FCN News 29 Jan 96

Note: read the hypertext version of this newsletter: <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/fcn-news-960129.html>.

Contents:

Upcoming Events

    February 1996            March 1996     
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S     S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
             1  2  3                    1  2
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10     3  4  5  6  7  8  9
11 12 13 14 15 16 17    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
18 19 20 21 22 23 24    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
25 26 27 28 29          24 25 26 27 28 29 30
                        31

Events on campus of particular interest to FCN members (see also "Workshops --Winter 1996" below):

Educational Technology Committee meeting, Jan 30, 10:30-12:00. Cedar Room A, EMU. Contact Greg Bothun, <mailto:nuts@moo2> for additional information.
Prematurity: Are we making progress? Gerda Benda, M.D., Feb 15, 7:25-8:45pm, IMC Studio A (via EdNet). OHSU 1995-96 Marquam Hill Lecture #2. These EdNet lectures are designed to communicate in lay terms the latest research taking place at OHSU, and should be interesting to FCN members both in terms of content and presentation. Free; seating is limited; call 346-3091 to reserve a place. <mailto:bonamici@oregon>.

Some faculty members who make use of e-mail for communications with their classes were affected last week when Gladstone, the computer on which most students have their e-mail mailboxes, had disk problems on Thursday (1/25). Gladstone was down for several hours fixing the problems, and many students lost some or all of the e-mail they had received between Monday and Thursday.

If you require your students to use e-mail or other Computing Center services, you probably need to know when the Computing Center timesharing systems experience hardware problems. The CC has set up a listserv-style mailing list to notify interested users of system problems. If you want to subscribe to this list, send e-mail to <mailto:mailserv@oregon>. In the body of the message include the line "subscribe sys-status".

Computers in Classrooms

Greg Bothun reports that he has been pursuing a Tech Fee funded project to equip several classrooms with computer projection equipment. For his detailed analysis of 10 classrooms on campus, including Willamette 100, Willamette 112, Lawrence 177, Lawrence 115, Deady 106, Chiles 128, PLC 180, Condon 260, Straub 146, Columbia 150, and Music 198, see <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/misc/bothun-cl.html>. Greg's summary is that there are now several classrooms on campus that are adequately equipped to do computer assisted lectures, and that by next summer the technology will be available for us to equip all large lecture rooms with LCD projectors.

Many classrooms on campus, though, remain without projection equipment. More lack even Ethernet connectivity. Although portable projection equipment is available, most classrooms have inadequate lighting, blinds, and overhead projectors.

Some faculty have expressed an interest in doing an occasional computer-assisted lecture, for instance a single class that introduces students to a set of tools or resources relevant to their course. For such faculty, one option is to use a different room for the single class. One faculty member (Jennifer Freyd) who tried this reports some success using the EMU "Ben Linder" Forum Room. This room can be reserved through the EMU Room Scheduling Office (x6-6061), and has Ethernet connectivity (though you have to explicitly ask that Ethernet be enabled when you reserve the room). Freyd obtained the assistance of the Library subject specialist in her area (Psychology) to do a presentation on Internet and on-line library resources. The subject specialist provided a laptop, LCD panel, and high lumen overhead projector. Overall, instructor and students rated the presentation a technical success.

Some lessons:

finding portable computer hardware can be a challenge. Some departments and colleges have hardware available, but there is not yet a central index of what's available where and to whom. FCN members can borrow a Mac laptop and projection system from JQ Johnson <mailto:jqj@darkwing>.
room lighting is critical; a room with ordinary blinds will probably be too bright for good screen visibility. The EMU Forum Room is excellent since it is totally windowless and has very flexible lighting controls.
do a dry run in the room with your computer and projection hardware before the class. In the Forum Room case, a dry run revealed that Ethernet was not enabled (nobody told the instructor she had to ask for it explicitly). A dry run might help you discover that you needed a different cable, an extension cord, or a change in the software on the computer, before a presentation in front of a large class.
take advantage of technical support. Many Library subject specialists, your departmental computer support people, IMC, and the SSIL staff are all interested in helping with computer presentations. For referrals to knowledgeable support people in any particular case, you can also start with JQ Johnson <mailto:jqj@darkwing>.

Searching the Web -- Some UO Pages

In the last issue of this newsletter we mentioned the Magellan web index from McKinley, which includes reviews of sites as well as a fairly large list of interesting sites. Magellan currently gives its top rating, four stars, to several sites at the University of Oregon, among them:

Humanities Teaching and Technology -- CFP

The College of Arts and Humanities, the Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, and the Center for Humanities Applications in New Technologies (CHANT) at the University of Maryland at College Park are issuing a call for contributions to an interdisciplinary conference entitled, "Attending to Technology: Directions for Humanities Teaching and Research."

