THEME - A Multipart Series: Looking at Effective Practices

UPFRONT - Effective Practices
FOCUS - Wisconsin Technology Leadership Academy & Technology Institutes for Educators - Debbi King
UW TTT INNOVATIVE PROJECTS - April Innovative Learning Technology Projects
UW LIBRARY SUPPORT - CNP Library Services Web site
UW CAMPUS HILIGHTS - UW Campus Information
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - Wisconsin's August Distance Learning Conference, Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference Update
NEW TECH TRENDS - PCs for Little Tikes
LEGAL ISSUES IN DISTANCE EDUCATION - What Every Institution Should Know
ETC. - Getting to Know the MOO Community, Two Publications
NEW ON THE LIST - New Subscribers This Month
FYI - News, Conferences and Institutes
ENDNOTE - Internet2 Receives $500 Million Boost, Negroponte Predicts
MAY ISSUE FOCUS - Effective Practices - Planning Effective Electronic Meetings

UPFRONT
Effective Practices

In this series, we've looked at a variety of Effective Practices. The series began with Odd Haddal's UW-Platteville article on the effective use of the Southwest Rural Telecommunications network. Odd also wrote about Platteville's successful Extended Degree Program now on the Internet and about a ten-week Engineering refresher course being taught via compressed video. This was followed by Dave Wolover 's article on the UW-Colleges 14-site videoconferencing system planning and development. This month focuses on a model for training K-12 teachers in technology integration, the Wisconsin Technology Leadership Academy and Technology Institutes for Educators, by Debbi King, UW-Eau Claire. We'll end the Effective Practices series next month with an article on holding effective electronic meetings. In June, we'll begin a new series on the critical, and vastly underestimated importance of distance education support: technical support, faculty support, special resources support and special needs support. (Rosemary Lehman)

To submit a FOCUS article or special section information, contact: lehman@ics.uwex.edu

FOCUS
Debbi King
HSS Outreach, UW-Eau Claire

Wisconsin Technology Leadership Academy & Technology Institutes for Educators

The program now known as the Technology Institute for Educators (TIE) began as a PK-12 Initiative of University of Wisconsin-Extension. The success of that first year led to the request to continue, improve and expand the initiative that now includes the Wisconsin Instructional Technology Academy (WITLA) and the TIE. With financial support from UW-System, these two initiatives work together to meet the professional development needs of PK-12 professionals in the use of instructional technology in the classroom curriculum.

The TIE is a three-phase institute consisting of a four-day Summer Institute, follow-up site consultations and a spring semester "Projects Showcase" gathering of participant teams to share their complete curriculum projects.

Critical to the success of this program is the collaboration between a local university office of continuing education, the local Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) and local school districts. Five campus locations throughout the state of Wisconsin cooperated in this program: UW-Eau Claire, UW-Green Bay, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville and UW-Whitewater. Continuing education directors/program managers served as the administrators and fiscal managers of their local TIE and coordinated local contacts with the area CESA(s) and PK-12 school districts.

While administrators were planning their local programs, preparations were made for the training of these local TIE instructor/facilitator teams at the Wisconsin Instructional Technology Leadership Academy (WITLA). Members of the original Design Team and instructor/facilitators from the first Technology Institute for Educators were brought in as Master Teachers to guide participants through the development of a training curriculum and a resource manual for use in their local TIE.

The five teams of TIE instructor/facilitators met for the WITLA in late March for this training of trainers program. After attending the WITLA, the five newly trained teams returned to their work district and/or region to serve as the instructors for their local TIE. As local TIEs are developed, the instructor/facilitators keep in mind what was learned at WITLA and follow the philosophy that learning is enhanced through effective use of technology allowing learners to interact, identify problems and solutions, and access and assess information previously unavailable in the learning environment.

Teams of four to six professionals from school districts attend the TIE together to:

Create curriculum projects to address the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards.
Examine how information and technology literacy changes curriculum and learning.
Acquire technical skills needed to integrate instructional technology into curriculum.
Study assessment strategies for a technology enhanced environment.
Enhance team-building skills to design, communicate and implement their instructional technology projects.
Model ethical and competent use of instructional technology for students and colleagues.
Develop a collegial network for future project development and consultation.

Master instructors, the project director and an outside evaluator will assess these activities at WITLA. Evaluation at the subsequent TIE sites will follow. In each case, it will be necessary to determine effectiveness and quality of learning, convenience of physical site and appropriateness for instructors and participants, program administration and cost recovery.

