CONTENTS

UPFRONT - IP Holds Promise
FOCUS - Synchronizing the Sun: An Attempt to Build Global Knowledge Networks
With Synchronized e-Learning
UW AND WI - UW Consortium to Create Distance Ed AP Courses, WebFair,
TTT, UWs dot.edu and NIIT to Partner

LINES - November News Highlights
ED - Professors Design Online Science Course With Lab, Recipe for an e-Learning
Model, Internet2 Demos Streaming Without Interruptions
BIZ/GOV/ED - Technology in the Classroom Benefits Business Potential,
TechLearn Content Posted
LEGISLATION - House Approves Cybersecurity Bill, Bill Would Fund
Technology Standards
ACCESSIBILITY - HP Spearheads Programs for Users With Disabilities
TECH/TOOLS - PC Industry Unveils Tablet PC, Studies Predict Tablet PCs Off
to a Slow Start, Speech Tech Pioneers Share Visions
READS/RESOURCES - Educause 2002 Proceedings Papers, Report Envisions
Fundamental Changes in Higher Ed

NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to New Subscribers
FYI - News, Events, Conferences
ENDNOTE - Further Exploring Synchronous Technologies
_____________________________________________________________________

DECEMBER - No DESIEN Issue. Happy Holidays!
______________________________________________________________________

UPFRONT - Synchronous audio/video Internet Protocol (IP) holds great promise
for courses/programs that need to add the face-to-face aspect of interactive sharing
to the more textual online experience. But - we aren't quite there yet. As Stewart
Kowalski states in this month's FOCUS article, "delays and jitter" problems are
still part of the picture and when the course is international, time zones can also be
problematic.

The growth of Internet2 with its increased bandwidth holds great promise for
decreasing the "delays and jitter" as does "selective retransmission" (see ED
section of DESIEN "Internet2 Demos Streaming Without Interruptions") and,
according to this month's FOCUS author, designing meaningful interaction and
sharing into courses/programs on a consistent basis can help decrease the time
zone problematic. These technological and design advances along with the cost
savings, in lieu of travel, will see the increased growth of IP for full courses/programs
or as a component of online learning. (Rosemary Lehman)
______________________________________________________________________

FOCUS

Synchronizing the Sun: An Attempt to Build Global Knowledge Networks With
Synchronized e-Learning
by
Stewart Kowalski Ph.D.
Centre for Information and Communication Research
Stockholm School of Economics.
http://www.hhs.se/cic

Abstract
This article outlines the experience in developing a synchronized e-Learning course for
Ericsson Global Knowledge Network. Our experiences are both positive and negative.
Technologically, Internet Protocol (IP) video still has delay and jitter problems when
performing video and audio streaming. The inability to do PowerPoint animation in the
stream process is also a technological barrier. However it does appear that enthusiastic
and dedicated students and teachers can overcome these problems to make a global
knowledge network work.

Background
In the spring of 2000, Dinah Chession of Ericsson approached the Centre of
Information and Communication Research and the Stockholm School of
Economics and asked if we would be interested in developing a synchronous
web-based education course on e-Business in cooperation with Professor Donald
Hicks at the University of Texas, Dallas. The course was to be a prototype course
for executives' education at Ericsson and was to be given to 10 specially selected
executives spread over four continents: North America, South America, Europe,
and Asia.

Ericsson, which is one of the world's largest suppliers of mobile and fixed
telecommunication infrastructure, is located in 140 places around the world. As a
global company it has a continual need to develop and maintain its core asset
knowledge in a global perspective. It was hoped that the experience from this
prototype course could be used as a model for other courses. Synchronous web-
based technology can provide the communication infrastructure for global
interaction in real time, which is needed for a global company like Ericsson.

Developing the Course
The course was developed during the fall of 2000 using the Internet and telephone
systems for exchange of documents and discussion. It is estimated that at least 100
email and over 100 hours of long distance calls were used. The two principle
instructors, Professor Hicks and the author, met in person only twice during the
development stage. The principle instructors were given training in the use of the
Centra software, which consisted of two half-day seminars.

The real problem with the development of the course was not so much learning the
technology for delivery but more the subject matter of the course itself. The area of
e-Business at the time of the course development was hyped and it was difficult to
find good pedagogical substance in much of the material in the area. Thus, course
material was drawn from a variety of sources. Two textbooks were selected and
sent to the students before the start of the course, 1) Choi et al, The Economics of
Electronic Commerce, Macmillan Technical Publishing; and Shepard, Steven,
Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of
Technologies, Services, and Companies, McGraw-Hill. In addition, updated
materials and hundreds of related information sources relevant to this course were
listed on the course bulletin board. Blackboard.com was used for the course
webpage.

