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Archive for August, 2010

More and more young people are choosing non-traditional education to start and advance in their careers while completing and furthering their formal education. “Typical distance learners are those who don’t have access to programs, employees who work during scheduled class hours, homebound individuals, self-motivated individuals who want to take courses for self-knowledge or advancement, or those who are unable or unwilling to attend class” (Charp, 2000, p. 10). Three key elements surround the online learner: technology, curriculum, and instructor (Bedore, Bedore, & Bedore, 1997). These elements must be keenly integrated into one smoothly and operationally functional delivery tool.

While an online method of education can be a highly effective alternative medium of education for the mature, self-disciplined student, it is an inappropriate learning environment for more dependent learners. In order to successfully participate in an online program, student must be well organized, self-motivated, and possess a high degree of time management skills in order to keep up with the pace of the course. For these reasons, online education or e-learning is not appropriate for younger students (i. e. elementary or secondary school age), and other students who are dependent learners and have difficulty assuming responsibilities required by the online paradigm.

Millions of students use e-learning solutions in over 140 countries: corporations such as Kodak and Toyota and education providers like ExecuTrain, New Horizons, the Enoch Olinga College (ENOCIS), Phoenix University amongst the hundreds of schools and colleges.

Studies have shown student retention to be up to 250% better with online learning than with classroom courses. Several recent ones have helped frame the debate. The Sloan Consortium published a widely distributed report titled “Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the United States in 2005” that examined the growing prevalence of online education across U. S. institutions.

In addition, a study conducted by the Boston-based consulting firm Eduventures found that, while about half of institutions and more than 60 percent of employers generally accept the high quality of online learning, students’ perceptions differ. Only about 33 percent of prospective online students said that they perceive the quality of online education to be “as good as or better than” face-to-face education. Ironically, 36 percent of prospective students surveyed cited concern about employers’ acceptance of online education as a reason for their reluctance to enroll in online courses.

But what actually drives quality? A March 2006 report released by the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education identifies six quality indicators: mission, curriculum and instruction, faculty support, student and academic services, planning for sustainability and growth, and evaluation and assessment.

The debate rages on while the Pros and Cons of Online Adult Education for today’s international students are constantly analyzed to determine if this type of education platform can deliver predictable and measurable results.

The Enoch Olinga College (ENOCIS) is one institution which uses this type of delivery system. ENOCIS enhances their learning experience by offering many other “value added”, cost reducing benefits to students. Online pupils can apply for scholarships available to students of excellence and other financial aid programs like the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS), with attractive interest rates. They also provide convenient payment facilities, on line banking, Western Union Quick Collect, bank cards and a student who is granted a loan can start repaying it after two months if they have a corporate guarantor.

Pros of Online Education:

The key advantages of the online education experience are briefly explained below:

1. Cheaper: Online courses may be more affordable than those offered at colleges or trade schools. You may also save on transportation costs like gas, bus passes, and parking permits because you don’t need to commute to school and there are no housing or meals plans to worry about since you do not need to live on or near a college campus. Housing expenses and other costs associated with living expenses are usually the most expensive aspects of a college education, so by taking an online course you could save quite a bit of money. The best part of online education is the absence of travel and immigration problems.

2. More Convenient: By taking courses online, you’re able to decide when you study and for how long. You are also able to schedule your studying around your work or social schedule.

Since you’re not bound to a classroom, you may do your work wherever you have access to a computer and the internet. You’ll be able to set your own pace and decide exactly how fast you want to go over the material. Take online courses when you need them, not based on some college’s annual or semester schedule. You can learn when you need it (Just-In-Time)

3. Flexibility: with no set class times, you decide when to complete your assignments and readings. You set the pace. In some programs, you can even design your own degree plan. The online students can carry out their private or official work, along with the online education. They can allot more time in the topics, which they feel comparatively hard and vice versa. The speed of learning depends solely upon the students.

4. Technology: With the help of the scientific technology, students can do their online education at any place. The only mandatory pre-requisite is the availability of computer along with an internet amenity.

5. Availability: distance-learning opportunities have exploded over the past few years, with many accredited and reputable programs.

6. Accessibility: with an online course, you can work on the course just about anywhere you have computer access. Your learning options are not constrained by your geographic location. The new virtual classrooms have created a myriad of learning opportunities for global learning and education center. On line education is a new era experience adapting to the needs of the world citizen.

7. Self-Directed: you set your own pace and schedule, so you control the learning environment.

8. Time Spent in Classroom: now you can take a course on just about any subject without ever having to be in, or travel to, a classroom so you have very little wasted time. Note, however, that some distance-education programs still do have an in-class component and normally to receive a fully accredited US university degree an international student must spend one or two semesters on campus.

9. High Quality Dialog: Within an online asynchronous discussion structure, the learner is able to carefully reflect on each comment from others before responding or moving on to the next item. This structure allows students time to articulate responses with much more depth and forethought than in a traditional face-to-face discussion situation where the participant must analyze the comment of another on the spot and formulate a response or otherwise loose the chance to contribute to the discussion.

10. Student Centered: Within an online discussion, the individual student responds to the course material (lectures and course books, for example) and to comments from other students. Students usually respond to those topics within the broader conversation that most clearly speak to their individual concerns and situations resulting in several smaller conversations taking place simultaneously within the group. While students are expected to read all of their classmates’ contributions, they will become actively engaged only in those parts of the dialog most relevant to their needs. In this way, students take control of their own learning experience and tailor the class discussions to meet their own specific needs. Ideally, students make their own individual contributions to the course while at the same time take away a unique mix of information directly relevant to their needs.

11. Level Playing Field: In the online environment learners retain a considerable level of anonymity. Discriminating factors such as age, dress, physical appearance, disabilities, race and gender are largely absent. Instead, the focus of attention is clearly on the content of the discussion and the individual’s ability to respond and contribute thoughtfully and intelligently to the material at hand.

12. Synergy: The online format allows for a high level of dynamic interaction between the instructor and students and among the students themselves. Resources and ideas are shared, and continuous synergy will be generated through the learning process as each individual contributes to the course discussions and comments on the work of others. The synergy that exists in the student-centred virtual classroom is one of the unique and vital traits that the online learning format posses. .

13. Access to Resources: It is easy to include distinguished guest experts or students from other institutions in an online class as well as allow students to access resources and information anywhere in the world. An instructor can compile a resource section online with links to scholarly articles, institutions, and other materials relevant to the course topic for students to access for research, extension, or in depth analysis of course content material in the global classroom.

14. Creative Teaching: The literature of adult education supports the use of interactive learning environments as contributing to self-direction and critical thinking. Some educators have made great strides in applying these concepts to their on ground teaching. The nature of the semi-autonomous and self-directed world of the virtual classroom makes innovative and creative approaches to instruction even more important. In the online environment, the facilitator and student collaborate to create a dynamic learning experience.

Cons of Online Education:

Briefly explained are some factors that could negatively affect your success with distance learning courses:

1. The Technology:

a. Equity and Accessibility to Technology: Before any online program can hope to succeed, it must have students who are able to access the online learning environment. Lack of access, whether it be for economical or logistics reasons, will exclude otherwise eligible students from the course. This is a significant issue in rural and lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods and educating the underserved peoples of the world. As far as Internet accessibility is concerned, it is not universal, and in some areas of the United States and other countries, Internet access poses a significant cost to the user. Some users pay a fixed monthly rate for their Internet connection, while others are charged for the time they spend online. If the participants’ time online is limited by the amount of Internet access they can afford, then instruction and participation in the online program will not be equitable for all students in the course. This is a limitation of online programs that rely on Internet access. Equity of access to learners of all backgrounds and parts of society

b. Requires New Skills/Technologies: if you’re not computer-savvy or are afraid of change or new technologies, then online education will probably not work for you. The online students are required to learn new skills, such as researching and reviewing the internet.

c. Computer Literacy: Both students and facilitators must possess a minimum level of computer knowledge in order to function successfully in an online environment. For example, they must be able to use a variety of search engines and be comfortable navigating on the World Wide Web, as well as be familiar with Newsgroups, FTP procedures and email. If they do not possess these technology tools, they will not succeed in an online program.

d. Limitations of Technology: User friendly and reliable technology is critical to a successful online program. However, even the most sophisticated technology is not 100% reliable. Unfortunately, it is not a question of if the equipment used in an online program will fail, but when. When everything is running smoothly, technology is intended to be low profile and is used as a tool in the learning process. In downtime situations of broken systems the technology is neither seamless nor reliable and it can detract from the learning experience.

