CONTENTS
Welcome - to new recipients
Upfront - -Themes From the IUC Workshop in Maryland
Focus - Virtual Institute for Technology, Teaching, and Learning (VITAL)
Campus Update - compiled information - add new information
DE Clearinghouse - -UW Courses Now on the Clearinghouse Website
FYI - news and reminders
June DESIEN Focus - -Developing and Assessing the Distance
Education Course - Evil in the Western World
Endnote: -A New Type Of Person
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WELCOME: to new DESIEN-List recipients Madeleine Wright, Terry Wirkus, and Bill Fletcher.

Madeleine, who teaches at the UW Center in Baraboo, will become chair of the Centers+ Dept. of Foreign Languages starting June 1. This summer she will be developing a Medical Terminology course to be offered from Baraboo to Rock in the fall, using both compressed video and audiographics. Terry is the new Distance Education Specialist at UW-La Crosse, working with Jim Jorstad. He has 24 years of experience in both radio and television broadcasting and is looking forward to his new distance education career. Bill is a consultant in communications and strategic planning in Rochester, New York and is researching distance learning techniques to convert his live sessions to sessions on-line.

UPFRONT: -Themes From the International University Consortium (IUC) Workshop at the University of Maryland, May 6-8. I was fortunate to be able to attend the International University Consortium Workshop at College Park in Maryland. Several themes surfaced throughout the keynote speaker and workshop sessions that I would like to share:

The term "distance learning" will gradually be assimilated into the general term "education." Technology will be used increasingly -in the classroom- as well as for remote learning.

The distance learning environment is comprised of many variables that are essential to consider and support in order to provide quality learning experiences: learner, instructor, team concept, administration/policy, marketing, access, registration, technology, program design, support services, resources, sites/coordinators, feedback and evaluation.

. Everyone working in the turbulent environment of distance learning is -catalyst+ for change. Each one has a responsibility to help others through the present, very difficult period of transition.

. This is a crucial time to develop standards that will form a foundation for new rules and new policies for this new environment.

. In developing distance education courses, instructional design teams must focus on -performance and outcomes, incorporate interaction, engage the learner in -real life experiences, and integrate feedback and evaluation throughout the process.

. In this new electronic environment, free access to information will be essential. Learning to use this information selectively will become one of our major challenges.

And a final thought-provoking statement and question -

. Virtual reality will be the next frontier for educators. The role of the University has been to produce "virtual realities" from which to predict "reality." How will the "electronic virtual reality" be different?

If you have attended distance learning conferences or workshops recently,
please share some of that information with DESIEN.
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FOCUS

"The Virtual Institute for Technology, Teaching, and Learning (VITAL):
a Statewide K-12 Professional Development Initiative."
by
Professor Sally Standiford, UW-River Falls
and
Rosemary Lehman, ICS, UWEX

During the summer of 1995, University of Wisconsin-Extension Chancellor, Don Hanna, asked Sally Standiford, a teacher educator and Director of Educational Technology at UW-River Falls and Rosemary Lehman, Distance Education Specialist with ICS, UW-Extension, to identify and convene a Steering Committee of K-12 teachers/administrators and University of Wisconsin faculty/staff. The goal was to explore ways in which the UW institutions might bring the resources of the University System to Wisconsin K-12 schools and teachers in order to help them more effectively use instructional technologies in teaching and learning.

Steering Committee meetings began in early fall of 1995 and have continued on a regular basis during the past year. During the late summer and early fall, Sally and Rosemary also set up and implemented a series of focus groups, surveys, and interviews with K-12 teachers and other stakeholders to further assess needs and to begin to gather information of best practices already in progress across the state.

As a result of the work of the Steering Committee and the information that was gathered, a proposal was developed to create a Professional Development Virtual Institute of Technology, Teaching, and Learning (VITAL) for the professional development of Wisconsin K-12 schools and teachers.

K-12 schools and teachers are moving in the direction of creating real-world curricula and exploring ways to use current, new, and emerging technologies. By tapping into these technologies, teachers are beginning to change the environment of learning from that of the traditional classroom to an environment of virtually limitless combinations of resources and capabilities. Indeed, there is a rapidly growing collection of Wisconsin school successes and innovations scattered across the state.

