God willing, you are to be an expert hardware specialist or a good-quality programmer or a first-class network builder or a high-quality system administrator by now

But ever bear these important points in your mind: This Universe has such a Hardware Engineer who created all beings and the Earth as well; He made Sun a Power Source, Moon a System Clock. Such an Uninterrupted Power Source and such a System Clock that never goes astray and is never confused, so as to show the vast knowledge and the art of that Hardware Engineer.

This Person, at the same time, is such an Exalted Programmer who composed and assembled the gigantic Software called Life in the best way to operate on this vast globe, and has been operating it for millions of years; error-free, bug-free and devoid of any system crash. If you want to know how an Exalted Programmer He is, take a good look at yourself at the outset:

He saved your entire life code into one of your microscopic, infinitesimal cells, which you cannot see with naked eyes, and He too executes that code in that same minuscule cell of yours. Since it is obvious as clear as the daylight that the DNA is a program, and a program cannot exist without its Programmer, therefore your programming is like a mirror to that Exalted Persons Art of Programming.

Again, as he makes those cells communicate through innumerable protocols within your network which He made up of your entire cells, and since He also bestowed on you the essential hardware along with you to enable you to converse with another people in various languages and protocols, he also makes you see, talk and listen as before. And since, He prepared and enabled you to use various media such as light and sound, so that you can come to know about the things around you “ and you can discover and utilize those things, but you cannot add a new component “ hence there is such a Great Network Resource Person who knows what you need and gives your equipments as per your requirements. Your flair of networking is only a little piece bestowed on you by Him out of His infinite knowledge and a great blessing.

O my friend, do not be deceived! This beautiful World Life Software is just a trial version, as you can see; in any case you cannot save the properties and treasures that you hoarded so far. Therefore, know the Writer of this Beautiful Software of the Universe. Is it ever possible that a programmer to build up such a beautiful program, and never include an about file to introduce Himself? Therefore; see and learn the About files, which have been included by the Greatest Programmer, Hardware Expert, Network Professional and the System Administrator of this Universe, and work for acquiring the Full version of the Software. Do not forget, without skipping any of your actions, log files are being carefully saved in the background. These log files are going to be checked by that System Administrator, whose Power envelopes every being. O Man: If you are a Human, do not mix nature, coincidence, absurdity, and unbelief into these beautiful tasks; do not make it ugly, do not perform it ugly and do not be disgusting!

Electronic and video games are one of the most important branches of technology entertainment. During the last several decades, interactive video games have emerged as one of the most popular forms of entertainment, particularly among adolescents. Video game content is extremely varied. In addition to their entertainment value, reflected in their enormous popularity, video game proponents point to their constructive uses in education, medicine, and other fields.

However, some observers find certain game-playing trends disturbing. For example, newer generations of video games often feature graphic depictions of violence. This has intensified public concern of potential harmful effects.

Video Game Violence

Video games first appeared during the 1970s. In the last 3 decades, they have gone from bouncing a little white ball from side to side on a screen to virtual reality games in which one is a character in the game itself. Newly emerging on-line games enable a person to play and compete with many others in cyberspace. The majority of games developed with this evolving technology are entertaining, engaging, and appropriate for children.

One segment of the market, however, features violence as a theme. Its depiction of violence has evolved from early shooting games blasting mostly spaceships out of the sky to gory violence, where characters literally tear each other apart with all the realistic details accompanying the act. Many of these games often require the use of increasing levels and intensities of violence to advance through the levels. Thus, violence is used as a problem-solving technique.

Toys and Children

Toys are commonly associated with children. Technology has produced many electronic toys, more specifically, computer and video games. Since there is no extensive body of research on the effects of video game violence, some people state that it does not harm children. The same argument was used to defend television violence for more than 3 decades.

