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This paper investigates the usability of educational metadata schemas with respect to the case of the MALTED (Multimedia Authoring Language Teachers and Educational Developers) project at University College London (UCL). The project aims to facilitate authoring of multimedia materials for language learning by allowing teachers to share multimedia materials for language teaching, and offering a comparatively easy interface for retrieving materials and composing exercises and courses from them. Although a brief description of the MALTED system is given, the paper focuses on usability problems encountered by the project during the development of the MALTED system. The work finds that there are serious incompatibilities between the current educational metadata schema, as promoted by the Learning Object Metadata (LOM) working group of the IEEE Learning Technologies Standardization Committee, and the way language teachers actually go about authoring teaching materials. (Author)

This paper reports on a study that examined teacher recruitment and retention practices in the Northern Mariana Islands public school system. The study was conducted due to shortages of special education teachers and related services personnel. Based on a review of school district documents on recruitment and retention practices and interviews with the Commissioner of Education and other educational stakeholders, a survey instrument was developed for interviewing teachers and administrators responsible for K-12 education on three Northern Mariana islands. As a result of these interviews, 17 recommendations were proposed that relate to "intent to employ" or employment contracts; involvement of administrators responsible for hiring personnel; development of a structured interview process for teacher screening and selection; access of administrators to recruitment information; a standard employment contract of 190 days rather than a 12-month contract; written procedures describing the recruitment process; designating one person to be responsible for recruitment and retention activities; a consistent salary model across all instructional staff members; extension of the Teacher Corps concept to 9th- and 10th-grade students; a recruitment videotape to chronicle the area's environment, activities, and opportunities; a systematic, comprehensive, and coordinated program of staff development; a comprehensive program of induction for all professional staff members; a formative teacher evaluation program; a uniform salary model that is competitive for all teachers; retirement deadlines prohibiting mid-year retirements; outreach recruitment programs to the community, families, and other human service agencies; and efforts to insure the diversity of professional educators. (LP)

This paper reports on a study that examined teacher recruitment and retention practices in the Northern Mariana Islands public school system. The study was conducted due to shortages of special education teachers and related services personnel. Based on a review of school district documents on recruitment and retention practices and interviews with the Commissioner of Education and other educational stakeholders, a survey instrument was developed for interviewing teachers and administrators responsible for K-12 education on three Northern Mariana islands. As a result of these interviews, 17 recommendations were proposed that relate to "intent to employ" or employment contracts; involvement of administrators responsible for hiring personnel; development of a structured interview process for teacher screening and selection; access of administrators to recruitment information; a standard employment contract of 190 days rather than a 12-month contract; written procedures describing the recruitment process; designating one person to be responsible for recruitment and retention activities; a consistent salary model across all instructional staff members; extension of the Teacher Corps concept to 9th- and 10th-grade students; a recruitment videotape to chronicle the area's environment, activities, and opportunities; a systematic, comprehensive, and coordinated program of staff development; a comprehensive program of induction for all professional staff members; a formative teacher evaluation program; a uniform salary model that is competitive for all teachers; retirement deadlines prohibiting mid-year retirements; outreach recruitment programs to the community, families, and other human service agencies; and efforts to insure the diversity of professional educators. (LP)

'Problems In Paradise by Umesh Patri - Hindu Writers Forum'