The conference is planned for November 7-9, 1996 on the College Park campus for an audience of university and K-12 faculty and students and the interested public. For a preliminary program, see <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/misc/humteach.html>.

Workshops -- Winter 1996

The UO Library and Computing Center Microcomputer Support Center each offer a series of workshops of interest to novice and advanced computer users. The following lists those workshops offered during February and March.

UO Library Internet Curriculum

Unless otherwise noted, classes will be in the Knight Library's Electronic Classroom (Room 144), and will last approximately 90 minutes. No advance registration is required, but seating is limited. Requests for accommodation related to disability need to be made to 346-1960 one week in advance of the workshop. See <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/uo/libhome/instruct/internet.htm> or call 346-1935 for additional information and a complete winter schedule.

WORLD WIDE WEB/NETSCAPE This workshop is for those who have heard about the Web but haven't had a chance to search it. It will cover fundamental concepts of the Web, demonstrate the Netscape browser, and show how to do subject searching on the Web.

 Tues    Jan 30          3:00-4:30 pm            Paynter, T Smith
 Wed     Jan 31          3:00-4:30 pm            Hawk, Jones
 Tues    Feb 6           6:00-7:30 pm            Paynter, T Smith
 Fri     Feb 9           2:00-3:30 pm            Hawk, Jones 
 Thur    Feb 15          noon-1:30 pm            Stirling, Cawthorne
 Fri     Feb 16          12:30-2:00 pm           Brownmiller, Stirling
 Tues    Feb 20          10:00-11:30 am          Stirling, Cawthorne

USENET DISCUSSION GROUPS From Angst to Zappa, and ten thousand subjects in between! An introduction to reading and participating in Usenet's ten thousand plus subject-oriented discussion groups. Demonstration and hands-on time with several newsreaders (Netscape, and trn for Darkwing and Gladstone).

 Wed     Feb 14          3:00-4:30 pm            Klassen

ELEMENTS OF THE INTERNET This class is intended for people who have had limited or no experience using the Internet and want to broaden their understanding of several Internet services, (e.g. World Wide Web (WWW), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Newsgroups). The goal of the workshop are to provide a general overview of the Internet and its functions. For most students, there will be an opportunity for some hands-on experience with parts of the Internet.

 Tues    Jan 30          1:00-2:30 pm            Robare, Slight-Gibney
 Fri     Feb 2           1:00-2:30 pm            Robare, Slight-Gibney
 Thur    Feb 8           3:00-4:30 pm            Robare, Slight-Gibney
 Mon     Feb 12          1:00-2:30 pm            Frantz, Stark
 Wed     Feb 21          3:00-4:30 pm            Cawthorne, Stark

VIRTUAL REALITY An overview of new developments on the Web including Virtual Reality, Real Audio, Real Video, Java, and more.

 Thur    Feb 22          6:00-7:30 pm            Stirling
 Wed     Feb 28          6:00-7:30 pm            Stirling

HOTJAVA: THE WEB IN MOTION An introduction to the hottest new Web browser since Netscape.

 Wed     Feb 28          2:30-4:00 pm            Felsing
 Thur    March 7         2:30-4:00 pm            Felsing

INTRODUCTION TO WEB PUBLISHING A brief introduction to writing and publishing on the World Wide Web. Topics include the architecture of the World Wide Web, introduction to the hypertext language (HTML) used in most Web documents, and a consideration of what materials one might publish. Participants should be familiar with a graphical web browser and have an account on Oregon, Darkwing, or Gladstone. No previous web publishing experience is necessary. This class will last approximately 2 hours.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Mon     Feb 5           1:00-3:00 pm            Smith, Lincicum
 Tues    Feb 13          4:00-6:00 pm            Smith, Lincicum

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Thur    Feb 15          10:00-noon              Klassen, Yi
 Wed     Feb 21          2:00-4:00 pm            Holman, Yi

INTERMEDIATE WEB PUBLISHING: HTML EDITORS AND CONVERTERS Demonstrates a selection of tools for producing HTML documents, and for converting from other document formats, e.g. Microsoft Word. Assumes some previous experience with HTML authoring.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Wed     Jan 31          1:00-2:00 pm            Johnson, Brownmiller

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Wed     Jan 31          11:00-noon              Johnson

INTERMEDIATE WEB PUBLISHING: IMAGES ON WEB PAGES. Techniques for Including graphics and image maps in HTML documents. Assumes some previous experience with HTML authoring.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Wed     Feb 7           1:00-2:00 pm            Johnson, Yi