2. The Institution: Many online education facilities are relatively new with many courses and hence, lack in modern instructors for instructing the new curriculum. Estimates show that there is still a need for an increase of more 50% of qualified instructors for online education.

b. The Administration and Faculty: Some environments are disruptive to the successful implementation of an online program. Administrators and/or faculty members who are uncomfortable with change and working with technology or feel that online programs cannot offer quality education often inhibit the process of implementation.

3. The Facilitator: Lack of Essential Online Qualities: Successful on-ground instruction does not always translate to successful online instruction. If facilitators are not properly trained in online delivery and methodologies, the success of the online program will be compromised. An instructor must be able to communicate well in writing and in the language in which the course is offered.

4. Perceptions/Reputation: while slowly changing as more and more mainstream colleges and universities embrace distance learning, there still is a stigma attached to distance education to the student’s interaction in the online education. Some of the students believe that, there are few opportunities with regards to face-to-face interactions and feedbacks.

5. No Instructor Face Time: If your learning style is one where you like personalized attention from your teachers, then online education will probably not work for you.

6. Little Support: students are expected to find their own resources for completing assignments and exams, which is empowering for some, but daunting for others. There is little support and limited guidelines provided in on line education system.

7. Lacking Social Interaction: while you often interact with classmates via email, chat rooms, or discussion groups, there are no parties or off line get-togethers.

8. No Campus Atmosphere: part of the traditional college experience, of course, is the beauty of the campus, the college spirit, but you have none of that with distance-education courses. Since you’re not on campus or in classes, you may lack opportunities to meet other students.

9. Making Time: if you are a procrastinator or one of those people who always needs an extra push to complete work, you may have a hard time making time for your online classes. On line learning requires new skills and responsibilities from learners

10. Academic honesty of online students: requires a new mindset to online assessment. Most education experts agree that rote memory testing is not the best measure of learning in any environment and new measurement and evaluation tools are evolving.

11. Types and effectiveness of assessments: The importance of outcomes in online learning cannot be over emphasized. Does the program have measurable results? Are students learning what you say they should be learning? Then there are institutional outputs: course completion rates, job placement rates (if that’s the goal of the institution), graduation rates, student success on third-party tests, and student satisfaction scores.

These factors, both the pros and cons, contribute greatly to making an informed decision about the direction of your career path and how you are going to accomplish your goals: on line, in the classroom or a combination of both.

Institutions and companies that use continuing education to meet their needs also face similar decisions. Institutions that deliver online education are confronted with a series of challenges, including the search for good faculty, use of technology, and provision of adequate student services.

The Sloan Consortium report “Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the United States in 2005” found that 64 percent of chief academic officers and faculty believe that it takes more discipline for a student to succeed in an online course than it does in a face-to-face course.

More and more major business and industry is turning to on line continuing education as a viable and cost effective resource for training its personnel. Hilton Hotel has 380 hotels worldwide and is represented in 66 countries.

When you weigh the benefits and advantages of on line adult continuing education the cost of study and flexibility of scheduling tip the scales of programs like the Enoch Olinga College, Capella and Phoenix University’s distance learning program on line adult continuing education is becoming a world wide respected form of education.

However, as with any situation, there are both pros and cons with the concept of online education and the benefits of the virtual or global classroom. You may want to evaluate both before you decide on an online education program. By examining the advantages and disadvantages, you will be able to make a more informed decision. But, at the end of the day, online learning is independent learning. A lot of structure has been put into online programs, but it still comes down to a learner sitting in front of a computer by him or herself. The knowledge you receive or the benefits it will generate either in development of self esteem or increasing earning capacity will depend sole upon you the student.

I’ve always been intrigued by the subject of intelligence. As a child my mother would refer to me as “smart,” but I quickly noticed that all parents refer to their children as smart. In time I would discover that all children are not smart, just as all babies are not cute. If that were the case, we’d have a world full of beautiful, smart people – which we don’t.

Some of us are smart; but not as smart as we think, and others are smarter than they seem, which makes me wonder, how do we define smart? What makes one person smarter than another? When do “street smarts” matter more than “book smarts”? Can you be both smart and stupid? Is being smart more influenced by genetics or one’s environment?

Then there are the issues of education, intelligence and wisdom.

What does it mean to be highly educated? What’s the difference between being highly educated and highly intelligent? Does being highly educated automatically make you highly intelligent? Can one be highly intelligent without being highly educated? Do IQs really mean anything? What makes a person wise? Why is wisdom typically associated with old age?

My desire to seek answers to these questions inspired many hours of intense research which included the reading of 6 books, hundreds of research documents, and countless hours on the Internet; which pales in comparison to the lifetime of studies and research that pioneers in the fields of intelligence and education like Howard Gardner, Richard Sternberg, Linda S. Gottfredson, Thomas Sowell, Alfie Kohn, and Diane F. Halpern whose work is cited in this article.

My goal was simple: Amass, synthesize, and define data on what it means to be smart, educated and intelligent so that it can be understood and used by anyone for their benefit.

PRENATAL CARE

With this in mind, there was not a better (or more appropriate) place to start than at the very beginning of our existence: as a fetus in the womb. There’s a reason why they call it “prenatal,” which means occurring, existing, or performed before birth.

There is mounting evidence that the consumption of food that’s high in iron both before and during pregnancy is critical to building the prenatal brain. Researchers have found a strong association between low iron levels during pregnancy and diminished IQ. Foods rich in iron include lima beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, seafoods, nuts, dried fruits, oatmeal, and fortified cereals.

Children with low iron status in utero (in the uterus) scored lower on every test and had significantly lower language ability, fine-motor skills, and tractability than children with higher prenatal iron levels. In essence, proper prenatal care is critical to the development of cognitive skills.

COGNITIVE SKILLS

Cognitive skills are the basic mental abilities we use to think, study, and learn. They include a wide variety of mental processes used to analyze sounds and images, recall information from memory, make associations between different pieces of information, and maintain concentration on particular tasks. They can be individually identified and measured. Cognitive skill strength and efficiency correlates directly with students’ ease of learning.

DRINKING, PREGNANCY, AND ITS INTELLECTUAL IMPACT

Drinking while pregnant is not smart. In fact, it’s downright stupid.

A study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that even light to moderate drinking – especially during the second trimester – is associated with lower IQs in offspring at 10 years of age. This result was especially pronounced among African-American rather than Caucasian offspring.

“IQ is a measure of the child’s ability to learn and to survive in his or her environment. It predicts the potential for success in school and in everyday life. Although a small but significant percentage of children are diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) each year, many more children are exposed to alcohol during pregnancy who do not meet criteria for FAS yet experience deficits in growth and cognitive function,” said Jennifer A. Willford, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Paul D. Connor, clinical director of the Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit and assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington has this to say about the subject:

“There are a number of domains of cognitive functioning that can be impaired even in the face of a relatively normal IQ, including academic achievement (especially arithmetic), adaptive functioning, and executive functions (the ability to problem solve and learn from experiences). Deficits in intellectual, achievement, adaptive, and executive functioning could make it difficult to appropriately manage finances, function independently without assistance, and understand the consequences of – or react appropriately to – mistakes. “

This is a key finding which speaks directly to the (psychological) definition of intelligence which is addressed later in this article.

ULTRA SOUNDS

Studies have shown that the frequent exposure of the human fetus to ultrasound waves is associated with a decrease in newborn body weight, an increase in the frequency of left-handedness, and delayed speech.

Because ultrasound energy is a high-frequency mechanical vibration, researchers hypothesized that it might influence the migration of neurons in a developing fetus. Neurons in mammals multiply early in fetal development and then migrate to their final destinations. Any interference or disruption in the process could result in abnormal brain function.

Commercial companies (which do ultrasounds for “keepsake” purposes) are now creating more powerful ultrasound machines capable of providing popular 3D and 4D images. The procedure, however, lasts longer as they try to make 30-minute videos of the fetus in the uterus.

The main stream magazine New Scientist reported the following: Ultrasound scans can stop cells from dividing and make them commit suicide. Routine scans, which have let doctors peek at fetuses and internal organs for the past 40 years, affect the normal cell cycle.

On the FDA website this information is posted about ultrasounds: 

While ultrasound has been around for many years, expectant women and their families need to know that the long-term effects of repeated ultrasound exposures on the fetus are not fully known. In light of all that remains unknown, having a prenatal ultrasound for non-medical reasons is not a good idea.