While most teachers recognize the power and potential of technology, many need assistance in overcoming the many obstacles to integrating technology into their curriculum. Part of the difficulty appears to stem from a lack of access to resources which could assist them in better understanding and using technology. This is where VITAL can play a truly vital part.

VITAL's goal is to tap the rich resources of the Wisconsin universities and centers, partner with K-12 stakeholders across the state, and create a professional development process to assist teachers in maximizing the potential of instructional technologies. This process will also assist schools in developing school and district plans for technology, and promote active and pedagogically sound learning.

VITAL, establishes professional development as the foundation for curriculum reform, and offers four major attributes: 1) a professional development process delivering instruction on-site at regional centers or via distance learning technologies; 2) a WWW Clearinghouse of Wisconsin and other "best practices" of instructional technology (IT) curriculum projects; 3) electronic facilities and processes for ongoing curriculum development support; and 4) support for community-based IT strategic planning initiatives and citizen awareness.

The professional development process embodied in VITAL addresses the developmental stages of enhancing the teaching-learning process using IT; acknowledges varying degrees of involvement by school districts and teachers; permits individual starting points; and provides interactive regional teaching and learning communities for mutual support that will help direct and sustain change. In its implementation, the Institute will model dynamic and creative learning environments and the ethical use of IT.

For Phase One of VITAL, two primary goals have been established:

* develop and implement VITAL for the professional development of Wisconsin K-12 teachers.

[A VITAL Pilot Project has been funded for 1996-97 through a Goals 2000 grant submitted by River Falls and Hudson School Districts and UW-River Falls. Highlights of the VITAL pilot include two strategic planning workshops, a professional development summer institute, four academic year curriculum design/assessment seminars, monthly technology labs, assignment of university student mentors to participating school faculty for ongoing technical support,
and a "best practices" conference at the end of the year.]

* document and make public Wisconsin and other "best practices" which use (IT) for professional development and K-12 curriculum projects.

[To date, detailed descriptions of more than 25 Wisconsin "best practices" have been written. Plans are underway to publish these electronically on the WWW. We invite everyone to nominate/self-nominate other "best practices." We continue to work on a process that will make collecting these descriptions relatively easy and useful to other educators.]

Future Goals include:

* encouraging and supporting school districts in the development of school district (IT) strategic planning and the development of citizen awareness programs, and

* promoting equitable and appropriate access to current, new, and emerging IT resources for all Wisconsin teachers and students.

VITAL+s most recent development is the selection of an Advisory Board to inform the development of VITAL in the pursuit of its goals and to help ensure that the assistance the University of Wisconsin provides is appropriate, relevant, and meaningful. The Advisory Board members were selected for their leadership in the area of technology and its relationship to K-12 schools. The Board is comprised of Wisconsin K-12 teachers and administrators, education association staff, professional development and technology consultants, business leaders, and university faculty. The Board will have its initial meeting on June 3 at the Wisconsin Center in Madison. Glenn Davison will serve as the Advisory Board chair.

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CAMPUS UPDATE

( Following is a compilation of information sent in during the last three months. Please add new information about your institution's distance education progress below.)

UW CENTERS - UWC-Baraboo is developing a course on Medical Terminology to be offered from Baraboo to Rock in the fall of 1996, using compressed video and audiographics. (Sara Toenes, Assoc. Prof. of French, UWC-Waukesha)

UW-EAU CLAIRE - Ron Mickel, Coordinator of Network for Excellence in Teaching (NET), UW-Eau Claire and English Prof. Pam Gilbert of UW-Parkside are collaborating on developing a distance education course, "Evil in the Western World," and assessing its effectiveness. (see June DESIEN Issue Focus)

UW-GREEN BAY -

UW-LA CROSSE - Terry Wirkus has been hired as the new Distance Education Specialist at UW-La Crosse. UW-La Crosse also has a new Distance Education page on the web. The URL is:
http://www.uwlax.edu/InfoTech/Media/DistanceEd.html.
(Jim Jorstad, Director Media Services/Educational Television Center)

UW-La Crosse recently (April 26-27) hosted the Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council (UTIC) Conference, "Virtually There: Teaching, Learning, and Technology for the 21st Century."

