Mass notification is a high priority in educational institutions. As the number of electronic communication devices has diversified, so has the complexity of designing an effective mass notification system. Picking the right system, with the right features, support services and price, can be daunting. This publication, updated quarterly due to…

This report documents the upward trend in "secret shopping" among today's prospective student Web users, along with the latest changes in electronic communications technologies used by college and university admissions offices. The report is based on a survey of college and university enrollment and admissions officers across the U.S. in March…

Objective: To support ongoing monitoring of child response during treatment, we sought to develop a brief, easily administered, clinically relevant, and psychometrically sound measure. Method: We first developed child and caregiver forms of a 12-item Brief Problem Checklist (BPC) interview by applying item response theory and factor analysis to…

MIS curricula research almost always focuses on either curriculum issues or the critical skills required of new MIS graduates, rarely both. This study examines both by determining the critical skills required of new graduates, from the perspective of IT professionals in the field, then uniquely mapping those skills into a comprehensive yet…

This article reports that the American public's favorite methods of notification are still phone and e-mail, but advancements in technology over the past several years have changed the way many district leaders contact parents when an emergency arises at school. The latest tech feature popular in the general public--text messages--is taking hold…

Though many U.S.-based distance programs were originally developed for domestic use, a number of programs are expanding their offerings to students living outside North America. As a result, a number of contextual factors impinge upon the design of classes, or at least in the way that content is represented. Additionally, there is a need to make…

This article describes how a growing number of community colleges have begun deploying emergency alert systems that can be used to send information via e-mail and text messaging directly to students' cell phones and other portable devices. Such systems enable authorized campus administrators to send messages to thousands of people within minutes.…

Our action research project examined the on-task and off-task behaviors of university-level student, use of wireless laptops in face-to-face classes in order to establish rules of wireless laptop etiquette in classroom settings. Participants in the case study of three university classrooms included undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.…

Communication underwater is challenging because of the inherent characteristics of the media. First, common radio frequency (RF) signals utilized in wireless communications cannot be used under water. RF signals are attenuated in such as way that RF communication underwater is restricted to very few meters. As a result, acoustic-based…

The purpose of this study was to look at the relationship between selected Texas public school superintendents and school boards to determine the communication factors that help to make for stronger relationships. This study attempted to describe the relationship between the superintendent and school board in terms of effective communication…

This research study explores knowledge management (KM) in law enforcement, focusing on the POLNET system established by the Turkish National Police as a knowledge-sharing tool. This study employs a qualitative case study for exploratory and descriptive purposes. The qualitative data set came from semi-structured face-to-face and telephone…

In a quantitative content analysis, the telephone-based and Web-based support of the Dutch child helpline were studied. Both adult judges and the children themselves indicated that the quality of chat conversations was better than that of telephone conversations. Both the chat and telephone service succeeded in improving children's well-being and…

This article profiles Cathleen Norris, a Regents Professor in the department of Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas and co-creator of GoKnow Learning who encourages teachers to use cell phones in lessons. As a middle and high school math teacher for 14 years in the Norman (Oklahoma) School District and Dallas (Texas) Independent…

Who would deny the sweet irony of a 70-year-old man stepping into his very own classroom of the future? James Richmond certainly would, if it would mean fast-forwarding the premiere of the digital, domed theater his district has in the works, which has been pushed back to 2013 due to funding snags. Richmond, the superintendent of Charles County…

Text messaging is an ideal communications method for libraries, which often want to send short, concise messages to their patrons near and far. Uses for text messaging in libraries include reminders about items' due dates, hold pickup notices, program reminders, and even short messages of content. Some libraries are already using text messaging…