Factors driving the trend toward customer-focused electronic learning (CFEL) include the increased sophistication of products and services, the need to reduce the customer training burden, and the need to bolster revenues. CFEL can shift training from a support role to a marketing tool and a profit center. (JOW)

The study of personal finance, including money management, income and spending, saving and investing, and the use of credit, has never found a home in schools. Business educators who teach how to manage the world of work should also teach how to manage the money earned there. (JOW)

A survey asked 323 teenagers what they want to know about financial management. Most indicated that using money to buy things they need made money important to them. Their responses differed from what 67 adults surveyed thought they needed to know. (JOW)

Women who were familiar (n=97) and unfamiliar (n=91) with nutrition labels were studied. All could locate label data; those who were unfamiliar were significantly less able to interpret the information. Both groups were similar in their assessment of the information's accuracy. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/JOW)

Counterfeiting is a serious problem facing several industries, including the medical, agricultural, and apparel industries (Bloch, Bush, & Campbell, 1993). The authors investigated whether ethical viewpoints affect perceptions of the morality of particular shopping behaviors, attitudes toward counterfeit products, and intentions to purchase such…

The field of adult education exists within a context of consumer capitalism, although adult educators have failed to acknowledge how central consumption is to today's society. Traditional consumer education has typically focused on technical skills, and thus positions itself outside the social, political, and cultural realms. In this article, the…

Over a decade ago, Oduran (1993) argued that consumer education was an emerging frontier of adult education. While the Adult Performance Level (APL) project in the 1970s sparked some interest in consumer and life skills within adult basic education and English as a second language (Lankshear, 1993; Levine, 1986; Sandlin, 2000), and while this push…

Providing a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer, this digest discusses the omnipresence of advertisements, suggesting ways for consumers to recognize advertising appeals. Deceptive advertising is discussed, with particular attention paid to financial advertising. (RS)

This report presents information on checking accounts, describes how to read a monthly statement from the bank, and provides guidelines for balancing a checkbook. Topics covered include: how banks record transactions; the importance of keeping personal records and of balancing the checkbook promptly; what happens when there are insufficient funds…

This report explains the importance of keeping personal records, describes types of records to keep, and suggests places in which to keep them and ways to organize them. Guidelines are offered for keeping the following types of records: (1) personal documents (family records, wills, passports, diplomas, and social security cards); (2) property…

This article suggests ways for the physical education profession to combat the unreliable physical fitness gimmicks and gadgets that are sold to the public. (RC)

Author attempted to enlighten the public to the pitfalls of psychotherapy and put the burden of credibility upon the psychotherapist to show that their work is better than no treatment at all. (RK)

The article discusses a few of the consumer education resources (outside speakers, field trips, newspapers and other media, consumer organizations, credit bureaus, Federal and State agencies, and the Consumer Resource Directory) that are available to teachers in most communities and offers suggestions on how to effectively use them. (BP)

Prepare to teach a convincingly up-to-date unit on consumer credit by becoming acquainted with the people who consider these terms tools and not simply test items for a good matching test. (Author)