Teachers across the state will be able to attend these programs that will help prepare them to meet the new Wisconsin Model Academic Standards. Project director, Debbi King, hired by UW-Extension has led the coordination of the WITLA and the collaboration between the offices of continuing education at each of the participating campuses. This has allowed the programs to have continuity in leadership. Local campuses will be able to continue to do TIE programming in the future on a cost-recovery basis utilizing the model developed with their participation in this year's project. Individuals trained at the WITLA will become part of an ever-growing list of WITLA " trained-experts," available to participate in future Academies and Ties in other regions of the State.

UW TTT INNOVATIVE PROJECTS
April Innovative Learning Technology Projects

This month Teaching with Technology Today (TTT) has highlighted four Learning Technology projects: Mathematics - Prof. M. Maheswaran, UW-Marathon County; Education - Prof. Leslie Owen Wilson, UW-Stevens Pt.; Space Science and Engineering - Dr. Sanjay Limaye and Rosalyn Pertzborn, UW-Madison and Art History - Patricia Briggs of UW-Stout.
(Articles published in TTT are archived at: >http://www.wusa.edu/olit/ttt/index.htm)

For further information contact Renata Wilk: rwilk@ccmail.uwsa.edu

UW LIBRARY SUPPORT
CNP Library Services Web site
(Submitted by Debbie Cardinal, Wisconsin InterLibrary Services - WILS)

WILS (Wisconsin InterLibrary Services) has begun a collaborative project with the UW-Extension Distance Education Clearinghouse and the libraries of the five Collaborative Nursing Program campuses. The CNP Library Project will provide three services to the students: centralized access to remote databases and library catalogs through the Distance Education Clearinghouse; Web-based interlibrary loan through WILS and direct document delivery to home or office.

The libraries on the five campuses (Oshkosh, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Eau Claire and Madison) contributed information on the services they provide and determined what services WILS should provide. They also wrote some of the text for the Web site and edited and advised as the site developed. The Distance Education Clearinghouse has mounted and will maintain the Web site through the Collaborative Nursing Program site they already maintain.

From now until the end of the semester WILS will furnish these services to only one of the CNP courses - the students in the LearningSpace section of Pam Scheibel's Nursing Assessment course. In the fall WILS will expand the project to include all 200 students in the Collaborative Nursing Program.

The Council of Wisconsin Libraries (COWL) and Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) are providing funds for the project. By the end of spring semester 1999 WILS expects to have established fees for any program interested in the library services. The URL is http://www.uwex.edu/disted/c np/libservices/index.html

For further information contact: cardinal@wils.wisc.edu

(NOTE: For an excellent article on the changing nature of libraries see: aahesgit@list.cren.net, 4/28/98 AAHESGIT #93 - Changing Libraries and Librarians, Steve Marquardt Dean of Libraries at SD State U, MarquarS@mg.sdstate.edu)

CAMPUS HILIGHTS
(Send campus distance education HILIGHTS to: lehman@uwex.edu)

ICS/UW-EXTENSION - ICS recently worked with UW-Colleges personnel in a fun and instructive two-day April workshop. The first morning began with a technical session for the Colleges support personnel. A number of these personnel remained for the afternoon session and for the following day as faculty/staff met to focus on learning about the videoconferencing environment, hearing from other videoconferencing instructors, looking at videoconferencing media tools and adapting courses for the technology. During the last part of the workshop, teams of faculty/staff/technical support personnel worked together to develop and present some excellent short instructional sequences. ICS and the Colleges are now working together to plan follow-up sessions to meet more specific needs.

UW-COLLEGES - The University of Wisconsin - Marathon County, along with the 12 other University of Wisconsin Colleges, will be installing compressed video equipment for distance education this spring and summer. At UWMC, compressed video will be used this fall to broadcast courses in anthropology and accounting to other two-year and four-year campuses. In the summer, the system will be used to offer business classes as part of a collaborative degree program offered jointly by UW-Stevens Point, UW-Marathon County and UW-Marshfield/Wood County. Beyond these initial course offerings, UW-Marathon County is also looking at using its distance education resources in partnerships with other educational institutions. To coordinate distance education at UWMC and provide training & support to faculty and staff, Bob O'Donnell was recently hired as an instructional technology specialist. (Bob O'Donnell Instructional Technology Specialist, University of Wisconsin - Marathon County)

UW-STOUT - UW-Stout is one of 50 colleges nationwide that has participated in a pilot distance learning course that teaches internet literacy to students by using the internet as part of its delivery. UW-Stout will now offer the course during the summer session of 1998 from June 15-August 6. The course includes: an introduction to the Internet and its impact around the world; the logistics of getting connected; how to communicate online by using Email, listservs and newsgroups; how to use search engines and conduct research online and how to create a Web page and establish an Internet presence. It shows students how to use multimedia on the Internet, as well as how to use the internet to keep abreast of online developments and new products.

