POSTING 4

CALL

TITLE:Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches to Language Acquisition: Conceptual and Empirical Intersections.

SUMMARY:The past 20 years have seen research on language acquisition in the cognitive sciences grow immensely. The current paper offers a fairly extensive review of this literature, arguing that new cognitive theories and empirical data are perfectly consistent with core predictions a behavior analytic approach makes about language development. The review focuses on important examples of productive linguistic behavior: word learning and early grammatical behavior. Language experience, through social and other contingencies, influences language development directly. Through these contingencies, the structure of language behavior exhibits a gradual emergence. Keywords: language acquisition; linguistic behavior; grammar; syntax learning; word learning.

BRIDING DIGITAL DIVIDE

TITLE:Bridging the Digital Divide.(Industry Trend or Event).

SUMMARY:The so-called digital divide is usually defined as the gap between the affluent and poor in technology ownership and Internet access and can depend primarily on race, geography, economic status or any combination of the three. A survey of businesses shows that 16 percent are 'extremely concerned' about the digital divide, 48 percent are 'somewhat concerned' and 36 percent report no concern at all. Business is nevertheless beginning to take a more active role in promoting technology to disadvantaged regions. Projects range from Mouse.org, a nonprofit group linking New York state public schools to equipment and grants, to the North Carolina Rural Internet Access Authority, which builds telework centers and develops online access to key resources for small communities. Inequalities nevertheless remain, and a survey of 46 public black colleges shows a $700 million shortfall in the funds needed to meet current technology needs. Globally, the 'divide' includes such more fundamental issues as illiteracy, lack of telephone access, suspicion among local peoples toward Western nations and the fact that while the industrialized world contains only 15 percent of world population, it has 88 percent of Internet users.

WOMEN & ICT

TITLE:Study seeks 'disappearing IT women'.(The Disappearing Women: North-West ICT Project)

SUMMARY:Tash Shifrincomputer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Researchers from the University of Salford are trying to find out why so many women leave the IT industry. The percentage of women in the IT workforce has fallen from 27% in 1996 to 21%, according to the Office of National Statistics. The research project - The Disappearing Women: North-West ICT Project - follows a study by the university examining the experience of 500 female IT professionals. "We noticed a lot of job churn and we were wondering why," said academic fellow Marie Griffiths. "The women we have spoken to say the workplace is quite hostile and is not compatible with raising a family."She also cited one woman in an IT management role who found junior male colleagues were being paid 15,000 more than her. The researchers can be contacted at m.griffiths@salford.ac.uk

e-LEARNING

TITLE:Operationalisation of quality constructs for e-learning at higher education.

SUMMARY:new developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) to support learning has brought about increasing interest by both academic and non-academic institutions in e-learning. The developments in ICT are principally multimedia and the Internet with its World Wide Web. Interest in ICT supported learning is also fuelled by the associated (expected) cost reduction and easy expansion of education to the increasing and flexible market that is difficult to reach by traditional delivery. Expansion of e-learning, especially in higher education, raises the issue of quality resulting in both anecdotal and empirical evidence of how to achieve high quality while at the same time benefiting from e-learning. After examining key current research, Usoro and Abid (2008) developed a conceptual framework of nine factors of quality in elearning at higher education. These factors include content, delivery, technical provision (referred to as tangibles) and globalisation. This paper takes the research further by attempting to operationalise the nine factors such that a future study can perform primary study to validate the framework.