UW-MADISON -

UW-MILWAUKEE - UW-Milwaukee has created a Distance Infrastructure Committee to coordinate distance education activities on their campus. Thus far the Committee has focused their attention on assessing the distance education courses in Business and Library Science that are being transmitted from Milwaukee this semester and creating a campus checklist for coordinating and overseeing distance education courses. The campus check list is designed to ensure that proper planning and reporting of distance-based instruction is carried out as effectively as possible. We plan on sharing the results of the Committee's work with DESIEN when our work has been completed later this Spring. (Sona K. Andrews, Assis. Vice Chancellor of UW-Milwaukee)

UW-OSHKOSH -

UW-PLATTEVILLE -

UW-RIVER FALLS - River Falls and Hudson School Districts and UW-River Falls have received a Goals 2000 grant to implement a Virtual Institute for Technology, Teaching, and Learning (VITAL) Project. (Prof. Sally Standiford - see FOCUS article)

UW-PARKSIDE - (see UW-Eau Claire)

UW-STEVENS POINT - UW-Stevens Point recently worked with ICS to implement two compressed video information sessions: one for VIPs from the city of Stevens Point and one for university faculty.

UW-STOUT -

UW-SUPERIOR - A new distance education classroom will be ready this fall in Barstow Hall of UW-Superior, with seating in excess of 40 people. (Mary Jane Sullivan, Dir. Continuing Education and Extension)



UW-WHITEWATER - UW-Whitewater recently worked with ICS to incorporate Radio Hall as a remote site for faculty training. Another session is set up for June.
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FROM THE DISTANCE EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE
NETNEWS
Michele Jacques
"UW Courses Now on the Clearinghouse Website"

Distance Education Clearinghouse on the web at:
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html


The information for the Fall,1996 UW distance education courses is now available on the Distance Education Clearinghouse website. You can find it from the link "Programs and Courses" which is on the Clearing-house's homepage:
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html

The course information on the Clearinghouse is derived from information compiled for the new University of Wisconsin Distance Learning Catalog. Over 100 courses are listed in 17 subject areas. These courses include both credit and non-credit courses, offered via the regional and statewide networks and delivery systems. Please note that with the website listings, course information will no longer be posted on the gopher version of the Clearinghouse.

For the web, we will be creating a searchable database of the courses so that users will be able to select specific elements to find courses which match their particular needs. An example of such a database is on the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System website at:
http://madison.ind.net/cgi-bin/pse-coursesview2.query The database of courses from the Indiana Partnership For Statewide Education has some similar features when compared to ours, although our database will not be identical to theirs. The present course format which you now see on the Clearinghouse is temporary. Our intention was to avoid any delay of the distribution of the basic information. We are in the process of developing a more permanent format.

I would also like to alert you to some newly added Clearinghouse features that include:

--a link to information about the Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation (WATF) and Educational Technology Board (ETB) Common Grant Application Guidelines Forms Application (the next deadline is June 14)
--the full conference brochure and schedule for the 12th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning (Madison, August 7-9)
--a link to the information from the Distance Learning Funding $ource- book, a valuable collection of resources compiled by Arlene Krebs
--the press release about the new relationship between UW-Extension and Lotus Institute to research and develop a flexible education delivery system

You can find the links to these and other sources information by clicking on the "New Items" button on the homepage of the Clearinghouse.

My thanks to Milly Jones for collecting the course information for both the Clearinghouse and the Distance Learning Catalog.

Please send me any comments, suggestions, and questions about the Distance Education Clearinghouse. I can be reached at: jacques@ics.uwex.edu or by phone at 608-265-6178


Michele M. Jacques
Project Coordinator, WWW
Distance Education Clearinghouse
Instructional Communications Systems
University of Wisconsin-Extension

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FYI

NEWS AND REMINDERS:

ICS WORKSHOPS - Instructional Communications Systems (ICS) develops Orientation and Advanced Technologies Workshops upon request. The Technologies include: audioconferencing, satellite videoconferencing, audiographics, and compressed video. Computer workshops are in the planning process. Contact: ICS 608-262-4342.

