Young People and Technologies: Fostering Transformative Experiences

In "Preparing School Library Media Specialists for the New Century: Results of a Survey" ( Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 42: 3, pp. 220-227, Summer 2001), Carol Tilley and Daniel Callison found that among schools accredited by the American Library Association technology-focused courses ranked highest on the list of the most widely required courses for this professional speciality. The survey also revealed that technology-related courses dominated the roster of elective coursework. A quick reading of the survey may suggest that these graduate programs in information studies had presciently understood the increasing role that information and communications technologies (ICTs) play in the daily lives of both young people and the information professionals who serve them. Yet, data from the survey also revealed that ICT-related coursework focused on ICTs in service of professionals' needs, not ICTs in service of youth empowerment. Furthermore, the survey's scope did not allow it to address more illuminating questions including the extent to which other youth services information professionals such as public library children's specialists receive training in ICTs, to what degree education related to ICTs is supplanting a focus on traditional media and technologies, or how information schools can prepare professionals to foster transformative experiences for young people through the use of ICTs. The purpose of this roundtable, then, is to provide a forum for discussing how information schools might more effectively educate youth services information professionals in the theory and application of ICTs to their interactions--structured and unstructured--with young people. Participants will be encouraged to bring relevant course descriptions, class syllabi, assigned readings, and course assignment description to the discussion to provide concrete examples of issues. The conversation will be enriched through references to appropriate models from community and social informatics, media literacy, and traditional librarianship, as well as research and best practices in education. The Pacific Bell/UCLA Initiative for 21st Century Literacies provides an additional corpus of examples, research, and practice on which to draw

A VARIANCE COMPONENT APPROACH TO INDUSTRY COST ANALYSIS

Demand and Price Analysis,

OL-AC Phillips Laboratory MPD thruster research program

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: facility construction; quadruple langmuir probe measurements; hollow/porous anode magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster; the measurement of the ionization fraction inside of the MPD thruster; and the experimental investigation of the effects of microturbulence on MPD thruster performance

Dynamics of rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in a harmonic plus quartic trap

A two-dimensional rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic plus quartic trap is expected to have unusual vortex states that do not occur in a pure harmonic trap. At a critical rotation speed $\Omega_h$, a central hole appears in the condensate, and at some faster rotation speed $\Omega_g$, the system undergoes a transition to a giant vortex state with pure irrotational flow. Using a time-dependent variational analysis, we study the behavior of an annular condensate with a single concentric ring of vortices. The transition to a giant vortex state is investigated by comparing the energy of the two equilibrium states (the ring of vortices and the giant vortex) and also by studying the dynamical stability of small excitation modes of the ring of vortices.Comment: 12pages, 4figure

THE PACKING SIMULATION MODEL

The Packing Simulation Model is a microcomputer application program designed for researchers, extension personnel, bankers, packing managers, or other specialists who plan the operations of a packing facility or simulate its financial performance. PACKSIM produces pro forma financial statements for packing facilities based on flexible crop mixes and packing assumptions. Variations can be made in the product harvest schedule, price, quality, quantity, input costs and requirements, packing efficiency, overhead, and loan terms.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

WHEAT SEGREGATION AND IDENTITY-PRESERVATION COST

Budgets were used to estimate additional identity-preserved wheat production costs that ranged from $0.81 to$5.35 per bushel. A survey was developed to estimate the feasibility for country elevators to market identity-preserved wheat and the premiums required to do so; estimated premiums reported ranged from $0.05 to$1.45 per bushel.Identity-Preservation, Genetically Modified Wheat, Wheat Marketing, Marketing,

Gravitational waves in preheating

We study the evolution of gravitational waves through the preheating era that follows inflation. The oscillating inflaton drives parametric resonant growth of scalar field fluctuations, and although super-Hubble tensor modes are not strongly amplified, they do carry an imprint of preheating. This is clearly seen in the Weyl tensor, which provides a covariant description of gravitational waves.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Revte

Conditions for one-dimensional supersonic flow of quantum gases

One can use transsonic Bose-Einstein condensates of alkali atoms to establish the laboratory analog of the event horizon and to measure the acoustic version of Hawking radiation. We determine the conditions for supersonic flow and the Hawking temperature for realistic condensates on waveguides where an external potential plays the role of a supersonic nozzle. The transition to supersonic speed occurs at the potential maximum and the Hawking temperature is entirely determined by the curvature of the potential

Teaching Innovation as Part of an Agribusiness Curriculum

Innovation is critical to the survival of agricultural businesses in the U.S. yet few universities have classes in their curricula that focus on innovation and innovation management. Innovation includes developing new processes and concepts and taking products based on those ideas to market. By its nature, innovation generally involves technical components, market assessment, business analysis, and implementation strategies that include marketing campaigns to a target market. As a result, if innovation is going to be experientially taught to students, the class will likely need to include concepts from multiple disciplines. The objectives of this paper are to present an outline of capstone/senior design classes designed to cause students to learn innovation by participating in interdisciplinary teams working with real companies on the development of new product innovation.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,