THEME - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues...

UPFRONT -Overview and a Request
FOCUS -Accessing Information and Acquiring Knowledge Are not the Same: How Librarians Support Both
FROM THE DISTANCE EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE: NETNEWS -Support Issues
UW CAMPUS HILIGHTS - UW Campus Information
NEW RELEASE -The Distance Learner's Guide
NEW TECH TRENDS - Deaf/Blind Student Helps Build Portable Electronic Translator, VC Connections via POTS
ETC. -People Skills Grow in Importance for Technical Staff, Closing Europe's Technology Gap, Price of Home PC Plunges
NEW ON THE LIST - New Subscribers This Month
FYI - News, Conferences and Institutes
ENDNOTE -Masie Comments on Internet Depression Article

AUGUST ISSUE FOCUS - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues...Informal Support

 

UPFRONT
Overview and a Request

There's no doubt that "support" has been one of the most neglected areas in distance education. In our first series article, Milly Jones, Manager of Program and Site Coordination here at ICS, wrote about "technical, faculty and student support" provided by our unit statewide and internationally. Debbie Webb's article followed (Debbie is Director of the Northwest Indiana Distance Learning Cooperative, Highland, IN) and described her exemplary "training program for site personnel." In this issue, Debbie Cardinal (Wisconsin Interlibrary Service writes about "library resource support". Her article may surprise you. She doesn't mention distance education until the last paragraph in her article. Read it to find out why.

Next month, Robert Oehlkers, a graduate student at UW-Madison in Space, Science and Engineering will focus on a little discussed type of support, "informal support" - support from work, home, family and friends. To round out this series, some of our UW campuses will offer suggestions on how they handle their support. We'd also like to hear from readers outside of our system. So our question for all of you is:

**What support programs have you set up at your institutions or organizations that have resolved your support issues?** Send to lehman@ics.uwex.edu and we'll publish a compilation in the FOCUS section of the Oct. DESIEN issue. (Rosemary Lehman)

 

FOCUS

Accessing Information and Acquiring Knowledge Are Not the Same:
How Librarians Support Both
Debbie Cardinal
Wisconsin InterLibrary Services (WILS)

First, it's important to realize there are many different kinds of librarians. Librarians are highly educated people with varied interests. Many librarians have more than one advanced degree in subjects ranging from anthropology to zoology and including business, law and Roman history. Because of this range, most libraries hire librarians by considering their institution's primary curriculum coverage. Library hiring committees look for people who will fill a specific need in a subject curriculum to aid in collection development, directly or indirectly, or with developing subject area information tools. Aside from the familiar support that librarians provide students by teaching them to use the catalog and helping them figure out how to use bibliographic aids, do you know what else librarians do?

In most institutions, there are librarians who organize resources, collect resources, evaluate resources and link resources. There are librarians who wheel and deal with vendors for the best prices for electronic as well as traditionally printed resources. There are librarians who examine resources and determine how best to provide access points for the item. They consider things like what department paid for the resource, what it's about, who will be using it and what's important to note so that people can tell whether the item will be useful to them. There are librarians whose major responsibility is not to know everything but to know how to FIND anything. In addition, of course, there are librarians who teach others not only where information is but how to evaluate it and convert it to useful knowledge.

Contrary to the librarian stereotype you may be familiar with, many librarians are very social or political animals. They have to be: their responsibilities revolve around many meetings each day with students, faculty or institution administrators to understand their needs, or in the latter case, the institution's needs and limitations. A facility with mind reading or a trade standard, "the reference interview", is necessary!

Librarians also have strong collegial relationships with librarians in other institutions in their state, in their country and in the world. This network of colleagues helps them remain aware of practical applications of new technologies; trials of solutions to common problems and new services other institutions offer. These relationships strengthen one of the most valuable services a library can foster, that of resource sharing.

Most people, if they think of resource sharing at all, think of it as interlibrary loan, that function of a library in which materials not owned by one library are borrowed from another to lend to a patron. Resource sharing is much broader however. The resource sharing practices of libraries during the last century have developed the largest bibliographic database in the world for providing both information about resources and access through interlibrary loan to those resources. Those same resource sharing habits of librarians have promoted technological developments that allow diverse automated systems, like the systems in the CIC (the big ten universities) Virtual Electronic Library project, to share information resources throughout the country.