VIDEOTAPE/PRINT PACKAGE -Breaking New Ground: Faculty Perspectives is a 32 min. videotape and print package that focuses on five UW faculty who have successfully taught via compressed video. For an information flyer and order form send your fax # to -
lehman@ics.uwex.edu.

TEACHING AT A DISTANCE- This is a one undergraduate or graduate credit course, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundations of Education Departments, Education Outreach in cooperation with UW-Extension. Contact - University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Extension Outreach 715-836-5843.

INTERNATIONAL WORLD CONFERENCE - The 18th ICDE World Conference is scheduled for June 2-6, 1996 and will be hosted by the Pennsylvania State University. The conference theme is "The New Learning Environment: A Global Perspective." Contact - Gary Miller, The Pennsylvania State University, 211 Mitchell Bldg., University Park, PA 16802.

MAINE CONFERENCE - The University of Maine at Augusta, will hold its 10th Annual Conference Sept. 26, 27, and 28, 1996. The Conference theme is, "Yesterday's Dreams Are Today's Reality: Quality and Access in Distance Education and Training." Contact - 207-621-3170.

12th ANNUAL CONFERENCE - The Madison, Wisconsin Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning will be held August 7-9, 1996. The conference theme is "Designing for Learning." Contact - Nancy Kolberg, 608-264-9689.

TELELEARNING '96 - "Distance Education - the New Focus" is scheduled for October 2-5, 1996, Chicago, Illinois. Contact - 1-800-988-4555.

TELECON XVI - Call for Papers for the annual teleconferencing user's conference, "Connecting to the Desktop," October 29-31,1996, Anaheim, California. Contact - 1-800-829-3400.

WETC - Well over 120 proposals have been received for the Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference (WETC), October 8-10, 1996, Green Bay, Wisconsin. The purpose of the conference is to advance the application of technology at all levels of education and training (pre-kindergarten through adult) in instruction, curriculum, learning resources, special needs, administration, and planning. Contact - Sandra Carman, 608-266-0001.
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JUNE DESIEN ISSUE FOCUS: -Developing and Assessing the Distance Education Course - Evil in the Western World by NET Coordinator, Ron Mickel, UW-Eau Claire and Prof. Pam Gilbert, UW-Parkside.

ENDNOTE: -A New Type of Person - As we all continue to work with existing and new technologies, it is becoming more and more apparent that the effective application and use of technologies will involve new ways of perceiving, designing, teaching, reading, organizing, and learning . One of the themes at the IUC Maryland Conference was that new technologies and their use in education are beginning to define a new type of person. Is the use of new technologies leading us to enhanced levels of perception? If so, what does this mean for education and how can educators best guide this process? The research literature is beginning to explore this area in more depth. What are your experiences, thoughts, and comments? This topic will be explored further in the next issue.
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DESIEN ARCHIVE: An Archive has been created for past issues and interaction comments. Locate at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien.html

DESIEN has been created to encourage information exchange and discussion of distance education issues concerned with: 1) Symposium team progress and institution course/program development, 2)faculty/team development,3)technology, 4) policy, 5) funding, and 6) research among participants, presenters, and organizers of the 1994 UW-Extension/UW System Distance Education Symposium. Other List recipients are also welcome to join in with information contributions and discussion.

Each monthly issue will focus on an "area of interest", feature a regular column on the Distance Education Clearinghouse by Michele Jacques, contain an FYI section, and list future areas of focus. Your continuous input through updates, features, questions, and dialogue will be instrumental in helping DESIEN evolve and grow.

DESIEN is a one-year pilot project, September, 1995 to September, 1996 and will be evaluated at the end of that time. The coordinators of DESIEN are Rosemary Lehman and Pat Takemoto. The owner of DESIEN is Rosemary Lehman, lehman@ics.uwex.edu. Please contact Rosemary if you have concerns or problems.