A mechanical model was also sent to the students before the start of the course.
The idea of the mechanical model was to have a physical representation of the
abstract model that was used in the course to describe the effect of e-Business
on Ericsson and Ericsson's customers. It was hoped that by having the same
mechanical model the students would be able to share a common experience
during the lecture. The model used magnets to produce a chaotic pattern of
movement between four elements. These four elements are, methods, machines,
culture, and structure. The model was then used by the students in one of their
assignments that they were required to present in a webcast.

Delivering the Course
The course was conducted online across the Ericsson intranet. Participants logged
on to a 2 1/2-hour session once a week from wherever they happened to be at the
designated time. If the students were out of the office they would remotely log on
to the Ericsson Internet via the telephone systems. About a third of the students
participated in the web cast either from their homes or from hotel rooms while they
were on business travel. Course software, Centra 99, permitted synchronous
multimedia streaming with voice over IP for the audio channel. There were ten web
casts starting at 8:00 am CST, which meant that the student in Singapore had to
remotely log on from his home at 10:00 pm and that the student in Sweden usually
logged in from work at 3:00 pm.

The web casts were basically PowerPoint driven. One technical barrier with this
was that in Centra 99 one can not use PowerPoint animation which required some
changes in the visualization styles that one has become used to in physical lectures.
A support technician was usually present during the web cast and usually took care
of the log on and sound check of the students. The session had two ten-minute
breaks.

Six of the webcasts had guest lectures. Individuals who were brought in to present
had no previous experience or training in using Centra. The students were asked
before the quest lecture to submit questions and the lectures turned into very
good question and answer sessions. There were two assignments in the courses.
During the fourth session the students had to present their own material that was
based on an assignment using the mechanical model. The second assignment
was a written paper that was to be turned in at the end of the course.

Lesson Learned
Lecturing to students using an audio and video stream on IP is difficult. One has
to learn to deal with the small delays in speech and image. These speech delays
can be quite problematic when most of the individuals are communicating in a
language which is not their mother tongue. Also dealing with different time zones
has its problems. One soon learns that those who are in evening mode are quite
different from those who are in the morning mode. As a lecturer one has to use
all the teaching tricks in the book to have individuals interact. However, once you
start the different students interacting one sees the benefits directly. The participants
from the different markets within Ericsson were able to share knowledge and
learning from each other. This is what a knowledge network is all about.

Conclusion
From experience in doing the same type of executive education in the physical
world I would estimate that we were able to cover about 70% of the material with
synchronized e-Learning as we could have covered in the physical lectures.
However, for a global company like Ericsson, this 30% time lose can be compared
with what would be the travel cost to have participants from four continents participate
in the same course.

Ericsson and most telecommunication infrastructure suppliers are presently
undergoing huge restructuring which has effected executive training budgets
radically and as a consequence the resources were not continued to put the
prototype course into production. However, once there is a market turnaround
it is believed that travel cost saving of synchronized e-Learning will make it an
integral part of executive education for a number of global companies. For more
detailed information about the course see:
http://www.hhs.se/cic/courses/babylon/ebusinesscourse.doc
______________________________________________________________________

UW AND WI

UW CONSORTIUM TO CREATE DISTANCE EDUCATION AP COURSES -
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced it will create a series of
videoconferencing Advanced Placement (AP) courses for high school students. The
distance education nature of the courses is intended to make them available to the
state's rural and inner-city students, many of whom do not otherwise have access to
such courses. The courses will be developed under the auspices of a new
organization, the Wisconsin AP Distance Learning Consortium, created at the
university's School of Education. The AP Consortium staff will recruit, train, and
support 50 licensed Wisconsin teachers to teach 50 AP Consortium courses in
12 subject areas, with a goal of enrolling 500 to 700 students in the courses for the
2003-04 school year. During project years two and three, both the number of
participating teachers and variety of AP subjects offered will increase.

Nearly three-fourths of this year's freshman class entered the University of
Wisconsin-Madison with an academic head-start - AP credits. However, access
to AP courses is far from universal in Wisconsin. Almost one-quarter of the state's
public secondary schools - many of them in low-income rural or urban districts - do
not or cannot offer the courses. Of the remaining schools that do, only a handful
offer more than one or two of the 35 AP courses. Equal access to quality education
is at the heart of the new project, which will also create, operate, and maintain an
AP distance-learning clearinghouse for high schools throughout the state.

