This volume offers an expansion of ideas presented at a recent conference convened to identify the major strategies and more promising practices for assessing technology. The authors -- representing government, business, and university sectors -- helped to set the boundaries of present technology assessment by offering perspectives from computer science, cognitive and military psychology, and education. Their work explores both the use of techniques to assess technology and the use of technology to facilitate the assessment process.
The book's main purpose is to portray the state of the art in technology assessment and to provide conceptual options to help readers understand the power of technology. Technological innovation will continue to develop its own standards of practice and effectiveness. To the extent that these practices are empirically based, designers, supporters, and consumers will be given better information for their decisions.

This volume identifies promising learning, teaching, and assessment strategies for the use and assessment of technology in educational settings, specifically: *educational context (e.g., organizational and structural factors that contribute to the effective use of technology in school settings); *promising learning and teaching strategies; *promising technology-based assessment procedures and methods; *policy implementation issues; and *a summary of current research on the effective use of technology in education. Chapter authors represent a variety of perspectives and disciplines, from computer science, cognitive and educational psychology, and educational administration. Authors represent government, business, and university communities from within and outside the U.S. These multiple perspectives contribute to the overall understanding of current technology use in education and help in identifying future research needs. Technology Applications in Education: A Learning View explores the state of the art of technology in K-16 education from a learning perspective rather than a hardware/software view. It is designed for professionals and graduate students in the educational technology, training, assessment/evaluation, school administration, military psychology, and educational psychology communities. This book is characterized in the following montage of factors: *the primacy of learning as a focus for technology implementation; *a focus on technology uses in K-16 education; *a focus on the assessment of both individuals and teams; *a broad variety of methodological approaches from qualitative to instructional design to quantitative (e.g., structural equation modeling); *a need to support the development of technology-based curriculum and tools; and *a need for theory-driven and evaluation studies to increase our knowledge.

"Aircrew Training and Assessment" is designed for professionals in the aviation psychology, human factors, assessment and evaluation, vocational, technical, educational psychology, and educational technology communities. It explores the state of the art in the training and assessment of aircrews and includes a review and description of the use of simulations in the area of aircrew training and assessment.
An aircrew consists of one or more persons who are responsible for achieving a mission goal through use of an aircraft. Depending on one's point of view, an aircrew can be as small as one pilot flying a single-seat aircraft, or as large as a full crew operating an airliner. Despite advances in aircrew selection and human factors engineering techniques, the need for better aircrew training is still readily apparent. For example, in the military, the missions requiring aircrews keep getting more complex. Simulation is used extensively in both military and civilian training to deal with this complexity.
The book is organized into two major sections: models and tools for training of aircrews and models and tools for assessment of aircrew training. Both military and civilian environments are covered, as well as individual and team training.

This volume identifies promising learning, teaching, and assessment strategies for the use and assessment of technology in educational settings, specifically:
*educational context (e.g., organizational and structural factors that contribute to the effective use of technology in school settings);
*promising learning and teaching strategies;
*promising technology-based assessment procedures and methods;
*policy implementation issues; and
*a summary of current research on the effective use of technology in education.
Chapter authors represent a variety of perspectives and disciplines, from computer science, cognitive and educational psychology, and educational administration. Authors represent government, business, and university communities from within and outside the U.S. These multiple perspectives contribute to the overall understanding of current technology use in education and help in identifying future research needs. "Technology Applications in Education: A Learning View" explores the state of the art of technology in K-16 education from a learning perspective rather than a hardware/software view. It is designed for professionals and graduate students in the educational technology, training, assessment/evaluation, school administration, military psychology, and educational psychology communities.
This book is characterized in the following montage of factors:
*the primacy of learning as a focus for technology implementation;
*a focus on technology uses in K-16 education;
*a focus on the assessment of both individuals and teams;
*a broad variety of methodological approaches from qualitative to instructional design to quantitative (e.g., structural equation modeling);
*a need to support the development of technology-based curriculum and tools; and
*a need for theory-driven and evaluation studies to increase our knowledge.

Current economic difficulties and the challenge of competing in the world market have necessitated a rethinking of American approaches to the utilization of people in organizations. Management now recognizes a need to have workers take on more responsibility at the points of production, of sale, and of service rendered if the United States is to compete in rapidly changing world markets. This development means that much more is expected of even entry-level members of the American workforce. Thus, even more is expected of our high schools and colleges to provide this type of workforce.
The need of American management for workers with greater skills and who can take on greater responsibility has spawned many commissions, task forces, and studies. All of them have contributed to the vast evidence documenting the need for a more highly skilled workforce. These studies are summarized and synthesized in this book. However, what remains largely undone is the development of methods to assess the necessary skills that have been identified. A major portion of this book deals with assessment issues.
"Workforce Readiness: Competencies and Assessment" explores the state-of-the-art in the specification of competencies (skills) and their assessment for students entering the world of work from both high school and college. Both individual and team competencies are examined via data that has been reported and collected in various settings--schools, laboratories, and industrial facilities.

Current economic difficulties and the challenge of competing in the world market have necessitated a rethinking of American approaches to the utilization of people in organizations. Management now recognizes a need to have workers take on more responsibility at the points of production, of sale, and of service rendered if the United States is to compete in rapidly changing world markets. This development means that much more is expected of even entry-level members of the American workforce. Thus, even more is expected of our high schools and colleges to provide this type of workforce.
The need of American management for workers with greater skills and who can take on greater responsibility has spawned many commissions, task forces, and studies. All of them have contributed to the vast evidence documenting the need for a more highly skilled workforce. These studies are summarized and synthesized in this book. However, what remains largely undone is the development of methods to assess the necessary skills that have been identified. A major portion of this book deals with assessment issues.
"Workforce Readiness: Competencies and Assessment" explores the state-of-the-art in the specification of competencies (skills) and their assessment for students entering the world of work from both high school and college. Both individual and team competencies are examined via data that has been reported and collected in various settings--schools, laboratories, and industrial facilities.

This volume presents a variety of overall assessments of technology and individual descriptions of work-in-progress. Supported by private funders, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and a variety of other sources, these efforts address education programs focused on specific subject matter such as mathematics or troubleshooting of school-based learning using computers. They also focus on classes of technology such as intelligent systems, distance learning, and hypertext. Taken together, they portray the range of strategies through which we can begin to understand the impact of educational technology in the future. In addition, they illustrate different approaches currently adopted by technology designers to place and explain their work in a larger context.
Each of the chapters presents a different point of entry on the technology assessment problem. Even those nominally focused on a single implementation, such as testing or teacher observation, demonstrate the clear interest by their authors in the larger implications of their work.