Others assert, theoretically, that video violence actually may benefit children, because it gives them an outlet for aggression. This “catharsis” hypothesis was advanced in the earliest days of the television violence debate, and even compared to the violent elements in literature and art. After many years of research, however, it was abandoned. In Shakespeare the violence is offstage; we see the effects and learn the evil of violence without seeing the act. Classic mystery dramas focus on crime solving, not crime commission; the chief weapon against the villain is intellect, not brute force; and a hero is selected for his or her strength of character, not his or her physical power to dominate. Today’s video game “heroes” often show a violent response as the only effective-and frequently first-response to any conflict.

Is There Any Impact?

There are a few reasons why the games are violent. One is economics: violent games really bring in the quarters for an arcade. Many modern games are designed to let a player fight for a certain amount of time, then compulsively buy more coins to continue. Another reason is that they let you do something that, in real life, is impossible, which is the whole idea of virtual reality and simulation anyway. If you want to unwind after a tough day at work, you cannot take your AK-47 and destroy McDonald’s. However, you can go to an arcade, sit down at an X-Men console, fight a few hundred bad guys and then leave thinking about your game instead of your worries.

Games are just that-games. But when applying these concepts to children, the picture changes, for young children are in immediate danger of copying antisocial behavior. Values are formed very early, and antisocial programming negatively impacts one’s respect for authority, for others, and for self. Given this, parents are asking what effect video violence has on their most frequent players: children 8 to 14 years old and younger.

Research is beginning to give us a picture of what these effects might be. Due to the recent arrival of ultra-violent video games, few studies are available. Research done by the Mediascope Nonprofit Organization shows that heavy exposure to entertainment violence negatively affects children.

Research done by the Media Analysis Laboratory in Simon Fraser University shows that 95 percent of teens surveyed had access to either a video game machine or a home computer, and a similar proportion (90 percent) said they owned at least some video games. The majority said that playing computer games produced a pleasant, exciting, challenging, and interesting experience. Many also felt gaming to be involving (77 percent) and sometimes frustrating (63 percent). Boys and girls experienced games differently, with boys more likely to associate positive emotions with play (e.g., pleasing, exciting, and involving) and girls more likely to associate negative emotions with play (e.g., frustrating, boring, and stressful).

Jeanne B. Funk and her colleagues surveyed the video game habits of more than 900 teenagers, primarily fourth through eighth graders. They found that almost half of the favorite games chosen were of the fantasy violence or human violence type. Girls more often chose games with fantasy violence; boys preferred games with human violence.

A 1998 study examined thirty-three popular video games, and found that almost in 80 percent of them, kids preferred to have violence or aggression as part of the play. Almost half of this violence was directed toward other characters. Twenty-one percent of the games had violence toward women.

There seems to be an imitative effect of playing and observing video game violence, especially among young children. For example, researchers found that in a group of 5 to 7 year olds, children imitated during free play what they had just been exposed to on video games. Children playing active but nonviolent games reflected that in their play, while children playing games with violent themes showed more aggression. The followings facts are taken from Screen Smarts:A Family Guide to Media Literacy by Gloria DeGaetano and Kathleen Bander:

Violent video games send the following messages:

• Problems can be resolved quickly and with little personal investment.

• The best way to solve a problem is to eliminate its source.

• Problems are basically black or white, right or wrong.

• It is acceptable to immerse oneself in the video game’s rule-driven reality without questioning the rules.

• It is better to use instinctual, rather than thoughtful, responsible behaviors to react to problems.

• Personal imagination is not an important problem-solving skill.

In contrast, playing maze games, puzzles, and simulation or treasure hunt video games teaches children that:

• Problems are solved through patience, personal initiative, perseverance, tolerance, and flexibility.

• Gathering information requires work, and information must be analyzed carefully so that informed decisions can be made.

• Problem definition and solving require the use of complex skills.

• A solution in one instance might not be suitable in another one.

• It is important to use such critical and creative mental skills as planning actions, organizing information, predicting outcomes, experimenting with trial solutions, evaluating ideas, and analyzing solutions and their consequences.

• Use imagination and thinking abilities to cocreate, with the game’s writer, inventive situations.

• Use personally-generated, thoughtful responses to solve problems.

