ETC. - Refining Online Discussions; Universities Push Profs to Retain Copyright; Technology Bills Stalled; Children, Toys, and the Internet; Kaplan Plans Online Law School
FYI - News, Conferences, Institutes

ETC.

REFINING ONLINE DISCUSSIONS - Online discussions can be very cumbersome and time consuming. The Masie Institute notes that leading companies are exploring ways in which these discussions will be triggered and facilitated in a more open format. Watch for new technology that will allow learners to drive the timing of a discussion and also have access to just-in-time coaching disks for immediate verbalization needs.

UNIVERSITIES PUSH PROFESSORS TO RETAIN COPYRIGHT - There's a growing movement among academicians and their institutions to retain the copyright on articles published in scholarly journals, rather than turning those rights over to the publisher as is usual. The California Institute of Technology will be hosting a three-month-long discussion of the subject on an electronic network, beginning Oct. 1. "It became clear to me," says Caltech provost Steven Koonin, "that copyright is the linchpin. If you're going to change that system, copyright is the nexus that you have to go after." Other universities now considering turning the tables on publishers include Yale University and the University of Kansas. Koonin would like to see Caltech and its faculty members jointly own copyright to journal articles and to license those rights to publishers on a limited basis. "Publishers have basically been getting a free good up to this point - which is the copyright." Publishers are less than enthusiastic about the movement. (Chronicle of Higher Education 18 Sep 98)

TECHNOLOGY BILLS STALLED - Technology bills, put on the "back burner" because of current Washington distractions are: Internet taxes, visas for technology workers, encryption rules, copyright protections for digital material, digital materials, and tax credits for research. Whichever bills failed to pass before the 105th Congress adjourns will die, and will need to be reintroduced into the 106th Congress next January. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 19 Sep 98)

CHILDREN, TOYS AND THE INTERNET - Toys R Us Inc. is closing 90 stores (40 in the U.S. and 50 overseas), and analysts say that one of the reasons is the growing challenge the company faces as a result of the popularity of video games and the Internet competing for children's time with traditional toys. (Washington Post 17 Sep 98) (NOTE - Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds - for Better or Worse by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., 1998, Simon and Schuster, addresses this issue and offers an examination of the questions we need to ask as technology increasingly influences the lives of our children. (Rosemary)

RELIABLE MARKET INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM - In distance education, the cornerstone to a market responsive programming strategy is a reliable market intelligence system. Such a system can be established by developing a type of computer database known as a knowledge tree. The real time data in the knowledge tree helps keep decision-makers abreast of the various interactions that occur between the service offering, the consumers, and the environmental influences. From a strategic planning standpoint, this feedback is absolutely critical. After all, a provider's long term success will largely be predicated on its ability to "read" the market consistently and accurately, to communicate this information convincingly and effectively, and to quickly enact programming responses which maximize audience revenues over time. (Kenneth Rudich, Arizona State University, DEOSNEWS Sept. 1 Vol. 8 No. 8)

KAPLAN PLANS ONLINE LAW SCHOOL - Kaplan Educational Centers, the big standardized-test coaching company, is planning to offer the first online law degree through its newly established Concord University School of Law. Concord has received authorization from the California Bureau of Post-secondary and Vocational Education to grant degrees, which will allow students to sit for the bar in that state. The school does not yet have accreditation from either the state or the American Bar Association. Accreditation is necessary for students who wish to sit for the bar in states other than California. Concord students will receive video lectures via the Internet and online library materials. The company will apply for accreditation when it can demonstrate students are learning the same things as traditional students. "We're seeing industry look at the higher-education sector in a way they've never looked before," says Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University. (Wall Street Journal 16 Sep 98)

FYI
News, Conferences, Institutes

The Teacher Education Special Interest Group (SIGTE) of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is calling for submissions for their Annual Research Award. The Award is for those who are conducting outstanding research on the role of technology in teacher education, pre-service and in-service. Research is construed broadly to include, but not be limited to: ecological, ethnographic, descriptive, correlational, or experimental studies. Recipients will present the winning study at the 1999 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlantic City and the paper will be published in the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education. The recipient will also receive a plaque and a cash award.

Submit papers by December 1, 1998. Selection criteria include: a) quality of the research, b) ability to address the topics of technology and teacher education and c) appeal to teacher educators. Submit to: mhan@nlu.nl.ed

 

The TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE), an international collaborative linking over 130 researchers at 30 universities with over 110 public and private sector partners across Canada. The TeleLearning NCE seeks to enhance the lifelong learning experience by researching, developing, and demonstrating new collaborative learning and knowledge building approaches implemented through telelearning. Researchers from the areas of education, the social sciences, computer science and engineering are participating in a Canadian interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral research program that spans the spectrum of lifelong learning from k to 12 and post-secondary education to continuing education and training. See: http://www.telelearn.ca

 

The Academic Exchange Quarterly (AEQ), a refereed paper format journal, is issuing an invitation to publish articles. Examples of past articles from fall 1997 through summer 1998 include:

- Teaching mathematics on television: perks and pitfalls
- Creating new pathways to education for students with access problems
- Comparing self-contained hypertext applications and hypermedia on the world wide web: implications for collegiate instruction
- Why surf when you can dive in? Information navigation using three dimensional data modeling
- Two heads are better than one: team teaching in the information age
- Using the internet to teach critical thinking

For more information contact: AEQ@cstcc.cc.tn.us or find a copy of AEQ at your library: ISSN 1096-1453

 

The 1998 Assessment Institute, sponsored by Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, is scheduled for November 8-11, 1998. The theme of this year's Institute is "Collaboration: Key to Assessment" and includes a program of full-day and half-day workshops for all faculty and administrators, with special sessions for student development professionals and health profession educators. Included is a Best Practice Fair, featuring assessment instruments, methods, and approaches from assessment practitioners in higher education. See the Website at: http://www.hoosiers.iupui.edu/p aiimain/conferen.htm

 

Would you like to try an on-line learning class free? PlaceWare and The Masie Center will use a worldwide telephone conference call and simultaneous web-based interaction for this one hour online experiment. It will focus on 3 paths that knowledge has to travel:

- Content from experts to learning activities.
- Learning activities to learners' screens and
- Knowledge from the screen to learners' hearts, minds and skill collections.

Register at: http://www.placeware.com/ seminar/emasie.html?em0400 The class is scheduled for Sept 29 and Oct 1, 1998 at 12 Noon Pacific (2 Central, 3 Eastern).