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE. . . THE DEBATE CONTINUES

Now that you are aware of some of the known factors which determine, improve, and impact the intellectual development of a fetus, it’s time for conception. Once that baby is born, which will be more crucial in the development of its intellect: nature (genetics) or nurture (the environment)?

Apparently for centuries, scientists and psychologists have gone back and forth on this. I read many comprehensive studies and reports on this subject during the research phase of this article, and I believe that it’s time to put this debate to rest. Both nature and nurture are equally as important and must be fully observed in the intellectual development of all children. This should never be an either/or proposition – why risk it?

A recent study shows that early intervention in the home and in the classroom can make a big difference for a child born into extreme poverty, according to Eric Turkheimer, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The study concludes that while genetic makeup explains most of the differences in IQ for children in wealthier families, environment – and not genes – makes a bigger difference for minority children in low-income homes.

Specifically, what researchers call “heritability”- the degree to which genes influence IQ – was significantly lower for poor families. “Once you’re put into an adequate environment, your genes start to take over,” Mr. Turkheimer said, “but in poor environments genes don’t have that ability. “

But there are reports that contradict these findings. . . sort of.

Linda S. Gottfredson, a professor of educational studies at the University of Delaware, wrote in her article, The General Intelligence Factor that environments shared by siblings have little to do with IQ. Many people still mistakenly believe that social, psychological and economic differences among families create lasting and marked differences in IQ.

She found that behavioral geneticists refer to such environmental effects as “shared” because they are common to siblings who grow up together. Her reports states that the heritability of IQ rises with age; that is to say, the extent to which genetics accounts for differences in IQ among individuals increases as people get older.

In her article she also refers to studies comparing identical and fraternal twins, published in the past decade by a group led by Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr. , of the University of Minnesota and other scholars, show that about 40 percent of IQ differences among preschoolers stems from genetic differences, but that heritability rises to 60 percent by adolescence and to 80 percent by late adulthood.

And this is perhaps the most interesting bit of information, and relevant to this section of my article: With age, differences among individuals in their developed intelligence come to mirror more closely their genetic differences. It appears that the effects of environment on intelligence fade rather than grow with time.

Bouchard concludes that young children have the circumstances of their lives imposed on them by parents, schools and other agents of society, but as people get older they become more independent and tend to seek out the life niches that are most congenial to their genetic proclivities.

BREAST-FEEDING INCREASES INTELLIGENCE

Researchers from Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand studied over 1,000 children born between April and August 1977. During the period from birth to one year, they gathered information on how these children were fed.

The infants were then followed to age 18. Over the years, the researchers collected a range of cognitive and academic information on the children, including IQ, teacher ratings of school performance in reading and math, and results of standardized tests of reading comprehension, mathematics, and scholastic ability. The researchers also looked at the number of passing grades achieved in national School Certificate examinations taken at the end of the third year of high school.

The results indicated that the longer children had been breast-fed, the higher they scored on such tests.

TALKING TO YOUR CHILDREN MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Thomas Sowell, author of Race, IQ, Black Crime, and facts Liberals Ignore uncovered some fascinating information that every parent should take note of. He writes:

There is a strong case that black Americans suffer from a series of disadvantageous environments. Studies show time and again that before they go to school, black children are on average exposed to a smaller vocabulary than white children, in part due to socioeconomic factors.

While children from professional households typically exposed to a total of 2,150 different words each day, children from working class households are exposed to 1,250, and children from households on welfare a mere 620.

Yes, smart sounding children tend to come from educated, professional, two-parent environments where they pick-up valuable language skills and vocabulary from its smart sounding inhabitants.

Mr. Sowell continues: Black children are obviously not to blame for their poor socioeconomic status, but something beyond economic status is at work in black homes. Black people have not signed up for the “great mission” of the white middle class – the constant quest to stimulate intellectual growth and get their child into Harvard or Oxbridge

Elsie Moore of Arizona State University, Phoenix, studied black children adopted by either black or white parents, all of whom were middle-class professionals. By the age of 7. 5 years, those in black homes were 13 IQ points behind those being raised in the white homes.

ACCUMULATED ADVANTAGES

At this juncture in my research it dawned on me, and should be fairly obvious to you, that many children are predisposed to being smart, educated, and intelligent, simply by their exposure to the influential factors which determine them long before they start school.

An informed mother, proper prenatal care, educated, communicative parents, and a nurturing environment in which to live, all add up to accumulated advantages that formulate intellectual abilities. As you can see, some children have unfair advantages from the very beginning.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of top-selling book Outliers, wrote that “accumulated advantages” are made possible by arbitrary rules. . . and such unfair advantages are everywhere. “It is those who are successful who are most likely to be given the kinds of social opportunities that lead to further success,” he writes. “It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. “

With that in mind, we turn our attention to education and intelligence.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WELL EDUCATED?

Alfie Kohn, author of the book What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? poses the question, does the phrase well educated refer to a quality of schooling you received, or something about you? Does it denote what you were taught? Or what you remember?

I contend that to be well educated is all in the application; the application and use of information. Information has to be used in order to become knowledge, and as we all have heard, knowledge is power.

Most people are aware of the floundering state of education in this country on some level. We tell our children that nothing is more important than getting a “good” education, and every year, due to government budget shortfalls, teachers are laid off, classes are condensed, schools are closed, and many educational programs – especially those which help the underprivileged – are cut.

The reality is, we don’t really value education. We value it as a business, an industry, political ammunition, and as an accepted form of discrimination, but not for what it was intended: a means of enriching one’s character and life through learning.

What we value as a society, are athletes and the entertainment they offer. The fact that a professional athlete makes more money in one season, than most teachers in any region will make in their careers, is abominable. There is always money to build new sports stadiums, but never enough to give teachers a decent (and well-deserved) raise.

Ironically, the best teachers don’t go into the profession for money. They teach because it’s a calling. Most of them were influenced by a really good teacher as a student. With the mass exodus of teachers, many students are not able to cultivate the mentoring relationships that they once were able to because so many are leaving the profession – voluntarily and involuntarily – within an average of three years.

At the high school level, where I got my start, the emphasis is not on how to educate the students to prepare them for life, or even college (all high schools should be college-prep schools, right?), it was about preparing them to excel on their standardized tests. Then the controversial “exit” exams were implemented and literally, many high schools were transformed into testing centers. Learning has almost become secondary.

This mentality carries over into college, which of course there’s a test one must take in order to enroll (the SAT or ACT). This explains why so many college students are more concerned with completing a course, than learning from it. They are focused on getting “A’s” and degrees, instead of becoming degreed thinkers. The latter of which are in greater demand by employers and comprise the bulk of the self-employed. The “get-the-good-grade” mindset is directly attributable to the relentless and often unnecessary testing that our students are subjected to in schools.

Alfie Kohn advocates the “exhibition” of learning, in which students reveal their understanding by means of in-depth projects, portfolios of assignments, and other demonstrations.

He cites a model pioneered by Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier. Meier has emphasized the importance of students having five “habits of mind,” which are: the value of raising questions about evidence (“How do we know what we know?”), point of view, (“Whose perspective does this represent?”), connections (“How is this related to that?”), supposition (“How might things have been otherwise?”), and relevance (“Why is this important?”).

Kohn writes: It’s only the ability to raise and answer those questions that matters, though, but also the disposition to do so. For that matter, any set of intellectual objectives, any description of what it means to think deeply and critically, should be accompanied by a reference to one’s interest or intrinsic motivation to do such thinking. . . to be well-educated then, is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends. . .

HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF IQ

We’ve always wanted to measure intelligence. Ironically, when you look at some the first methods used to evaluate it in the 1800s, they were not, well, very intelligent. Tactics such as subjecting people to various forms of torture to see what their threshold for pain was (the longer you could withstand wincing, the more intelligent you were believed to be), or testing your ability to detect a high pitch sound that others could not hear.

Things have changed. . . or have they?

No discussion of intelligence or IQ can be complete without mention of Alfred Binet, a French psychologist who was responsible for laying the groundwork for IQ testing in 1904. His original intention was to devise a test that would diagnose learning disabilities of students in France. The test results were then used to prepare special programs to help students overcome their educational difficulties.

It was never intended to be used as an absolute measure of one’s intellectual capabilities.