In Time magazine’s cyberguide, video games were classified according to their educational value and violence. The authors write that the most child-appropriate hardware is that which encourages them to think and formulate ideas. Games like Carmen San Diego and Where in the USA? make learning fun. Even though the battles are bloody, children learn fast with strategy games like Age of Empires and Warcraft, because looking ahead, plotting strategy, and husbanding resources are the only ways to win.

In any computer hardware store, you also will find a lot of so-called splatter games. Unfortunately, there is a huge diversity in choice for such games. Games like Doom and Quake put guns in the hands of players and reward them for blasting everything that moves. Residential Evil is nothing less than blowing off a zombie’s head and hacking off its limbs. Home computer games can be even more disturbing: I once saw a 14-year-old kid playing a game in which the winning creature actually urinates over its victim’s body.

Rating Systems and Other Alternatives

With the progress of technology and consequently video games, society began to express concern about growing violence. Funk et al’s report stated that in late 1993, video game and software manufacturers began discussing a rating system. Two eventually emerged: the video game system sponsored by the Interactive Digital Software Association (including Nintendo and Sega) and a set of age-based categories developed by Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) (formerly the Interactive Digital Software Ratings Board). They developed joint content-based guidelines for video games through the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC).

The ESRB initially proposed four rating categories: Universal (appropriate for all ages), Teen (13 and older), Mature (17 and older), and Adults Only. The board then responded to the concerns of professionals, including the first author, that the categories were too broad at the lower age levels by adding an Early Childhood (ages 3 and older) category. The ESRB also changed Universal to K-A (Kids to Adult, suitable for 6 and older), and added content descriptors that give a general indication of the level of violence, sexual themes, and crude language.

Although such ranking and debating appears to be designed to stop producing violent games, their main purpose should be to let parents know exactly what they are buying. Parents usually purchase the software and decide what games their children will play. Many video games are toxic and inappropriate for children. The best antidote is to teach children to find such games repugnant.

It also is crucial to teach them nonaggressive problem solving techniques through discussions with adults about the consequences of using violence to solve problems. While living in Japan, I noticed that Japan has almost as much entertainment violence as the United States. However, Japanese society is far less violent. The key may be that Japanese films, television programs, and society as a whole tend to show the consequences of violent acts, whereas their American counterparts do not. Finally, trying to keep children from seeing violence in the home, community, and media is the most effective method of ensuring that they grow up mentally normal.

Conclusion

This article points out how much our lives revolve around computerization. Computers dominate the lives of adults, children, and adolescents. At the same time, American youth have become increasingly involved in extremely violent crime, both as victims and offenders. Every aspect of our society, starting with parents, schools, and organizations to the mass media, the entertainment and software industries, and the federal government should be involved in controlling, rating and, if necessary, prohibiting interactive violent video and computer games. Not to sound too cliché, but it is our children who will have to adapt, live, and survive in this automated world. The “game medium” may be an obstacle in achieving their survival.

References

• DeGaetano, Gloria and Kathleen Bander. Screen Smarts: A Family Guide to Media Literacy. Boston: Honghton, 1996. (Taken from: Media Awareness Network. March 1999 ).
• Funk, Jeanne B., et. al. “Rating Electronic Games” Youth & Society (March 1999). (Taken from: Masterfile Premier. 24 May 1999 <http://gw11.epnet. com/st.asp?key=ehbeuwg&site= ehost>).
• Qnittner, Joshua. “Are Video Games Really So Bad?” Time (10 May 1999): 50-59.
• “The Social Effects of Electronic Interactive Games: An Annotated
• Bibliography.” Oct. 1998. (Taken from: Medioscope Network 25 May 1999 <http://www.mediaecope.org/vidbib.htm#Excerpts>.
• “Video Game Culture: Leisure and Play Preferences of B.C. Teens.” (Oct. 1998). Simon Fraser University. (Taken from: Media Awareness Network. 25 May 1999. http://www. media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/violence/resource/reports vgames.htm).

