Reviews the current state of "one-stop shopping" for telecom services. Discusses regulatory obstacles; administrative problems with single billing; and resistance of telecom providers to change. Concludes that the leading one-stop shopping providers will be individual carriers who offer cost savings. (AEF)

Provides a taxonomy of cost containment actions for use in response to budget crises where revenues fall short of expenditures. Indicates four levels of actions: tactical temporary and tactical permanent, which have low to moderate impact on school operations; and strategic temporary and strategic permanent, which have moderate to high impact. (13…

Southlake, a Texas municipality, and a school district have been able to coordinate significant capital projects. The city and the school district share master plans and building projects in the early stages and plan the locations of facilities together. Joint utilization reduces the tax burden on the community. A recent project is a gymnasium and…

Focuses on the use of media technology to address worldwide demands for language and literacy training by means of distance instruction. In choosing technology to meet distance instructional purposes, it is necessary to use what's available, choose reliable over sophisticated technology, let program goals drive technological decisions, and…

Four kinds of evidence demonstrating substantial social benefits resulting from public expenditures on higher education are discussed: (1) social rates of return; (2) nonmonetary benefits; (3) local economic activity; and (4) national economic growth. A recent study of the effect of investment in higher education on workforce productivity is…

Uses cost, financial sources, and student achievement data from Philippine primary schools (financed primarily from central sources) to discover if financial decentralization leads to more efficient schools. Schools that rely more heavily on local sources (contributions from local school boards, municipal government, parent-teacher associations,…

Reviews the potential relationship between visualization and effective instruction. Highlights include the use of graphical user interfaces for enhancing visual communication, integrating visual communication into courseware design, theoretical principles of visual communication, empirical research needs, AIME (amount of invested mental effort),…

Discusses educational uses of the Internet in light of experiences with previous implementation efforts for the use of computers in education. Topics include access problems; identifying educationally relevant uses of the Internet; cost effectiveness; funding; and the role, needs, and influence of the teacher. (LRW)

Discusses seven propositions underlying the strategies that insurance pools can, will, and must pursue: (1) risk management versus risk financing; (2) elimination of windfall advantages; (3) the maintenance of market-dominant status; (4) cost leadership; (5) client focus; (6) innovation and diversification; and (7) leadership challenges. A sidebar…

Presents an introduction to current equivalence methodology, a preferred alternative to usual power analyses when one wishes to determine if performances on given outcome measures for different samples are equivalent (could have come from the same population). Examples of the approach are presented. (SLD)

Explores the option of using distance education courses as a viable alternative to building classrooms and facilities. Distance education could be one solution to the financial and physical facilities problems universities may have in dealing with the predicted economic and enrollment conditions. (AEF)

Discusses issues relevant to librarians implementing an intranet, including time and cost savings, training and technology, sharing information, information policies, and promoting Intranet services. Outlines the following roles for the proactive librarian: knowledge manager and World Wide Web administrator; promoter and committee member; editor,…

Describes "Self-Serve Reserve", an electronic application developed at the library of Norwich University (Vermont) to handle reserve reading and be easy to use, reduce or eliminate the need for paper copies, deliver imaged documents, require modest start-up costs, and be scalable from a stand-alone workstation to network access.…

Describes an integrated computer library system installed at Lilydale Adventist Academy (LAA) in Melbourne (Australia) in response to a limited budget, increased demand, and greater user expectations. Topics include student workstations, cost effectiveness, CD-ROMS on local area networks, and student input regarding their needs. (Author/LRW)

Addresses the usefulness of the World Wide Web in education by answering the following questions: does it make learning more accessible; does it promote improved learning; and does it accomplish the first two while containing or reducing the per unit costs of education? Examples are provided of what individuals and institutions are doing on the…