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 and online events of particular interest to FCN members (see
also upcoming conferences and
IT Curiculum below):![[new!]](newyahoo1.gif){kind=small}
![[new!]](newyahoo.gif){kind=small}
This fall's IT Curriculum is the biggest ever, with over 90 sessions on more than 50 different topics. A full printed schedule should reach faculty mailboxes by Sept 23. The on line version will be available at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/>.
Of particular note is the wide range of introductory sessions -- just right to send your students to so you won't have to waste valuable class time on basic technology needed for your course!
For instructors themselves, some of the most relevant presentations during October include:
Web Publishing with Claris Home Page Tue Oct 14 3:00 PM - 4:50 PM EC Johnson Mon Oct 20 2:00 PM - 3:50 PM ITC Cawthorne, Johnson Using Motet Fri Oct 17 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM EC Lynch Making Presentations with PowerPoint Mon Oct 27 2:00 PM - 3:50 PM EC Arkin Managing a Majordomo List Wed Oct 29 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM EC Lynch Introduction to Web Publishing Wed Oct 29 10:00 AM - 11:50 AM EC Benedicto, T. Smith Intermediate web publishing: More HTML Tue Oct 21 3:00 PM - 4:50 PM RSR Johnson Intermediate web publishing: Designing for the Web Tue Oct 28 3:00 PM - 4:50 PM RSR Bell
Now's the time to set up a mailing list if you want to use it in your class fall term. You can easily set up such a mailing list using the Computing Center's web-based request form, at <http://cc.uoregon.edu/mailinglists/newap.html>. Enter the preferred name of the list (e.g., "paleo327"), a brief description (e.g. , "Paleontology of the Cenozoic class discussion"), your name and address, and a list management password that only you will know (e.g., "zoic"). Submit the form, and within a day or two you'll receive e-mail confirming the creation of your list. Then put instructions in your syllabus telling your students to subscribe to it.
For more information, see
The "teptech@lists" mailing list is a moderated mailing list maintained by the Teaching Effectiveness Program, whose goal is to be "the forum for conversation among faculty members and GTFs about teaching with technology at UO. ... It's focus will be primarily pedagogical, with technical issues posted only when widely relevant." (Michael Sweet)
To subscribe to teptech, send e-mail to <majordomo@lists> with content "subscribe teptech".
Using the web in teaching. Three useful links to surveys from other institutions include:
New Chalk. The "back to school" edition of New Chalk, the excellent online ed tech newsletter from UNC, is available at <http://www.unc.edu/courses/newchalk/>. Among the observations:
Some instructors may want to hold off on introducing technology until mid-semester, when students have a grasp of the course content. Others will want to launch right in during the first week of class. Bonnie Angel, a professor in the UNC-CH School of Nursing is one of the latter. Angel believes that students are more "primed" for the introduction of instructional technology when they first arrive for a new term. For her, the beginning of the semester is the opportune time to introduce instructional technology. "Excitement and motivation to learn something new is highest in the beginning of a course, " she explains.
"The audio and video capabilities of the World Wide Web give me the ability to quote from film much the same as we readily quote from text." Todd Stabley, a graduate teaching assistant in English at UNC-Chapel Hill, is creating a study guide consisting of multimedia "quotes" to help students "think visually" about the films they critique. (New Chalk, 22 Aug 97)
Ed Tech virtual trade show. The Technology in Education Market Center is an online product research service for educational technology specialists. It includes real-time product comparisons, product news, virtual trade shows and more. <http://www.e-biz.net/teched/> (Syllabus listserv, 25 Aug 97)
Homework Heaven. A new web-based service by and for students offers what's touted as an "academic research index" with links to 11,000 web resources of use to students preparing term papers. Take a look at <http://www.jumbo.com/homework2> to see if it's something you'd like to refer your students to.
Matching students with tutors. The new Tutor2000 Web site provides a venue for potential tutors to post information about themselves such as education, location, and cost of services. The site, which has become a worldwide center for tutorial guidance, provides a means for both personal or electronic tutoring. Chat rooms are available for online tutoring sessions in real time. <http://www.tutor2000.com> (Syllabus listserv, 25 Aug 97)
PC Week picks top courseware authoring system. PC Week Labs, in partnership with the Wisconsin Technical College System, recently invited multimedia courseware authoring system vendors to participate in a Labs On Site evaluation. Each participating vendor was required to create on the spot a training module on retail security measures that could be used via the Internet or a corporate intranet. Eighteen judges and PC Week then graded the entries, and the winning vendor was WBT Systems' TopClass, followed by Lotus Development Corp.'s LearningSpace and Macromedia's Authorware. The Wisconsin Technical College System is now negotiating with several of the top vendors to build their own training modules to meet the employee skills needs of the state. (PC Week 18 Aug 97, quoted in Edupage, 24 Aug 97)
Apple Teaching and Curriculum Development Tools. Apple Computer Corp. has launched an Internet-based educational project entitled the Educational Object Economy (EOE). The site includes teaching resources that incorporate Java applets for Web-based learning. The goal of the project is to build an online community for sharing information and teaching resources for classroom use and for research. The Apple-led EOE is a project of Apple's Advanced Technology Group and several universities, including Stanford University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Carnegie Mellon University, and publishers Houghton Mifflin and PWS. <http://trp.research.apple.com/> (Syllabus listserv, 3 Sep 97).
Uncowed by MOOs. For many faculty used only to electronic mail, on-line gathering places known as MOOs are something of a mystery -- and learning how to use them in teaching can be a challenge. So Diane Davis, a professor of rhetoric at U Iowa, has created a Web site devoted to teaching in MOOs and similar synchronous communications environments. MOO-TEACH <http://home.earthlink.net/~d3davis/mainpg.htm> offers on-line guides to using MOOs and links to the Web pages that serve as gateways to existing educational MOOs. Dr. Davis also designed the site to be a meeting place and bulletin board for college professors and secondary-school teachers who want to collaborate on MOO courses. (Academe Today, 8/25/97). See also <http://chronicle.com/che-data/internet.dir/itdata/1997/08/t97082501.htm>
Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship. A report by the American Council on Learned Societies. <http://www.acls.org/op37.htm>. From the preface:
This report surveys the various applications of information technology to research in the humanities. In the course of our investigations we came across a variety of innovative research that could have a profound impact on the humanities.. However, the incidence of such work is uneven, and the widespread adoption of information technology in the humanities is being hindered by a number of significant obstacles. We also examine the challenges that must be overcome if such applications are to become the norm among scholars.
Scholarly Electronic Publishing. Version 11 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available. This selective bibliography presents over 600 articles, books, electronic documents, and other sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet and other networks. <http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html>
An 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:
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/>.