Librarians' skills with the organization of information, how people look for and use information combined with their technical knowledge of computers and systems have made them increasingly important for work with the providers and publishers of electronic information. While some librarians negotiate deals with vendors to purchase products, others take on the role of helping vendors design usable web search interfaces. Librarians also help vendors organize the information in their databases in a logical fashion.

You're probably wondering about now why I haven't mentioned distant learners once in this article. I have a final point to make about librarians and access to information. Librarians have an intrinsic belief that information should be equitably available to everyone, regardless of race, wealth, education and all other common designators of human worth. Philosophically, a distant learner is no different from any other learner who may need library services. Librarians are certainly aware of the political and technical barriers. They are busy applying their formidable and shared problem solving skills to those barriers daily. But, to a librarian, the solutions to the issues of "your students, my students" and "but our network security will be compromised if we allow that" will apply equally to the student across the reference desk as to the student on the other side of the world.

 

FROM THE DISTANCE EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE: NETNEWS

http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
Student Support Issues
Michele Jacques, Distance Education Clearinghouse
Information Resources Manager

We are developing a new section on the Distance Education Clearinghouse which addresses student support issues: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/students.htm At the August Distance Learning conference in Madison, Wisconsin, people asked us about references which refer to this topic. The research is hard to come by, and if you know of any or have done work in this area, please contact me. Generally, Web sites of interest fall into two categories, sites for the researcher, instructor, administrator, and sites which have been developed directly for the current or potential distance education student.

Here is a sampling of the information available. Additional links to other sites are available on the Distance Education Clearinghouse:

The University of Texas at Austin's Office of Distance Education has developed the Distance Education Primer: http://www.utexas.edu/cc/cit/de/deprimer/student.html
Their Student Issues section provides insight and research on student development, characteristics of distance learners, recommendations for what students need and who is responsible. The site has been developed with video clips, interviews, charts and documentation. It addresses a wide range of topics, with links to related research and a bibliography.

De Anza College in Cupertino, California has developed a fine Web site for their distance education students. The College's Distance Learning Center has created the site: Resources for Distance Learning Students http://dadistance.fhda.edu/StudentResources.html
Their pages are specifically designed for De Anza students but refer to the types of questions and concerns students generally have. Examples include: checklists for students, (e.g., a Technology Chart, where to find technical support), help for students to "get organized" and how to locate student resources such as the Counseling Department. Many other colleges and universities have created sites such as De Anza's.

Libraries frequently develop Web sites tailored to the needs of their distance education students. The University of Minnesota Library conducted a survey of the 1,039 University students and 160 faculty members involved in distance learning or off-campus courses during Winter Quarter 1995. The University Library received funding to develop a comprehensive program of library services for distance learners. Results can be found at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/pubs/ LibLine/LLvol8no4.html

Finally, for students who are considering taking distance education courses, a quiz which was originally developed by Northern Virginia Community College Extended Learning Institute is often sited. This helps learners to determine if distance education is "right for you" http://www.pbs.org/learn/als/college/quiz.htm
There are many sites which also help students learn about how to select a school, where and how to get financial aid, offer study tips, etc.

These are just a few examples of what is available. New sites are being developed at individual schools or institutions. You can check the Distance Education Clearinghouse for updates to this lists. And, as always, please send me you comments and suggestions for additions. Send to: jacques@ics.uwex.edu

 

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

UW-COLLEGES - It's been a busy time for the UW-Colleges. Their new compressed video system has been installed; technical and support staff have received training; fall faculty have completed a three-phase training session and a new CIO, Dick Cleek, has been hired. During the coming year the Colleges will be offering 10 compressed video courses, 6 asynchronous courses online and 8 courses via WisView audiographics.

UW-EAU CLAIRE - For the past eight months, Fred Waedt, Assistant Dean in the College of Business, has been administering the new Chippewa Valley National Technological University (NTU) Community Site at UW-Eau Claire. The site grew out of a regional need by area business leaders for engineering courses. While UW-Eau Claire could not provide an Engineering School to meet these needs, efforts were coordinated to bring similar courses to the area electronically via NTU. More than 40 engineers enrolled in the first semester.

The site is funded by private high tech companies in the region and has an Advisory Board comprised of two partner universities, UW-Stout and Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC), as well as area industrial development corporations. While the educational partners are close geographically, their missions are distinct: CVTC trains people for immediate access to the workforce, UW-Stout emphasizes degree programs that are more technical in nature and UW-Eau Claire focuses more broadly on business and liberal arts.

