UPFRONT - Fiber Network Consortia on the Increase
FOCUS - Four Lakes DE Network: A Window to the New Millennium
by Don Holmen, Director
CORRECTION - Online Bachelor's in Nursing
LINES - July News Updates

WI - Register Online for GWETC 2000! UW Catalog of Distance Learning Receives Award; UW DE Clearinghouse Recognized by Research Journal
ED - Colleges Urged to Put Good Leaders, Not Technical Experts, in Charge of Technology; States and Universities Move To Integrate Teacher Education With the Classroom; Professors Profit From Practicing What They Teach; Home Schooling Online; Campuses Advance Internet2; Combating the Crisis in Scholarly Communication
BIZ/ED - IBM Blends Linux and Bluetooth; Apple Just Thinks Different; Motorola U; Allen Wooing Elite Colleges Online; High-tech Executives Urge Action on World's Digital Divide; Private Digital Divide Efforts Fall Short
e-GOVERNMENT - Senator Advocates Electronic Government
GLOBAL - India Distance Ed Meets Huge Demand; Asia Another Market for Distance Education

NEW TECH - Study Finds Web Bigger Than We Think; 3D Images You Can Step Into; Handhelds and Wireless
READS - The 2000-2001 ASTD Distance Learning Yearbook; Web Wisdom
RESOURCES - PEW Issues New Monograph on Intellectual Property and Online Courses; New Government Portal for Employees Seeking Continuing Higher Education; New Higher Education News Service; Condition of Education Report

NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to New Subscribers
FYI - News, Institutes, Conferences, Events
ENDNOTE - Guy Bensusan, Northern Arizona University

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NEXT DESIEN ISSUE­ THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST DESIEN ISSUE - DESIEN WILL BE BACK IN SEPT.

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UPFRONT - Fiber Network Consortia are on the increase. These networks provide an exciting way to learn and share synchronously via two-way interactive video, audio and data. In Wisconsin alone, there are more than forty operating networks, with new ones in all phases of development. In this month's FOCUS article, Don Holmen describes the network that he helped plan, implement and now directs - The Four Lakes Network.

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FOCUS

Four Lakes Distance Education Network: A Window to the New Millennium
by Don Holmen, Four Lakes Director

The Four Lakes Distance Education Network in Wisconsin is a fiber optic system that allows for fully interactive voice, video and data transmissions. Four Lakes connects its consortium member sites via fiber optics and other technical components so that each site may originate and receive real-time, live, educational programming. Four Lakes has been designed to enhance the educational opportunities for its consortium member districts and their respective communities.

Programming includes courses for both high school and post secondary credit, staff development and enrichment programs, continuing education and other programming designed to meet the needs of school, business, community and governmental entities.

The Four Lakes Distance Education Network is composed of 9 public schools, which include Deforest, Lodi, McFarland, Middleton/Cross Plains, Stoughton, Monona Grove, Waunakee, Verona and Oregon. The following post-secondary members are UW-Extension/UW-Madsion, Edgewood College and Madison Area Technical College. The CESA #2 agency in Milton, Wisconsin is the thirteenth member of the group.

Electronic field trips to the Simon Weisenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles was one highlight of last year's programming. More than 250 students participated in a live discussion with a Holocaust survivor. Electronic field trips with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Columbus Zoo were both very popular. The fall 2000 semester includes 8 high school courses. Over twenty students from 7 different high schools will be taking Japanese I over the network.

A highly successful training session was held on June 12-13, 2000, for seventeen staff from 10 of the thirteen member schools. Rosemary Lehman and Bruce Dewey from ICS at UW-Extension assisted the Four Lakes Director Don Holmen in presenting this activity. The teacher projects that were produced were outstanding.

This technology is available for teachers, staff and students from all thirteen of the member institutions to use for meetings, workshops, enrichment activities and other uses limited only by the imagination of the participants. A very effective Web site is available for all to access to learn more about Four Lakes CLICK: http://www.fourlakes.k12.wi.us/ This is an exciting technology that can bring people together in a cost effective manner so that learning and sharing can take place in a new and exciting way.

