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:
Local events of particular interest to FCN members (see also
upcoming conferences below):![[new]](newyahoo1.gif){kind=small}
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Many of the above events are part of the Library's Internet Curriculum schedule for Winter 1997. The full schedule, with additional details, is available at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/instruct/internet.html>.
The Library has completed a new computer-equiipped seminar room, the "Lois Scharf Reed Seminar Room," located in Knight Library 235. It features a unique conference- or seminar-style setting, with a computer hardware and software environment that you might find useful in teaching. The room is particularly appropriate for small group discussions that occasionally need computer support, perhaps in the form of team projects. The goal is to provide an environment where computing assists, rather than dominating, the instructional process.
Complementing a traditional seminar room ambiance, with a seminar table seating up to a dozen participants, the room features six 166MHz Pentium workstations arranged around the periphery of the room. Computer and traditional projection are also available. Software available is currently somewhat limited, but the Library will consider purchasing additional software that is appropriate for the library collections.
Priority use is for library instruction and library-sponsored meetings requiring hands-on access to electronic resources. Faculty from other departments may schedule the seminar room at any time, although the room should not be considered as the sole or regular classroom for a course.
If you are interested in booking the room for one of your classes -- perhaps for a discussion session or drop-in help session on electronic aspects of your course -- contact Colleen Bell, the Library Instruction Coordinator, <cbell@darkwing>. If you'd just like to find out more about the seminar room and explore ideas of how you might use it in your courses, contact JQ Johnson, <jqj@darkwing>.
Last spring, the FCN and the UO Library organized a very successful technology fair, " Techniques for Teaching with Technology". The all-day workshop featured more than a dozen UO faculty presenters on a variety of topics in Educational Technology. Faculty and grad students from throughout the university attended.
We're planning to do a similar technology fair this year, tentatively on May 9. If you are interested in organizing a session, please contact JQ Johnson, <mailto:jqj@darkwing>. Typical sessions would be an hour in length, would have an expected audience of 10 to 30, and might focus on:
This year we are also planning to have a much wider range of demonstrations and drop-in booths. If you would be interested in demonstrating some area of instructional technology in such a venue, let me know.
All faculty should have found in their mailboxes when they returned from break a "Call for Williams Award Proposals". Teaching faculty, either individually or in departmental or interdisciplinary groups, are encouraged to apply for these funds to support innovation and excellence in the way we teach undergraduates.
Important dates:
For further information, contact Dave Hubin, Executive Assistant to the President and Ex Officio Chair,Williams Council, <mailto:hubin@oregon>.
Yamada Language Center is working with TeleComm Services, UO Housing, and IMC to make SCOLA, the foreign language satellite news service, available to the whole UO community. Currently available only at YLC, SCOLA will be retransmitted on the UO cable TV system in the near future, and thus accessible in residence halls and cable-equipped classrooms.
YLC currently tapes the news from 12 countries daily and works with instructors wishing to make it an active part of their courses. See <http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/scola.html> for a schedule, and contact Jeff Magoto, <mailto:jmagoto@oregon>, for more information.
Viacom, which owns the copyright to "Star Trek" products, is ordering Web sites to remove any Star Trek artistic renderings, sound files, video clips, and book excerpts they are now presenting. There is an official Stark Trek site available on the Microsoft Network, available only to MSN subscribers. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3 Jan 97 F3)
From Edupage, 7 January 1997:
McMaster University sociology professor Dr. Carl Cuneo is the head of a new $4.5-million research project called the Network for the Evaluation of Education and Training Technologies that aims to find out what works and what doesn't in computer courseware. Researchers from the academic community and industry will look at everything from teachers who resist technology in the classroom to the effect that the electronic delivery of courses has on addictive behaviors. (Toronto Globe & Mail 7 Jan 97 A1&A8)
This is a selected and somewhat idiosyncratic list of upcoming conferences relevant to educational tech., both "virtual" (online) and traditional. For conferences that require physical travel, my emphasis is on conferences in the Northwest and on those I find personally interesting. The Educom and CAUSE calendars, <http://educom.edu/web/calendar/calendarHome.html> and <http://cause-www.colorado.edu/information-resources/events.html>, contain a more extensive list of mainstream conferences. Virtual conferences and tutorials:
Traditional conferences and workshops:
U.S. News & World Report says that one poll of university professors found that 94% of the respondents thought that they were better at their jobs than their average colleague. (U.S. News & World Report 16 Dec 96 p26)
Unless we conclude that professors have highly unrealistic assessments of the quality of academia (or that either the faculty or the magazine don't know the difference between "mean" and "mode"), we must conclude that most professors think there are a very few very very bad faculty who pull down the average.
Erratum: the telephone number for IMC equipment distribution was given incorrectly in some copies of the previious FCN news. The correct number is 6-1747.
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/>.