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September 2000: Volume 5.10 - Text-Only

UPFRONT - An Investigative Journey
FOCUS - Sweden's Project USA 2000 - Martin Carlsson and Project Team
UW-NEWS - GWETC 2000, TTT
LINES - September News Highlights
ED - Trends Report 2000, Ed-Tech Success Hard to Assess, School Internet Changing Classroom Dynamics
BIZ/ED - Customer Learning Blends With Employee Learning, Lesson Plan Written by Industry
FUNDS - AGE Proposals Deadline, NSF Pumps Millions Into Computer Science
TECH TOOLS - 'Smart Phones' on the Horizon, Speak and You Shall Receive
RESOURCES - Copyright and Intellectual Property, Web-Based Education Commission Findings, New Networking Newsletter, VUG Enhanced
READS - 147 Practical Tips For Teaching Online Groups, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning ISSUES - Electronic Accessibility, Closing the Electronic Gap
POSITIONS - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NEW SUBSCRIBERS - New on the List
FYI - News, Institutes, Conferences, Events
ENDNOTE - Distance Education is...

OCTOBER DESIEN ISSUE FOCUS - Exploring the Media Connection by Mary Moen, award-winning teacher and consultant for the Discovery Channel

UPFRONT - AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNEY - I first heard about Sweden's Project USA 2000 via an email from Martin Carlsson. Later I met Martin at the Distance Learning Conference in Madison, WI this past August. We talked about his team's project, I visited the Web site and thought that information from this 'investigative journey' would be of interest to readers of DESIEN. Having worked in the area of distance education for more than ten years, I find the 'six factors' highlighted in the article to be very much on target and look forward to reading the full report. - (Rosemary Lehman-DESIEN)

FOCUS

Sweden's Project USA 2000
by Martin Carlsson and Project Team

In the spring of 2000, Stockholm's School of Economics (SSE) was ranked, for the first time, in the Financial Times rankings for higher education. The SSE Executive Education placed 19th in the world and 9th in Europe. With the strategic focus of the school to get increasingly inclined towards the international market, it was a natural step to visit and investigate how the American partner schools have integrated IT in education and find out what the general trends are. The universities that we visited were Harvard, MIT, Babson College, Columbia, New York University, Columbia, Cornell, The Wharton School of Business, Duke, UNC at Chapel Hill, UC Berkeley and Stanford. In addition, we met with Dr. William Graves (Chairman and founder of the eLearning company Eduprise); Heinrich Koenen (Vice President, The Masie Center) and Robert Johansen (President, Institute for the Future).

Since we have limited space to share our findings, we will highlight some of our general findings contributing to success in the eLearning arena. If you would like more information, please visit our website at CLICK: http://www.usa2000.nu where we have published information about the different universities. Many of our findings have been discussed in other articles and are therefore not new. However, we believe that the factors below are important:

1. Development of a Clear and Integrated Strategy
One consistent observation made during the interviews was that very few actors in the learning space seem to have clear strategies. Several seem to be afraid of lagging behind, missing the train and ending up left out, which tempts many to jump into eLearning without a clear, pre-set strategy just to have presence in the field. Naturally, a clear strategy facilitates a successful mastering of the path. However, a lot is to be gained if this strategy is incorporated into the overall strategy of the school and is not kept isolated.

Duke has a business model that separates them a bit from many of the other schools. Instead of focusing only on the executive level, their goal is to be able to provide knowledge to all levels of management, using a mix of both traditional face-to-face learning and eLearning. Their approach is that the knowledge is trapped within the organization and their role is to become knowledge-facilitators.

2. Support from the Dean and the University Board of Directors An articulated support from the dean and the university board of directors creates a solid foundation for further development. The lowest level of engagement, which for reluctant faculty otherwise would be nonexistent, can be centrally set and incentives presented inspiring to go further. It is important to try not to force faculty, but rather offer full support and rewards for those who want to and can produce sound solutions. The somehow contradictory statement, to set a lowest level, but not force people, should be viewed as a way to overcome the initial threshold new technologies or pedagogical methods infer. When the threshold has been passed, faculty can decide on their own involvement.

We believe that Cornell, Duke and Columbia has been successful in this matter. At Cornell and Duke, for-profit ventures have been created to separate the traditional academia from the entities producing eLearning content. At Columbia, Dean Meyer Feldman has actively and decisively supported the school«s partnership with Unext.