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CORRECTION

In last month's article on UW Bachelor's in Nursing Through Central, note that UW-Madison is not a partner with Green Bay, but will help with the teaching. The correct Web site is CLICK: http://bsnlinc.wisconsin.edu

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LINES - July News Updates

- notHarvard's unique business model, free classes with commercial ads, has sparked the interest of barnesandnoble.com By developing a partnership, Barnes and Noble believes it can boost its book sales significantly. notHarvard recently registered 25,000 students in just two months for Metrowerks' tools unit. The course brought in ample revenues to repay the original investment. notHarvard sees itself as a hybrid between an online education company and a customer relationship management firm. (Business 2.0, 11 July 00)

- According to the federal government, its E-rate program is helping to close the digital divide, and improving education standards across the country. In a new report from the Education and Library Networks Coalition (EdLiNC), the program has already helped wire some 46 U.S. communities and encouraged parents to become more technologically adept. The recent report is another confirmation that the E-rate program is a very powerful tool in leveling the playing field for everyone in the country. (Newsbytes, 00 July 10)

- Three business schools will use chat rooms and videoconferencing to teach classes on the relationship between business and Internet technology. MBA students at the U of Virginia, the U of Michigan and the U of California at Berkeley, formed the partnership after observing the success of its MBA students studying via online programs abroad. While some critics charge that online classes damage interaction between professor and student, the greatest challenge is working out differences in grading policies, scheduling and transfer credits. (Wired News, 20 June 29 00)

- The International Society for Technology in Education recently released national standards/recommendations for colleges that will be used in preparing teachers to use technology effectively in the classroom. The U.S. Department of Education awarded the nonprofit group a three-year, $2.2 million grant last year to develop the standards, which describe what beginning teachers should know and be able to do with technology. Teachers should be able to use technology in developing curricula, increasing professional knowledge and assessing students. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 30 June 30 00) (See related article in ED Section below)

- The fastest growing age group of Internet users are women over 55, with a 98.1 percent use increase over 1999. Teens were the second-fastest growing age group on the Internet, with an 80 percent increase during the same period. The digital divide is one of the major inhibitors to greater Internet use. Some 78 percent of U.S. households with incomes greater than $75,000 have access, compared with only 21 percent of households with incomes less than $15,000. The United States dominates Web usage, with more Web users than the next 15 countries combined. (New York Times, 29 June 00)

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WI

REGISTER ONLINE FOR GWETC 2000! - You can now register online for the 8th Annual Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference 2000 (GWETC 2000). Brochures are at the printer and will be mailed out the third week in August. This year, GWETC 2000 will be held at the Dane County Expo/Alliant Energy Center and Sheraton Hotel, Madison, WI, October 10-12. Choose from more than 160 concurrent sessions, 20 poster sessions and 18 labs and workshops. Keynote speakers include: Ed Barlow, President of Creating the Future, Inc.; Jim Schnitz, Education Strategy Executive-IBM and Mary Moen-Media Consultant with the Discovery Channel.

This year the conference will also include a scheduled tour of the new distance education and conference center - The Pyle Center. GWETC supports teaching and learning via technology and is cosponsored by: University of Wisconsn-Extension; The Department of Public Instruction; the Educational Communications Board; TEACH, Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Wisconsin Technical College System. For complete information CLICK: http://www.gwetc.org To receive a printed brochure, email: gwetc@ecb.state.wi.us or call: 608-264-9730. Include postal address.