“Knowing where things are and why is essential to rational decision making.”
Jack Dangermond

Geography matters in almost everything we do, where we live, where we work, and the decisions we make about our environment. By the middle of the twenty-first century, it is estimated that 12 billion people will be living on this planet. This means that our planet will be hard-pressed to meet all our food, water, and fuel needs. Thus, managing each limited natural resource has emerged as perhaps the most crucial problem that we will face in the near future. Fortunately, technologies are becoming available for everybody and may allow us to feed and power the growing population without destroying the environment.

In today’s global community, more information helps you to make an easy and informed decision when it comes to interacting with the high-tech world. Currently, information comes in many different ways from the private and public sectors, such as reports and statistics, digital photos, and multimedia.

In today’s complicated and global world, private and governmental organizations and individuals must daily solve problems in a vast array of areas. Business concerns have to deal with advertising, direct and target marketing, facility management, financial services, manufacturing, insurance, retail siting, and property management. Local governments face issues related to community development, construction, crime analysis, demographics, education, emergency services, environmental management, land management, and tourism. The federal government has to concern itself with all aspects of health care, military and defense, natural resources, oil and gas, pipelines, public health, public information, public safety, tax assessment, and intelligence. And these are only a few of the areas requiring decisions.

All these actions happen in a geographic location and affect each other. How can we solve these complicated problems? How can we collect data and analyze it? More important, how can we devise appropriate solutions? Today, we have the technology to solve these kinds of problems: Geographic Information System (GIS).

The history of GIS is relatively short. The first GIS development and application started in Canada during the 1960s. Due to its dependence on computers and its limited capabilities, GIS technology developed simultaneously with computers. Along with the rapid development of computer capacity after the mid-1970s, GIS technology increased rapidly. Since the 1980s, the number of GIS-related companies has increased rapidly. Some of these companies produce data or specialize in producing GIS software and education, and others concentrate on solving problems. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first satellites (LANDSAT [USA], SPOT [France], and IRSS [India]) designed specifically to collect physical data about the Earth and humanity’s impact upon it were launched into orbit. As the vast majority of updateable data was not only for military purposes, but also available for public use, GIS users and developers were able to use it to solve their problems.

GIS has been used to analyze the relationship and patterns of almost all natural phenomena. GIS technology helps its users see patterns that cannot be recognized by just viewing a list or an actual map, for it brings everything together. Working with locational information, GIS has the power to solve problems we encounter every day. Whether GIS users restore habitats, plant vineyards, search for oil, fight wildfires, or measure an endangered species’ population, they also can learn more about the ability of GIS to manage natural resources.

How does GIS work?

GIS is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen on this planet. In other words, it is a computer system that assembles, stores, manipulates, and displays geographically referenced data. It integrates such common database operations as statistical analysis and query with maps. This ability sets GIS apart from other information systems, and provides valuable data to a wide range of public and private enterprises engaged in planning strategies and managing various infrastructures.

GIS allows people to create powerful maps, integrate information, visualize scenarios, solve complicated problems, present powerful ideas, and develop effective solutions. It is a tool that can be used by almost everybody: individuals, organizations, schools, governments, and businesses.

In general, GIS has two components: hardware (a desktop computer or workstation) and software. Its software produces the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display geographical information. The essential software components are tools to enter input and manipulate geographical information, a database management system (DBMS), tools to support geographic query, analysis and visualization tools, and geographic data that GIS can ingrate spatial data with others.

Essentially, GIS is a type of software application, running on a stand-alone computer or workstation, that analyses and displays multiple layers of geographic information. It can be though a spatial database. First, geographic locations on the Earth’s surface can be stored in computer files as sets of mathematical coordinates. This makes it possible to draw a map on a computer-a map of the world, the Amazon Basin, or your neighborhood. Second, it means that different map files or layers of spatial information with common geography can be displayed simultaneously and analyzed with reference to one another. On an agricultural map, for example, one layer can represent the land’s boundaries, another one can show the local streams, and still another can illustrate any changes in elevation. The analytical power of GIS lets people query the system to extract information from different layers.