According to Binet, intelligence could not be described as a single score. He said that the use of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a definite statement of a child’s intellectual capability would be a serious mistake. In addition, Binet feared that IQ measurement would be used to condemn a child to a permanent “condition” of stupidity, thereby negatively affecting his or her education and livelihood.

The original interest was in the assessment of ‘mental age’ — the average level of intelligence for a person of a given age. His creation, the Binet-Simon test (originally called a “scale”), formed the archetype for future tests of intelligence.

H. H. Goddard, director of research at Vineland Training School in New Jersey, translated Binet’s work into English and advocated a more general application of the Simon-Binet test. Unlike Binet, Goddard considered intelligence a solitary, fixed and inborn entity that could be measured. With help of Lewis Terman of Stanford University, his final product, published in 1916 as the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale of Intelligence (also known as the Stanford-Binet), became the standard intelligence test in the United States.

It’s important to note that the fallacy about IQ is that it is fixed and can not be changed. The fact is that IQ scores are known to fluctuate – both up and down during the course of one’s lifetime. It does not mean that you become more, or less intelligent, it merely means that you tested better on one day than another.

One more thing to know about IQ tests: They have been used for racist purposes since their importation into the U. S. Many of those who were involved in the importation and refinement of these tests believed that IQ was hereditary and are responsible for feeding the fallacy that it is a “fixed” trait.

Many immigrants were tested in the 1920s and failed these IQ tests miserably. As a result, many of them were denied entry into the U. S. , or were forced to undergo sterilization for fear of populating America with “dumb” and “inferior” babies. If you recall, the tests were designed for white, middle class Americans. Who do you think would have the most difficulty passing them?

Lewis Terman developed the original notion of IQ and proposed this scale for classifying IQ scores:

000 – 070: Definite feeble-mindedness 
070 – 079: Borderline deficiency 
080 – 089: Dullness 
090 – 109: Normal or average intelligence 
110 – 119: Superior intelligence 
115 – 124: Above average (e. g. , university students) 
125 – 134: Gifted (e. g. , post-graduate students) 
135 – 144: Highly gifted (e. g. , intellectuals) 
145 – 154: Genius (e. g. , professors) 
155 – 164: Genius (e. g. , Nobel Prize winners) 
165 – 179: High genius 
180 – 200: Highest genius 
200 -    ? : Immeasurable genius

*Genius IQ is generally considered to begin around 140 to 145, representing only 25% of the population (1 in 400).
*Einstein was considered to “only” have an IQ of about 160.

DEFINING INTELLIGENCE

Diane F. Halpern, a psychologist and past-president of the American Psychological Association (APA), wrote in her essay contribution to Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid that in general, we recognize people as intelligent if they have some combination of these achievements (1) good grades in school; (2) a high level of education; (3) a responsible, complex job; (4) some other recognition of being intelligent, such as winning prestigious awards or earning a large salary; (5) the ability to read complex text with good comprehension; (6) solve difficult and novel problems.

Throughout my research and in the early phases of this article, I came across many definitions of the word intelligence. Some were long, some were short. Some I couldn’t even understand. The definition that is most prevalent is the one created by the APA which is: the ability to adapt to one’s environment, and learn from one’s mistakes.

How about that? There’s the word environment again. We just can’t seem to escape it. This adds deeper meaning to the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. ” It means recognizing what’s going on in your environment, and having the intelligence adapt to it – and the people who occupy it – in order to survive and succeed within it.

There are also many different forms of intelligence. Most notably those created by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University.

Dr. Gardner believes (and I agree) that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live.

He felt that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on IQ testing, was far too limited and created the Theories Of Multiple Intelligences in 1983 to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.

These intelligences are:

-Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”) 
-Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”) 
-Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”) 
-Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”) 
-Musical intelligence (“music smart”) 
-Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”) 
-Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”) 
-Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)

Not associated with Dr. Gardner, but equally respected are:

FLUID & CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE

According to About. com, Psychologist Raymond Cattell first proposed the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence and further developed the theory with John Horn. The Cattell-Horn theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence suggests that intelligence is composed of a number of different abilities that interact and work together to produce overall individual intelligence.

Cattell defined fluid intelligence as “. . . the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships. ” Fluid intelligence is the ability to think and reason abstractly and solve problems. This ability is considered independent of learning, experience, and education. Examples of the use of fluid intelligence include solving puzzles and coming up with problem solving strategies.

Crystallized intelligence is learning from past experiences and learning. Situations that require crystallized intelligence include reading comprehension and vocabulary exams. This type of intelligence is based upon facts and rooted in experiences. This type of intelligence becomes stronger as we age and accumulate new knowledge and understanding.

Both types of intelligence increase throughout childhood and adolescence. Fluid intelligence peaks in adolescence and begins to decline progressively beginning around age 30 or 40. Crystallized intelligence continues to grow throughout adulthood.

SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE

Then there’s Successful Intelligence, which is authored by intelligence psychologist and Yale professor, Robert J. Sternberg, who believes that the whole concept of relating IQ to life achievement is misguided, because he believes that IQ is a pretty miserable predictor of life achievement.

His Successful Intelligence theory focuses on 3 types of intelligence which are combined to contribute to one’s overall success: Analytical Intelligence; mental steps or components used to solve problems; Creative Intelligence: the use of experience in ways that foster insight (creativity/divergent thinking); and Practical Intelligence: the ability to read and adapt to the contexts of everyday life.

With regard to environment, Mr. Sternberg writes in his book Successful Intelligence: Successfully intelligent people realize that the environment in which they find themselves may or may not be able to make the most of their talents. They actively seek an environment where they can not only do successful work, but make a difference. They create opportunities rather than let opportunities be limited by circumstances in which they happen to find themselves.

As an educator, I subscribe to Mr. Sternberg’s Successful Intelligence approach to teaching. It has proven to be a highly effective tool and mindset for my college students. Using Successful Intelligence as the backbone of my context-driven curriculum really inspires students to see how education makes their life goals more attainable, and motivates them to further develop their expertise. Mr. Sternberg believes that the major factor in achieving expertise is purposeful engagement.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

In his best-selling 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman reported that research shows that conventional measures of intelligence – IQ – only account for 20% of a person’s success in life. For example, research on IQ and education shows that high IQ predicts 10 to 25% of grades in college. The percentage will vary depending on how we define success. Nonetheless, Goleman’s assertion begs the question: What accounts for the other 80%?

You guessed it. . . Emotional Intelligence. What exactly is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence (also called EQ or EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Many corporations now have mandatory EQ training for their managers in an effort to improve employee relations and increase productivity.

TACIT KNOWLEDGE aka “STREET SMARTS

You’ve heard the phrase, “Experience is the greatest teacher. . . “

In psychology circles knowledge gained from everyday experience is called tacit knowledge. The colloquial term is “street smarts,” which implies that formal, classroom instruction (aka “book smarts”) has nothing to do with it. The individual is not directly instructed as to what he or she should learn, but rather must extract the important lesson from the experience even when learning is not the primary objective.

Tacit knowledge is closely related to common sense, which is sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. As you know, common sense is not all that common.

Tacit knowledge, or the lessons obtained from it, seems to “stick” both faster and better when the lessons have direct relevance to the individual’s goals. Knowledge that is based on one’s own practical experience will likely be more instrumental to achieving one’s goals than will be knowledge that is based on someone else’s experience, or that is overly generic and abstract.

BEING BOTH SMART AND STUPID

Yes, it’s possible to be both smart and stupid. I’m sure someone you know comes to mind at this precise moment. But the goal here is not to ridicule, but to understand how some seemingly highly intelligent, or highly educated individuals can be so smart in one way, and incredibly stupid in others.

The woman who is a respected, well paid, dynamic executive who consistently chooses men who don’t appear to be worthy of her, or the man who appears to be a pillar of the community, with a loving wife and happy kids, ends up being arrested on rape charges.

It happens, but why? I found the answer in Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid.  

Essentially, intellect is domain specific. In other words, being smart (knowledgeable) in one area of your life, and stupid (ignorant) in another is natural. Turning off one’s brain is quite common especially when it comes to what we desire. A shared characteristic among those who are smart and stupid, is difficulty in delaying gratification.

Olem Ayduk & Walter Mischel who wrote the chapter summarized: Sometimes stupid behavior in smart people may arise from faulty expectations, erroneous beliefs, or merely a lack of motivation to enact control strategies even when one has them. But sometimes it is an inability to regulate one’s affective states and the behavioral tendencies associated with them that leads to stupid and self-defeating behavior.