UW CATALOG OF DISTANCE LEARNING RECEIVES AWARD - The UW Catalog of Distance Learning online has been awarded the Key Resource award in the Degree Programs area by the Links2Go web site. Links2Go is an online search and directory service. Links2Go automatically compiles and prioritizes links to the most relevant Internet content on tens of thousands of topics spanning tens of millions of web pages. Find out more about the Links2Go Key Resource award CLICK: http://www.uwex.edu/ics/news/july00/cataward.htm

UW DE CLEARINGHOUSE RECOGNIZED BY RESEARCH JOURNAL - The Distance Education Clearinghouse has been reviewed by the prestigious Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and as a result, is now included in their well respected collection of scholarly, high quality web sites. Read the story CLICK: http://www.uwex.edu/ICS/news/july00/journal.htm

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ED

COLLEGES ARE URGED TO PUT GOOD LEADERS, NOT TECHNICAL EXPERTS, IN CHARGE OF TECHNOLOGY - With many colleges competing for a limited pool of skilled workers to manage their IT systems, colleges should look to candidates with strong leadership ability rather than those with technical skills, says Brian L. Hawkins, president of the academic-technology consortium Educause. Speaking at the National Association of College and University Business Officers in Chicago, Hawkins says top IT managers should be familiar with the culture of a particular institution and be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people. For a college CIO, detailed knowledge of individual technologies is not as critical as the broader view of integrating systems across the entire institution, Hawkins says. Colleges might find effective leaders among their existing employees, by looking for mid-level administrators and faculty members who have led successful team projects. Hawkins also suggests that colleges include CIOs in top-level planning, and ensure that CIOs have sufficient resources and support to develop high-quality systems. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 25 July 00 - Edupage 27 July 00)

STATES AND UNIVERSITIES MOVE TO INTEGRATE TEACHER EDUCATION WITH THE SCHOOLROOM - The familiar K-12 is becoming more like K-16 these days as states, professional associations and public universities strive to coordinate governance, curricula, standards and assessments from kindergarten through the graduate education of tomorrow's teachers. At the annual meeting of the Education Commission of the States earlier this month, commission president Ted Sanders called for states to get past the talking stage and create entities that have real power to share decision-making on issues that affect both higher education and public schools. Copies of the new ECS report, "In Pursuit of Teacher Quality," can be ordered for $10 each on the Commission website, CLICK: http://www.ecs.org/ecs/ecsweb.nsf

Meanwhile, with the new academic year just around the corner, schools of education are getting ready to meet the new standards announced by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education earlier this year. From 2001 onward, these standards will link institutional accreditation to the performance of graduates both on standardized tests and in the schoolroom. The new standards can be downloaded free of charge in PDF form from the NACTE website, CLICK: http://www.ncate.org/2000/2000stds.pdf

These reforms will have little impact without a major hike in pay scales for teachers of teachers, according to a report in last week's New York Times. The shortage of teacher educators has become so acute that graduate students in education are being headhunted by teacher's colleges before they even graduate. "Teacher educators have been notoriously underpaid," Dr. Sylvia Blake, dean of the School of Education at Manhattanville College in Purchase, told the Times. "Now, with the top of the public school teaching scale in the mid to high 80's, it's harder to find people, who would be taking a salary cut of 50 percent to teach at the college. Everybody is advertising for teacher educators. Ten years ago, there would have been 100 responses for an ad. Now we get about 20." Read more on the New York Times website CLICK: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/ Then add to URL and CLICK: 071900college-teachers-edu.html

And, for the last word on the K-16 revolution, don't forget to mark your calendar for UCEA's seminar, "Raising the Bar: Helping K-12 Schools Meet Rising Expectations," November 30-December 1, 2000, in Washington, CLICK: http://www.nucea.edu/k1221.htm (UCEA 28 July 00)

PROFESSORS PROFIT FROM PRACTICING WHAT THEY TEACH - An increasing number of university professors are finding lucrative business opportunities outside of the classroom. These professors, especially from the field of computer science, are taking positions with startup companies or founding their own businesses. Universities such as Stanford, UCLA, and MIT, for example, have seen as much as 25 percent of their computer- science faculty exploring some kind of outside business pursuit. Many students and university officials worry that teaching will suffer as a result. In several cases professors have, in effect, abandoned their courses for their business interests, preparing lectures hastily and neglecting students' exams. However, for some students their professors' successes have translated into unprecedented job opportunities. Several universities have expressed concern about professors who lure graduate students away from their studies and into the business world, and in a few cases about successful alumni who have hired their former professors. But many universities concede that there is little they can do to prevent professors from working on the side, considering the appeal of multimillion-dollar stock options to professors, whose average salary is $56,000. (Los Angeles Times, 16 July 00 - Edupage 17 July 00)