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Wed     Feb 7           11:00-noon              Johnson

INTERMEDIATE WEB PUBLISHING: FORMS AND CGI SCRIPTS Writing scripts that generate web pages dynamically, especially HTML forms and scripts to process them. Assumes some previous experience with HTML authoring. Prerequisites: account on Darkwing or Gladstone; some knowledge of computer programming desirable.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Wed     Feb 14          1:00-2:00 pm            Johnson

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Wed     Feb 14          11:00-noon              Johnson

INTERMEDIATE WEB PUBLISHING: SETTING UP A WEBSERVER. Running a web server on your own network-connected Mac or PC. Assumes some previous experience with HTML authoring.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Wed     Feb 21          1:00-2:00 pm            Johnson

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Wed     Feb 21          11:00-noon              Johnson

INTRODUCTION TO SCANNING: CREATING AND MOVING DIGITIZED IMAGES How to scan photographs and other images, save the images into popular formats, transfer the images between computers, and incorporate images into documents. Participants should have some knowledge of the World Wide Web and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

ITC CLASSROOM

 Thur    Feb 8           3:00-4:30 pm            Paynter, Starr
 Fri     Feb 16          2:00-3:30 pm            Paynter, Starr

SUBJECT RESOURCES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

ART AND ARCHITECTURE INFORMATION Will focus on Netscape access to information on art history, museums and arts management, the fine arts, architecture, landscape architecture, and historic preservation.

 Thur    Feb 1           5:00-6:30 pm            Esau, McIntire
 Wed     Feb 7           5:00-6:30 pm            Esau, McIntire

FINDING A JOB ON THE INTERNET This class is presented by staff from the UO Career Center. Explore full-time jobs, part-time jobs and internships on the Internet. Discover how to research companies, locate potential employers and send your resume electronically. (Contact the Career Center at 346-3235 to sign-up for this workshop).

 Mon      Feb 5          3:00-4:30 pm            Songer
 Tues     Feb 20         3:30-5:00 pm            Songer

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION An introductory overview of representative sources of government information, including local, state, federal, and international Internet sites. Basic strategies for locating government information will be discussed.

 Thur    Feb 15          1:30-3:00 pm            Stave

HEALTH SCIENCE RESOURCES Explore resources available on the Internet as well as a brief introduction to Medline on the Internet.

 Tues    Feb 6           3:00-4:30 pm            Klassen

HOW TO READ CHINESE ON THE INTERNET The class will teach you how to read newsgroups, electronic magazines and Web pages that are in the Chinese language, how to read Chinese magazines with or without Chinese software, and where to locate Chinese software on the Internet. Reading knowledge of Chinese is required.

 Fri     Feb 2           3:00-4:30 pm            Yi

INTERNET RESEARCH STRATEGIES IN THE SCIENCES Introduction to searching on the Web with examples from the sciences. Bring a disk to save things you find. Includes brief discussion of citing electronic sources. Required: previous use of computer and some knowledge of the Internet and Netscape.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Tues    Feb 20          6:00-7:30 pm            Klassen, Holman

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Tues    Jan 30          6:00-7:30 pm            Klassen, Holman

INTERNET RESEARCH STRATEGIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Introduction to searching on the Web with examples from environmental studies. Bring a disk to save things you find. Includes brief discussion of citing electronic sources. Required: previous use of computer and some knowledge of the Internet and Netscape.

 Wed     Feb 7           3:00-4:30 pm            Holman

LEGAL RESOURCES An introduction to World Wide Web and Gopher legal information sites, using Netscape browsing software. Knowledge of legal resources is not required, but basic knowledge of the World Wide Web is recommended.

 Thur    Feb 8           1:00-2:30 pm            Beck, Garces

MUSIC RESOURCES This workshop explores the many interesting sources (Classical, Jazz, World Music) music scholars can find on the World Wide Web, as well as some of the Internet resources closer to home.

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Tues    Jan 30          4:00-5:30 pm            Bennett
 Thur    Feb 15          1:00-3:00 pm            Bennett

POPULAR CULTURE ON THE INTERNET A look at some of the popular culture resources available on the Internet. Includes a number of different media (film, books, TV, comics, music, and the WWW itself). Includes strategies on how to locate these resources, as well as examples of some of the best resources for each media. Requires familiarity with the Netscape WWW browser.

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Fri     March 1         3:00-4:30 pm            Klassen

SOCIOLOGY / PSYCHOLOGY RESOURCES An introductory overview of sociology/psychology listservs, newsgroups, gophers, electronic journals and World Wide Web resources.