By the summer of 1999, the classes will become even more convenient for employees of the region's growing roster of high-tech companies, when a building in Eau Claire's Gateway West Business Park will be completed. The Center received a major boost in January when the governor used his State of the State speech to offer a $500,000 grant to help build the facility. UW-Eau Claire is one of more than 500 sites around the world offering NTU courses, which originate from 47 universities, and is the fourth in Wisconsin.
(Contact: Fred A. Waedt, Assistant Dean, School of Business, UW-Eau Claire)

UW-EXTENSION, ICS - WisVIew Audiographics: This summer, ICS replaced its FarSite WisView Audiographics software with MeetingTools, new software that offers increased advantages that are evident when joining conferences, sharing workbooks and scanning materials. To prepare faculty and site coordinator staff for MeetingTools, Bill Whipple installed all sites with the new software and Sue Faust, with the help of Milly Jones, prepared new information for site distribution. In addition, four well-attended orientation sessions were held to introduce faculty to the new enhanced function. This hands-on' approach to the training gave participants an opportunity to experience the collaborative nature of MeetingTools.

Videoconferencing - Two multipoint sessions were held during the past two weeks, to provide UW-Colleges faculty with the opportunity to present a 15-minute course sequence for critique before their classes begin in September. Initial faculty training for the Colleges began in May with a two-day session for technical staff, faculty and other support personnel. This was followed by a one-on-one audioconference with fall faculty to discuss individual course and sequence development. The multipoint sessions were the culmination of the three-phase program for fall faculty. In October, Outreach/Distance Education Specialists Bruce Dewey and Rosemary Lehman will repeat phases two and three for spring faculty.

UW-SUPERIOR - The UW-Superior Extended Degree Program is offering the option to learn via the Internet to its approximately 500 students. The program offers an interdisciplinary major, the diversity of the print-based offerings and the Internet programs listed below, reflecting the interests of its students: Biol 100, Environmental Science; Biol 123, Concepts in Biology; Bus 301, Business Communication; Bus 370, Principles of Marketing; Bus 383, Organization Behavior; Geog 102, Cultural Geography; IDS 298, Portfolio Development; Math 112, Introduction to Contemporary Mathematics; Phys 100, Astronomy; Phys 300, History and Philosophy of Science; PSci 230, U.S. National, State and Local Government; TEd 314, Teaching Elementary Reading.

Thirteen additional courses are being developed for the Internet format with an expected completion date of June 1999: Biol 305, Evolution; Bus 380, Principles of Management; Comm 170, Mass Communications and Society; CIS 108, Business Computer Applications; CSci 101, Introduction to Computer Science; Geog 100, World Regional Geography; Math 104, Intermediate Algebra; PSci 370, Public Policy Analysis; Ted 253, Human Development; Ted 321, Teaching Elementary Science; Ted 464, Developing Literacy, 4-12th Grades; Ted 470, Multicultural, Nonsexist Education; Ted 481, Basic Statistics.
(Contact: Carolyn Petroske, Director-Extended Degree Program, UW Superior)

 

NEW RELEASE
The Distance Learner's Guide

THE DISTANCE LEARNER'S GUIDE - This new guide has been announced by publishers Prentice Hall and the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications. The book provides basic skills for potential students who are unfamiliar with the concept of distance learning and face a confusing array of academic and technical options. "Every indicator points to an explosive growth in the number of students who are taking courses or seeking degrees at a distance," said Dr. Sally Johnstone, Director of the Western Cooperative. "This book will assist students in making informed choices and in understanding that they should demand quality instruction and student support services."

Dr. George Connick, President Emeritus of the Education Network of Maine, was selected to lead a team of seven distance learning experts from across the country in developing the text. Chapters include: 1. Distance Learning: Strategy of the Decade-Barbara Krauth, WCET; 2. Choosing a Distance Education Provider-George Connick, Education Network of Maine; 3. The Role of the Computer in DE-Fred Hurst, Florida Public Postsecondary DL Institute; 4. The Distant Learner's Library-John Witherspoon, Professor Emeritus, San Diego State U & David Bilyeu, Central Oregon Comm. College; 5. Understanding Your Needs-Joe Hart, Eastern Oregon U; 6. Improving Distance Learning Performance-Susan Campbell, U of Southern Maine; 7. Career Planning-Marie Kotter, Utah State U & Steven H. Eichmeier, Weber State U.

The web site will be updated with new information to supplement the material in the book. The Distance Learners' Guide (ISBN 013939513X), is available on amazon.com for $20.00.