The central character in this book who many of these lessons regarding being smart and stupid revolve around is Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinksky.

WISDOM & CONCLUSION

My great grandmother, Leola Cecil, maybe had an 8th grade education at the most. By no stretch of the imagination was she highly educated. She was very observant and could “read” people with startling accuracy. Till the very end of her life she shared her “crystallized intelligence” with whomever was receptive to it.

She died at the age of 94. I often use many of her sayings as a public speaker, but most importantly, I use her philosophies to make sure that I’m being guided spiritually and not just intellectually. Many of us who are lucky enough to have a great grandparent can testify that there is something special about their knowledge.  They seem to have life figured out, and a knack for helping those of us who are smart, educated and intelligent see things more clearly when we are too busy thinking.

What they have is what we should all aspire to end up with if we are lucky: wisdom.

Wisdom is the ability to look through a person, when others can only look at them. Wisdom slows down the thinking process and makes it more organic; synchronizing it with intuition. Wisdom helps you make better judgments regarding decisions, and makes you less judgmental. Wisdom is understanding without knowing, and accepting without understanding. Wisdom is recognizing what’s important to other people, and knowing that other people are of the utmost importance to you. Wisdom is both a starting point, and a final conclusion.

Distance learning and academic libraries have a symbiotic relationship, and the steady support of library resources is vital in making any off-campus courses a success. Academic libraries have continuously supported various forms of teaching on campus, such as regular courses and distance learning in its traditional form as well as its new online avatar. Libraries need to aid the educational process in any higher education institution, and cater to a variety of publics, including students, administration staff, and faculty, regardless of the location. In this day and age, it is important that library personnel are up to date with the mediums of technology being employed for delivering online courses, so that they can provide undeterred assistance to their patrons.

How do Virtual Academic Libraries Work?

Most of the virtual libraries linked to universities offering distance learning programs work in a fashion similar to a physical library. Every student enrolled in any course with any particular college is given a Personal Identification Number, which the student needs to provide to the library manager along with the course details he/she is enrolled in for accessing library resources through email. Most of the colleges give students a unique username and password thereafter, which can be used to browse library catalogs and locate specific articles.

A lot of universities have mutual information sharing, wherein if certain information requested by a student is not available in the library resources of the college he is enrolled in, he can request it from a library resource of a partner college. The University of Houston for example, has a program called ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan internet accessible database) for requesting delivery of books and articles. Any student enrolled with the University of Houston can make a one time registery with this particular delivery format to receive books and articles in the future. Distance Learning and Academic Libraries supporting this form of education have changed the way a traditional library works.

Requirements for Virtual Library Personnel

Virtual library personnel need to have an indepth knowledge of changing technologies and especially of the mediums that a distance education course employs. Understanding the workings of distance learning and academic libraries’ role in making it a success is hugely dependent on how the library personnel implement their knowledge. Library staff today are well versed with technology, and have been long time internet users. Moreover they are familiar with inter-library loans and document delivery and are masters at organizing information.

It is essential to realise that distance learning and academic libraries are partners, where the library staff can work together with the faculty to design online courses. Moreover, due to their prociency with computers, librarians can work as technology advisers for most of the faculty and students of a distance education course. And that is the shape of things to come.

Medieval education is about education that was conducted in the medieval period. Medieval education is seen as quite an unusual form of education. However, by the 15th century, there were options for a student to be educated further. Some schools even housed both genders, but this was during the day only. Children were taught their basics, such as how to read and write. This is because these were the basic requirements if they wanted to be accepted under apprenticeship in any guild.
Medieval education also consisted of peasant children going to school. However, they made up a very small number. They were taught how to read and write, and also studied basic math. This education for peasants was usually conducted at a monastery.
As part of medieval education, noble girls and even boys were sent to learn at nunneries. There, they would receive their basic education. The nuns taught these students how to read and write too. They would also teach them how to pray. Girls were additionally taught how to spin and do needlework amid other domestic skills. http://www. 360career. com  These were inculcated in order to prepare them for later life, as these were basic skills required when a woman got married.
If a child took his or her education seriously at a monastery, he or she would have a monastic life. However, this was quite rare for an average townsman or peasant. Also, these individuals would be carefully selected for these ranks. If they were deemed suitable according to their demeanour, they would be brought up by the monks.
Today, medieval education practices are still visible. The same monastery education students are given is a clear reflection of it. The education that children receive at missionary schools in various parts of the world also reflects similar forms of education. A major difference that is seen is the widespread existence of books. In medieval times, there were many schools that operated without the use of books. Students were taught by skilled masters, and were often educated for dubious benefits. The rich or others that did provide education in medieval times did so for their personal gain. There were very few that really wanted to educate people in the true spirit of enlightening more minds.

As time has passed by, some aspects of medieval education have faded while others have remained. It can be argued that the aspects of medieval education that were useful for the purpose of education have remained. Regardless of some characteristics remaining, the overall process has changed a great deal. This is because education could not have the same face as it did hundreds of years ago. Today’s education is different from medieval education in so many ways. For example, you have the inclusion of group work and activity based learning. You also have the inclusion of computers for education in this modern age. No one in the medieval period would have ever contemplated the use of such items.

Another important development to mention, and one that is used almost throughout the world is the Montessori method. This is something that did not exist in the medieval period, and it took many years for it to be popularized since Maria Montessori first used it. Indeed, the Montessori Method cannot be likened to any medieval method of education. It was developed independently as an innovative teaching method. In addition to the Montessori Method, there are other teaching areas today that have been developed without any medieval education influence.

Though medieval education has provided the fundamentals for formal education, some people prefer to deny medieval education methods the credit it is given. They believe that the formal method of students being seated in classrooms would have developed later anyway, whether medieval education used this arrangement or not. This does make sense because it is unthinkable for any other arrangement to be used. It is further argued that it is more likely that this would have been the case in modern education because student interaction is encouraged. For better student interaction, a classroom of a suitable number of students would have been recommended. Regardless of these arguments, we still find many traces of medieval education in our modern setups today.

For more about Medieval Education visit:  http://www. 360career. com/content/Medieval-Education. asp

India has an ancient tradition of education. The world’s first university was established in Tashkila in 700 B. C. Indian mathematicians introduced the zero, the decimal system and the method of multiplication.

PRIMARY EDUCATION: India has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate andexpanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. . The National Council ofEducational Research and Training (NCERT) is the apex body for school education in India.

SECONDARY EDUCATION: The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, has provided for environment awarenes,science and technology education, and introduction of traditional elements such as Yoga into the Indian secondary school system. Another feature of India’s secondary school system is its emphasis on profession based vocational training to help students attain skills for finding a vocation of his/her choosing.

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Distance learning in education services prepares students for various careers in the field of education. Some of the educational services are elementary and secondary school teacher, college and university faculty, instructional coordinator, vocational education teacher, remedial education teacher, students counselor, library technician, self enrichment teacher and training specialist. Apart from these careers other educational services include education product design and development services, education course and curricula development, international education consulting services, international credential evaluation, etc.

New Opportunities, Distance learning in education services, also offer advanced degree courses in education administration, education supervision etc. Education administration degree courses are available in school finance and budgeting, school law, community relations, etc. Education supervision degree courses are available in human relations, curriculum development, supervision of instruction and curriculum, etc. Professional Indemnity

Resources for Distance Learning in Education Services, There are plenty of online degree programs available for education services. Many of them are accredited by the National Council for accreditation of teacher Education; and by the Educational Leadership Constituent Council. The web site ELearners is a search engine for accredited online degrees, while the site CollegeandUniversity is a convenient, comprehensive and personalized source of degree programs and related information. Educational Pathways is a paid subscription newsletter covering distance learning and teaching in higher education. GetEducated is an online degree clearinghouse for accredited colleges and universities while ClassesUSA is also a very good higher education portal. Fleet Insurance

1. Introduction:

Problems are experienced when introducing computerised systems by libraries in countries remote from the major centres of development and expertise in the field of library computerisation. Main problems identified are those of lack of expertise of librarians and of hardware and software suppliers, a limited market for such systems in these ‘remote’ countries and hence a limited range of appropriate hardware and particularly software available or marketed, a reliance on the products and support of major computer suppliers, and access to relatively limited resources leaving little scope for the adaptation of existing library software to suit local needs or for the development of new systems. Solutions to these problems lie in cooperation and coordination of library computerisation so that maximum benefit can be derived from available resources and expertise, a conscious effort being made to become as self-reliant as available resources will allow, the use of library systems developed abroad with as little adaptation as possible being made to them, the careful evaluation of those systems available as well as of their suppliers, and possibly in future a greater use of dedicated mini- and microcomputer-based systems as such systems become more readily available. The problems and solutions discussed are illustrated by referring to the experience of library computerisation in khandesh rural colleges.