3. Design Department for Creation of Courses
Course design personnel and IT-administrators are not interchangeable. The designing of courses is a specialized skill and personnel skilled in that field are an extremely valuable resource. A consistent comment from the authorities we met throughout our journey was that eLearning has a lot of potential and offers an enormous flora of pedagogical possibilities, but at the moment there isn't much good material produced. Many institutions just tape lectures, put up some slides and a questionnaire, which others say shouldn't be worth calling eLearning. This has almost unanimously been regarded as insufficient and, at best, considered as a first trembling step. The lack of interactivity in the current solutions is striking. It is here that course designers are critical. Pedagogical ability, technical know-how and design skills are highly desirable, which (except for technical know-how) aren't necessarily required for IT-administrators. The course designers must be able to communicate with the professors in an effective way to combine the respective proficiencies. The synergistic potential of technology, pedagogy and content blended together is enormous.

Alison Peirce at Wharton presented a good analogy comparing film-making of books with transforming classroom education into eLearning. She emphasized that it has been extremely hard to turn good books into good movies, because books and films are two different media. We believe that this is the case in the educational sphere too, and it is therefore crucial to distinguish IT-administrators from course designers.

4. Good Communication With the Professors
A good method for quick results, is to identify professors who like the medium. Through giving them solid support, resources and time, a lot can be accomplished in a short period of time. Through information seminars, roundtable discussions and similar events, the motivation can be spread. Then when the next cadre of interested faculty comes around, they will be provided with help to more swiftly and easily produce a test-course.

In this matter we consider the strategy Jonathan Levy (Harvard Business School Publishing) presented very interesting. When formerly at Cornell, he focused on teachers who came on their own initiative for help and instructions to create online courses. They were given more than sufficient support to minimize friction from technology-related matters, liberating time for them to work on content and pedagogy.

NYU is also on the right track with its management group. This is responsible for, among other things, giving faculty IT-support in the development of online courses.

For more on our project, CLICK: http://www.usa2000.nu. If you have comments, please send us an e-mail at: 18184@hhss.se.

 

UW-NEWS - GWETC 2000, TTT

GWETC 2000 - Register Online at CLICK: http://www.gwetc.org.

Only 10 more days to register for GWETC 2000!! The Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference 2000 (GWETC 2000) will take place October 10-12, 2000 at Madison's Alliant Energy Center (formerly the Dane County Expo Center) and Sheraton Hotel. This eighth annual GWETC provides a comprehensive look at today's technology and tomorrow's vision for advancing the application of technology in all of our PreK-12 and postsecondary educational systems.

Each day of the conference will offer an emphasis on educational levels. Day One has a Postsecondary emphasis, Day Two has an All Levels emphasis and Day Three has a PreK-12 emphasis.

Hear keynote speakers: Edward D. Barlow of Creating the Future, Inc.; James E. Schnitz, Education Strategy Executive of IBM and Mary Moen award winning teacher and Discovery Channel consultant. Tour the University of Wisconsin- Extension's state-of-the-art Pyle Center. Participate in a number of the nearly 200 concurrent breakout and poster sessions; more than 150 technology and software exhibit booth areas featuring innovative projects, training resources and tools for teaching and learning; 15 hands-on workshops and labs providing practical experience in new ways of using technology in education; and networking opportunities.

GWETC is cosponsored by TEACH Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin- Extension, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Wisconsin Technical College System. For additional information about the conference or to register, CLICK: http://www.gwetc.org or call the conference manager at: 608-264-9730.

TTT - Teaching with Technology Today's first fall issue is now online. It's a theme issue devoted to academic libraries and electronic resources. TTT is the online educational technology publication of the UW System. CLICK: http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/ttt/. The new issue includes:

 

LINES - September News Highlights

Over the past eight years, spending for technology in education has reached $6.2 billion and top companies are extensively involved in educational projects to push the high tech agenda. IBM, Apple, Intel and Microsoft are some of the leaders in this area. According to a 1997 presidential report, the $6.2 billion needs to triple to $18 billion to reach all schools. Critics, however, see the eLearning movement as dangerous if schools start accepting free products and services from high-tech companies in exchange for allowing advertising on school computers. (Business Week, 25 Sept 00)

University of Wisconsin-Madison won't ban Napster's download service on campus, professing respect for intellectual property. Other educational institutions have also declined to bar Napster. No legal action against the University of Wisconsin is planned. (Wisconsin State Journal, 29 Sept 00)

