FCN News 10 Nov 97

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
• Seen on the Net
• How To: Printing from the Web
• Conferences and Workshops, Real and Virtual
• Administrativa

Upcoming Events

Local and online events of particular interest to FCN members (see also upcoming conferences and IT Curiculum below):

• Apple product announcements, Nov 10, 11am, live on CNET radio. Steve Jobs will present a roadmap to Apple's future, and product announcements for the new line of Apple G3 hardware. We will be broadcasting the presentation over IP/TV. Alternatively, if you have RealPlayer software you can listen to the audio only at <http://www.news.com/Radio/Features/0,155,109,0.html>
• Apple Higher Ed Seminar, Nov 13, 2:30-4:30pm, EMU Walnut Room. Apple Computer will present their latest hardware and software products, including the next version of MacOS, QuickTime, VR authoring tools, and Claris FileMaker Pro 4.0. To register, <http://www.applenw.com/seminars/eugene/gb_new.htm>.
• Technology Enhanced Instruction: Supporting Teachers and Students, Nov 14, 10:30am-noon, IMC Studio A. Second in a series of three 90-minute live interactive broadcasts on critical issues in technology-enhanced instruction. This videoconference explores critical infrastructure and support issues. Sponsored by FCN and NMC. For information <http://www.csulb.edu/~newmedia/techvideos.html> or <mailto:jqj@darkwing>.
• Engagement not entertainment: The Power of low-tech multimedia, Nov 19, 3:30-5pm, Lawrence 115. Jim Givens (Architecture) uses multimedia in his teaching both to enliven and engage his audience. In this session, he will give tips on how to orchestrate this kind of presentation with minimum hassle,where to look for resources, and where he gets his ideas for incorporating these forms of technology in his teaching. To register, email <gcooper@oregon> with your name and department, and put "Givens" in the subject line.
• SMTP Relay Block, Nov 24, UOnet. In an effort to reduce e-mail spam, the Computing Center plans to make a small change to the way it handles e-mail. As of Nov 24, the CC systems will no longer act as a relay for e-mail from off campus. The only UO users expected to be affected are those who dial up to the Internet through a non-UO ISP (e.g. efn.org), then use Eudora to read e-mail on oregon, darkwing, or gladstone. If you are such a user, you should contact the Computing Center immediately to discuss your options.
• Technology Enhanced Instruction: Evaluation and Assessment,Dec 12, 10:30am-noon, IMC Studio A. This videoconference explores how we can evaluate whether, and when, using technology actually helps us teach. Sponsored by FCN and NMC. For information <http://www.csulb.edu/~newmedia/techvideos.html> or <mailto:jqj@darkwing>.

IT Curriculum, fall 1997

See the schedule for this fall's IT Curriculum at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/>. Some of the most relevant upcoming presentations for instructors include:

Mon Nov 10 10:00am-11:50am SCI  Quicktake 200 Digital Camera for Web Authors
Mon Nov 10  3:30pm- 4:50pm RSR  Endnote/Procite: Managing Your Citations
Tue Nov 11  3:00pm- 4:50pm RSR  Imagemaps & Access Counters
Wed Nov 12 11:00am-12:20am EC   Using IP/TV to Broadcast a Class or Event
Thu Nov 13  3:30pm- 4:50pm RSR  Endnote/Procite: Managing Your Citations
Fri Nov 14 10:00am-11:20am EC   Advanced Web Searching
Tue Nov 18 10:00am-11:20am EC   Desiging Web Access for Users with Disabilities
Tue Nov 18  3:00pm- 4:50pm RSR  Web Page Debugging Tools
Wed Nov 19 10:00am-11:50am SCI  Nikon Slide Scanner for Web Authors
Wed Nov 19  1:00pm- 2:20pm ITC  Beginning Photoshop for Web Publishers
Mon Nov 24  1:00pm- 2:50pm RSR  Cascading Style Sheets
Tue Nov 25  3:00pm- 4:50pm RSR  Organizing Your Web Site
Mon Dec  1  1:00pm- 2:50pm RSR  Forms & CGI Scripts