Project partners include: the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin
Education Association Council, the Wisconsin Association of Distance Education
Networks, the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, and Instructional
Communications Systems, UW-Extension. Funding for the three-year project totals
nearly $1 million, including $559,208 from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund
for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, combined with $400,929 from
UW-Madison, the UW System and other institutions. More information can be found at: http://www.cew.wisc.edu/ap_consortium/

WEBFAIR - Registration for Wisconsin WebFair 2003 is a three-step process:
1) submit an online registration, with an instructor sponsor form by February 15, 2003.
Each project submitted should be accompanied by its own online registration form. No
registration forms will be accepted without a sponsoring instructor or principal;
2) submit a registration verification letter from the teacher or student's K-12
principal before April 1, 2003; 3) include your project narrative page on your web
site. Please be sure to read the eligibility requirements before registering. Teacher
and high school winners will be invited to attend a three-day summer institute on the
UW-Stout campus August 13-15. Winning teams of no more than 3 individuals will
be identified: http://webfair.wisc.edu/register02.htm

TTT - The November 27, 2002, vol. 9 no 3 issue of Teaching with Technology
Today (TTT) is at: http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/

* Editor's eMailbag: http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/letters2.htm
* Hi-Tech Presentations: Are They Powerful or Pointless? by Christy Carello,
UW-Eau Claire: http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/carello.htm
* Expanding Our IDEAS by John Fischer, IDEAS Project Director:
http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/fischer.htm
* Book Review - Web Portals and Higher Educations: Technologies to Make
IT Personal by AnnMarie Johnson, UW Oshkosh:
http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/johnson3.htm
(Tammy Kempfert, TTT Editor, UW System)

UWs DOT.EDU AND NIIT TO PARTNER - dot.edu, the University of
Wisconsin's educational application service provider, will partner with NIIT, a
training company, to offer programs to external customers in higher education
institutions, public and private schools, and agencies. dot.edu was originally created
to respond to requests for web-based learning from the university's 28 locations.
Rather than replicate services to accommodate each location's requests, the school
set up a centralized distributed learning system based on an ASP model. Key
services at dot.edu include hosting, training, instructional design, consultation, and
help desk for web-based learning systems and are now being used by 83
customers nationwide, including 55 locations outside the UW System. (UW dot.edu)
_____________________________________________________________________

LINES

12-HOUR RULE OFFICIALLY DEAD - The contentious 12-hour rule officially
died November 1 with a final regulation from the U.S. Department of Education in
the Federal Register. Distance education providers had long lobbied to change the
rule, which prevented many distance learners from qualifying for federal financial aid.
Replacing the 12-hour rule is the "one-day rule," requiring at least one day of
instruction per week, though "one day" has never been clearly defined. The
department's notice concerning the change said that most who commented on the
change supported it and that none who opposed it suggested an alternative. See:
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002110101t.htm (Chronicle of Higher Education,
1 Nov 02)
___________________________________________________________________

ED

PROFESSORS DESIGN ONLINE SCIENCE COURSE, INCLUDING LAB -
Two professors, Doris R. Kimbrough of the University of Colorado at Denver and
Jimmy Reeves of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, have created an
online science course that includes lab work that students do in their kitchens.
According to the professors, the lab work is safe and can be done with readily
available materials and a good-quality scale. Students in the online course are
reportedly able to gain an understanding of basic chemistry comparable to that of
in-class students. Each of the two institutions offers the course, though at the
University of North Carolina the class is entirely online, while the University of
Colorado version includes in-person lectures. Development of the course was
funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Go to: http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002111201t.htm (Chronicle of Higher
Education, 12 Nov 02)

RECIPE FOR AN e-LEARNING MODEL - Elliott Masie says that cooking brings
out the learner in him. Recently he took up cooking and accessed the internet for
online recipes. The recipes have triggered some interesting thoughts about eLearning
models. He found some compelling learning at: http://www.allrecipes.com First he
picked out a "learning objective," in the cooking world it is a type of dish he wanted
to cook, searching on the name of dish, type of cuisine or key ingredient. First,
- he received a list of ingredients, a step-by-step cooking process, some tips and
techniques and even the ability to scale the recipe for diverse numbers of people; next
- he had access to "context," reflected in the ratings of other people of the posted
recipes. He could look at the history of those raters, to place their views in perspective
and their suggestions for changes to the recipe - a lot like e-Learning...this is an
interesting model for ongoing eLearning in an single arena. Think of how you might
apply this to knowledge domains in your own organization. (TechLearn Trends, 20
Nov 02)