 

NEW TECH TRENDS
Deaf/Blind Student Helps Build Portable Electronic Translator, VC Connections via POTS

DEAF/BLIND STUDENT HELPS BUILD PORTABLE ELECTRONIC TRANSLATOR - A University of Delaware student, Krista Caudill, who is both deaf and blind is helping to build a portable electronic translator to allow her to communicate with anyone, when an interpreter is not available. A shortage of interpreters in several areas of the country, has presented a barrier to deaf/blind people. The project's goal, financed by the National Science Foundation, is to turn an ordinary laptop computer into a personal translator. The computer will be equipped with a voice synthesizer, speech-recognition software and a "refreshable Braille display." While all of these tools are available separately, they have not been tied together into one unit. Using the device, a person who is deaf and blind could carry on a conversation by typing on the laptop, which would convert the words into speech. The computer would then convert the other person's speech into Braille. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 Aug 98)

 

VIDEOCONFERENCING CONNECTIONS Via POTS - V-SPAN recently announced the first gateway service connecting telecommuters using H.324 compression (plain old telephone line-POTS) to standard corporate legacy systems or H.320. This will allow business travelers using portable videoconferencing systems to seamlessly connect with corporate H.320 ISDN systems from any location with access to a standard phone jack. (Teleconferencing Business, July/August 98, p. 26)

 

ETC.
People Skills Grow in Importance for Technical Staff, Closing Europe's Technology Gap, Price of Home PC Plunges

PEOPLE SKILLS GROW IN IMPORTANCE FOR TECHNICAL STAFF - 97 % of chief information officers (CIOs) polled recently said they look for well-developed soft skills - communication abilities and business acumen - when hiring information technology staff. This represents a 12-point increase from a 1996 survey in which CIOs were asked the same question. The survey was developed by RHI Consulting (www.rhic.com) and includes responses from 1,400 CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with more than 100 employees. Responses to the question: "When evaluating a job candidate for an information technology position, how important are 'soft' skills (business acumen/interpersonal skills?)" Very important= (68%); Somewhat important=(29%); Somewhat unimportant=(2%); Not at all important=(1%).

When asked what the single most important people skill for a job candidate to possess, the responses were: * Interpersonal skills=33% * Written or verbal communication skills=27% * Ability to work under pressure=21% * Overall business acumen=14% * Professional image=2%. (Masie #64 TechLearn Trends, 27 Aug. 1998)

 

PRICE OF HOME PCs PLUNGE - The price for a home PC, which broke the $1,000 mark just 18 months ago, is now tumbling below $400 - well within the reach of the average U.S. family. Micro Center, an Ohio-based chain of 13 stores, began selling a $399 PC under the Power Spec label earlier this month, and PrecisionTec LLC, a PC maker based in California, has introduced its Gazelle machine for the same price. The low prices don't include computer monitors, which usually start at about $150. Analysts at ZD Market Intelligence are saying the low prices will spark a surge of PC-buying among households with incomes of less than $30,000 - a segment that so far has been difficult to reach - and that PC penetration should reach close to 50% of U.S. households by the end of the year. (AP 21 Aug 98)

 

BYTES
Stoll Offers Food for Thought, New Study-More FFT

STOLL OFFERS FOOD FOR THOUGHT - Computer expert, astronomer and Internet critic Clifford Stoll, author of "Silicon Snake Oil," is working on a new book critical of the use of computers in primary and secondary education. According to Stoll, "I became a computer expert my freshman year...And for all the many, many hours that I've spent online and on computers, seems to me that most of the important work that I've done has happened independent of the hours that I've spent online...like knowing mathematics, understanding physics, being able to manipulate a telescope, being able to write a paper, being able to read analytically and understand what someone else has written. Being able to poke holes in arguments...to stand up in front of a meeting and present my ideas. These days, the computers are loaded with programs to guide the kids through things. Do they spend more time playing and learning...rather than just doing the rote work as you were doing? The main thing the computer is teaching...is that if you want to learn, you sit behind a screen for hours on end, that you'll accept what a machine says without arguing, that relationships that develop over e-mail, Web pages and chat rooms are transitory and shallow. That if you're ever frustrated, all you have to do is pull the plug and reboot the machine." (Dallas Morning News 2 Aug 98)

