FCN News 07 May 1999

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:

Upcoming Events On Campus Seen on and about the Net How To -- Web accessibility The Lighter Side Administrativa

Do you have UO colleagues who would find this newsletter useful? Call their attention to the html version, or they can subscribe by sending email to jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu.

Upcoming Events

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

• Steve Jobs keynote (Apple WWDC), May 10, 9:30-11am, Media Services Studio A. Live satellite broadcast from the Apple World Wide Developers Conference, expected to include the first in-depth look at MacOS X.
• HTML Tools and Tricks, May 11, 1-2:50pm, Knight 235. An IT Curriculum Intermediate Web Publishing workshop. See <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/publishing.html>.
• Group Assignments That Work, May 11, 2:30-4:30pm, Chiles 228. Repeated May 14, noon-2:30pm. Hands-on experience addressing a key dillemma: "If group work is so effective, why do all my students hate it?" To register contact Michael Sweet <mailto:mssweet@oregon> or 6-2123.
• New OCLC FirstSearch, May 13, 1pm-4pm. OCLC has completely revised and updated its FirstSearch online database. This half-day workshop will review the new features and administration choices available to libraries. To register, <http://www.oclc.org/oclc/pacific/pacwor.htm>
• Organizing Your Web Site, May 18, 1-2:50pm, Knight 235. An IT Curriculum Intermediate Web Publishing workshop. See <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/publishing.html>
• Forms & CGI Scripts, May 19, 2-3:20pm, Knight 235. An IT Curriculum Intermediate Web Publishing workshop. See <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/publishing.html>.
• Techniques for Teaching with Technology, May 21, 9am-4pm, Knight Library. The annual UO tech fair, organized by the Faculty Consultants Network! This year's theme is "new in 99". See <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/ttt99/> for the lastest program information!
• Copyright in the New Millenium, May 21, 9am-noon, Media Services Studio A. A live teleconference with a stellar panel of experts, discussing the effects on education of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a far-reaching attempt to update copyright law for the digital environment. See <http://www.arl.org/dmca/video.html>. Presented to the UO community as part of the Techniques for Teaching with Technology fair.
• Javascript, May 26, 2-3:20pm, Knight 235. An IT Curriculum Intermediate Web Publishing workshop. See <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/publishing.html>
• Apple Computer Higher Ed Summercamp 99, June 16. 10am-3:30pm, Knight Law School. For information and registration <http://www.applenw.com/summercamp99/south/>.

On Campus

GRANTS FOR TRANSFORMING RESEARCH INTO TEACHING. Greg Bothun reports that he is soliciting proposals from CAS faculty at UO for projects to turn faculty research into teaching materials. Expected funding levels are around $20K, with a proposal due date of June 4, 1999. If you are interested in applying, see <http://zebu.uoregon.edu/rfp.html> or contact G. Bothun, <mailto:nuts@moo>.

BROWSER SECURITY. As web browsers increasingly become the standard way people access electronic information, browser security is also becoming an increasing problem. Numerous (though mostly obscure) security problems have been found with both Netscape and Internet Explorer. If you're a Netscape Navigator user, even version 4.5 has serious problems with its Java support; Netscape currently recommends disabling Java in its browsers (fixed in 5.0?). If you're an Internet Explorer user, you should install the most recent security fixes from Microsoft. See <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/security/default.asp>.

TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY. Here's a brief list of some of the titles of presentations at the tech fair, May 21 in Knight Library. See <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/ttt99/> for the complete program information!

• Copyright in the New Millennium: The DMCA of 1998
• New at the NMC
• Introduction to PowerPoint
• Multimedia on your Course Web Site
• Supporting Faculty with Computing
• Experiences with Distance Ed at UO.
• Portable Computing
• Listservs and Flames
• Two Easy Tools for "Deepening" Your Course Web Site
• The Good, the Bad, and the Frustrating: Instructional Technology in the General Chemistry Lab Course
• Banner Web for Faculty

FACULTY INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRAINING CENTER. Scheduled to open in June, the FITT Center will provide personal consulting support for UO faculty in the use of instructional technology and multimedia. You can get access to current generation computer hardware and software for instructional technology development, plus technical support and training in the use and appropriate application of the technology. The Center is located in Media Services Room 18, on the ground floor of the Knight Library, and will be open for both drop in consulting and by appointment.

