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The authors investigated faculty and student perceptions regarding the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in the classroom. Students differed markedly from faculty, with students exhibiting much greater acceptance of in-class use of technology. Among students, the authors found that gender affected perceptions. Specifically, male students were more accepting of in-class use of technology than were female students. Also, graduate students were more disturbed by off-task use of laptop computers in class than their undergraduate counterparts. This research should be of interest to postsecondary educators and administrators in attempting to bridge the student-faculty generation gap, and in formulating policies regarding the use of electronic devices in the classroom. (Contains 13 tables and 7 notes.)

Graduate business education has been criticized for utilizing simplistic teaching strategies that compromise the presentation of real-world complex skills in the classroom. In this article, we propose that complex management functions can be effectively taught using decomposition strategies. We demonstrate the usefulness of this strategy in the domain of business forecasting by comparing the forecast accuracy of students instructed in decomposition ("RBF-Instructed") with that of students not exposed to such instruction ("Uninstructed"), as well as with an expert system called Rule-Based Forecasting (RBF). "RBF-Instructed" students demonstrated significant improvements over "Uninstructed" students and were at least as accurate as the RBF system. Our findings suggest that academics engaged in teaching complex domains can benefit from building their teaching environment on a decomposition framework. We further suggest strategies for measuring the effectiveness and endurance of classroom knowledge thus imparted. Implications for academia and practice are discussed and a research framework is proposed.

Because of the well known side effects, and the lack of effectiveness, of much of conventional cancer treatment, many people with cancer have opted for alternative therapies. This follows a general trend toward self-care and active involvement of patients in their own treatment. Education has led to growing dissatisfaction on the part of patients and even some physicians with conventional approaches, which have not changed much in decades, and have not improved survival rates for most cancers. It is largely the better educated patient who is trying unconventional approaches. An estimated $10 billion is spent on unproven cancer treatments each year, with no effective means of evaluation. One of the primary reasons for choosing alternative therapies is to avoid the toxic effects of chemotherapy. In order to determine whether patients were better off with conventional or alternative treatment, 117 patients with end-stage cancer, half receiving conventional therapy and half receiving alternative therapy at the Livingston-Wheeler Medical Clinic were studied. As expected, length of survival did not differ between the two groups. Because there was no effective conventional treatment for these patients, both methods of treatment were equally futile, suggesting the need for no-treatment arms of research trials. Both groups of patients suffered adverse effects, whether on conventional or alternative therapies, but patients at Livingston-Wheeler were more likely to report adverse effects than patients receiving conventional therapy. Lower scores on quality of life may have been the result of higher expectations with alternative therapies, or perhaps a poorer quality of life originally motivated these patients to seek unconventional methods. Only one alternative method was studied here, at one center, and it was matched against one university hospital. This greatly limits any conclusions that can be drawn, but it is clear that future studies should compare a group receiving only pain relief with those receiving treatment, as well as patients who have some hope of survival. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Tested the hypothesis that increasing library services would increase returns of a questionnaire generated by that library. Students and faculty were surveyed before and after new services were offered at Wharton School. Results suggest source of sponsorship should be related to user group to be surveyed to maximize return rate. (CDD)