The purpose of this forum was the assessment of how well current research is meeting the needs of rural educators. Individual papers presented at the forum are "Learning To Find the 'Niches': Rural Education and Vitalizing Rural Communities" by Daryl Hobbs with commentary by Richard Tulikangas; "Effective Rural Schools: Where Are We? Where Are We…

Four issues of this newsletter focus primarily on the use of communication technologies in developing nations to educate their people. The issues included in this collection are: (1) No. 56 (1987-1), which highlights agricultural, health, and educational projects that have used radio, telecommunications, and interactive video to train trainers…

Rural and economic development efforts are inadequate responses to changing rural conditions. They fail because they are often top-down driven and few influential people are involved. Minnesota's Project Future is designed to help distressed communities take charge of their own direction. Developed on the principle of collective empowerment, this…

The survival of rural American farms and communities is dependent upon expansion of income and employment opportunities in rural areas. Recognizing the growing challenge for local leaders and the contribution that educational assistance can make, the Cooperative Extension System has identified Revitalizing Rural America as a priority program for…

One viable economic development option for rural areas is the creation of business incubators--facilities that aid in the early stages of growth of an enterprise by providing rental space, services, and business assistance. Business incubators promote community development by diversifying the economic base, enhancing the community's image as a…

The Seventh Regional Consultation Meeting on the Asian Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID) was devoted to a tripartite review of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) component of APEID. APEID had undertaken four development themes in its second cycle: universalization of education at early school levels and…

The Panel on Statistics for Rural Development Policy was established to assess the current quality and availability of data for rural development policy--a more difficult task than might first appear. Until recent decades, rural development was commonly understood to be the development of agriculture. As science and technology transformed U. S.…

Twenty major activities in fiscal year (FY) 1984 fulfilled the Southern Rural Development Center's (SRDC) obligation to focus specifically on the rural problems of the region and to support the community development efforts of 29 land-grant universities in 13 southern states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. During FY84 SRDC had an active role…

Symposium participants concentrated on maintaining the economic viability of agriculture through improved agribusiness techniques including increased individual and collective marketing strategies and greater responsiveness to consumer demands. Related problems were decline of roads and bridges, competition with nonagricultural users for rural…

Objective B of the Regional Project Statement for Project S-120 is "to determine perceptions toward development in activities, agency representatives, and clientele affected by organizational and agency activities". This paper addresses Objective B and presents a perspective which "suggests an answer to the inevitable 'so what' question when…

Because a pro-social disposition towards others, the willingness to review one's own situation, or an interest in global issues are the sort of attitudes still open to growth and enrichment in children, development education is being directed at 9- to 12-year olds. These youngsters are still young enough to be open-minded yet are sufficiently…

The document examines the relationships between multi-ethnic and development education in Great Britain. Multi-ethnic education, initially with a national focus, has a global dimension, and development education, initially with a global focus, has a national and even local dimension. A common interest in human diversity and human inequalities…

The keynote article in this issue describes some empirically demonstrated beneficial functions of radio in development communications: (1) it improves the quality and relevance of education; (2) it keeps educational costs down; (3) it broadens access to education; and (4) it extends the impact of time, money, and effort outside the formal…

Four papers are featured. The first is a statistical overview and analysis of past, present and future happenings to small communities in the Region; it focuses on two indicators: (1) population growth or declining community class size and, (2) the changing distribution of commercial outlets by community class size. The other three papers report…

General development, structure, and uses of a computerized impact projection model, the North Dakota Regional Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) Economic-Demographic Assessment Model, were studied not only to describe a model developed to meet informational needs of local decision makers (especially in a rural area undergoing development),…