GIS also is related to, and shares common features with, several other types of information systems. It can be used by desktop mapping, DBMS, computer-aided design (CAD), and global positioning system (GPS)/remote sensing GIS.

Today, GIS can be used for almost anything. However, its major users are utility companies (gas, electric, and water), cable and television companies, transportation networks (finding the quickest way and service areas on the roads), agriculture (planning crops, analyzing yields, planning the efficient application of fertilizers), federal agencies (USDA, NRCS, NGS), municipalities (urban planning), forestry (timber harvest and growth, roads in the forests, cutting and removing logs, environmental regulations, forest management), delivering products, educating children, and targeting markets. It is useful to botanists and biologists, planners, and petroleum engineers. It also can track customer sales, analyze crime patterns, route delivery truces, display soil types, and find the best location for an expanding business.

Over the past two decades, the development, acquisition, and implementation of GISs has continued to increase. Currently, it is a billion dollar industry in the United States, and is being utilized by both the public and private sector and well as academia. The declining cost of computer software and hardware, the increasingly user-friendly nature of the technology, and its increasing power have caused a rapid increase in the number of GIS uses.

The rapid and continued growth of GIS use in private industry, government, and academia has raised the concern of educational opportunities currently available to GIS practitioners. Since GIS is now a big business that is experiencing rapid growth, many new practitioners seek further education and training. In addition, GIS practitioners have acquired a professional identity that they did not have 20 years ago. GIS analysts, specialists, and project managers have been increasingly demanded both by industry and government.

References

• Dahlberg, R. E. & Jensen, J. R. “Education for Cartography and Remote Sensing in the Service of an Information Society.” The American Cartographers, Vol. 13, (1986): 51-71.
• Huxhold, W. E. et al. Managing Geographic Information System Projects. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Obermeyer, N. J. and Pinto, J. K. Managing Geographic Information Systems. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994.
• Robinson, J. H. “The Economics of Geographic Information Systems. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education,” Vol. 52, (1991): 33-42.
• Wikle,T. A. “Continuing Education and Competency Programmes in GIS.” The International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Vol. 12, No. 5, (1998): 491-507.

The personal computer industry has created an enthusiastic, ever-growing market for multimedia technology for use in homes and businesses, the high profile of Internet (‘the data superhighway’) and continuing pressure to work and learn more efficiently have added to the demand for new concepts in education and training. The characteristics in demand are flexibility, user- friendliness and lower costs.

Ten years ago computers were command-driven and mostly used for simple tasks such as word-processing. These days graphical interfaces and user-friendly programming have revolutionized the old ‘cold face’ of computer working. Applications such as Windows, OS/2, and Mac Systems are now mouse-driven, capable of multi-tasking, and less intimidating for the novice. Computers are now used for CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), graphics, communication, automation, simulation, animation, and much more. Complex tasks are easier then ever before and have replaced human labour in many areas.

Development of new and better computers, local area networks (LANs). remote access software (especially ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and ISDN (Integrated System Digital Network)), using the latest in leased and digital telephone lines, have opened up new horizons in working, teaching and learning practices. These developments in remote communication systems have greatly reduced the need to travel. Wide availability of this technology has changed the working practices of some companies fundamentally. Teleworking is recognized as a practical alternative to conventional office working. Video-conferencing facilities enable direct visual and audio contact between emote offices, and almost instantaneous information/document transfer. Working from home means not having to be in the office, more control over daily schedules, the freedom to live further from the workplace, and relief from the stresses (and costs) of commuting. The company benefits from reduced office rental and personnel costs: expertise and skills can he dialled up as needed,

Reduced hardware and software costs and increased computing power have extended and popularized teleworking applications. Medical specialists can now examine patients on a screen and give advice down a phone line: just such a link-up exists between some hospitals as far apart as the USA and Saudi Arabia. It is possible to attend a lecture without leaving one’s favourite chair, while still having the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered. ‘Distance learning’ technology has especially important implications for the disabled who can access education without the stress of getting to a class or (unless they want to) facing class-mates. New York University’s School of Continuing Education is building its own Virtual College. Other institutions, such as California Polytechnic and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, are exploring similar projects.