A group of 400 independent British music labels has created a new way to license music broadcast online. Represented by the Association of Independent Music (AIM), the new method will let broadcasters license music from an entire group of labels through a single agreement. A six-month pilot will offer the labels' music, without threat, while bargaining with the union to establish a fair financial agreement to be paid retroactively. The initiative is an alternative to the U.S. licensing structure and gives independent labels collective power against top competitors such as BMG, EMI and Warner. (Industry Standard, 25 Sept 00)

A joint study designed to determine the success of the federal eRate (education rate) initiative, revealed that over 95% of all US schools have at least one computer connected to the Internet. This is up from 65% in 1996. The study was conducted by the Urban Institute and Department of Education. The eRate funds help schools acquire cable connections, telephone infrastructure, computer equipment, satellite, dynamic simulation language service or contract with an ISP. (Newsbytes, 11 Sept 00)

Students at the University of Oregon can now log on to the network from many locations on campus using only a laptop and an access card. By the end of the year, 24 access points will reach 80 percent of the campus. As access points increase, students will be able to roam freely around campus without disconnecting from the network. Two of the university's concerns, load balancing and privacy, are being addressed. (Industry Standard, 11 Sept 00)

A wide range of eBooks will be included in Simon & Schuster's Fall 2000 catalog. The platforms for the Simon and Schuster digital books will be: Microsoft Reader, Glassbook, SoftLock.com, peanutpress.com and Gemstar's Softbook Reader and Rocket eBook. Paul Saffo from the Institute for the Future thinks that the novella and short story may make a comeback in this format. Sites such as Blosm and MightyWords, could help build a following for unknown authors. (PC World.com, 8 Sept 00)

 

ED - Trends Report 2000, EDTECH Success Hard to Assess, School Internet Changing Classroom Dynamics

"TRENDS REPORT 2000"- A recent report released by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) identifies six key trends that appear to be influencing the digital economy: 1) the business of policy, 2) software as a service, 3) customer empowerment, 4) the value of information, 5) the digitization of business and 6) education any time/any place. According to the report, the Web enhances learning by providing students with access to content; giving distributed learning to users; enabling individualized learning and improving student, teacher and parent communication. International Data predicts that the market for technology- driven training and instruction will hit $11.4 billion by 2003.(eSchool News, September 00)

ED-TECH SUCCESS HARD TO ASSESS - Educators around the globe are struggling to prove to their governments and to taxpayers that wiring schools for the Internet and other technology is worth the expense. However, most educators agree that there is no good way to measure the impact that technology has on students and that standard measures of student progress may not reveal what technology teaches students. Pedro Paulo Poppovic, Brazil's secretary of distance education, is trying to convince his government that distance learning is key to educating the country's rural population, but so far the government has set up Internet access for only 10 percent of the country's schools. Schools in Brazil and in the United States must spend money and time training teachers, but educators worry that the teacher training and the schools' computers quickly become obsolete with today's ever-changing technology. This makes it even more difficult to convince lawmakers to invest money in education technology. However, educators point to the success of programs such as the International Education and Resource Network and Kidz Online as examples of what education technology teaches students. (Wired News, 13 Sept 00 - Edupage 15 Sept 00)

SCHOOL INTERNET CHANGING CLASSROOM DYNAMICS - According to education experts, the Internet is having a real effect on classroom dynamics. Students who are shy, learning disabled or are just learning to speak English appear to feel more confident with Internet-based lessons. In addition, with the Internet many resources are available to visual learners, another group often less confident in the classroom. Many educators believe that use of the Internet encourages creativity and allows teachers to spend more time facilitating and less time presenting. With 95% percent of the nation's schools connected to the Internet, training teachers to use the Internet is lagging. A recent survey by the Department of Education indicated that almost two-thirds of teachers across the country do not feel confident using computers or the Internet. (Washington Post, 5 Sept 00)

 

BIZ/ED - Customer Learning Blends With Employee Learning, Lesson Plan Written by Industry

CUSTOMER LEARNING BLENDS WITH EMPLOYEE LEARNING - According to Elliott Masie of the Masie Institute, more and more companies are adding customer education to their eLearning strategy. While employee training and development is a natural subject for the growth of eLearning, there is often a larger opportunity and need in the education and learning requirements of customers. This includes pre-sale and post-sale support and knowledge transfer. A number of Masie's contacts in large organizations have reported that they are now being given the added responsibility of developing an eLearning strategy for customer education. They are investigating several options for blending customer and employee training efforts:

