting service for clinicians.

PURPOSE: This study describes the system architecture and user acceptance of a suite of programs that deliver information about newly updated library resources to clinicians' personal digital assistants (PDAs). DESCRIPTION: Participants received headlines delivered to their PDAs alerting them to new books, National Guideline Clearinghouse guidelines, Cochrane Reviews, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Alerts, as well as updated content in UpToDate, Harrison's Online, Scientific American Medicine, and Clinical Evidence. Participants could request additional information for any of the headlines, and the information was delivered via e-mail during their next synchronization. Participants completed a survey at the conclusion of the study to gauge their opinions about the service. RESULTS/OUTCOME: Of the 816 headlines delivered to the 16 study participants' PDAs during the project, Scientific American Medicine generated the highest proportion of headline requests at 35%. Most users of the PDA Alerts software reported that they learned about new medical developments sooner than they otherwise would have, and half reported that they learned about developments that they would not have heard about at all. While some users liked the PDA platform for receiving headlines, it seemed that a Web database that allowed tailored searches and alerts could be configured to satisfy both PDA-oriented and e-mail-oriented users.     

The DDC and OCLC

ABSTRACT

This article highlights key events in the relationship between OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system. The formal relationship started with OCLC's acquisition of Forest Press and the rights to the DDC from the Lake Placid Education Foundation in 1988, but OCLC's research interests in the DDC predated that acquisition and have remained strong during the relationship. Under OCLC's leadership, the DDC's value proposition has been enhanced by the continuous updating of the system itself, development of interoperable translations, mappings to other schemes, and new forms of representation of the underlying data. The amount of categorized content associated with the system in WorldCat and elsewhere has grown, as has worldwide use of the system. Emerging technologies are creating new opportunities for publishing, linking, and sharing DDC data.     

Head start teaching center: Evaluation of a new approach to head start staff development

Head Start Teaching Centers are a national demonstration project designed to provide participatory training in all Head Start component areas within the context of an exemplary Head Start program. Each Teaching Center employs an independent evaluation to study this alternative approach to Head Start staff development. This paper presents the results of the outcome evaluation for the first year of the New England Head Start Teaching Center. The New England Head Start Teaching Center was designed to provide intensive training during a 3 or 5 day period of residence at the Teaching Center. This paper briefly describes the national Head Start Teaching Center model, the implementation of this model in the New England region, the outcome evaluation plan, and the results from the first year of training. The analyses of year one data indicated that training provided by the New England Head Start Teaching Center produced significant gains. As compared to similar Head Start employees who did not participate in training, both trainees and their supervisors reported significant gains in trainees' knowledge, skills, and expertise after participating in the New England Head Start Teaching Center training.     

Report of a Staff Program to Promote and Support Breastfeeding in the Care of Vulnerable Infants at a Children's Hospital

Ill or premature infants do not have the opportunity to begin breastfeeding in an optimal manner; yet, these infants may benefit most from human milk. Health-care providers' knowledge of breastfeeding in both healthy and ill infants is frequently limited due to deficits in training. This article outlines a multifaceted approach to develop a comprehensive, hospital-wide system to support and promote breastfeeding for vulnerable infants. This approach was designed for the staff of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.     

From Network Learning to Classroom Teaching

In this period of designing controls to producegreater teacher accountability, the NationalWriting Project (NWP) stands as an importantcontrast, teaching us what it means to developthe capacity of teachers. We undertook atwo-year study of the NWP by looking intenselyat two sites, an urban and a rural site. Wesought to understand and document what teacherslearned from their induction to the WritingProject, what they took back to their classroomand how they stayed involved in various localnetwork activities. By looking at the five weeksummer invitational seminar held on thecampuses of their respective sites, we foundcore activities as well as other ancillary onesthat helped teachers gain a set of principlesand ways of working that they took back totheir classrooms. We also found a welldeveloped set of activities run in networkfashion that gave teachers numerousopportunities to stay connected, to leadprofessional development in their localcontexts, to explore special interest groups,and to become members of a powerful learningcommunity. We highlight two of six teachersthat we studied who provide an example of hownetwork learning is linked to classroomteaching. The success of the NWP as aprofessional development network rooted inteachers' work with teachers teaching teachersas a core element, suggests that networks suchas these may be well suited to the rapid changein our society as well as to the growingcomplexity of teachers' work.