Interactive distance learning is not just a future project. In many isolated places in the USA school children already enjoy such facilities via dial-tip modems: they do not have to travel through rain and snow any more. And getting on to the school communications network does not cost the user any more than an ordinary telephone call.

In the past, computers in schools ate into school budgets without providing any appreciable return. In companies, investments in information technology were used mostly to automate old learning processes instead of to enable new ones. All that is starting to change. Enormous growth in CD-ROM drives, LANs and Internet connections, multimedia, and collaborative software environments, is fuelling a wave of new, better teaching tools. Networking enables virtual workgroups to be set up almost instantly. There are dial-in services that permit anytime/anyplace access to course materials and fellow students.

The technology promises more than just an improvement in educational productivity: it may deliver a qualitative change in the nature of learning itself. Because computers have no feelings, they make very patient teachers, incapable of exasperation or anger: and they can work 24 hours a day. Also, because they have enormous memory capacity and don’t make choices about what to remember, they can be responsive to questioning in many disciplines. The information they can offer can therefore be multi-disciplinary, multilevelled. Multimedia interactive packages exploit this to the benefit of system users. The consequence is a dramatic change in educational methods. Instead of a one-way information flow to the learner – typified by TV broadcast, video cassette or a teacher addressing a class of students passively taking notes – the new teaching techniques are two-way, collaborative, interactive, and interdisciplinary. Multimedia enables teaching material to change from a flat, one-dimensional text to something that moves, speaks, sings, has innumerable examples and references and lines of inquiry on hand if the individual user feels inclined to follow them up. Cut- and-paste features, now more or less standard, mean the user can compose notes, essays and reports which are just as lively and varied as the source he or she is accessing.

Studies on multimedia argue in favour of its effectiveness as a learning tool. The Software Publishers Association’s 1994 report on technology effectiveness cites accounts of measurable improvements from the use of animation, video, laser discs, CD-ROM books, and hypermedia. Cognitive studies show thaw people get 80 percent of their information visually but retain only 11 percent of that. They acquire significantly less through hearing but then remember a much higher proportion of it. A combination of the two methods is, unsurprisingly, the most effective of all boosting retention rates by as much as 50 percent. Therefore, the new system of ‘Education on demand’, in homes and on-the-job, is likely to become part of everyday learning activities.

Producing educational systems and materials has long been very big business in the world. The US spends $300 billion yearly on education from nursery through high school. More than half the schools in the country now use computers in almost every discipline, and 99 percent of schools have at least one computer. According to a report from IBM Academic Consulting, American institutions of higher education have spent an estimated $70 billion on computer-related goods and services over the past 15 years; of that amount, as much as $20 billion was for teaching and learning technology. Training magazine, in its annual industry survey, estimates that US corporations with more than 100 employees budgeted $51 billion for training in 1994. Some estimates put the total spending per year by all companies and their employees at $90 to $100 billion.

The Software Publishers Association’s Report on the Effectiveness of Technology in Schools, 1990-1994, a summary of 133 studies, found that educational technology clearly boosted student achievement, improved student attitudes and self-concept, and enhanced the quality of student-teacher relationships. In this area of learning, the most promising technologies are interactive video networking and collaboration tools. Computers are amazingly diligent teachers, they can stimulate creative thinking, promote enterprise, and sharpen curiosity. Of course, availability of hardware and software is not by itself the solution to current educational problems. Reaping the benefits of available technology first requires extensive teacher training, adapted or new curricula, and, most important, changes to educational models. Modern educational concepts emphasize individualized, hands-on learning: teamwork; and guided discovery of information. All of these require technological assistance, and they are almost impossible to achieve without the help of computers. It is right to note that for teacher training and for the preparation of individually designed course materials, the latest software packages, even with relatively little preparatory training, provide the appropriate tools.