2. New technology

2. 1. Managing electronic content:

Pressure continues to develop for developing academic library products that assist libraries in managing and providing access to electronic content-both in the form of electronic content accessed through subscriptions and that created locally. As libraries expend funds for electronic content at levels approaching or exceeding that for print, many find themselves in urgent need of appropriate automation tools.

Technology is causing important changes in how libraries in general, and undergraduate academic libraries in particular, function. It is especially fueling increased user demands and expectations for information resources and their timely delivery. Yet very little has been written regarding designing libraries to take into account the impact of changing technologies

2. 2. Technology a mission

Most would agree that the primary function of a library would continue to be to provide organized, inexpensive access to information, no matter what its form. But technological innovation is likely to add a new need to “create on the network a knowledge-management system that enables scholars to navigate through [the] resources in a standard, intuitive, and consistent way. ” This will require new expertise and equipment to accomplish.

Thus, if anything, technology is adding to the demands for libraries to accommodate more print and non-print materials than before. In addition, it is adding the need forever more sophisticated telecommunication and computer systems to manage access to on site and external resources. Also, the library staff to help users cope with the new and varied systems must perform increased training and instruction. With regard to the need for physical space to fulfill the library’s revised mission, it becomes unlikely that less will be needed than currently, and most probably more, as described below.

2. 3. E-learning Impact on LIC Services

In the every walk of our day-to-day life we are finding the use of technologies and libraries are not exception for that. The single force that has brought revolutionary changes in functioning of libraries is IT. The introduction and application of these modern means have evaluated and modern day library to a very high pedestal, improving and altering its image, functions and services to revolutionary extant and with great efficiency and effectiveness.

Most of the operations with library are inter-related, inter dependent and mutually supportive for the overall mission of library. Use of IT applications to interface and integrate each function with the other saves lot of staff time as the same data used not to be entered at every stage.

E-learning has brought many changes in Library Activities and Services. There are four broader areas of which E-learning has brought many changes;

3. Library Automation

Information Storage and Retrieval (IRS)

Office Automation

Resources sharing network.

Automation has helped libraries improving library operations and accelerating their working. Now the computers are being used in the areas like of acquisition, technical processing, circulation control and serial control.

The computer acquisition system has eased the burden for reorder checking of duplicate purchase orders and follow-up action can also taken automatically. IT has speed up the accession, processing work by elimination a large amount of repetitive and time – time consuming work Machine-readable cataloguing is easy to manipulate as it can be searched on-line and from which varies of outputs are available. On-line bibliographic databases have significant effect on collection development.

The lengthy and time consumable procedures of conventional circulation system are taken by the technological devices like computers, barcode scanners and its software’s helps in performing these operations quickly and thus saving the time of users and staff. IT helps in charging and discharging of document, reservation of documents, sending reminders, and collection of overdue, maintenance of various records.

3. 2. The Spatial Impact of Technology on Library Functions

3. 3. Monograph:

As discussed above, monographic collections, especially for undergraduate libraries, are likely to continue to grow steadily. While digitization of some materials may result in some physical space savings, there are more formats that the library needs to collect; most of these require additional space for equipment to access them, not to mention more specialized storage facilities to house them.

3. 4. Periodicals:

_Serials in electronic format seem to be one of the best prospects for introducing space savings in academic libraries. Journals in electronic format will no doubt continue to increase, although those in scientific, technical, and medical disciplines are doing so at a more rapid rate Another factor also points in this direction, that being the extra-inflationary increases in pricing by many publishers.

3. 5. Processing:

In most “behind the scenes” areas of the library, technology is often causing the need for more rather than less space for equipment to handle incompatible systems. While this may be ameliorated in the future, the immediate space needs for areas like cataloging continue to grow

3. 6. Reference: While technology is driving the need for more instructional space, it is impacting positively the need for space for reference materials themselves. A growing number of resources are available in electronic form, and often from resources housed outside the library. As in serials, however, collections more heavily reliant upon information in professional and scientific areas are experiencing space savings more dramatically

3. 7. Study Space: A number of authors confirm this one’s experience that technology is increasing the requirements for study space in academic libraries. Not only are more students relying on facilities like libraries on college and university campuses for studying, more space per student is required to accommodate the use of technology (e. g. , laptops and workstations).

4. Internet

The Internet plays a crucial role in the access of information resources. “Sources of information and other opportunities available via the Internet are increasing exponentially. This comes with the steady increase in Internet use for education” and research. Also, with the growth of information on the Internet and the development of more sophisticated searching tools, there is now the more likely possibility of finding information and answers to real questions. But, within the morass of networked data are both valuable nuggets and an incredible amount of junk .

When you are looking for information, where is a better place to go than a library? The Internet has some incredible electronic libraries ready for you. On a small screen of the personal computer this digital world of the library is available for users. This library in terms of digital format consists of various electronic resources, such as electronic books, electronic journals, and electronic reports. These resources are available either in CD-ROM format or available online on the Web and constitute the core of the electronic library collection. A new class of digitized documents has been added to the electronic resources category, comprising those documents either originally published in print or other formats converted into the digital format. The entire manuscript collection, over-used printed document, printed material of great archival value, photographic collections, oral history recordings, and other scattered but useful audio-visual collections are now being converted into digital format for preservation purposes.

5. Selection of good web site:

The best sites have the following characteristics:

Accuracy: The page lists the author and institution that published the page and provides a way of contacting them. Authority: The page lists the author’s credentials and his/her domain. For example: “edu” for education, “gov” for government, and “org” for organization. Objectivity: The page provides accurate information objectively and with limited advertising. Currency: The page and its links, if any, are current and updated regularly, as stated on the page. Coverage: The information can be viewed without paying fees or using a special browser technology or software.

6. Technologies for library:

Modern technologies are

6. 1. Computer technology

Computers are used to generate information computers are information processing machines which can do a variety of jobs very quickly. A computer is a machine that handles data are the facts that are gathered and entered in to the computer. Computer can access and process data millions of times faster than humans can the computer stores, retrieves, sends, receives, analysis and synthesize the data to proc\duce information. Computer can be used for library operations like acquisition, cataloguing, database creation and maintenance, circulation control, serials. Control information storage retrieval, communication and networking and management works.

6. 2. Laser technology:

computer links facilitate speedy random retrieval of information. In the long run, the use of the disc may substitute for the use of actual items like books, which deteriorate quickly due to handling.

6. 3. Micrographic technology

Micrograph means miniaturization of documents. In micrographic documents are highly reduced in size and recorded on microfilm. The micrographic technology has contributed to a considerable saving of space and facility for dissemination of information.

6. 4. Reprographic technology

Reprography means the reproduction of graphic materials, which may be handwritten, typed or printed. This technology is very useful for libraries and it reduce the pain of the user.

5. 5. Audio-visual technology

Audio-visual media used for holding seminars, symposia, meetings and cultural functions in libraries. Slides are useful for effective delivery of messages to selected groups of library users.

6. 6. Telecommunication Technology.

Recreational and educational programmers can be delivered to a longer through this systems.

6. 7. Internet & its use in library.

Physically the internet is a lot of computers connected to each other talking a common language or protocol known as Transmission Control Protocol / internet Protocol (TCPIP)

Basically, the Internet is used for following activities.

6. 8. Communication

In the modem world of information explosion, the effective and speedy communication of information is very necessary. The Internet provides electronic message and exchange services through electronic mail popularly known as E-mail. E-mail is used to send messages to other people or programmers on other computers. It is the most extensive and commonly used service on Internet.    Anything created on computers like images, photos, sound, programmers can be sending as well as received with email. E-mail is the fastest, most economical and highly is used modes of communication. Users if INFLIBNET,ERNET, NICNET etc may send and read messages, participate in discussion with special internet groups (SIG) through LISTERVERS (mailing List) and USENET (news groups).

6. 9. Document or File Transfer

The internet also provides the facility for document or file transfer with the help of file transfer protocol (FTP). FTP is a set of rules that enables files to be transferred from one computer to another on the net using FTP programmer or through Netscape. Software, games, documents, data etc, can be copied from any site using simple commands.