INTERNET2 DEMOS STREAMING WITHOUT INTERRUPTIONS -
Streaming audio and video are typically full of stops and starts, a result of missing
data packets. A recent demonstration of a new Internet2 streaming technology at
the University of Southern California showed how "selective retransmission" can
solve the problem of jerky streaming media. Rather than waiting for missing packets
or requesting them again, computers using selective retransmission only ask for the
packets that are missing, greatly smoothing out the process of displaying streaming
content. Because the Internet2 network supports speeds of 70 Mbps, the video at
the demo was shown on a 30-by-17-foot screen rather than the usually very small
screen typically used for streamed video. The demo streamed a symphony
performance, shown on the large screen and heard through a 12-speaker sound
system, without any breakup. See the full article at: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56110,00.html (Wired News, 8
Nov 02 - Edupage 8 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

BIZ/ED/GOV

TECH IN CLASSROOM BENEFITS BUSINESS POTENTIAL - "Many
education experts are calling for more use of technology in the classroom to ensure that
today's students are better equipped as adults to enter the workforce. Many are also
arguing that these changes shouldn't be made just for the sake of business, but for the
kids themselves. After all, they are growing up in a digital world - shouldn't their school
experience reflect this?" In "Teaching with Technology" (Presentations, vol. 16, no 10,
Oct 02, pp. 28-30, 32, 36), Julie Hill shows how classroom teachers around the US
are using the same technologies that companies use in the workplace. Educators
quoted in the article emphasize that "one of the main obstacles to adding technology
of any sort into the classroom experience is teacher training." You can read the article
online at:
http://www.presentations.com/presentations/trends/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_
id=1761271 (CIT INFOBITS, Nov 02, no 53 - ISSN 1521-9275)

TECHLEARN CONTENT POSTED: The Masie Institute announces that over
140 hours of video and audio from the recent TechLearn Conference, along with
dozens of slide presentations are now freely available at: http://www.techlearn.com
(Techlearn Trends, 13 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

LEGISLATION

HOUSE APPROVES CYBERSECURITY BILL - After approval last month in
the Senate, the Cyber Security Research and Development Act passed the House
mid-November. It now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill. If
passed, the bill would provide nearly $1 billion for research and training for efforts
to improve cybersecurity. Colleges and universities would receive significant funding
to train students as network security experts and to support the migration of
technology and expertise from the academy to industry. For complete article see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47774-2002Nov13.html
(Washington Post, 13 Nov 02)

BILL WOULD FUND TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS - A bill written by Rep.
Jim Barcia (D-Mich.) would use $47 million of federal funds to support in-progress
projects studying technology standards. Barcia wrote the bill after reading a report
written by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that attributes
losses of $1 billion annually in the US automotive industry to problems of
interoperability. Research into XML-based standards would likely see much of the
funding if the bill passes because, as Ric Jackson of NIST said, XML may be the
approach that leads to the grail of seamless interoperability. For full article see: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56287,00.html ! (Wired News, 11 Nov 02 - Edupage, 11 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

ACCESSIBILITY

HP SPEARHEADS PROGRAM FOR USERS WITH DISABILITIES - The
Library Technology Access (LTA) initiative, led by Hewlett-Packard (HP), aims to
increase library computer accessibility for users with disabilities. The goal of the
program is to design "template" solutions that libraries can implement easily to
improve access for users with visual, hearing, mobility, or learning disabilities. The
first part of the initiative launched recently with installations at several libraries
around the nation. The workstations at the test sites will record how users interact
with the technology, providing data that will be used to generate models of how
assistive technology and accessibility tools can best serve library patrons. For
complete information see:
http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/1028/web-library-10-29-02.asp
(FCW.com, 29 Oct 02 - Edupage 4 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

TECH/TOOLS

PC INDUSTRY UNVEILS TABLET PC - Microsoft Corp. and a slew of
computer hardware and software companies last week announced the availability
of the Tablet PC, marking the beginning of what Microsoft chairman Bill Gates
called "an exciting new era of mobile computing." The Tablets, introduced by six
original equipment manufacturers, including Acer, Fujitsu PC Corp., HP, Motion
Computing Inc., Toshiba, and ViewSonic Inc., run a version of Windows XP that
integrates the power of pen computing with the portability of the laptop. For
on-screen reading applications, Gates announced Microsoft Reader for the Tablet
PC, the latest version of Microsoft's e-Reading application optimized for the Tablet.
Purchasers of the Tablet PC will be able to take advantage of a promotional offer:
a selection of free eBooks targeted to business professionals. (Syllabus News,
Resources, Trends, 15 Nov 02)

