FCN News 22 Dec 1998

Don't read this by e-mail! Instead, read the hypertext version of this newsletter: <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/current.html>. Contents:

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Upcoming Events

Local and online events of particular interest to FCN members (see also On Campus below):

On Campus

USING CLASSROOM EQUIPMENT.Will you be teaching in a large classroom this quarter? Would you like an introduction to the microphones, projection, and computer equipment in the room? Media Services staff will present a 1-hour demo and question/answer session that introduces you to the details of the particular classroom you will be using:

Location         time    session 1         repeated
Chapman 204      7-8pm                     Monday, Jan. 11
Condon 360       7-8pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
Gilbert 138      7-8pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
Columbia 150     7-8pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
Lawrence 177     8-9pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
Pacific 123      8-9pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
PLC 180          8-9pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11
Willamette 100   8-9pm   Tuesday, Jan. 5   Monday, Jan. 11

CAMPUS PIPELINE. The UO has signed on as one of 12 beta test sites for a new product from SCT (the vendor for our Banner administrative systems). Watch for implementation this spring. Campus Pipeline will create a web-based "home base" for students and faculty that "combines the best elements of an Internet portal and an intrane,t integrating collaboration and communications tools, personalized content, and electronic commerce capability." A single logon provides access to SCT and other applications for course scheduling, registration, student record keeping, and the ability to interact with professors, other students, and course materials. <http://www.campuspipeline.com>.

MAPS. The Library has a neat new campus map available, one that should be particularly useful to your students.. On one side it highlights the campus branch library locations; on the other side are locations of major public computer labs on campus.

IT CURRICULUM. Encourage your students to attend an introductory class on electronic library resources or web publishing, or schedule a special library-taught workshopjust for your class. See a schedule at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/>. Contact your library subject specialist or JQ Johnson <mailto:jqj@darkwing> to schedule a special workshop.

Seen on and about the Net

WEB SITE PINPOINTS PLAGIARISM. As students' use of the World Wide Web has increased, reports of plagiarized term papers have proliferated. Now there's a new Web site designed to ferret out cut-and-paste papers, and the developers are pitching their product to professors and academic deans in the hope they'll be willing to pay for such a service. Dubbed IntegriGuard, the site checks the text of a submitted paper against the text of all the papers in its database, and gives it a "pass" or "fail" grade. The database includes about 600 papers so far, most of them purchased from term-paper mills. All papers submitted for inspection will also be added to the database. The developers hope that eventually professors will routinely use their site for all submissions: (Chronicle of Higher Education 11 Dec 98; from Edupage 13 Dec 98).

JUDGE DISMISSES B.U. SUIT AGAINST DIGITAL PAPER MILLS. A federal judge has dismissed Boston University's lawsuit against five online term-paper mills, saying the university had failed to prove violations of the laws it cited in its suit. The school had charged that the mills violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is usually used in organized-crime cases to prosecute criminal activities that are occur under the guise of ordinary business. The law requires that those activities be "distinct" from company affairs; in the case of the paper mills, the alleged racketeering activities were not separate from their business enterprises. The ruling did not touch on the argument, made by some term-paper mills, that selling research papers is a form of protected speech. Undaunted, the university plans to refile its case in state court. (Chronicle of Higher Education 18 Dec 98; from Edupage, 20 Dec 98)

ALN WEB REVISITED. If you've never visited the Asynchronous Learning Networks web site, or haven't visited it recently, check out <http://www.aln.org/alnweb/>. The site contains a wealth of useful information for online teaching and learning, including a scholarly e-journal (The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks), a news magazine, conference proceedings, on-line discussion forums, and fee-based workshops in instructional technology.

PC PRICES FALLING FOR CHRISTMAS. The market research firm PC Data Corp. says that one-third of all machines sold by retailers in November cost less than $800, and the average price of personal computers sold was $992 [including display]. PCs costing less than $1,000 accounted for 59% of all PCs sold. (Bloomberg News/Atlanta Journal-Constitution 22 Dec 98; Edupage, 22 Dec 98).

ONLINE TRAINING. A company to watch is CBT Systems, makers of an extensive line of computer based training modules (including modules for most common software packages). Many higher ed systems (I believe including the UC system, Stanford, Missouri, SUNY, and Texas) have recently signed large site license agreements to provide CBT training en masse to their communities. Such licenses are expensive (for example, SUNY spent $1.7 million), but potentially offer big benefits in providing technology training. <http://www.cbtsys.com>

COURSEPACK COMPETITION. Many of us use coursepacks in our teaching, and have them assembled by Printing Services for sale at the bookstore. It's a useful service, well tuned for the needs of the UO community. But with the growth of the web we may start to see other viable options. For example, check out "Copyright Management Services," a Massachusetts company that would like to compete for your business. <http://professor.coursepack.com/coursepack/>

How To -- Symbol shortcuts in Word

Here's a common problem: you're typing a paper or the overhead for a lecture, and need to include a special symbol. You could copy and paste from Character Map (PC) or KeyCaps (Mac), or the Microsoft Word Insert->Symbol menu option. But most versions of Microsoft Word also allow you to type the following shortcuts:

Symbol Windows Macintosh
© Copyright Ctrl+Alt+C Option-g
® Registered Trademark Ctrl+Alt+R Option-r
™ Trademark Ctrl+Alt+T Option-2

More recent releases make use of AutoCorrect to give you another option. When you type the following it is automatically converted to the right symbol.

Symbol AutoCorrect
© Copyright (c)
® Registered Trademark (r)
™ Trademark (tm)

Conferences and Workshops, Real and Virtual

The conference list now has its own web page, at <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/conferences.html>. We'll continue to use this space to highlight new conferences of particular interest to UO faculty interested in educational technology:

The Lighter Side

Redmond, WA (Routers) -- Microsoft announced today that the official release date for the new operating system "Windows 2000" will be delayed until the second quarter of 1901.

Administrativa

The UO Faculty Consultants Network Newsletter is published (approximately) twice a month. If you have materials for inclusion in the newsletter you can send them to <mailto:jqj@darkwing>. This newsletter (as well as other FCN-related material) is available on line in <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/>.