TELEVISION AS AN EDUCATIONAL AND OUTREACH MEDIUM FOR OLDER ADULTS

This paper examines the medium of television as a means of education and outreach for older adults. It looks at positive and negative potentials of television. Particular attention is given to public television, cable television and videotapes. The viewing patterns, social and psychological functions of television, and the programming preferences of older adults are explored in terms of their relevance to educators and service providers.     

HEALTH CARE EDUCATORS’ KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES REGARDING SEXUALITY IN THE AGED

Health care providers’ knowledge of and attitudes toward sexuality in older adults may have an impact on the overall quality of care they provide to older clients. One place to begin improving the knowledge and attitudes of health care professionals may be health care educators. If educators have accurate knowledge and positive attitudes, they can help their students acquire accurate knowledge and develop positive attitudes. Forty‐two health care educators in a large community college completed a sexuality knowledge and attitude scale. The study attempted to determine the extent of the educators’ knowledge of sexuality in the aged, their attitudes toward it, the relationship between sexual knowledge and attitudes, and the relationship of knowledge and attitudes to certain personal / demographic variables and professional / experiential factors. The results indicated that the health care educators had limited knowledge regarding aged sexuality but held positive attitudes toward it. No significant relationship was found between knowledge and attitudes. Older health care educators and educators who had participated in continuing education related to sexuality possessed more knowledge about aged sexuality. Educators who rated themselves as more religious held more restrictive attitudes.     

Academic Journal Publishing

This paper summarizes the presentations made at the “Academic Journal Publishing” session of the 2007 NASIG conference. The session was conducted by four publishers from a variety of academic publishing companies who made presentations (specifically tailored to a librarian audience) which provided a broad stroke overview of their industry and how they go about the process of publishing and distributing academic journals in the 21st century. Through each of their presentations they spoke to the questions of “what they do, how they do it, and why they do it.” Topics covered included the launch and acquisition of journals, the peer review process, the tools and services supplied to authors and editors, the production processes employed, special legal and copyright issues, marketing and distribution strategies, and usage.     

Confronting Free Market Romanticism: Health Care Reform in the Least Likely Place

Health policy experts long have argued that a combination of budgetary constraints, lack of legislative expertise, and parochial attitudes make it unlikely that the U.S. states will contribute significantly to health care reform. This is particularly true of states like Texas, which ranks last or near-to-last in virtually every measure of public health, and is dominated by conservative politics and libertarian, free market ideology. Yet, in 1997 the Texas legislature enacted the first Patient's Bill of Rights. This article examines the political and rhetorical processes that led to successful reform, and discusses the implications that success in "the least likely place" holds for the making of health care policy.     

LEARNING RESOURCES

The last fifteen years have witnessed a rising wave of interest in the elderly population, and more recently, the rural elderly. Now that the initial wave has crested, a large store of information and experience in the field of gerontology exists. It is the task of higher education to take the lead in cataloging knowledge and plotting new strategies in both research and service. Moreover, the rural church must be recognized as an important structure available for cooperation with higher education in service to the rural elderly. In support of this point, the paper reviews the literature regarding 1) religion and the elderly and 2) the church and social services for the elderly. Higher education, through the rural churches, can help bring positive change through the provision of continuing education services to both the elderly and clergymen, through research, and through community development programs.     

Schemaintegration Integrationskonflikte, L?sungsans?tze, aktuelle Herausforderungen

Zusammenfassung.   Ein zentrales Problem bei der Integration heterogener Datenquellen ist die Bestimmung einer gesamtheitlichen Beschreibung des integrierten Datenbestands. Ausgehend von den Beschreibungen (Datenbankschemata) der vorhandenen Datenbest?nde ist ein integriertes Schema zu bilden, das als konzeptionelles Schema des Gesamtdatenbestands dient. Dieser Prozess wird als Schemaintegration bezeichnet. Ausgehend von einer abstrakten Systemarchitektur für f?derierte Datenbanksysteme, die als Basis für vielf?ltige Integrationszenarien verwendet werden kann, stellen wir zun?chst eine Schema-Referenzarchitektur vor, die den Prozess der Schemaintegration darzustellen hilft. Anschlie?end wird eine einfache Klassifikation von Integrationskonflikten wiedergegeben, bevor wir die gemeinsamen Grundprinzipien vieler Schemaintegrationsverfahren vorstellen. Wir analysieren dann die St?rken und Schw?chen der bekannten Schemaintegrationsverfahren. Aus dieser Analyse ergeben sich verschiedene Fragestellungen, die aktuell Gegenstand der Forschung sind bzw. noch erforscht werden müssen. Mit einer kurzen Darstellung ausgew?hlter Fragen schlie?t dieser Beitrag. Eingegangen am 20. November 2001 / Angenommen am 21. M?rz 2002     

The Reliability of Observations of Talkativeness and Social Contact among Nursery School Children by the “Short Time Sample” Technique

In 1958, Page conducted a large multiple experiment: 74 teachers gave one class its normal quiz, scored and graded it in the usual way, assigned three comment treatments to students in stratified-random blocks, and then reported scores from the next objective quiz. There was a highly significant effect of comments. Others have borrowed some study features, with results that have appeared mixed. Here, a critical overall analysis shows much agreement with the ordered hypothesis of comments and with specified comments over no comments (p < .01). Despite great variety of designs and subtlety of effect, results broadly support teachers who comment. A typical effect size is demonstrated for ranks, and lessons are taken about the proper strategies for designs and the future of such research.     

The Mississippi Community College Story: From Humble Beginnings to Extraordinary Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Mississippi has the oldest state-wide system of public 2-year colleges in the USA. The story of the creation of the community college system in Mississippi is both complex and powerful. Founded upon the combination of the needs of rural students, the challenge of poor transportation, and a serendipitous conference side-trip, the college system has faced and overcome many challenges. During the systems infancy, there was a struggle to define what role the colleges were to play in society, which is a struggle that continues today. Beginning as an outgrowth of a state K-12 system with agricultural roots, the system became an independent higher education entity that supported all the people of the state. The colleges of Mississippi experienced all of the transitional challenges common to the community college movement and navigated these challenges against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving view of segregation and race relations. The purpose of this paper is to present a concise picture of the history and development of the community college movement in Mississippi.     

Enhancing research through academic staff development

Abstract

In the past few years, research has been an increasingly important focus of academic staff development, but there is little documentation of this new area of development. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution over four years of a programme to develop research skills. The experience of planning and implementing this programme illustrates how changes in higher education and university priorities (such as amalgamations of institutions, increased pressures on staff, increased competition between institutions for funding, and universities’ growing corporatization) have interacted with staff development objectives to shape changes in the programme's purpose, format, mode of participation, and planning approach. A collaborative approach to planning is seen to be appropriate in the current climate, maximizing sensitivity to the distinctive needs of the various faculties, departments or schools. Current scholarly discussion is recognized as providing support for a move toward collaboration and context‐sensitivity.