The course carries three undergraduate or graduate credits. Students access course material through the Web site and communicate with the instructor and each other via Email. A CD-ROM contains Multimedia tutorial videos that can be used in conjunction with the Web site or alone. For enrollment information call: UW-Stout at 715-232-2639 or see: http://www.pbs.org/learn/als/netliteracy/netliteracy.htm. (TeleLink, May 1998, Vol. 11, # 9, p. 1)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
14th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference (G-WETC)

The 14th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning is scheduled for August 5-7, 1998 **Marriott Madison West**Madison, WI. You are invited to join nearly 1,000 colleagues from around the world at this leading forum on distance education and training. Participants from education, business, industry and government will come together to exchange information and explore new developments at this national/international event.

This year's program features more than 100 breakout sessions and workshops emphasizing:

• Best practices for effective applications
  
• Planning and management guidelines
  
• Successful teaching methods
  
• Course designs for active and collaborative learning
  
• Innovative approaches, solutions, and research findings

Conference Highlights include:

• Opening Keynote: Learning in the Digital Age
  Elliott Masie, The Masie Center

• Closing Keynote: Emerging Trends in Distributed, Virtual Learning Environments
  Christopher Dede, George Mason University

• Spotlight Presentation: Interactive Designs for New Media,
  Ellen Wagner Informania, Inc.

• 22 "How to" workshops on Wednesday

• 10 tracks of 80 breakout sessions on Thursday and Friday
  Management and Policy
  Course Design
  Teaching Methods and Faculty Development
  Learning Strategies and Supports
  Learning Environments
  Evaluation and Applied Research
  Military and Government
  Business and Industry
  Implementation Planning and Technology
  Internet Conferencing Tools and Applications

• 3 workshops on Saturday and a Taste of Wisconsin Tour
• Social events for networking and dialoguing
• Exhibits of products and services

 

For the complete program, visit the Web site at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/distanceconf/deconf.html For a printed brochure (available mid-May), Email: distel@soemadison.wisc.edu or call: 608-265-4159 . Include postal address.

The Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference is in the process of finalizing keynote sessions, presentations, workshops/labs and vendors for its October 6-8 event at the Regency Conference Center in Green Bay. The new three-day format will focus on technologies that enhance post-secondary learning on the first day, feature a combination of PK-12 sessions and higher education sessions on the second day and concentrate on technology application in the PK-12 setting on the final day.

Registration and housing forms will be available May 1. Contact Linda Connolly at 608-264-9724 or Email at: lconnolly@ecb.state.wi.us. You can also register at: http://www.wetc.wi.org.

NEW TECH TRENDS
PCs for Little Tikes

IBM and Rubbermaid's Little Tikes toy division are teaming up to produce a toddler-proof PC geared toward the daycare center and preschool market. The Young Explorer machine looks like a "plastic space pod" with the keyboard and monitor built into a colorful desk unit that houses a bench seat for two. But the insides aren't kid stuff - the IBM PC 300 GL computer runs on a Pentium processor and contains an internal CD-ROM drive, 16 megabytes of memory, a two-gigabit hard drive and a 14-inch color monitor. "When you put a 2-1/2-year-old on a computer they can pull wires," says one daycare center owner. "The children can't mess this one up too much." (Wall Street Journal 23 Apr 98)

LEGAL ISSUES IN DISTANCE EDUCATION
The Hidden Legal Traps in Distance-Learning Programs

(For an excellent article on potential legal issues in distance learning programs see: The Hidden Legal Traps in Distance Learning Programs by Sheldon Elliot Steinbach, General Counsel of the American Council on Education and Anthony V. Lupo, an attorney at Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn - The Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 February 1998, p. A52.)

The article stresses the importance of institutions obtaining necessary course approvals. In addition to complying with state regulations covering distance learning programs, institutions must comply with *all* intellectual property laws relevant to such programs, making sure that it has all of the necessary rights to materials and lectures that it will be sending electronically. Administrators need to understand that copyright includes five independent rights: to reproduce the work, to distribute or transmit the work, to perform the work in public, to display the work in public and to create another work derived or adapted from the first work. The task of compliance is crucial for all institutions eager to take full advantage of this new electronic educational environment.