HOME SCHOOLING ONLINE - Online courses are providing new avenues for an increasing number of children in the U.S. who are being home schooled. The number of home-schooled students in the U.S. has more than tripled since 1900 - to 1.7 million, as parents seek a more individualized and safer learning environment for their children. Many parents, however, feel unqualified in some subject areas. This is where the Internet is helping to fill a void. Online courses are used by some parents as supplements, while other parents enroll their children in online schools like the Christa McAuliffe Academy or Child U. Online schools help parents through chat rooms and e-mail, as well as provide ways in which students can socialize: pen pals, field trips and special social events. (Washington Post, 16 July 00)

CAMPUSES ADVANCE INTERNET2 - Universities involved in the Internet2 project, a test-bed for advanced applications, are experimenting with technologies such as virtual reality and distance medicine that would be impossible on the commercial Internet. The University of Pennsylvania, is creating an integrated database for digital mammograms allowing doctors to view a patient's mammogram taken years earlier in a different city. At Northwestern, researchers this summer expect to launch a technology that will allow students to view high-quality videos of professors' lectures from PCs in their dorm rooms. Meanwhile, several Internet2 universities have teamed with the National Tele-Immersion Initiative to develop virtual reality tools that would allow professors wearing 3D goggles to take part in roundtable discussions with colleagues around the world. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 2000 July 13 - Edupage 13 July 00)

COMBATING THE CRISIS IN SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION - "Scholarly communication is under siege. Scholars are losing control of a system that has served them well but is now on the verge of collapse. The free flow of scholarly information, the lifeblood of scholarly inquiry and creativity, is being interrupted." To combat this crisis the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have launched the Create Change website. Create Change provides:

- in-depth statistical data, summaries and background on the current state of scholarly communication;
- content that can be used to create a local Create Change Advocacy Kit;
- a database listing of the 100 most expensive journals, with editors and editorial boards, as well as a listing of SPARC- friendly journals;
- tips on how scientists and other faculty members can take leadership roles on campus to change the publication status quo;
- templates for letters librarians and scholars can write to commercial publishers to express their dissatisfaction with pricing trends. For Change CLICK: http://www.createchange.org/

SPARC is a worldwide alliance of research institutions, libraries and organizations that encourages competition in the scholarly communications market. For more: CLICK: http://www.arl.org/sparc/ ARL is a not-for-profit membership organization comprising the leading research libraries in North America. CLICK: http://www.arl.org/ ACRL, a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. CLICK: http://www.ala.org/acrl/ (CIT INFOBITS June 00 No. 24 ISSN 1521-9275, CLICK: http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/infobits.html (HTML format) or http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/text/index.html (plain text format)

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BIZ/ED IBM BLENDS LINUX AND BLUETOOTH - IBM recently unveiled its new BlueDrekar middleware, which integrates Linux-based applications with Bluetooth wireless technology. Long expected, Bluetooth products permit radio wave-enabled communication and data sharing between handhelds, computers, and appliances. With the integration of two of industry's most promising technologies, IBM plans to bolster the adoption of wireless networking. BlueDrekar is intended to be standards-compliant and also promises to help simplify home networking's complex wiring and connections systems. (Cnet, 25 July 2000)

APPLE JUST THINKS DIFFERENT - Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs has turned the company around with the launch of the iMac, while at the same time slashing expenses. Revenues have risen 17 percent in the latest quarter, to $1.8 billion. This success is largely the result of Apple's excellent design and "Think Different" ad campaign for the iMac, as well as Jobs' idea of outsourcing product manufacture and hiring Compaq's Timothy Cook. Cook lowered the number of Apple's suppliers from 100 to 24 and established a build-to-order system for online purchases. Apple now ships 75 percent of orders on the day they're placed and has a very low parts inventory. Challenges ahead: maintain its innovation lead and develop peak performance. The most daunting tasks will be: upgrading Mac software to MacOS X, to reduce Mac crashes; feature the new Aqua user interface and carry out multiple operations. A January deadline has been set. (Business Week, 31 July 2000)