The interactive technology has made education more accessible and more enjoyable. With the help of computers educators can tailor tutoring to the individuals own needs. There is more information about any topic these days than anybody can handle. Therefore, storing and retrieving readily available study materials on computers mean teachers can focus on explaining in form at ion instead ol conveying information. The implications of this transformation affect both students and teachers. Teachers become more like coaches, while students are free to discover knowledge on their own – they can browse, pick and choose what and how, and how fast, they want to learn.

Multimedia applications include analogue and digital video, 2-D and 3- D animation, audio, and even hyperlinks and digital links: CD-ROM discs and drives, graphics display hardware and sound cards. Digital signal processors for speech recognition and signal processing are starting to appear in desktop systems and will play an increasing role in learning systems. Given the enormous growth of CDROM-equipped PCs in homes, multimedia could soon become the key ‘crossover’ application linking the home and school markets.

Instead of the conventional broadcast model of distance learning, which requires participating students to watch a live video transmission via cable or satellite links or wait for days to receive a videotape in the mail, new schemes allow students to dial in at their convenience and participate in a class asynchronously. While it isn’t in real time, the opportunity for feedback and participation is enhanced by rich two-way communications channels.

The new employee-training concept of training on demand, learning while working. promises to bring information to employees at their workstations. Training as a separate centralized department in a company may soon be a thing of the past. The changing nature and growing diversity of the work force require new kinds of training in cultural sensitivity, communications skills, and problem solving. Employees are more geographically dispersed than in the past, and staff turnover is higher because companies and employees are less loyal to each other. Hardly anyone holds a job for life. Technology is evolving so quickly that skills require frequent refreshing. Taking workers to traditional classrooms means losing man-hours, heavier training costs and less hands-on training. Also, employee-training is a risky investment, given that the employee is free, after training, to go elsewhere. Companies are therefore trying to link learning to the job itself. This can take the form of expert systems integrated into the work area or even hand-held computers connected via wireless communications to a constantly updated information base. This kind of distant’ and ‘on-the-job’ learning is significantly less expensive than transporting employees to a central location, putting them up in hotels, and forfeiting their lost productivity. If the training material is distributed throughout the Local Area Network, trainees can pick it up for themselves. This increases retention of information and decreases learning time.

The single recent advance that is making the biggest difference in training and education is the Internet. It gives everybody easy access to information they cannot find locally or even, sometimes, nationally. Via Internet anybody can access almost any library resources in the world, talk to any interest groups or obtain any information from more than 30 million users in the Internet ‘community’. Thousands of Gopher, WWW, FTP, WAIS, ARCHIE servers offer terabytes of information on every subject imaginable. One can visit virtual galleries, virtual museums, virtual schools, virtual libraries, virtual communities, shop at virtual malls – and play games.

But, but….

Clearly the new technology facilitates access to information and in doing so makes many tasks easier, more agreeable, often more exciting. However, as we are all social beings, the importance of direct contact between people in the creation of the more subtle human skills should not be forgotten. Being paid for the efficient performance of tasks is not the only reason people work; they may also need to be out at work, away from their home-base, for purposes other than recreation, and to he physically part of a team. The sharing and exchange of experience between people. both in the context of the family and the work-place, is certainly instrumental in the creation of sound, responsible human character. That in turn is relevant to the capacity people have for making good’ decisions relating to their own and other people’s lives.

Information is not quite the same thing as knowledge, still less is knowledge to be confused with wisdom. Few parents can equal the capacity of television programmes, for example, to convey information to their children. Nevertheless, the role of parents in conveying (however indirectly and inexpertly) their experience of life to their children is the more decisive influence in moulding their children’s characters. It is certainly true that, in some families, children have more contact with the ‘present, immediate’ world of TV images than with the ‘past’ of their parents’ experience of life, but in these cases the TV is being abused, which is not the fault of the technology. Similarly, the new interactive multimedia information technologies should not be rejected because they might be abused. Rather, the dangers, the possible abuses, should be pondered and understood and proper regimes introduced to avoid the dangers. These new technologies are there and make available a vastly increased potential to get at and handle information. They cannot be a substitute for human relations, nor can they replace the learning and understanding that come through the experience of human relations.