LESSON PLAN WRITTEN BY INDUSTRY - High-school students in Prince William County, VA, now have the opportunity, with support from Microsoft and Cisco Systems, to receive IT certification in addition to a regular diploma. The firms are providing the latest hardware and software, training teachers, and also assisting in the development of the curriculum, and say they are preparing the students for the new economy regardless of whether the students end up working in the IT industry. Some educators are concerned, however, that the companies are merely looking for ways to reverse the shortage of trained information technology workers, projected at 800,000 within the next year according to the Information Technology Association of America, and that the programs will not give students a balanced education. The firms respond that the skills they teach are applicable to nearly any job in any industry. The new programs are so popular that participating schools are turning away students. (Washington Post, 12 Sept 00 - Edupage 13 Sept 00)

 

FUNDS - AGE Proposals Deadline, NSF Pumps Millions Into Computer Science

EAGE PROPOSALS DEADLINE - The Coleman Foundation and the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, through the Entrepreneurship Awareness and Education Grant Program (EAEG), are accepting proposals for cutting edge entrepreneurship programs that will help define the future of entrepreneurship education. They will award grants of $25,000 to $50,000 to any university, college or community college to significantly expand entrepreneurship education through innovation that focuses on any of the following areas:

1. Entrepreneurship course(s), program(s) or a minor targeting non-business majors in a collegiate setting.
2. Cross-curriculum entrepreneurship education in disciplines, such as medicine, law, architecture, engineering, psychology or veterinary science.
3. Entrepreneurship training or certificate program targeting non-degree seeking students that are owners of an active existing business.
4. Entrepreneurship course(s) or program(s) targeting performing, non-performing or other art-related studies.
5. Entrepreneurship outreach program(s) targeting high school, elementary or alternative school students.

Deadlines for proposals are: October 23, 2000 and March 15, 2001 For more details and submission instructions, CLICK: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/Docs/bulletins/coleman.html (FROM Katherine Sydik, ADEC and Jeff Finlay, Cooperative Extension, UWEX)

NSF PUMPS MILLIONS INTO COMPUTER SCIENCE - NSF Grants were awarded mid- September to more than 200 computer-science research projects. The grants are part of the National Science Foundation's Information Technology Research (ITR) program. Receiving grants were: 1) a University of Pittsburgh effort to design a robot to assist the elderly and 2) a University of Illinois project to make network-based programs effective for remote surgery, satellites and air traffic control. For the first round of ITR grants 1,400 proposals were received. Sixty-two large-scale projects of three to five years received $1 million a year. 148 smaller-scale projects received $500,000 a year for no more than three years. The projects that were selected are on the cutting-edge, the type that cannot easily receive financial support from the high-tech industry The NSF has asked Congress for $190 million for next year's ITR grants. Proposals are being accepted. (Federal Computer Week Online, 13 Sept 00)

 

TECH TOOLS - 'Smart Phones' on the Horizon, Speak and You Shall Receive

'SMART PHONES' ON THE HORIZON - The combination of mobile phones with handheld computers was recently announced by Palm and Motorola. These next- generation phones feature large displays, the capability of - surfing the Internet, using word processing, maintaining an address book and more. Palm and Motorola expect to produce their first phone in early 2002. It will run on three frequencies and be useable in both the US and in Europe. The announcement will increase competition in this fast-growing sector. (Financial Times, 25 Sept 00)

SPEAK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE - Several startups and major tech corporations are entering the market for telephone-based Internet access, or voice portals. The technology is improving and booming, say industry analysts, who predict the annual worth of the voice-portal market could be $12 billion by 2005. Users call a voice portal and request news or information. Voice- recognition software analyzes the request and then sends it to the main computer to be processed. Analysts expect voice portals to succeed because most people have access to a phone, whereas many people still do not have Internet access; but critics wonder whether voice portals will be fast enough to please customers. Several corporations, including America Online and Sprint, have recently bought or acquired stakes in voice-recognition software firms, leading analysts to believe they are preparing their own voice portals. (Wall Street Journal 18 Sept 00 - Edupage 18 Sept 00)

 

RESOURCES - Copyright and Intellectual Property, Web-Based Education Commission Findings, New Networking Newsletter, VUG Enhanced

COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - For an in-depth article on copyright and intellectual property issues see Copyright Considerations in Distance Education and Technology-Mediated Instruction by Kenneth D. Salomon - DOW, LOHNES & ALBERTSON, PLLC, 5 July 00, at CLICK: http://www.aacc.nche.edu/headline/070700head1.htm

WEB-BASED EDUCATION COMMISSION FINDINGS - A preliminary report on Web-based education has been released. To submit eTestimony CLICK: http://www.webcommission.org

The commission will be developing a set of policy guidelines in the following areas related to Internet/Web use for education and training: Technology Trends, Pedagogy, Access and Equity, Technology Costs, Teacher Training and Support, Regulatory Barriers, Standards and Assessment, Accreditation and Certification, Intellectual Property, Online Privacy, New Learning Institutions, Research and Development and the Marketplace

The commission's mission "is to recommend actions to help ensure that all learners have full and equal access to the capabilities of the World Wide Web, and to ensure that online content and learning strategies are affordable and meet the highest standards of educational quality." The Commission will recommend policies to the President and Congress that will assist education leaders at all levels to incorporate Web-based learning strategies to improve education and achievement. To keep up to date on the findings CLICK: http://www.webcommission.org

NEW NETWORKING NEWSLETTER - Sign up for the free newsletter Networking, available by email and on the web, CLICK: http://thenode.org/networking/. Published by the Node Learning Technologies Network every two weeks, Networking brings timely news, reviews and analysis to the desktops of the eLearning community. For sign-up instructions CLICK: http://thenode.org/networking/subscribe/. An archive of back issues is available at http://thenode.org/networking/issues/.

VUG ENHANCED - The Virtual University Gazette (VUG) is pleased to announce a new visually enhanced Web based version of the VUG, available online CLICK: http://www.geteducated.com/vugaz.htm. Beginning with the current issue VUG will be posting new longer feature items to the Web-based VUG that will not appear in the monthly eMail version. If you've never visited VUG online take a moment to look. (Virtual U Gazette Special Announcement, 18 Sept 00)

 

READS - 147 Practical Tips For Teaching Online Groups, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

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)

READS

147 PRACTICAL TIPS FOR TEACHING ONLINE GROUPS by Donald E. Hanna, Michelle Glowacki-Dudka, and Simone Conceicao-Runlee [Overland Park, KS: Atwood Publishing, 2000. ISBN: 189185934X, $12.50 US], is a "how-to guide for college professors, schoolteachers, and workplace educators." Drawing upon their extensive experience in educational communications and instructional design and technology, the authors "describe the reasonable expectations that professors should have of their students; copyright issues that pertain to course content; ways of interacting with students, like bulletin boards and shared documents and methods of evaluating students online, including portfolios and peer assessments." They also debunk some myths of online teaching regarding time requirements, number of students an instructor can handle and the reliability of the technology. A review of the book is available online, CLICK: http://chronicle.com/teaching/books/2000091101b.htm. (CIT INFOBITS Sept 00 No. 27 ISSN 1521-9275)

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING - Athabasca University CLICK: http://www.athabascau.ca and the International Consortium for Alternative Academic Publishing (ICAAP) CLICK: http://www.icaap.org have launched a new online publication. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning CLICK: http://www.irrodl.org is a free refereed journal edited by Peter S. Cookson, Associate Vice-president, Research and Institutional Studies at Athabasca.

The journal focuses on theory, research and best practices in open and distance learning. The premiere issue, available at CLICK: http://www.irrodl.org/current.html features six refereed articles as well as a selection of book and article reviews, conference summaries and announcements and relevant news items. Each issue is to be followed by a 30-45 day online conference where readers can discuss articles with their authors and IRRODL's consulting editors.