Campus News

Integrated Web-based instructional systems. One of the hotest topics at last month's Educom conference in Minneapolis was integrated course management systems that make it easy for a faculty member to publish a complete "course" on the web without learning HTML. Examples of such systems include Web Course in a Box, WebCT, and TopClass. Several of us at UO are investigating the possibility of importing such a package; if you are interested in participating in such a discussion, contact JQ Johnson, <jqj@darkwing>. See also the Chronicle of Higher Ed "Info Technology" section for 10/21/97 <http://chronicle.com/che-data/internet.dir/itdata/1997/10/t97102101.htm>.

Instructional Management System. Related to the idea of integrated course management, Educom has begun a major initiative to develop Metadata standards that would allow disparate pieces of courseware (integrated systems such as the above, individual instructional modules, software providing links to registrar's student data, etc.) to interoperate more efficiently. The vision is of an environment where a faculty member can easily design the online component of a course mixing a variety of off-the-shelf components. The Educom initiative is called the "IMS project"; see <http://www.imsproject.org>. The FCN has committed to UO participation in this project; we will be joining the project as an IMS Devloper. If you are interested in learning more about IMS, visit the web site or contact JQ Johnson, <jqj@darkwing>. More on IMS in our next FCN newsletter.

PLC 180. The IMC has recently completed a revamping of the computer support technology in PLC 180. Among the recent changes are:

• a new lectern was placed at the front of the room this summer. All audiovideo equipment that we expect to have in that cabinet is now in place
• in particular, an IBM thinkpad laptop is now permanently housed in the lectern and connected to the projection system and Internet. If your computer projection needs in PLC 180 are limited to Netscape and MS Office, you are likely to be able to use the thinkpad as is. For specialized needs, additional software can be installed. There are also provisions for temporarily hooking up an instructor-provided laptop.
• a new projector, a Polaroid 211, has been installed. In addition to being slightly brighter than the old unit, the new projector supports 800x600 computer output, so it can be used for a much wider variety of computer output tasks than the old unit (which was essentially limited to 640x480 projection).

New UO distance ed web site. Visit <http://de.uoregon.edu>, a site developed by the UO Continuation Center that attempts to pull together information on all UO distance education programs, including classes delivered totally by network.

Seen on the Net

EDUCOM Conference Webcasts Online. One of the highpoints of last month's EDUCOM conference was the keynote speech by Sherri Turkle (MIT). You can now view it from your office. Edupage (9 Nov 97) reports: "Because of the great popularity of the webcasts offered during the EDUCOM97 conference, Educom will maintain the keynotes for viewing "on-demand" now that EDUCOM97 is history. Viewers must have the RealMedia Player, version 5.0, available from www.real.com. The keynote speakers were Eli Noam, Sherri Turkle, and John Perry Barlow." <http://www.educom.edu/conf/97/webcast.html>. For a review of the Turkle talk, see the Chronicle of Higher Ed, 10/31/97, <http://chronicle.com/data/internet.dir/itdata/itarch.htm>

Multimedia Textbooks. Textbook publishers are moving more and more aggressively towards offering multimedia textbooks, delivered either by CDROM or web. If you haven't looked at the offerings in your field recently, maybe it's time to do so again. For example, Engineering Animation Inc. <http://www.eai.com> announced a contract with McGraw-Hill-Companies Inc. to produce a series of 12 multimedia educational textbooks in psychology, geology, history, and biology, with interactive quizzes, animation, and rotatable 3D graphics. Archipelago Productions <http://www.archipelago.com> and Harcourt Brace have a similar collaboration in general chemistry, calculus based physiss, and microeconomics. If you're not interested in commercial textbooks, try browsing Yahoo and look for "online courses" in your field.

Laptops on Loan. At New York University's Bobst Library, students can check out more than just books. They can borrow laptop computers as well. (Academe Today, 11/4/97). <http://chronicle.com/che-data/internet.dir/itdata/1997/11/t97110401.htm>.

