The role of industrial technology in addressing productivity encompasses work experience and attitude, quality assurance, research and development, time and motion studies, plant layout and flow diagramming, cost analysis, production process selection, maintenance, computer applications, materials and inventory requirements, safety programming,…

Students at the University of Northern Iowa were provided with a meaningful experience in quality assurance through a term project resulting from a problem submitted by a local manufacturing plant. Students were given the responsibility of developing a quality control and inspection system that was actually installed in the plant. (SK)

Explores the history of robotics and its effects upon the manufacturing industry. Topics include robots' capabilities and limitations, the factory of the future, displacement of the workforce, and implications for management and labor. (SK)

The author responds to reactions to his paper, "Technology Education: A Critical View," and makes two major points. First, he reaffirms his belief in the concept of technology and the role that the understanding of industry plays in understanding technology. Second, he states that industry--not technology--is the source of content. (JOW)

Opinions on metric conversion from seven large industrial organizations reflect inadequate evidence predicating conversion, no compelling need for conversion, opposition to hard conversion, lack of information about the financial and social costs of conversion, and feelings that metrics as the sole language of measurement will be regressive.…

Reports some of the educational innovations and management techniques currently being utilized in the University of Northern Iowa's Department of Industrial Technology. These include new content classification elements, a common core program based on these elements, open-space laboratories, team teaching, differentiated staffing, and a variety of…

Industrial arts is not a single, formal discipline and it lacks a well-defined body of content. To identify appropriate content and learning experiences for industrial arts, its basis in interactionist-developmental psychology should be examined. (SK)

Using the results of the Standards for Industrial Arts Programs Project, the authors reflect on the lack of impetus for change in industrial arts, the disparity between the definition of industrial arts and its practice, the lack of consensus about content, and the relative freedom of teachers to structure industrial arts curricula. (SK)

Findings of a 1980 followup to a 1971 study to determine changes in industrial teacher education programs indicate little acceptance for the term industrial technology; fewer institutions offering majors; instructional personnel and practices remaining stable; and a greater percentage of instructors today having university rather than public…

Describes the design and application of a microprocessor simulation using BASIC for formal training of technicians and managers and as a management tool. Illustrates the utility of the modular approach for the instruction and practice of decision-making techniques. (SK)

Nowhere in the U. S. is there a well-established system of synergistic elements between theory and practice in industrial education. Industrial technology educators could benefit and vocational education's efficiency be improved by adapting the medical school-teaching hospital model. Implementing the concept SYNTEC (synergistic technology) could…

Survey responses from 28 (of 41) industrial technology departments found some common elements in the shift from industrial arts: change in program philosophy, closer relationship with business/industry, greater emphasis on computers and problem solving, and less emphasis on laboratory projects. (JOW)

Because of recent technological advancements, it is time to revitalize industrial arts education by changing the content base from industry to technology and the objective from technical literacy to technological literacy. As the rate of change accelerates, greater emphasis should be placed on the process of learning to develop essential…

Reports a survey of 53 industrial teacher education department chairmen (members of the Mississippi Valley Industrial Teacher Education Conference) comparing industrial teacher education and industrial technology programs: enrollment, graduates, and salaries of graduates. (JT)

Points out that the primacy of the United States as an industrial nation has resided in its productivity. The author argues that because industry is more basic than almost any other segment of society, productivity--as a measure of industry's well-being--must be maintained. (Editor/TA)