Articles from the current issue include:

Theoretical Challenges for Distance Education in the 21st Century: A Shift from Structural to Transactional Issues, by Randy Garrison (University of Alberta)

Digital Learning Environments: New Possibilities and Opportunities, by Otto Peters (Fern Universitaet, Germany)

Research in Distance Education: A Status Report, by Farhad Saba (San Diego State University) (NETWORKING Vol. 4, #13, 6 Sept 00 ISSN 1206-9450)

 

ISSUES - Electronic Accessibility, Closing the Electronic Gap

ELECTRONIC ACCESSIBILITY - President Clinton recently toured the Assisted Technology Access Center, where he saw a number of the devices that may soon assist the disabled. The Federal Government has announced several new research and training initiatives that focus on assisting the disabled with technology. The Department of Education will issue $16 million in grants, and the Americorp volunteer program, $9 million. Twenty-five universities will conduct research and 45 major high-tech firms will focus on designing their products to accommodate the disabled. (Washington Post, 22 Sept 00)

CLOSING THE ELECTRONIC GAP

- Many American Indian reservations in the Southwest have received satellite dishes and other equipment for high-speed Internet access as part of a Starband Communications pilot program that includes Northern Arizona University and the Southwest Navaoj Nation Virtual Alliance. A wide variety of uses are in the planning stages. (New York Times, 21 Sept 00)

- Many small, poor schools in rural America cannot afford even the eRate program Internet access, according to a new federal study. While the eRate program has helped wire 95% of the nation's schools to the Internet, the study suggests it may have to be modified to reach the poorest areas. As a result, attempts are being made to create an easier eRate application process - but the 10% matching fee will be a more difficult barrier to surmount. (New York Times Online, 20 Sept 00)

 

POSITIONS - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The position of Head of the Division of Instructional Development, Office of Instructional Resources, is open at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The position Reports to the Director of the Office of Instructional Resources, who in turn reports to the Provost. Starting date is January 22, 2001. Send applications by November 17, to include: letter of application (highlighting qualifications,) a complete vitae, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three individuals from whom references may be solicited to: John C. Ory-Director, Office of Instructional Resources 249 Armory Building, 505 East Armory Avenue, Champaign, Illinois 61820 phone: 217-333-3370, fax: 217-244-4431, eMail: j-ory@uiuc.edu For full details CLICK: http://www.oir.uiuc.edu/Did/index.htm. (Katherine Sydik, ADEC)

NEW SUBSCRIBERS - New on the List

Welcome to new subscribers: Ieda Santos, Aina Irbe, Kevin Twombly, Valerie Way, Marsha Durham, Patrica Williams, Lisa Shuchman, Andrew Bozylinski, Romanus Berg, David Fiske, Denise Cassano, Kristin Ruedel, Stan Maddox, George Guay, Diana Muir, Gene Frizzell, Bob O'Donnell, Jennifer Hatzfeld, Cristen Serdy, Rosanne Beckerle, Jim Bischoff, Gale Tenen Spak, Janis Bruwelheide, Christy Conte, Robyn Erler, Susan Famulare, Robert Bodine, James Dryer, Valerie Sheppard, Joe Jurczyk, Brenda Velez Deirdre Kane and Marcia Gibson

FYI - News, Institutes, Conferences, Events

'The Learning Marketplace: New Resources for Teaching and Learning' October 25-26, 2000, Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel, Atlanta, GA. This workshop explores the learning marketplace, its current status and its future direction and features mediated discussions with Blackboard Inc., Convene.com, eCollege.com, Eduprise and WebCT. For more details CLICK: http://www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/LMchic.html.

'State-of-the-art Learning Environments: Pew Grant Program In Course Redesign Round I Results' (cosponsored by the Executive Forum in Information Technology at Virginia Tech) will be November 13, 2000 at the Orlando Airport Marriott, Orlando, FL, and February 26, 2001, DFW Airport Marriott South, Dallas, TX. Featuring the results of the first of three rounds of the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign, faculty project leaders show how to increase quality and reduce costs using information technology. Faculty from four institutions talk about their models of course redesign, including their decisions regarding student learning objectives, course content, learning resources, course staffing, task analysis and student and project evaluation. For further information and registration materials CLICK: http://www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/learnenv.html

Proposals for Round III of the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign are due November 15, 2000. For information about this program CLICK: http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewGrant.html

ENDNOTE - Distance Education is...90% preparation and 10% presentation.

OCTOBER DESIEN ISSUE FOCUS - Exploring the Media Connection by Mary Moen, award-winning teacher and consultant for the Discovery Channel

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

DESIEN includes subscribers from institutions and organizations around the globe. DESIEN encourages information exchange of distance education issues concerned with: 1) distance education progress and course/program development, 2) team development and collaboration, 3) technology, 4) policy, 5) funding and 6) research. Subscribers outside of the UW System are encouraged to submit information and contributions.

* To submit articles or questions, email: lehman@ics.uwex.edu
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