NEW STUDY - MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT - In the first concentrated study of the social and psychological effects of Internet use at home, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that people who spend even a few hours a week online experience higher levels of depression and loneliness than they would have if they used the computer network less frequently. The $1.5 million project ran contrary to expectations of the social scientists who designed it and to many of the organizations that financed the study: Intel, Hewlett Packard, AT&T Research, Apple Computer and the National Science Foundation. While the Internet has been praised as superior to television and other "passive" media, the new study, titled "HomeNet" suggests that the interactive medium may be no more socially healthy than older mass media, and raises questions about the nature of "virtual" communication and the disembodied relationships that are often formed in cyberspace. Based on the study data, researchers hypothesize that "...there are more cases where you're building shallow relationships, leading to an overall decline in feeling a connection to other people." (WI State Journal, 31 Aug 98, from New York Times)

* Question - What implications does this have for course design?
** See ENDNOTE for comments by Elliott Masie on this last article.

 

NEW ON THE LIST -

WELCOME to: Jackie Weissman, Judy Till, Sandy Metcalfe, Peg Evans-Brown, Kathleen Emond, John Puhr, Dennis Coxe, Theresa Caldwell, Emily Schudel, Julie Levinson, Phillip Salm, Raymond Rosado, Linda Salamin, Matt Newby, Don Hines, Catherine North, Debra Wendel, Janet Harter, Bob Fuller, Kira Zaporski, Jay Rydman, Holly Lee, Pamela Sakuda, Tim Kuzniar, Mary Hayes, Ellen Sheppard, Ron Titus and A. Arafat.

 

FYI
News, Conferences, Institutes

A REMINDER to register for The Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference (GWETC) to be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin October 6-8, 1998 at the Regency Suites Conference Center. Hear two excellent Keynote Speakers, Humorist Stuart Robertshaw and Technology Innovator, Greg Riker; choose from 175 Sessions, 20 Workshops/Labs and walk through 70 Exhibits. The conference is geared to Higher Education on Day One; All Levels of Education, on Day Two and K-12 on Day Three. For more information see: http://www.wetc-wi.org/

 

The 6th annual American Association for Collegiate Independent Study (AACIS) conference will be held November 5-7, 1998 in the Quad Cities (Davenport, Iowa) . The conference theme this year is "Bridging the Distance". Conference information can be found on the AACIS web site at: http://www.aacis.org/conover.htm

 

SITE 99 - Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference will be held Feb. 28-March 4, 1999, San Antonio, Texas. M/SET 99-International Conference on Mathematics/Science Education will be held concurrently with SITE 99. Submission deadline for both conferences is October 15, 1998. Visit the Web site for more information: http://www.aace.org/conf/site

 

EUNIS'99, the European University Information Systems Organization is issuing a *Call for Papers* for its June 7-9, 1999 conference in Helsinki, Finland. This year's conference theme is "Information Technology Shaping European Universities." Previous conferences took place in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the Czech Republic. The official language is English and the Call for Papers deadline is October 1, 1998. Additional information can be found at: http://www.hut.fi/Misc/EUNIS99/

 

ED-MEDIA 99 - The World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is scheduled for June 19-24, 1999 in Seattle, Washington. This conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on research, development and applications on all related topics. Submission deadline for proposals is October 22, 1998. See the Web site at: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia

 

W e b N e t 99 - The World Conference of the WWW, Internet & Intranet will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 4, 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The WebNet conference encompasses the use, applications and societal and legal aspects of the Internet in its broadest sense. Submission deadline for proposals is Feb. 25, 1999. For more information see: http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet

 

ENDNOTE
Masie Comments on Internet Depression Article

"A recent story on the front page of the New York Times caused deep conversation in our office. The story covered a recent study reporting that surfing the Internet causes increased depression. A two-year study found that one Internet hour per week made participants one percent more depressed. In addition, their circle of friends shrank by an average of 2.7 people.

Without commenting on the validity of the study, it did get a few of us chuckling and a few worrying. If I were to apply this to my own internet usage, I would be 300% more depressed and would have lost over 950 friends. Luckily, not true for this user. (Elliott Masie, TechLearn Trends, #65, 31 Aug 98)

 

SEPTEMBER ISSUE FOCUS - A Multipart Series: Technology Support Issues...Informal Support

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

DESIEN has been created to encourage information exchange and discussion of distance education issues concerned with: 1) UW Systemwide distance education progress and institution course/program development, 2) faculty/team development, 3) technology, 4) policy, 5) funding and 6) research. List recipients outside of the UW System are also welcome to join in with information contributions and discussion.