KNIGHT LIBRARY ROOM 144 (for PC users)

 Tues    Feb 13          2:00-3:30 pm            Yi

ITC CLASSROOM (for MAC users)

 Mon     Feb 12          10:00-11:30 am          Yi

Microcomputer Workshops Winter 1996

Call 346-4412 for more information and to register for those classes that you want to attend.

GETTING MORE OUT OF EXCEL 5.0 (Windows or Macintosh)
Thurs, Feb 1, 10am-noon. IMC Studio A.

Focuses on many of the advanced features of Excel. Topics include Sorting and Filtering data, converting & sharing data between applications, modifying charts, graphics, functions, macros, and customizing Excel. Not for beginners.

Upcoming Conference Opportunities

This is a selected and somewhat idiosyncratic list of upcoming conferences relevant to educational tech, with an emphasis on conferences in the Northwest. The Educom calendar, <http://educom.edu/../events.calendar>, contains a more extensive list of mainstream conferences.

Online NorthWest, Feb 9, 1996, Eugene, OR. Computerized Information Retrieval. See <http://www.sosc.osshe.edu/library/onlinenw/online96.htm>.
Distance Education Conference, March 3-6, 1996, Portland, OR. "Sharing the Experience III: Beyond the Rhetoric". For additional information contact Lisa Farquharson, ORST, <mailto:Distance@ccmail.orst.edu>.
Digital Libraries '96, Bethesda MD, Mar 20-23,1996. An international conference devoted to advancing the state-of-the-art in digital libraries, sponsored by ACM. The meeting will be co-located with, and will immediately follow, Hypertext '96. For further information see <http://fox.cs.vt.edu/DL96/>.
AAHE National Conference on Higher Education, March 16-20, 1996. Includes numerous "Teaching Learning and Technology" events. For information, <mailto:aaheffrr@capcon.net>.
Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference, Mar 31-Apr 2, 1996. Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tenn. See <http://www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/>.
etaCOM-96, May 7-10, 1996, Portland OR. First Annual Conference on Emerging Technologies and Applications in Communications, sponsored by IEEE. <mailto:tomcan@sequent.com> for information.
Connections '96, May 9-11, 1996, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C. "Linking Teaching, Learning & Technology." Contact Amanda Harby, <mailto:harby@camosun.bc.ca> for details.
IASSIST 1996, May 15-18, 1996, Minneapolis, MN. "Weaving the Web of Social Science Research, Data and Support." See <http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/iassist96/>.
NECC '96, June 11-13, 1996. National Education Computing Conference, "Call of the North". For information, <mailto:necc96@ties.K12.mn.us>.
INET '96, June 25-28, 1996, Montreal CA. "The Internet: Transforming our society now." For information, <http://www.isoc.org/conferences/inet96/>.
Syllabus '96, July 20-24, 1996, Sonoma CA. See <http://www.syllabus.com/> for more information and for the call for papers and presentations.
World Conference of the Web Society, Oct 16-19, 1996, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by The Web Society and Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. For information, <http://AACE.virginia.edu/AACE/conf>.

The Lighter Side

Statistics means never having to say you're certain.

GLOSSARY OF STATISTICAL TERMS

Anova: One egg
Autoregression: Thumbsucking in the family car
Bimodal: AC/DC
Biserial correlation: Relationship between Wheaties and Rice Crispies
Cohen's kappa: Rabbi's yarmulka
Construct Validity: Building inspector
Content Validity: Seeing if the test developer is happy
Cross-over design: Christian architecture
Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test: Assay for the purity of vodka
Kurtosis: What's at the end of a mangy dog's footsis
Latin square: Roman in conservative garb
Mann-Whitney test: Determination whether a cotton gin were transported across state lines for immoral purposes
Manova: Missionary position
Mean deviate: Misguided sadist
Minimax: Dress for ambivalent women
Multiple regression: Thumbsucking-a-trois
Ordinal scale: Device for taking weights in the Vatican
Orthogonal: Birth control pill for males
Paradigms: 20 cents
Poisson distribution: Fishy data from France
Profile: A long line of supporters
Rank correlation: Stinkingly low
Raw scores: Data before being cooked by statisticians
Regression toward the mean: reverting to a sadistic stage of development
Serial dependency: Hooked on Rice Crispies
Step-wise regression: Thumbsucking in a street-smart kid
Type I error: Making one misteak
Type II error: Making two misteakz

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/>.

jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu ; last modified Mon Jan 29 11:05:42 1996