FCN News 21 July 1998

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:

Do you have UO colleagues who would find this newsletter useful? Call their attention to the html version, or they can subscribe by sending email to jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu.

Upcoming Events

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

IT Curriculum. The summer IT Curriculum is available at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/>. The summer curriculum tends to be a bit more "advanced" than during other terms. For FCN members, some of the more interesting workshops in the next few weeks include:

On Campus

Do you place materials on reserve in the Library? If so, consider the new UO Library Electronic Reserve system as an alternative to placing materials in hardcopy file folders. Check it out at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/acs/circ/eres.html>.

Seen on the Net

GRANTS FOR LCD PROJECTORS. Proxma Corp. has established a grant program for proposals demonstrating the effectiveness of multimedia projection in the classroom. Deadline 15 Sept. 1998. <http://www.proxima.com/html/Solutions/solutionsupper_education.html>

CAUSE / EDUCOM CONSOLIDATION. The two major higher ed computing organizations have completed plans for consolidation to form EDUCAUSE, effective July 1, 1998. For information on the new organization, visit <http://www.educause.edu>.

ONLINE TEXTBOOK PURCHASING. Move over UO Bookstore and Amazon.com. Five universities in the Washington, D.C. area will be the first targets of a new online textbook purchasing plan offering textbooks at 15 to 40 percent off the retail price. The company works by collecting lists of required books from professors and selling the books at discounted prices to students. <http://varsitybooks.com>. Another online textbook exchange service is the Textbook Cellar, <http://www.textbookcellar.com>.

NEW CHALK. The latest issue of this online newsletter from UNC Chapel Hill focuses on students using online information -- helping students move from accessing information on the Internet to synthesizing the information they find. <http://www.unc.edu/courses/newchalk>.

PREPRINTS ON THE WEB? As scholars post drafts of articles in on-line archives, journal editors are grappling with the question of whether to accept articles that have already appeared on the World-Wide Web. Some reject on-line drafts, but the tide may be turning. For an excellent discussion, see the Chronicle of Higher Ed, July 17, 1998 <http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-45.dir/45a02701.htm>. Examples of major e-print services include:

VIRTUAL FROG EVOLUTION. Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new and improved "virtual frog." Available at the Frog Island Web site, students can view a computer-simulated frog from any angle and view internal organs and the skeleton. The frog is the first creation of the Virtual Creatures project at the Stanford University Medical Media and Information Technologies Group.<http://summit.stanford.edu>.

STUDENTS NET. A free non-profit service (located in Switzerland) for students and academics searching for partners in academic research, opportunities for study abroad, job opportunities, etc. <http://www.students.net>.

ORAL LANGUAGE ARCHIVE. A digital audio database of dialogues in several languages is now available on audio CD. Developed at Carnegie Mellon University, the Oral Language Archive (OLA) is a collection of authentic speech by native speakers of French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Samples at <http://ml.hss.cmu.edu/llrc/OLA.html>

How To -- Publishing Excel spreadsheets on the Web

Suppose you've developed an Excel spreadsheet that you want your students to manipulate. Perhaps it contains data for analysis, or a financial model, or a set of macros for performing some specialized numeric calculation. In any of these cases, you want the students to have access to it. The easiest way to distribute your spreadsheet is to post it on the web.

First, save your worksheet. Many labs on campus have Excel installed, but it's typically not the latest version. So you're best off saving your worksheet (using the "Save As" dialog) as an Excel 5.0 workbook (readable by Office 95 and Macintosh Office 4.2.1, which are the most recent version available on most public machines on campus). Call it something.xls.

Now upload the file to your public_html subdirectory on darkwing using ftp. Make sure to transfer the file in binary (or Fetch "raw data") mode.

Finally, create a file in the same directory on darkwing as the newly transferred something.xls called .htaccess containing the line:

AddType application/vnd.ms-excel .xls

You're almost there. You can now include a link to the file in your course home page, e.g.

Click the right mouse button on the following link 
and choose "save link as"
<A HREF="something.xls">Excel workbook #4</A>

When your students follow that link, the browser will either start Excel directly, or will offer them the opportunity to save the file to their local PC disk. Note that many browsers are not correctly configured to recognize the official Excel MIME type; this is usually not a problem for PC users as long as the file name is something.xls. Mac users, however, may have to use the Open command inside Excel with "List files of type: All files" selected.

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:

Traditional conferences and workshops:

The Lighter Side

CANDIDATE FOR A PULLET SURPRISE
Jerrold H. Zar
Northern Illinois University

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

 

Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.

 
Title suggested by Pamela Brown. Based on opening lines suggested by Mark Eckman. By the author's count, 127 of the 225 words of the poem are incorrect (although all words are correctly spelled). Originally published in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, January/February 1994, page 13. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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/>.