Seen on and about the Net

VIDEO ON DEMAND. There is an excellent new white paper on streaming video and video on demand technology, "Digital Video for the Next Millenium," avalable at <http://sunsite.utk.edu/video>.

CLASSROOM VISIONS. In an on-line presentation featuring both video and audio, Tom Marino, a professor of embryology at Temple University, reflects on how to make the classroom experience more fulfilling for students and professors. An excellent example of the use of multimedia on the web. Visit his site at <http://isc.temple.edu/marino/visions/>

@cademyonline. A new online journal (quarterly) focused on technology in higher education is available free at <http://www.academyonline.com>.

NEW SOFTWARE HELPS UNIVERSITIES GET WIRED EASIER AND CHEAPER Many colleges are following in the footsteps of the Harvard Business School by using the Internet to launch effective, inexpensive online services for their students. Companies including Blackboard, WebCT Educational Technologies, and WBT Systems are facilitating this trend by selling their courseware software packages to the colleges. Electronic Communities is providing its Palace software to colleges, free of charge, while CommonPlaces plans to do the same with its course and community-building tools. The market's potential for growth is murky, but companies are attempting to establish themselves as the top dog nonetheless. (Wall Street Journal 04/15/99)

TRUST NO ONE. Virus-infected Word and Excel files and email attachments are becoming a huge problem on the Internet. You should check all incoming documents and programs for virus infection, no matter who they come from. Some people believe that some senders are "safe". No such luck; last week Anyone visiting http://www.microsoft.com/uk/ business_technology/dns/ecommerce/ financial/case.htm to find out more about Microsoft Exchange got a bonus when they downloaded any of the case study documents. All were infected with W97M/Marker.C virus.

How To -- Web accessibility

The W3C this week finally released their official recommendations on accessible web pages. A very useful and readable set of documents! See

• Fact Sheet for "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" <http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCAG-REC-fact.html>
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines <http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/>
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - Checkpoints <http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/checkpoint-list.html>

Here is a brief summary of the Priority 1 checkpoints. All are important "best practice" even if you aren't concerned about accessibility per se.

• Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
• Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server-side image map.
• Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.
• For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives
• Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
• Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a document's text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions).
• For data tables, identify row and column headers.
• For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.
• Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets.
• Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes.
• Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.
• Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing the screen to flicker.
• Make programmatic elements such as scripts and applets directly accessible or compatible with assistive technologies.
• Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
• If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page.
• Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.
• Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content.

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.

• Understanding the Digital Economy: Data, Tools, Research, May 25-26, Washington DC. <http://www.digitaleconomy.gov/>.
• Teaching Learning and Technology Roundtable Workshop, May 13-14, U Washington, Tacoma WA. <http://www.tltgroup.org>.
• Evaluating and Using Networked Information Resources and Services, May 22-26, Pasadena, CA.<http://www.asis.org/Conferences/MY99/>.
• WebCT Conference, June 16-18, Vancouver, British Columbia. "WebCT is an innovative, enabling technology that allows the non-technical user to create and maintain sophisticated, interactive, internet-based educational environments." <http://web1.webct.com/public/conference/>.
• Distance Learning '99, Aug 4-6, Madison, WI. <http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/>.
• SITE 2000, Feb 8-12, 2000, San Diego, CA. Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference. <http://www.aace.org/conf/site>.

The Lighter Side -- linux riot

The following story is reported to have appeared in the Seattle News, 1 April 1999: "Linux Advocates Turn Violent, Go On Rampage".

Seattle, WA (CSNsl) - Until yesterday, protesters had kept a quiet, good-natured presence outside of the Microsoft's new office in downtown Seattle, handing out free CD's of computer software, and even giving cute little stuffed penguins-their mascot- to the children of passers-by. "They're such NICE young men," said 78 year old Mildred Matthews, walking her dog nearby. "They would pet my dog, and we'd talk about Art Bell, Deep Space Nine and the X Files. I think they just got tired of being repressed and kept down by The Man," said this great-grandmother when interviewed this morning. ...

For the full story, see <http://w3.one.net/~sunlion/linuxriot.html>

Administrativa

This issue marks a change in the regular publication schedule of the FCN newsletter. Starting this month, we'll be publishing monthly rather than semi-monthly. We expect to supplement this regular publication schedule with very occasional email messages to the fcn mailing list.

The UO Faculty Consultants Network Newsletter is published (approximately) once 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/>.