STUDIES PREDICT TABLET PCs OFF TO A SLOW START - The Gartner
Dataquest company predicts that in 2003 sales of tablet PCs will only reach about
425,000, or one% of all notebook computer sales. Leslie Fiering, Gartner vice
president said tablet computers in 2003 will appeal to "only the bravest." IDC
predicts slightly higher numbers, 575,000 for 2003 and one million for 2004.
Computers running the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system are
expected from companies including Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, and Fujitsu.
According to Ken Dulaney of Gartner, buyers will be discouraged from buying
tablets because of price, lack of applications, and "clumsy hardware designs."
For the complete article see: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-964699.html
(ZDNet, 6 Nov 02)

SPEECH TECH PIONEERS SHARE VISIONS - Two pioneers in speech
technology predicted last week that speech would become a seamless part of the
computer datastream in the next decade. W. S. "Ozzie" Osborne, vice president
of Pervasive computing segments at IBM Corp., called the next age of computing
the "pervasive era," which will pull speech deep into the network. "Speech is
infiltrating everywhere as computers become transparent," said Osborne, speaking
at SpeechTEK last week. "Customer interface is the future. We will create
networks accommodating any device, any network, and any data. People won't
know they are using computers." Kai-Fu Lee, corporate vice president in
Microsoft's Natural Interactive Service Division, followed suit, saying, "Users
(will) articulate what they mean on any device, to any application or Web service
and have their intention interpreted and executed accurately." (Syllabus News,
Resources, Trends, 8 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

READS/RESOURCES

EDUCAUSE 2002 PROCEEDINGS PAPERS - Proceedings papers and post-
conference materials from the Educause 2002 conference, "Juggling Opportunities
in Collaborative Environments," are now available online. A few of the many sessions
available (either as text or audio files) include:
- "Beyond Listservs: Building Online Support Communities that Really Work"
- "Faculty as Students: Enhancing Student-Centered Learning Through Technology
and Collaboration"
- "Copyright Ownership and Digital Course Materials: Policy Characteristics and
Best Practices"
- "eLearning Pedagogical Strategies: Understanding the Basics"
The complete list of conference sessions and links to those online is available at:
http://www.educause.edu/conference/e2002/postcon_resources.asp
For more information see the Educause web site at: http://www.educause.edu/
(CIT INFOBITS, Nov 02, no 53, ISSN 1521-9275)

REPORT ENVISIONS FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES IN HIGHER ED - A new
report from the National Academy of Sciences predicts fundamental changes in the
way universities function due to the introduction of information technology. The
report, "Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the
Research University," proposes that changes in technology could lead to a future in
which instructors sell course material to many institutions and students assemble an
education from courses at several schools. Mark F. Smith of the American
Association of University Professors expressed concern over the notion of an
educator as "more of a consultant or a coach than a teacher," as the report states,
saying that information technology cannot substitute for human interaction. The
report makes a number of suggestions for how institutions should adapt to the role
of technology in education. For the full article go to:
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002110801t.htm (Chronicle of Higher
Education, 8 Nov 02 - Edupage, 11 Nov 02)
____________________________________________________________________

NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to new subscribers: S. Plantz, Michel Demoura, Jule
Kind, Andrew Philmont, Trevor Branstad, Eleanor M. Stafford, Carolyn Santos,
Warren Martenelli, Jose Maria Ribares, Russell Lawrence, Brenda Wright, Lance
Kronos and Betty E. Taylor.
_____________________________________________________________________

FYI - News, Events, Conferences

SITE 2003 - the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE)
announces its International Conference March 24-29, 2003 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The conference is organized by the
Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) and the
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). To register see:
http://www.aace.org/conf/site/
_____________________________________________________________________

ENDNOTE - There seems to be an increased interest in looking at the potential of
synchronous technologies, the various types of videoconferencing - compressed video,
DS-3 fiber networks, and IP; and the more recent webconferencing. Synchronous
technologies provide real-time interaction, and while this has its limitations, it also has
its benefits and potential. Synchronous technologies need to be further explored for
what they can add to the asynchronous experience. Only by selecting and using
technologies for what they do best, can we design and develop optimal learning
experiences. (Rosemary Lehman)
_____________________________________________________________________

DECEMBER - No DESIEN Issue - Happy Holidays!
______________________________________________________________________

DESIEN ARCHIVE: An Archive has been created for past issues and interaction
comments. To access the archive go to: 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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_____________________________________

Creator/Editor: Rosemary Lehman, Ph.D.
lehman@ics.uwex.edu
Copyright 2002 Board of Regents
University of Wisconsin