MOTOROLA U - Corporate gurus are notoriously fond of predicting the future of higher education, but Motorola U president Bill Wiggenhorn's opinions carry weight because, as a vice-president of Motorola, Inc., he is also a major customer. Wiggenhorn recently shared his views on management education with @AcademyOnline, and his points apply, perhaps even more so, to continuing higher education generally. "It'll be a forty-year or even fifty-year education process," he predicts, with a baseline degree at 28 years of age and recertification every four or five years thereafter. A major question for schools will be "how they're going to keep up with being the experts in content because they're not going to have years to design a course." He believes that the university will not be the brand: "More and more, the brand is going to be an individual faculty member. So the brand is not USC. It will be Professor Lawler at USC." And, he predicts, though medallion schools may survive as brick-and-mortar institutions because of the social advantages they provide, other sectors of higher education will experience consolidation as for-profit institutions such as the University of Phoenix and Jones International erode the marketplace. Read more on the @AcademyOnline website CLICK: http://www.academyonline.com/aacsb/index.htm . (E-NEWS from UCEA, 28 July 00)

ALLEN WOOING ELITE COLLEGES ONLINE - Media financier Herbert Allen will launch the Global Education Network (GEN), an attempt to offer Ivy-league caliber liberal-arts courses over the Internet. Allen and cofounder, Mark Taylor, (Williams College), say GEN will prevent liberal arts courses from falling too far behind online science and business courses and at the same time provide liberal- arts content to a broader audience. Allen believes GEN will appeal to a wide-range of distance learners, from "lifelong learners" to ambitious high-school students, and will be able to access courses to audit, as well as credit courses. Like other online "U's", GEN has received mixed reaction from academia. Many professors believe that the Internet cannot reproduce the classroom environment and many elite universities worry such services will dilute the special nature of their courses, as well as take away rights to intellectual property. GEN has struck a deal with Wellesley and is negotiating with a number of other schools. A beta version of some GEN courses should appear later this year. (Wall Street Journal, 28 July 00)

HIGH-TECH EXECUTIVES URGE ACTION ON WORLD'S DIGITAL DIVIDE - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori used Wednesday's meeting of the World Economic Forum to call attention to the "crucial matter" of the growing digital divide between the world's industrial and developing nations. Mori will address the issue further at another high-profile meeting later in the week. The Group of Eight industrialized countries will hold its annual summit meeting Friday in Okinawa, Japan. Mori will be on hand to announce the details of a $15 billion commitment by the Japanese government to technology initiatives in the developing world. A Japanese executive said Japan hopes other countries will follow its lead by launching similar initiatives. A World Economic Forum task force yesterday announced several technology proposals, including the creation of the Global Digital Opportunity Corps, an army of volunteers fashioned after the Peace Corps. The task force also recommended proposals regarding telecom and Internet deregulation and called for the formation of local tech community centers. (New York Times, 20 July 00 - Edupage 21 July 00) (See related article in Global below)

PRIVATE DIGITAL DIVIDE EFFORTS FALL SHORT - President Clinton announced last February that the fiscal 2001 budget would include $2 billion in tax incentives over 10 years to encourage private sector solutions for the digital divide. Hundreds of companies are now promoting programs that they say will address the problem. However, on close examination, many appear less altruistic than greedy. Insight Research is analyzing corporate efforts. Insight president Robert Rosenberg believes that private initiatives are not likely to solve the problem because the main issue is public access to a public network. Rosenberg states that the problem eventually will be settled on a municipal and state level instead of a private level. The most common corporate strategy is free Internet access, along with a significant amount of advertising. Other practices offer audio access over the phone, again along with advertising - or paying to skip the ads. Other companies donate money or develop programs to purchase equipment and services for people to get online. (Interactive Week, 3 July 00)

