Abstract: How effective does the typical study say education technology is? Are certain types of educational technology especially effective? Is educational technology especially effective for certain types of students? What sorts of studies demonstrate the effects of educational technology most clearly? From "What can science educators teach chemists about teaching chemistry? - A symposium", presented at the ACS meeting, Las Vegas, 1982.

Abstract: The impact of technology on special education was initially in the area of computer-assisted instruction. More recently management uses of technology have been rapidly introduced to reduce paperwork, meet federal and state reporting requirements, and track students from referral to placement into special education programs. This study outlines the status of computer use by special education directors in the Council of Administrators of Special Education, which commissioned the survey. The results are organized around seven questions from development to current and future applications. The results are discussed in terms of two competing frameworks that guide technology use in business and education. The authors provide a development process that capitalizes on the knowledge of special education managers and their reported needs.

Abstract: Meeting: Technical Workshop on Technology, Education, Employment and Development in Africa, 29-31 Aug. 1983, Nairobi, KE

Abstract: Major initiatives in advanced information technology are under way or have been proposed in the UK, Europe and Japan. ‘Information technology’ is an umbrella expression with different interpretations: it has been adopted in these policy contexts to refer to all areas of computer (and communications) technology, including hardware and software and both to computing in itself and to the applications of computers; it refers in the broadest sense to the technology of and for information processing.

Abstract: I am not aware of a body of literature covering the future work prospects for information scientists. However, an article appeared in this journal suggesting that &dquo;... by the year 2000, the information scientist and the librarian will have gone the way of the brontosaurus&dquo; [46]. In proposing courses of action to avoid extinction, the author suggested that there were wider areas in which information scientists could become involved. The fact is that the ‘ knowledge professions’ are becoming a part of the ‘information industry’ which is being subjected to powerful forces. Like it or not we shall be carried along by them. This article is about the mechanisation of work. Within it reside the smaller areas of Information Technology and its ill-defined intellectual accomplice Information Science, and these are also dis-

Abstract: There is a very good reason why study of social factors affecting new information technology is currently important. It is generally agreed, whenever the introduction of such technology is discussed, that what is accepted, and at what rate, will ultimately be subject to social control. This is true both of national and of international implementation of new technology. For example, a recent report of a European workshop on new office technology concluded: &dquo;The key factors identified by the workshop in the introduction of systems are ergonomic considerations, education and training, standards and perhaps most important staff responses and attitudes&dquo;. The headline for the report is: &dquo; We have the technology-the problem is people&dquo;. 2. Defining the social context