Canadian and American lifeguards completed a questionnaire about how they actually watched the water, investigating their observational techniques. About 85% of the lifeguards felt they needed systematic scanning strategies. Lifeguards showed a lack of attention to hazardous areas and high-risk guests. Effective systematic scanning strategies are…

Reviews the rationale for the use of simulation and game exercises as part of counselor education programs. Counselor competencies in the areas of knowledge, skills, and self-awareness are discussed; and the use of experience-based learning activities is explained, including the debriefing stage. (Contains three references.) (LRW)

Presents viewpoints on several information retrieval user studies, and contains opinions regarding user characteristics; user training; expression of need or query formulation; conduct of a search; use of language; analysis of retrieved information; and satisfaction with outcome. Recommendations for future studies include classification of users;…

The effectiveness of training procedures which used visual-visual arbitrary matching, blocked-trial matching-to-sample, and successive discrimination training to teach visual-visual discrimination of two-dimensional forms was evaluated with two men having severe mental retardation. Results indicated that the procedures did establish conditional…

Describes the first phase of an Internet overview training program presented to academic staff at the University of Sydney (Australia). The use of locally created Hypertext Markup Language documents is explained, and an evaluation of the program indicated the success of using World Wide Web browsers as an aid in training. (Author/LRW)

This article describes a training design to help counselor trainees perceive the positive and negative messages in a client's internal dialog. Twenty graduate counselors-in-training produced 2 10-minute interviews with simultaneous feedback from an anticounselor (gives explicit negative messages) and a procounselor (gives explicit positive…

Describes a program being tested by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces in Saudi Arabia, in which speech recognition technology has been combined with multimedia scenarios that simulate real-life situations to teach English as a second language. Highlights include training needs, interactive design, computer-based training system specifications, and…

Seven children (ages 4 to 7) with autism were taught to engage in symbolic play using Pivotal Response Training. Children with autism rarely exhibited symbolic play before training, but after training they learned to perform complex and creative symbolic play at levels similar to that of language-matched controls. Interaction skills also improved…

This study assessed effects of teaching sociodramatic play skills to three children (ages five to nine) with autism. Positive changes were observed in play, language, and social skills. These changes generalized across toys and settings, although little generalization to other play partners occurred. (Author/DB)

Examines teletraining as a cost-effective, high quality alternative in distance education. Teletraining methods include: audio-only, audio-graphic, computer-conferencing, one-way video broadcast, one- or two-way video with audio interaction, and desktop videoconferencing. (AEF)

Discusses the use of multimedia for communication, information, and training in large organizations through local area networks and wide area networks. New applications for multimedia are reviewed; network design considerations are discussed; requirements for multimedia software are described; and system security is considered. (LRW)

Comparison of two strategies for reducing drooling in two adults with moderate mental retardation found both the use of brief cues and the use of flexible cues equally effective for Subject 1 but the use of flexible cues more reliably effective with Subject 2. Neither subject achieved independent skill without the use of cues. (DB)

Presents a model for training end-users of in-house computer systems that consists of nine stages: needs assessment; defining the learning objective; analyzing existing training; written documentation; selecting training methods; adult learning issues; minimalist design strategies; testing documents; and evaluating the training session. (34…

Analyzes the concept of educational technology leadership and how it differs from leadership in general. Leadership research is reviewed, levels of skills are examined, consequences of leadership are discussed, leadership training is considered, and a technology leadership training program is outlined. (27 references) (LRW)

The influence of visual signals (echo and reverberation) on speech fluency in 60 stutterers and nonstutterers was examined. Visual signals were found to exert a corrective influence on the speech of stutterers but less than the influence of acoustic stimuli. Use of visual signals in combination with acoustic and tactile signals is recommended. (DB)