ETC.
Getting to Know the MOO Community
(submitted by Jeff Cooper, English and ESL teacher at inner city schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.)

 

Educators face a daunting task once computers are plopped in front of them and they are advised to use them. How? There are steep learning curves, too much to learn, and everyone is bound to feel overwhelmed, and isolated since very few people know how to carpool on the information superhighway.

Fortunately, there are programs, systems and educational communities in place to facilitate jump-starting educators. One such community is the Educational MOO (Mud Object Oriented), where real time help and mentoring are available. Inside Diversity University MOO is a help menu on something called: Visiting Student Player Object. This feature gives a step by step guide of how to bring students online and use the system. Currently I am in the process of adding to this help menu with a tutorial, which I will gladly send to interested educators.

The bottom line on the Net is that people will not generally spend the time or energy to learn and use something that takes too much time, is too difficult to grasp, and doesn't achieve desired results. If people are interested in the following, I suggest looking into Educational MOOs, Diversity University and the VSPO feature:

 

1) Becoming part of and building within an educational community
2) Engaging in real time team teaching
3) Being mentored online
4) Learning how to cut and paste information onto other computer screens
5) Learning how to project URLs onto other computer screens

Currently I am involved with all of the above, and welcome new "mentees".

For further information contact : coops@value.net

Two publications reviewed on DEOSNEWS provide examples of educational opportunities and present possibilities for education for the future. Brave New Schools: Challenging Cultural Literacy Through Global Learning Networks. J. Cummins and D. Sayers. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995, reviewed by Kyle L. Peck, Assoc. Prof. Adult Education, Instructional Systems, and Workforce Education and Development, The Pennsylvania State University.

In Search Of The Virtual Class: Education In An Information Society. John Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham. London and New York: Routledge,1995, reviewed by Stephen C. Ehrmann, Director Flashlight Project The American Association for Higher Education.

To see the reviews go to: http://www.cde.psu.edu/ACSDE/ for information on subscribing to DEOSNEWS.

NEW ON THE LIST
New Subscribers This Month

WELCOME to: *Kate Smith* - Education Services Practice leader for the Champaign, IL branch of WORDLINK, a business and technical consulting firm;
*Burt Apple* - who provides services for IntraLearn and will present workshops on life planning and self management via the Internet;
*Hugh Hanes* - president of Computer Command Corp., a company that has supported K-12 in South Texas for 30 years;
* Ed Czarnecki* - who has run a labor program at Iowa University and now produces a newsletter for union Education Departments employees of University Labor Education Centers;

*Tammy Wenzel* - ICS, UW-Extension, who is assisting ICS staff with markup and updates of new DESIEN issues;
*Pete Yaeger* - Information Systems Specialist at UW-Washington County;
*Randy Crozier* - previously a Help Desk Administrator and now Network Administrator for the UW-Marinette campus;
*Mark Vladick* - of UW-Baraboo, who for 25 years has been instrumental in technology infrastructure decisions and technology support at the UW-Colleges;
*Walter Mueller* - a Network Administrator for UW-Manitowoc and UW-Sheboygan with a variety of distance education responsibilities and
*Robert O'Donnell* - an Instructional Technology Specialist at UW-Marathon County who specializes in information technology education for business, educators and administrators.

*Al Patenaude*, Ph.D., - an Assistant Prof. of Criminology and Criminal Justice in Arkansas, with an academic and teaching background in distance education;
* Dale Hollmen * - now working in technical support and program coordination at Dutchess County BOCES in NY;
and *Pat Smith* - Computer Education Coordinator in the Dept. of Education Resources, who trains at Eastern Health System, Inc., Birmingham.

Other new subscribers this month are: Fred Vornbrock, Nilesh Singit, Merrolee Pinman, Ira Apple, Anita Palladino, Hiram Caton, Gene Anderson, Ruaire, Jeff Thompson, Jane Bartlett, Julia Tipton and Faye Vowell .

FYI
News, Conferences, Institutes

Participate in the Markle Foundation's E-Mail for All Outreach Campaign - http://www.iaginteractive.com/emfa - Universal Access Conversation: Building a Networked Nation on the Global Internet An Online Event, is scheduled for * May 4 - May 15, 1998*

The event is designed to stimulate a national dialogue on universal access to Email and the Internet. Four themes have been developed: Universal Email, Universal Internet, Networking Communities, and Private and Public Markets Connect.