6. 10 Interactive Browsing.

Telnet allows internet users to log into other internet computers to access on-line database, electronic catalogues, internet information services, or to access their account. Telnet provides access to on-line public access catalogues (OPACs) maintained by hundreds of university libraries all over the world.

6. 11. Bulletin Boards

Closely related to electronic mail are bulletin board systems. A bulletin board is a communication system that allows users to call in and either leave or retrieve messages, it is similar to an electronic mail system, but there are no private mail boxes, only a single large mail box. The messages may be directed to all users of the bulletin board or only to particular users. But all massages can be read by all users.

6. 12. World Wide Web (WWW).

It is a client-server based distributed hypertext multimedia, an information system on the internet. The WWW is an architectural framework for accessing linked documents spread out over thousand of machines all over the internet. Web is basically a client-server system. From the client-server system. From the client’s (users) point of view, the web consists of a vast worldwide collection of documents, usually just called pages for short. Web pages are written in a language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML allows user to produce web pages that include text, graphics and pointers to other web pages.

7. Web-based Library Services.

. WebOPAC

. CD ROM to Web-based Indexes and Databases.

. Electronic Document Delivery Services.

. CAS&SDI.

. Improved search interfaces

. New information services, such as a home page linked to a collection of  electronic text,     databases and other internet resources.

. Documents may be shared across all major networking platforms.

. Information is accessible regardless of the user’s location.

. Fill-in forms used for feedback and services.

8. Changing role of library.

Mostly all the libraries faced pre-automation and post automation problems. Lack of trained staff, Lack of administrative support and technical problems were the faced in the initial stage of automation. To overcome these problems,

1. computer training should be provided and made mandatory for all the library staff. This mode of training programmed will help the staff to practice and assimilate more. At the same time, it will allow them to look after day-to-day work as well. 2. in-servicetraining. at regular intervals, should be provided to keep the staff abreast with the latest technology. 3. vacant post need to be filled up ad new post should be created as per requirement. 4. library staff, one computer trained staff i. e. BE. or MCA should be appointed as information scientist/computer in-charge, to look after automaton work and trouble shoot day-to-day problems of computerization. Also, at least one computer operator should be provided for data entry purpose. 5. it based LIS education at B. L. I. Sc and M. L. I. Sc level is a must. Two major problems faced by the libraries were serious technical problems related to software and hardware encountered during installation and working requiring outside technical help. And lack of staff leading to hindrance in computer training to staff to overcome there problems. 6. emphasis should be on baying standard library management software like LIBSYS,ALICE, and SOUL etc. as they are found to be more satisfactory. Also these software’s allow data entry in standard forms like CCF MARC etc, hence there will be no incompatibility problems at the time of networking and respire sharing. 7. user education should be provided to make the user aware of the library collection as well as the services. User should also be giving training so that he can handle the compute red system independently.

Many demands on the IT staff: for managing the library systems but also for new developments. Often libraries now use open source software (for instance for repositories), which nevertheless calls for devoted IT staff.

While the library is constantly changing, a different kind of managers is needed: they should be able to create and implement change. Financial expertise also becomes more important. Not only because of the different licensing agreements, but also as a consequence of decreasing budgets.
Management information and benchmarking are becoming important issues.

Summarizing one might say that while the library may need less staff in the back office, there is a general need for staff with higher qualifications: user driven, IT-knowledge, knowledge of the university, knowledge of where the library is going. Also stronger managing capacities for managers and department heads are needed. And all this knowledge should be kept up to date.
Last but not least, library staff should be more flexible than in the past. Libraries used to be a stable working environment. Now the only thing one can be sure of, is that the library will keep on changing in the next decades.

Status of rural library automation

For the survey 14college selected to the survey purpose in the khandesh region the result came out is as given in the table.

sr

Automation

Computer knowledge person

Budget

Internet frequency

Sufficient staff

1

X

x

x

x

X

2

X

x

x

x

x

3

X

x

x

x

x

3

Ö

x

x

x

x

4

X

x

Ö

x

Ö

5

X

x

x

x

x

6

X

Ö

x

x

x

7

X

x

x

x

x

8

X

x

x

x

x

9

Ö

x

x

x

x

10

X

x

x

x

x

11

X

x

x

x

x

12

X

x

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Only two college started automation work. Only one college having computer knowledge person. Only one college found sufficient budget for the automation. For the internet

connection no college getting 100% speed. , and regular frequency. Only one college have sufficient staff in the library it is found that there is a budget problems except only one college

Conclusion :

Theuse of library systems developed abroad with as little adaptation as possible being made to them, the careful evaluation of those systems available as well as of their suppliers, and possibly in future a greater use of dedicated mini- and microcomputer-based systems as such systems become more readily available. The problems and solutions discussed are illustrated by referring to the experience of library computerisation in khandesh rural colleges. In general, use of new technologies is not fully adopted in the rural college due to the UN sufficient budget, expert of technology and in the rural area is not getting the broadband speed. Now duty of government and local association to give the knowledge through arrange the workshop, seminars and give the knowledge of new technology.

In the current difficult economic times, libraries of all sizes and types face budget cuts, often quite severe. At the same time the need and demand for library services surges. In order to minimize cutbacks libraries need to play to their strengths and promote how much value they offer to anyone who chooses to use them. They need to inform the public that they are available and promote what they offer in the way of services and alternatives to paid entertainment. As the public becomes more aware of libraries and what they offer, they may come to their support and demand more funding from politicians and bureaucrats.

During economic downturns, people cut back on unnecessary spending and seek value on what they do spend funds for. There is no better value than free. Public libraries provide services and materials to users that no competitor can beat because they are usually free. Families seek activities and places they can go to interact, be entertained, and spend quality time together. Libraries provide all this plus educational value, whether it be for self-help, school homework help, free choice learning for lifelong learners, or reference help. Also, libraries can preserve a community’s identity by recording oral histories, housing artifacts, and staging programs informing users of the history and culture of their community as it has evolved. Libraries should play to their strengths as educational and cultural institutions while also promoting their value as free and family friendly social centers.

Ways in which libraries might promote themselves as family-friendly centers include advertising at other family gathering venues such as bowling alleys, movie theaters, ice ream shops, and dining establishments. Libraries could establish booths for self-promotion at special events such as sporting events (soccer and baseball games), festivals (wine, music, crafts), concerts (classical, country, jazz, rock), and baseball card and toy shows.

The twentieth century saw much technological advancement in many social spheres ranging from the discovery of the radio, the aeroplane, the atomic bomb and the apex was the going to the moon. All these technological advancements had adverse impacts on the life style of the communities around the world. However, most importantly, is the invention of the Internet and the intranet which historic achievement has greatly impacted on the academic life of many universities around the world. The period of the 1990s ushered in a new world order; the beginnings of the idea of globalisation and its immediate impacts on higher education developments. Globalisation represents the international system that is shaping most societies today including university programs. It is a process that is “super charging” the interaction and integration of cultures, politics, business and intellectual elements around the world.

This paper examines the effects of globalization in terms of technological transformations on the development of universities. The pursuit of technological transformation in higher education has become widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa with the extensive pervasiveness of global networks like the Internet and Intranet as institutions struggle to prepare students for effective participation in the emerging global knowledge economy. Technologically based education is further seen as a way to address the increase in the world demand for tertiary education. The one new university per week is required to keep pace with world population growth but the resources necessary are not available. For instance, since the time of the overwhelmingly increased student enrolments in many public universities in Uganda from the 1990s and onwards, existing resources and infrastructure have not increased commensurate to the same increase in the student capacity. Lecture theatres and libraries are flooding and infrastructure and instructional materials and staff are all constrained with the alarmingly increased student populations. Higher education must develop more cost-effective methods so that public resources can be increased and effectively utilized. A lecture theatre in a public university that sits over 300 students attending an economics class will not be effective if more public address systems are not installed to enable each and every learner benefit from the lecture.

