The article deals with the issue of the impact of teaching practice on training of the future educators. At the Institute of Education and Home Management of the Latvia University of Agriculture, approaches of human pedagogy and education lie at the basis of the conceptual grounds of the school practice. The phases of the school practice are characterized and the readiness obtained by the students within the training are discussed. In every phase of the school practice, students gradually adapt themselves to the school, pedagogic and educational environments. Results of student survey on the development of readiness to pedagogic work in school educational environment and the developing role of competency are presented.

Today e-learning is a term which is commonly used, but does not have a universally accepted definition, but it can be considered as technology-enhanced learning, where all types of digital technologies are used to support the learning process. Over the years some new functionality has appeared as mobile and wireless technologies (m-learning) and digital television provided possibilities for interactive study materials management (tv-learning). Latest options for training process acceleration are offered by virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies. The aim of this paper is to find solution for appropriate hardware selection before constructing VR/AR system for training needs focusing on platforms used for operators preparation to work with industrial equipment. In the beginning of the paper all hardware devices for such systems are summarized and explained. Then by using set theory and combinatorics all possible sets of input/output devices are described and calculated. Next dynamic modelling is used to create deterministic, static simulation model with an aim to ease the process of hardware selection for VR/AR training systems development. Simulation model is used for development of two pilot projects.

This article analyses the advantages of applicable measures of motivation, taking into consideration the internal environment of an organization as a whole and focuses on the impact of internal environmental factors upon the results of the organization. The paper is based on the survey results obtained by inquiring, municipal administration employees in Lithuanian districts in February-June 2010. The goal of the research was to propose and justify theoretical components for the motivation model of municipal administration employees. The major integrated groups of motivation measures that are the most influential to the factors of internal environment as the main results of research were identified. The authors focus on the positional adjustment of the combinations of motivation measures, in order to improve the motivation of municipal administration employees.

The term "competence" has not been clearly defined in the literature. Two meanings of the term have been identified. One refers to the outputs or results of education (training), but other - to the inputs or underlying attributes needed for a person to demonstrate competent performance. Each meaning has been used to describe both individual and organizational competences. A classification of the meanings of competence is given to show that the term has several meanings depending on the purpose for which it is used. Although competence is an important concept in education, it is unclear what competence is. Constructivism is a way out of the competence confusion - we don't search for one absolute true definition, but do use the competence concept for our own purposes. At the end of article a description (definition) of competence is given. This definition is appropriate to define inputs for undergraduate programmes and to improve student's lifelong and life wide learning competences while studying undergraduate study programmes.

Training academic writing is proposed as a topical subject within the teachers' education study programme on graduate level at Latvia University of Agriculture. In order to promote the development of students personality self-actualization, we are called for introducing new digital technology as teaching-learning method contributing to opening up opportunities in training academic writing at University. How can we use the digital environment for developing formal academic writing technique in our students? The main argument is that digital environment is a key factor for changes in the teaching-learning process and organization of Teachers' Education study programme curricula as the traditional academic print world is changed. Students involved in the Teachers' Education study programme at University are using Web conducting their learning process. Academic writing as a part of learning process at University is based on cognition and activity. We propose to define the training of students' academic writing as a learning process transforming the student's knowledge in unity of two positions: curricular academic writing and informal academic writing. We propose three criteria towards the students' academic writing as heuristics, self-dependence and collaboration. How can we help our students to promote academic writing by using the digital environment? How can we help them differentiate between the appropriate and inappropriate use of information found on the Web and understand what plagiarism is and how is to be avoided?

Latvia has a long-standing traditions in adult education, but only since Latvia regained its independence in 1991, it has obtained a wide public response. Willingness to learn of farmers is increasing every year. The present report describes the latest tendencies in the further education of farmers and states that they are related to changes in social, economical and political situation of the country.

This paper presents the consequences of technology transfer, identifies policy issues/research concerns associated with technology transfer in rural development and identifies socio-cultural areas of concern in the training of extension workers involved in technology transfer activities. Using as basis for analysis, the author looks into the transfer of Azolla technology, hybrid seed production, Masagana 99 package of technology, farm mechanization, and introduction of post-production technology. After studying the above technology transfer activities, the author recommends the following: a) for any technology transfer activity, a state of the art of technology development and transfer must be made available so that a thorough analysis on the social aspects can be made. b) a feedback mechanism to create awareness on socio-cultural dimensions of policy issues associated with technology transfer in rural development must be created. c) a training program for the change agents who will be involved in the technology transfer activities should be developed. d) piloting of a technology at the micro level before nationwide scale promotion should be encouraged. e) a greater number of farmers in technology development and transfer should be involved particularly with regard to decision making.