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e-GOVERNMENT SENATOR ADVOCATES ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT - Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) has called upon all levels of U.S. government to collaborate on efforts to make government services available to citizens in cyberspace. The federal government's Chief Information Officer Council and the National Partnership for Reinvention of Government are already working on the task, but Lieberman says these groups are "often not well coordinated." Efforts to ramp up e-government services start with the need for a federal CIO or IT czar with real power, according to Lieberman. A bill to create such a position is set for introduction by October, but Lieberman does not anticipate any movement on the bill during this session of Congress. Other keys to improving e-government efforts are one-stop shopping for citizens, interoperability standards, an apparatus for interagency funding and a need for immediate action. (InfoWorld.com, 2000 July 12 - Edupage 13 July 0)

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GLOBAL INDIA DISTANCE EDUCATION MEETS HUGE DEMAND - India is using Distance Education to meet a huge demand for degrees. Indian universities have begun to supplement their correspondence courses in recent years with classes that use radio and television broadcasts. Sixty-three of India's 200 universities now have a distance learning component. Seeing education as the only way to help people break free of generations of discrimination and destitution, schooling is the one way to educate a large part of the population and provide the opportunity to join the middle class. At present in India, only 6.5% of high school go on to higher education, compared to 30 % in developed countries.

The first Open University in Andhra Pradesh, established in 1981 now has more than 130 centers across the state, some related to local colleges. In recent years, acceptance has increased among educators and students. Nine states in India now have Open Universities. As distance educators look to the future, the Internet is the next phase. By next year, fiber will connect each village and every village will have at least one computer. To boost their efforts, the government is trying to bolster private investors One of the latest undertakings is a master's of science in information technology. Critics say that fundraising for distance education is a moneymaking machine and that it encourages the entrance of foreign universities and will, in the long run, only develop "the elite classes." To see a complete article on this topic by Martha Ann Overland: CLICK: http://chronicle.com/world. The Chronicle Web site is at CLICK: http://chronicle.com (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 July 00)

ASIA, ANOTHER MARKET FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION - Asia is home to the world's most rapidly expanding population, and represents the world's largest market for distance education. As a result, the government is looking for methods outside of the traditional systems of education. The Open University in Hong Kong is a lesson in how this might come to pass. Administrators Of the Open University are looking for a similar response as it begins to market to China. Asia is already home to the greatest number of distance learners in the world with surging enrollments at its distance-oriented universities. Thailand and Japan are taking steps, as well, in this direction. Although critics say the Open University has its weaknesses and is not ambitious enough, it has had much success over the past years. For a complete article on this topic by David Cohen CLICK: http://chronicle.com/world. The Chronicle Web site is at CLICK: http://chronicle.com (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 July 00)

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NEW TECH

STUDY FINDS WEB BIGGER THAN WE THINK - Today's search engines cover only a fraction of the existing pages on the Web, but some companies are developing new search software to tap the volumes of information that are a part of the "invisible Web." BrightPlanet, a company that offers sophisticated LexiBot search software, recently released a study estimating Web size as 500 times larger than the segment covered by standard search engines. While the Web now holds about 550 billion documents, search engines index a total of only 1 billion pages. One reason is that data is increasingly stored in large databases maintained by government agencies, universities and companies. The stored information is difficult for traditional engines to access, because search software is designed to locate static pages. BrightPlanet has created its LexiBot to find information in databases, as well as data covered by traditional search engines. LexiBot is targeting advanced users in the academic and scientific communities. (CNet, 26 July 2000)