Likewise, if a university lacks internet facility to serve its ever increasing student population then it would be quite hard to ensure quality learning and research. By using technology for teaching, universities can serve the public more cost-effectively and in particular can prepare students better for a technologically based society. In view of the growing globalisation and transnational exchanges in many fields. In these circumstances politicians, policy-makers, and citizens should make demands upon education systems to reform. Open learning and distance education are at the forefront of educational responses to the changes that are taking place locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Information technological transformation in universities, however, has major systemic implications and needs to be carefully managed. As soon as an organization takes the first tentative steps from data to information, its decision processes, management structure, and even the way it gets its work done begin to be transformed. Attempts to introduce any significant reform will impact on all of its sub-systems. The advent of information technology in any big university will wholly impact tremendously on the internal and external operations of that university. It implies that with information technological advancement, universities have to prepare themselves to welcome such crucial developments. It systematically relates to the fact that university management has to train or hire manpower to operate the technology; and the same universities should change the teaching approaches to cope with the demands of the new information technology.

Using technology to extend the campus on a global basis will affect all aspects of a university or college, but particularly administrative systems. Similarly when he refers to the necessity of looking at innovations within the framework of institutional development. The introduction of e-Learning will prompt a thorough re-examination of the core practices of an university organization, whether advertising, or registration, or design and delivery of materials, or student support or assessment of students and research, in order to arrive at the most effective way of providing these services in a networked, multimedia environment.

Involving academics in technological reform in Universities

Educational institutions exist to open minds and challenge established doctrine, but at the same time, the manpower that occupies these institutions is extremely resistant to change. Higher education can be described as largely bureaucratic and bureaucracies, by definition, resist change. I recall an incidence during my university life when my old professor hated something called a computer and a projector used in teaching. Whenever I told him that my research analysis was based on computer packages he retorted negatively “ you are bound to fail research, please use the formulas I gave you in class”. Such an expression and reaction depicts an “old fashioned academic” who is not ready to accept recent global changes in the area of academics in universities. Many other students, in recent times, face the same wrath of such unsighted professors. Because of the wide resistance to change in most education institutions, technological innovation has often been implemented as an isolated, top-down initiative of university managers for efficiency purposes. In this scenario, the wider systems within tertiary education are often not considered and neither affected by the innovation.

Technological innovations have also experienced difficulty-taking precedence in top offices in university educatio. Higher education, similar to other sectors of society, has often responded to new ICT applications on the basis of efficiencies rather than the use of more strategic considerations. Some staff have resisted IT advocating remaining in use of the old systems of processing student papers. They type writer and old record keeping methods are still in use creating managerial inefficiencies in the “transcript office” and at the departmental examinations office. This traditional criterion of record management tends to stifle operational effectiveness. Most changes in education in the twentieth and twenty first centuries had been first order changes, which aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness of current practices. One of such first order changes is the introduction of the Internet and the computer in management work and teaching methodology. Therefore, attempts to oppose such lucrative developments in any global institution are a path in the wrong direction because technology is here to stay.

To ensure ownership of sound educational quality in ICT and e-Learning, it is important that educators and educational policy drive and direct technological transformation of higher education. Therefore, the structures supporting technology-based education have to ensure an educational focus and pre-eminence of educational principles and policy grounded on administrative desires and attitudinal change. The literature on non-traditional modes of delivery in higher education using state-of-the-art technologies, indicates that the extensive use of ICT in education poses previously unencountered problems in pedagogy and andragogy, which are attitudinal. In addition, these problems are primarily to do with conservativeness of those who fear technological change. Technological decisions need to be preceded by policy and educational decisions and highlighting the importance of bottom-up and more organic approaches during technological transformation in higher education in the developing world.

Engaging academics to appreciate ICT is a significant management issue in higher educational reform and such reform has to be based on the development of ‘learning communities’. That means that the actual process of reform must engage academics in actual learning of how to use the new technologies and seeing that this technology is further promoted creating self-initiative so as to build self-confidence and sharing. In most cases, ICT training should be made compulsory to every academic and don. This requires serious bottom-up approaches to encourage and implement the reforms. Top down attempts to achieve educational reforms in technological outlook have failed and will be doomed to failure until they confront the cultural and pedagogical traditions and beliefs that underlie current practices and organizational arrangement. In technological transformation in higher education, it seems necessary to address the concerns and perceptions of academic staff in the light of the need for changing their attitudes and to ensure ownership by academic staff.

Ownership of the technological transformation by academic staff is critical as it requires major changes in professional roles. This points to the need for specialised roles and the need for academics to gain the skills and knowledge for effective use of the new technologies, and the requirement for extensive training. University staff needs to change attitude towards technological advancement and need a more complex training session in how to use such technologies and come to appreciate them. The new technologies in global education point to a new role for the teacher, for the student and for course material. It centres on the construction of knowledge by the student. A lecturer becomes a facilitator and promoter and information becomes something to work with, think with, discuss, negotiate and debate with partners.

The specialized skills needed to develop technology based learning materials further point to the rationale for using development teams. Producing good quality technology based learning materials will require people who can combine good pedagogic practice with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different media and technologies. Course design teams are the accepted model in distance education and that the Open University uses course development teams extensively. The predominant course-team model in distance education and the main advantage of this model is that it operates on high professional standards.

Technological transformation in higher education, implementation and innovation is based on new approaches to organizational processes. An innovation can be described as an idea or behavior that is new to the organization adopting it. Implementing and adopting some thing new to a culture requires commitment, patience and acceptance of change. In this way, a bottom-up innovation process in the development of ICT is important because it fosters the development of the will among members and generates collective participation of lower cadres in decision making leading to consensus building. It is difficult to resist change that comes from the bottom from among the users. The importance of a bottom-up process for a successful innovation aims at spreading leadership. If it does not aim at shared leadership right from the outset, therefore such technology is unlikely to be capable of establishing itself in the university system.

In addition, there is need to ensure strong innovation diffusion into higher education systems. The innovation diffusion theory provides a general explanation for the manner in which new entities and ideas like IT and technology based education over time, disseminate through social systems, in higher education. The innovation diffusion theory is essentially a bottom-up approach based on individual responses that can be used as a starting point to depict technological transformation in higher education. Initially, there is a take-off stage during which an innovation is introduced into a social system. An entrepreneurial group called the innovators often then adopts it. During the next phase of maturation the “early adopters”, who are change agents or opinion leaders among the social system, will enter the process thereby legitimizing the innovation and opening the potential for adoption to all members of the system. The final saturation stage in an innovation’s adoption is characterized by widespread adoption. The innovation saturates the social system and growth tapers off. This process can be plotted as an S-shaped growth curve.

We have seen that technology cannot be separated from development of the university because it is transient with globalisation and its intentions. Hence, there is need to overcome any resistance from staff and management that hinder technology to take root especially where the computer and internet age is resisted in most main stream teaching, planning and record keeping. In order to cause a vibrant attempt to allowing the ICT age and e-learning to take root, there are several policy directions that should be taken first hand and these are:

To promote top-down and bottom-up strategies that promote ICT development and utilization in universities through innovation diffusion. The level of resources made available to promote ICT usage would not have been possible without senior management and staff support. When typical political problems like irrational resistance to change are encountered, senior management is able to step in and direct matters. Middle management and staff, that is, heads of academic and administrative departments and lecturers, play an important role in controlling resources and running the support. The diffusion can be sustained through the use of a distributed implementation structure. A Centre for e-Learning, for example, should be established to provide central support and to coordinate the progress of the technological promotion project in the universities. Even learning should strictly adapt to these technologies where teaching methodologies should acquire ICT strategies and course work should be conducted using ICT facility. Universities should take time to ensure staff ownership of technologies even the most rigid type and conservative staff should see the benefits of e-learning and ICT in higher education development. Ensuring ownership by academic staff is essential in the diffusion of e-Learning strategies that promote effective teaching and learning. In order to ensure ownership of e-learning in universities by academic staff, it is important for educators and educational policies to drive the technological transformation. Staff development can be used as an important strategy to advance the transformation of higher education. The implementation of educational technology into the curriculum requires the introduction of a very robust technology infrastructure. Every staff should have a Pentium computer, printer or access to a printer, access to the Internet and e-mail with power failures and network shutdowns minimal. The library should also create a technology rich learning environment.

In conclusion, creating an enduring vision and a strategic implementation framework for the effective implementation of technological innovations seems critical. However, it requires institutional leadership in order to promote technology use in university education. The most important function of institutional leadership may be to create a shared vision that includes widespread input and support from the faculty and administration, articulates a clear educational purpose, has validity for stakeholders, and reflects the broader mission of the institution. If African universities cannot take advantage of the information revolution and surf this great wave of technological change, they may be crushed by it. Catching this wave will require visionary leadership in most universities on the continent.

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