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):
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Also, consider these workshops selected from 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>.
U.S. copyright law is complex and confusing. It protects the rights of authors, but also includes a large escape clause to allow "fair use" that is vital to much of our educational endeavor. In many of the law's most interesting aspects, particularly as it applies to fair use and to "new" media, there is minimal consensus on the law and essentially no case law -- the final arbiter -- to provide guidance on what the statutory law really requires.
Into this web of uncertainty enters yet another source of information.
If you've been following copyright and Internet issues recently, you've probably heard of the "Conference on Fair Use" and the various "guidelines" being developed under its auspices. Most recently, a task force with academic and industry representatives produced a document entitled "Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia." This document attempts to bring greater certainty to academic decision making by offering guidelines on what is and is not permissible. Guidelines by themselves do not, of course, have any legal significance. Although this guideline has received endorsements from a wide range of organizations, support for it has not been uniform, and several major academic groups, including the American Library Association, have voted not to endorse it.
Following the guidelines may not protect you from a lawsuit by a copyright holder, and there are many areas where the guidelines recommend caution but most observers on campus would argue that it's legitimate to claim fair use. For example, the guidelines prohibit student multimedia web projects. However, if one takes the guidelines with a grain of salt, they do provide a useful starting point for understanding some of the issues associated with educational use of multimedia, and where a rough consensus is beginning to appear between copyright owners and users of copyrighted material.
Other guidelines are expected to be developed in this process as well, though most are likely to represent even less of an academia/industry consensus than the "Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia."
Among the sources for information about the guidelines are:
Drucker says "universities won't survive". Renowned management consultant and author Peter Drucker says: "Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care? ... Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis... Already we are beginning to deliver more lectures and classes off campus via satellite or two-way video at a fraction of the cost. The college won't survive as a residential institution." (Forbes 10 Mar 97; quoted in Edupage, 27 Feb 97)
Security hole in Microsoft Explorer. Microsoft says it is moving quickly to plug a security hole in its Explorer Web-browsing software that was discovered by Worcester Polytechnic Institute student Paul Greene. Microsoft says the flaw, which involves basic functions within Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, bypasses the highest levels of the software's security systems. (Washington Post 3 Mar 97).
If you run Internet Explorer as your web browser, it is ESSENTIAL that you get the security update from Microsoft., now available at <http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security/update.htm>.
Nevada may ban junk e-mail. The Nevada state Senate has introduced a bill that would make sending unsolicited ads directly to e-mail accounts a misdemeanor. "Most e-mail users pay for their service, so unsolicited e-mail is like receiving direct mail with postage due," says the Senate's majority leader, who notes the bill is modeled on a previous measure that bans unsolicited advertising over fax machines. California, Virginia and Connecticut are considering similar measures, but the Nevada legislature is widely viewed as closest to passing the ban. (St. Petersburg Times 3 Mar 97; quoted in Edupage, 4 Mar 97)
The Office of Research and Faculty Development (formerly ORSP) maintains lists of grant opportunities, including UO funded faculty development awards. Here's a list of UO awards from the RFD web site, <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~orsp/rfd/rfd.html>:
Summer Research Awards. Each year the University awards approximately 20 grants of $4,000 each in support of summer research for faculty whose proposals are selected by the Faculty Research Committee through competitive review. Applications are available from RFD in late spring and are due at the end of November. Faculty who receive summer salary or start-up funds from other sources are not eligible to apply.
New Faculty Award Program. These awards assist beginning faculty who do not have summer salary or start-up funds to establish their research activities. The award provides a stipend and $1,000 supplement for research expenses to all eligible faculty following the first year of their appointment. Applications are due in the fall.
Travel Award Assistance. Faculty receiving travel awards from external sources may receive a modest supplement to help defray actual travel costs. Assistance is also available for other research-related travel.
Proposal Development Fund. This fund supports modest cost-sharing or provides other assistance with research projects.
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:
From Steve Gilbert, AAHESGIT listserv, 27 Feb 97.
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/>.