3-D IMAGES THAT YOU CAN STEP INTO - A new virtual reality theater at Iowa State University allows visitors to interact with three- dimensional images that change according to the viewer's perspective. The wireless theater surrounds visitors with computer-generated images that are projected onto the walls, floor and ceiling. Visitors wear goggles that are equipped with sensors that interact with a magnetic field to let the computer know the visitor's position and modify the images accordingly. The theater allows users, for example, to see a virtual tornado from all angles and to interact with the illusion. By contrast, today's 3D IMAX theaters show viewers the same image regardless of location and do not support interaction. (Business Week, 3 July 00 - Edupage 5 June 00)

HANDHELDS AND WIRELESS - A Quickie View of PC Expo: Handhelds & Wireless: The MASIE Center packed up its staff and headed down to New York City recently, to visit PC Expo. Amongst the hundreds of booths and tens of thousands of visitors these quick perspectives were scanned:

* Handhelds Were Hot! The traditional attendees to PC Expo have been corporate buyers of technology. This year, instead of being pitched with new desktops or laptops, the buzz was all about Handhelds. There were acre's of displays focused on using Palm, Handspring, SONY and Microsoft's Pocket PC format. What was most interesting was the connectivity and synchronization focus of these devices: accessing corporate databases, email and sales force automation. While there was only one Handheld application targeted at learning, this will change dramatically in the coming months. Video and audio are also a part of this form factor and that will allow for much more portable access to learning and collaboration via Handhelds.

* Wireless Was Everywhere: In the same vein, wireless dominated the networking products. The shift to wireless was strong in both the Business to Business and Business to Consumer segments. Internal wireless products allowed easy mobility of a worker and their laptop. But, the integration of web access from cellular phones and Handhelds was top of mind throughout the Expo. Visit the Masie web site CLICK: http://www.masie.com (TechLearn Trends #175 30 June 00)

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READS

THE 2000/2001 ASTD DISTANCE LEARNING YEARBOOK - For the first time, a single annual reference brings together "the best of the best" articles and information, summarizing the state of distance learning and future trends. This handy one-volume resource includes information on creating distance learning proposals and pilot programs; Internet-based training, videoconferencing and other technologies; establishing and administering a distance learning program and more. The Yearbook is designed to help you understand the problems, approaches, successes, failures, and distance learning "lessons learned" from training professionals and leading experts in the field of technology. Features:

* The best predictions by respected distance learning leaders to help you make more meaningful planning decisions for yourself and your organization
* Thought-provoking lessons learned from both corporate and government organizations to help you develop a meaningful and effective distance learning proposal
* Case studies examining the FBI, Boeing, JCPenney, Portland General Electric and GTE provide an opportunity to see not only how others have implemented distance learning but also what they have learned along the way
* A directory and guide to all the major periodicals, books, conferences, associations and other distance learning resources

The 2000/2001 ASTD Distance Learning Yearbook is a timely reference book for training professionals who don't want to miss any important developments in distance learning. To order call: 1-800-2MCGRAW or CLICK: http://www.books.mcgraw-hill.com

WEB WISDOM: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web by Janet E. Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999. ISSSBN: 0-8058-3123-1)

"The book includes easy to use checklists for step-by-step quality evaluations of virtually any web page. The checklists can also be used by web authors to help them ensure quality information on their pages. In addition, Web Wisdom addresses other important issues such as understanding the ways that advertising and sponsorship may affect the quality of web information" (Publisher's note). The authors are librarians in the Wolfram Memorial Library at Widener Library. Their evaluation checklists and other related information are at CLICK: http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval.htm

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RESOURCES

PEW ISSUES NEW MONOGRAPH ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ONLINE COURSES - While most U.S. universities recognize the need to defend themselves and their intellectual property by establishing clear, institution-wide policies and procedures, most are experiencing difficulty deciding what their policy should be, and finding effective ways to enforce it in a decentralized environment where policies have traditionally been debated on a unit-by-unit basis. With this in mind, the Pew Symposia on Learning and Technology committed to produce a paper "that would go beyond recommending that institutions have a policy and would give institutions some concrete advice about what that policy should be and why." The result is the new monograph, "Who Owns Online Courses and Course Materials: Intellectual Property Policies for a New Learning Environment," now available online in a downloadable PDF version CLICK: http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono2.html (UCEA 28 July 00)