Visit the EMFA Web site for event details: http://www.imaginteractive.com/emfa
Send questions to: emfa@publicus.net

Birmingham Summit of the Eight on the Internet is a free online session that will be held *May 12-17, 1998.* This highly interactive and sophisticated multimedia project will connect individuals from all parts of the world in pursuit of worldwide education for a better future.

Real Education, Inc., is providing the technological means for enabling participation. Registration for the event is at: http://g8.realeducation.com. This is a great opportunity for students and faculty to learn more about the global issues and the international policies of the most powerful governments in the world. Online participants will have direct access to behind-the-scene issues that are often encapsulated for mass distribution. Students are encouraged to attend live interviews with world leaders and participate in chat rooms and threaded discussions over the Internet on several topics including:

The Integration of Russia in the Western Alliance
Human Rights Development and Environmental Concerns
Visions of Democracy in the 21st Century
Multilateral Trade, Investments and Labor Relations, and
Other Special Summit Agenda Topics

A Two-Day Conference - Distance Learning '98 is planned for colleges, universities and online training programs with a focus on Marketing, Managing and Expanding Distance Learning. This *July 13-15, 1998* conference, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA, will emphasize: improving course quality, cutting costs and increasing profits. Education executives and leaders in distance education will feature: extensive online courseware applications and in-depth case studies. An Interactive Post-Conference Workshop on *July 15* will help participants learn how to strategically plan for the migration of educational products to a distributed learning environment.

For more information call: 1-800-882-8684 or Email info@tig2000.com.

TeleCon XVIII will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA * October 26-28, 1998.* This year's conference emphasis will be: the presence of the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC); a major focus on the role of Internet Protocol (IP); International applications in designing distance learning programs and networks; more user case studies; distance learning partnerships; TeleMed IV and TeleMed's Policy Leadership Summit.

For more information call: 1-800-829-3400; International calls: +1-925-513-4242; Web site: http://222.abctelecon.com

Blurring the Boundaries of the Academy" is the theme chosen for the 1999 University Continuing Education (UCEA) Conference. The conference will be held *April 9-12, 1999* in Washington, DC and will explore how continuing education is recreating itself to assume a campus-wide leadership role to meet the challenges of the next century. A Call for Presentations will be issued next month. (Infocus Newsletter, April 1998, vol.3 #3, pg. 2)

ENDNOTE
Internet2 Receives $500 Million Boost, Negroponte Predicts

The next generation of the Internet recently received a boost from three companies that will contribute an ultrafast data pipeline and some of the needed network equipment. Vice President Al Gore announced the contributions worth more than $500 million. Direct benefits will be restricted largely to academics and other professional researchers. Internet2 will be able to transmit the contents of the 30-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica in one second, compared to about 27 hours over a conventional 28.8 kilobit modem. Qwest Communicatons International, Cisco Systems and Northern Telecom are the contributing companies. The companies plan to treat the project as a research platform.

Nicolas Negroponte, founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory predicts that as more aspects of life become digitized, we will increasingly live interconnected lives with everything: our utilities, clothes, etc. and that they will be able to relay important messages to us. Our news will be personalized to our needs and interests and will one day be sent to a magical, paper-thin, flexible, waterproof, wireless, lightweight, bright display that we can leaf through. He also predicts that the economic divide between computer owners and non-owners will be no greater than the divide between television-owners and non-owners as costs come down. The only divide, he says will be between the generations, with young people way ahead of parents and grandparents. The advice he gives is - if you want to understand the digital revolution, "Get a kid." (AARP April Newsletter, pp. 1 & 12-15.)

MAY ISSUE FOCUS - Effective Practices - Planning Effective Electronic Meetings

DESIEN ARCHIVE: An Archive has been created for past issues and interaction comments. Locate at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/

DESIEN was originally created by Pat Takemoto and Rosemary Lehman following the 1994 UW/UWEX Distance Education Faculty/Team Symposium. It now includes subscribers from institutions and organizations around the globe. DESIEN encourages information exchange and discussion of distance education issues concerned with: 1) distance education progress and institution course/program development, 2) faculty/team development, 3) technology, 2) policy, 3) funding and 4) research. List recipients outside of the UW System are encouraged to submit information contributions and participate in discussion.