TAD Consortium September 1998 Information Update 2

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This TAD Consortium Information Service has been
sponsored by Juta Publishers - web: www.juta.co.za - phone:
+27 21 797 5101
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The inevitable merger between high-tech games and education is
showing signs with Broderbund, the maker of Myst, being bought
by the learning company for US $420 million.  The new company
expects to emphasise its education component while retaining
existing titles such as Myst and Ribben. 


The worldwide web has provided lecturers and professors with the
ability to publish their own text-books on-line, but so far has not
enabled them to market their books extensively.  Lynn Nelson, a
Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the Virginia
Commonwealth University, has provided some help in this regard
by establishing a website at http://www.connectext.com. At
this site one can search for on-line books that have been developed
by lecturers and professors at other institutions and then negotiate
a usage licence with them.  Text-books are normally password
protected. Users are able to pay a fee to gain access to them.


If you are looking for library and reference information on the
Internet, you might want to stop off at the LibrarySpot at
http://www.libraryspot.com. It offers a gateway to some two and
half thousand libraries on-line.  The University of Florida USA is in
the process of introducing a new requirement that all of its 42 000
students are expected to own personal computers by the third-
quarter of 1999.  Lecturers are racing ahead with learning how to
interface with their techno-literate students.


Both academic staff and students find themselves in varying
positions regarding the level of techno-literacy. Institutions need to
establish centres to support both staff and students in their various
new media.  Teachers are frequently heard to say that their
students know more about computers than they do and that most
people are on a steep learning curve. 


People who have expressed concern about students preferring to
use distance education material on the Internet rather than attend
classes, may want to consider this as an incentive to find new
ways for using their buildings more effectively. 


The traditional campus bookstore needs to reconsider its strategy
if Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble are successful with their
strategies to tap into the student book market.  One association,
the National Association of College Stores in the USA is
developing a "CourseWeb" to help its 3 100 store members
produce their own web-pages and provide more services to
students and faculties.  Companies like Amazon.com are now
bringing competition on to the campus and in to and the home.
Traditional suppliers need to consider ways of offering new services
to attract people into their stores. 


One of the problems the web has now introduced is the difficulty of
knowing "what is the final print".  On the web everything always
seems to be under construction and most things these days seem
to have version numbers and version release dates attached to
them.  When publishing an article, it may be an idea to include in
the head of the article whether it is a "prior publication" or final
version that will not be updated again.  Various in-company or in-
institutional documents can also include the date on which it was
approved for use in the institutional company and by what
authority. 


The concept of lifelong learning is being reinforced by the web in
the way that one can learn in smaller "doses" and whenever one
wants.  With more than 800 US universities and colleges already
offering on-line degree courses, the questions one should now
concentrate on are how to use the technologies most effectively
rather than whether or not to use them.  No doubt the same
debates ensued when the radio and overhead projectors were first
used in education. 


High-technology in the workplace

High-tech companies in the United States have been lobbying
congress for years to allow more high-tech workers into the country
to meet the critical shortage of labour in the sector.  Some 350 000
vacant jobs are being cited to encourage congress to open
immigration laws to help the high-tech industries.  This is likely to
add to the brain drain in less developed countries where aspiring IT
staff might wish to move to the United States.


Aspiring immigrants will need to consider that some surveys in the
States have shown that while a number of computer scientists have
tripled in the past 10 years, their rate of pay has increased 4.4%
above inflation compared to workers such as, surveyors at 20%
and dieticians at 17%.

Programmers' pay is said to have lagged behind inflation since
1988 by an average of 1.5% per year.  Some say employers would
be willing to be pay more if they were as desperate for staff as they
claim to be. 


Some people may have thought technology would make life easier.
But in many cases it seems to be making us run harder and has
this funny way of tracking us down wherever we travel to. 
Examples of this include the new LEO satellite-based telephone
system that comes on stream in September 1998 which will allow
for telephone calls from all parts of the globe.


Companies are now able to offer a 24-hour workday with shift
workers operating in different countries in different time zones (an
idea the software industry might want to consider more seriously). 
With collaborative software enabling people to work on the same
documents and other resources, two workday shifts one based in
Europe or Africa, the other based in North or South America
provides for a 16-hour workday with minimum out-of- normal time
work for employees.  Working in this way companies are able to
use the full 24-hour clock and only those people working closest to
the customer need to work in that particular time zone.


High-tech overload

More portable technology is causing people to take work on
holiday with them more frequently. Surveys show that some 30%
make a concerted effort to stay in touch with their workplace while
on vacation.  People carry cellphones, laptops, leave fax numbers
and return business calls while on vacation instead of getting away
from it all as some would prefer.  40% feel that is best to check for
work messages at least twice a week while only 10% say they
wish to get away from the office all together and have no contact.


Feedback

If you have a comment, request or suggestion on this report,
please e-mail it to Paul West at: pgwest@pwg.org

These reports are available on the Internet at:  http://pgw.org/str

Regards

Paul West

***********************************************************
Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814 

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

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