Technology and culture

INTERFACE CULTURE: HOW NEW TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMS THE WAY WE CREATE AND COMMUNICATE by Steven Johnson (San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997‐$24.00, ISBN 0–06–251433–4, 272 pp., index)

IMMERSED IN TECHNOLOGY: ART AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS edited by Mary Anne Moser with Douglas MacLeod (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997‐$22.50, ISBN 0–262–63183–0, 368 pp., technical glossary, 64 illustrations, 18 in color)

INTERNET DREAMS: ARCHETYPES, MYTHS, AND METAPHORS by Mark Stefik (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996‐$30.00/$15.00, ISBN 0–262–19373–6 hard, 0–262–69202–3 paper, 412 pp., further reading, sources, contributors, index)

POSTMORTEM FOR A POSTMODERNIST by Arthur Asa Berger (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press/Sage, 1997‐$36.00/17.95, ISBN 0–8039–8910–2 hard, 0–8039–8911–0 paper, 184 pp., cartoons, bibliography, index)

THE NETWORKED SOCIETY: HOW TECHNOLOGIES ARE TRANSFORMING MARKETS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: A Report of The Fifth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, Aspen, Colorado, August 15–18, 1996 by David Bollier and Charles M. Firestone (Washington: The Aspen Institute, 1997‐$10.00, ISBN 0–89843–213–8, 43 pp., endnotes, appendix)

THE McDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL LIFE by George Ritzer (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1997 [2nd ed.]—$17.95, paper, ISBN 0–8039–9076–6 hard, 0–8039–9077–4 paper, 265 pp., bibliography, index)

PARCHMENT, PRINTING, AND HYPERMEDIA: COMMUNICATION IN WORLD ORDER TRANSFORMATION by Ronald J. Deibert (New York: Columbia University Press “New Directions in World Politics,”; 1997‐$49.50/$ 17.50, paper, ISBN 0–231–10712–9 hard, 0–231–10713–7 paper, 329 pp., illustrations, charts, index)

BEYOND THE HORIZON: COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE by Stephen Lax (Luton, England: John Libbey Media/University of Luton Press, 1997—price not given, ISBN 1–860–20514–3 paper, 133 pp., technical illustrations, index)

CYBERSCHOOLS: AN EDUCATION RENAISSANCE by Glenn R. Jones (Englewood, MA: Jones Digital Century, Inc., 1997—$19.95, ISBN 1–885400–60–8, 180 pp., appendices, index)

THE ORYX GUIDE TO DISTANCE LEARNING: A COMPREHENSIVE LISTING OF ELECTRONIC AND OTHER MEDIA‐ASSISTED COURSES by William E. Burgess (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1997 [2nd ed.]—$98.50, ISBN 1–57356–073–1, 497 pp.)

THE U.S. ALL MEDIA E‐MAIL DIRECTORY: COMMUNICATE VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL WITH MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER, TV AND RADIO MEDIA AND CONTACTS NATIONWIDE by Paul J. Krupin (Kennewick, WA: Direct Contact Publishing, 1997‐$49.00, ISBN 1–885035–03–9, 229 pp., index)

THE RISE, DECLINE, AND RENEWAL OF SILICON VALLEY'S HIGH TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY by Dan M. Khanna (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1997‐$52.00, ISBN 0–8153–2724–2, 182 pp., tables, notes, bibliography, index)

THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF KNOWLEDGE‐BASED RESOURCES IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY by Russell W. Wright (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1997‐$37.00, ISBN 0–8153–2785–4, 108 pp., tables, diagrams, bibliography, index)

MOTHS TO THE FLAME: THE SEDUCTIONS OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY by Gregory J. E. Rawlins (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997‐$10.00, paper, ISBN 0–262–68097–1, 184 pp., subject index)

TIME DETECTIVES: HOW SCIENTISTS USE MODERN TECHNOLOGY TO UNRAVEL THE SECRETS OF THE PAST by Brian Fagan (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1995‐$14.00, paper, ISBN 0–684–81828–0, 288 pp., index)

COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLITICS IN THE INFORMATION AGE by Gerald Sussman (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997‐$56.00/$27.95, ISBN 0–8039–5139–6 hard, 0–8039–5140‐x paper, 317 pp., tables, references, subject index)

