The Use of Time by Academic and Related Staff

This paper reviews surveys of the use of time by academic staff between 1962 and 1994. It reports on the findings of a time diary survey in 1994 of the use of time by academic and academic-related staff at British'old'universities during working weeks in term-time and vacation. The results of the time diary survey are analysed according to respondents'sex, staff grade, type of week, age, type of work, and time when work took place. The results are compared with results of previous surveys, and trends through time are suggested. In conclusion, the paper considers the recent mass expansion of higher education, the effects of this in increasing the workload of university staff, and measures to ameliorate this situation.     

Alternative technologies and social studies textbooks

In order to determine the potential of alternative technologies in social studies education, we must understand the goals of such education, the capabilities of the technologies, and teachers’ and students’ responses to new technologies. The author suggests that the new technologies can contribute to the goals of learning about the past, learning about democratic life and institutions, and making students knowledgeable as consumers and producers of information. One major obstacle is a lack of time and money for teachers to experiment with the technologies. Stephen T. Kerr is professor of education in the College of Education at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the application of new technologies in schools and other educational environments, and particularly on the ways in which technology affects the social structure (roles and expectations, instructional patterns, organization) of those institutions. He has done work on human-computer interaction, as well as on how new communication technologies have changed the educational system of the former USSR.