NEW GOVERNMENT PORTAL FOR EMPLOYEES SEEKING CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION - There is a new workforce portal on the horizon, workers.gov, designed as a single doorway to government resources for workers and their families, even, the site's designers promise, "if what you want crosses traditional bureaucratic boundaries." Among the various gateways on the site, the "Learning" gateway is particularly impressive, uniting a mass of government data on colleges and universities, programs and scholarships in a format that is clear and easy for lay people to understand. Workers.gov is part of Vice President Al Gore's Access America initiative, and is cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, with help from the U.S. Departments of Education, Defense, Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Transportation. To access the site and further information CLICK: http://www.workers.gov/child.asp?intCategoryId=2 (UCEA 28 July 00)

NEW HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS SERVICE - Academic Partners, the publishers of LINGUA FRANCA and UNIVERSITY BUSINESS magazines, have announced a new publication, University Business Daily. Each weekday UBDaily selects and provides synopses for four of the top news stories that relate to higher education. Links to the original news article are also included. The news service is available at no charge, CLICK: http://www.ubdaily.com/

For more information about Lingua Franca: The Review of Academic Life, CLICK: http://www.linguafranca.com/ For more information about University Business, CLICK: http://www.universitybusiness.com/ (CIT INFOBITS June 00 No. 24 ISSN 1521-9275)

CONDITION OF EDUCATION REPORT - The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary U.S. agency for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other countries. Each year NCES produces THE CONDITION OF EDUCATION, a report summarizing the health of education and showing changes and trends over time, regions, populations, or countries. The edition for 2000 is available at no charge, CLICK: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000062

For more information about NCES, CLICK: http://nces.ed.gov/ (CIT INFO June 00 No. 24 ISSN 152-9275)

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NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to: Steve Siehr, Peter Bury, Ron Titus, Jennifer Maier, Aaron Storms, Sali Mounce, Jeffrey Hukill, Ellen Carpenter, Marti Dyer Allison, Navtej Matharu, Michael McCurry, Caron Newman, Jennifer Smith, Kay Shores, Vickie Medley, Marie Bowman, Tim Powell, Kristi Bordelon, Matthew Conroy, Bruce Nilsson, Richard Hobbs and Sandy Dockery.

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FYI - News, Institutes, Conferences, Events

** European Distance Education Network (EDEN), the Fourth Open Classroom Conference, will be in Barcelona, Spain in November, 2000, hosted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The conference is titled 'Open Classrooms in the Digital Age, Cyberschools, E- Learning and the Scope of (R-) Evolution.' To be kept informed, complete the Express of Interest Form, CLICK: http://www.eden.bme.hu

** The MASIE Center is pleased to announce the formation of a new collaboration, the e-Learning CONSORTIUM. This is a collaboration of 100 key companies, government agencies and e-Learning suppliers banding together for ongoing benchmarking, networking and research. The MASIE Center will provide active and dynamic support for this CONSORTIUM. Members include: Chase Manhattan Bank, Goldman Sachs, US Dept. of Defense, The Limited, McDonalds, Unilever, Ernst & Young, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, IBM, click2learn, Dominos Pizza, Price Waterhouse Coopers, SABA, Dow Corning, Hillebrand and many other leading groups desiring to do active networking on e-Learning. The e-Learning CONSORTIUM kicks off on October 1, 2000. Details and application process is described at CLICK: http://www.masie.com/consortium/

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THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST DESIEN ISSUE - DESIEN WILL BE BACK IN SEPT.

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ENDNOTE - To the Realist, the Optimist is an Idealist and the Pessimist is a Cynic.

To the Optimist, the Realist is a Pessimist and the Idealist is a Visionary.

The Pessimist believes he/she is the Realist and that all others are merely Innocent.

Considering where they're coming from, isn't each a reasonable appraisal?

Guy Bensusan - Senior Faculty Associate for Interactive Television, NAUNet, and Professor of Humanities & Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

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

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