THE NEW COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES by Michael M.A. Mirabito with contributions by Barbara Morgenstern (Boston, MA: Focal Press, 1997 [3rd ed.]—$32.95, paper, ISBN 0–240–80258–6, 256 pp., index)

COORDINATING THE INTERNET edited by Brian Kahin and James H. Keller (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press “Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project,”; 1997‐$25.00, paper, ISBN 0–262–11230–2 hard, 0–262–61136–8 paper, 491 pp., glossary of acronyms, tables, charts, notes, index)

THE INTERNET & WORLD WIDE WEB: THE ROUGH GUIDE by Angus J. Kennedy (London and New York: Rough Guides [distribution by Penguin Group], 1997‐$8.95, paper, ISBN 1–85828–288–8, 432 pp., illustrations, index)

TELECOMMUTING: MODELING THE EMPLOYER'S AND THE EMPLOYEE'S DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS by Adriana Bernardino (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1996‐$46.00, ISBN 0–8153–2723–4, 169 pp., tables, charts, references survey instruments, index)     

Equality of educational access reconsidered: The postsecondary case in Ontario

This paper is divided into four sections. The first discusses a recent report of the Department of University Affairs, which suggests that, in terms of combined family income, economic differentials in access to postsecondary education have been greatly reduced in the past few years. The second section reviews some recent studies concerned with equality of access and suggests that variables other than income or financial need may well be equally relevant in any definition of what constitutes equality of access. The third section analyzes an existing pool of data to test and evaluate hypotheses set forward in the second section. The last section develops final conclusions from the findings and develops the authors' point of view.

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Résumé La présente communication se divise en quatre sections. Le premier traite d'un rapport récent du Ministère des affaires universitaires. D'après ce rapport, il semble que, au cours des dernières années et enfonction du revenu familial combiné, il y a eu une forte réduction dans les disparités économiques qui affectent l'accès à l'enseignement post-secondaire. Le deuxième section passe en revue certaines études récentes consacrées à l'égalité d'accès à ce niveau d'enseignement. Les auteurs estiment que des variables autres que le revenu ou le besoin financier pourraient être tout aussi valables lorsqu'il s'agit de définir ce qu'on entend par égalité d'accès. Quant au troisième section, il comprend une analyse de l'actuel pool des données destinées à vérifier et à évaluer les hypothèses éconcées au deuxième section. Le dernier section est consacré aux conclusions définitives tirées des observations recueillies et à l'exposé du point de vue des auteurs.

     

Recent Developments in the Scottish Process of School Inspection

Scottish education has been going through a period of rapid educational change. This paper describes some of the approaches being adopted by HM Inspectorate of Schools both to hold the educational system accountable and to support its further development. It provides an account of the outcomes which are considered central to the inspection process, the ways in which inspections are subsequently followed up and the impact of the inspection process on schools. At the same time, the paper considers the strategies which have been pursued in recent years to create a ‘quality culture’ in Scottish education. These have included work on the features of ‘effective’ schools, the wider sharing of the criteria being used to inspect schools, the introduction and support of approaches to development planning and further work on potential performance indicators     

Feedback,feedforward: evaluating the effectiveness of an oral peer review exercise amongst postgraduate students

Assessment for learning approaches, such as peer review exercises may improve student performance in summative assessments and increase their satisfaction with assessment practices. We conducted a mixed methods study to evaluate the effectiveness of an oral peer review exercise among post-graduate students. We examined: (1) final assessment grades among students who did and did not take part in the peer review exercise; (2) student perceptions of the impact of the peer review exercise; and (3) student understanding of, and satisfaction with, this new assessment practice. We found that students who took part in the exercise had a significantly higher mean grade in a subsequent summative oral presentation assessment than students who did not take part in the exercise. Students gained a better understanding of assessment and marking criteria and expressed increased confidence and decreased anxiety about completing the subsequent summative assessment. Assessment for learning improves academic attainment and the learning experience in postgraduate students.     

Accreditation,standards and diversity: an analysis of EQUIS accreditation reports

The development of various national and supra‐national accreditation systems is currently being discussed as a possible response to an increasingly internationalized and deregulated higher education sector. However, the establishment of such procedures may have unintended consequences, not least with respect to limiting the diversity of higher education. By studying a number of accreditation reports in the field of business administration (the EQUIS system), the paper discusses whether this procedure manages to balance the need for minimum standards with demands related to institutional diversity and development.