American Sign Language. New software that compiles multimedia data bases could help linguists better understand the role played by gestures and facial expressions in American Sign Language. (Academe Today,11/3/97) <http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-11.dir/11a02701.htm>.

How To: Printing from the Web

You visited (or wrote) a web page. Now you want to print a copy for reference or to give to your students as a handout. It's not always easy. Here are some hints:

• Most browsers offer a print feature. For example, in most versions of Netscape you can click on the Print button or select the "Print" menu item to print the current web page. The "Page Setup" menu, and on recent versions of MacOS the printing dialog box, offer you additional control of formatting. However, your control is much weaker than when printing from a word processor. For example, there is no way to preview a long web document to see where the hardcopy page breaks will occur.
• Get a recent version of your browser. Early versions of Netscape (before 3.0) and Internet Explorer had serious bugs in their printing code. Version 4 of the browsers seems to do a much better job of printing than version 3. Different versions of browsers have radically different printing behaviors, so play with printing from your browser to learn how it behaves.
• When printing, the browser will (usually) use the same font sizes as it is displaying on screen. So if you want a printout with small characters, you can use the Netscape Preferences to change your display font size to 10 point Times.
• A useful feature in Netscape is the ability to turn the printing of backgrounds on or off. Off means the web page text will be printed on plain white, which is usually what you want. But if the background image of the web page has information content (or if the page has white characters on a dark background) you'll want to turn the background on. Do so in the "Page Setup->Netscape Communicator" menu. While you're at it, use the same setup to make sure that you print the URL of the page as a header or footer; that's useful documentation for your readers.
• As an example of another useful feature, this one introduced in Internet Explorer v 4 (Windows), consider the problem of printing all pages in a site. In a web page viewed with MSIE 4, right clicking brings up a menu that includes "print all linked pages". This will allow you to print a "reference set" of all pages that are linked from your current page.

Conferences and Workshops, Real and Virtual

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:

• RoadMap 96, beginning biweekly for 6 weeks. A free Internet tutorial designed for new Internet users and consisting of 27 lessons delivered to your e-mail address. For more information, see <http://rs.internic.net/roadmap96/>.
• Make the Link, beginning monthly for 8 weeks. This email-based workshop introduces the beginner to World Wide Web browsing and publishing. $20. To sign up, send email to <mailto:majordomo@arlington.com> with contents "subscribe links-dec".
• Tune in the Net, beginning monthly for 8 weeks. Email-based workshop designed to teach advanced web publishing. $40. See <http://www.bearfountain.com/arlington/tune.html>.
• WBT/OLL '97. The first Virtual Conference on Web Based Training and On-Line Learning. See <http://www.trainingplace.com/learn97/>.

Traditional conferences and workshops:

• Web/Teach '97, Nov 6-8, Mankato State U., Mankato, MN. "Web-based Instruction: Issues and Answers." <http://online.coled.mankato.msus.edu/conf/webteach.html>.
• ACM Multimedia'97. Nov 8-14, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Seattle, WA. 5th ACM International Multimedia Conference. <http://www.acm.org/sigmm/MM97>
• Tel-Ed '97, Nov 13-16, Austin TX. ISTE's Sixth International Conference on Telecommunications and Multimedia in Education. <http://www.iste.org>.
• Colloquium on Scholarly Communication Issues, Jan. 7-8, 1998, New Orleans, LA. Faxon Institute. "The scholarly communication process is undergoing significant change as paper-based publishing continues to be supplemented, and in some cases supplanted, by emerging electronic technologies." <http://www.faxon.com/html/ind-fi.html>.
• Stop Surfing-Start Teaching, Feb 22-25, 1998, Myrtle Beach SC. 1998 Teaching and Learning National Conference. <http://web.csd.sc.edu/conted/ssst.html>.
• Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, Feb 18-20, 1998, Austin TX. <http://www.cfp.org>.
• SITE 98, Mar 10-14, 1998, Washington, DC. Society for Information Tehcnology and Teacher Education. <http://www.aace.org/conf/site>.

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/news/>.