FCN
News 7 August 1998FCN
News 7 August 1998Don't read this by e-mail! Instead, read the hypertext version of this newsletter: <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/current.html>. Contents:
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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. |
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Local and online events of particular interest to FCN members (see
also upcoming conferences
below):![[new!]](newyahoo1.gif){kind=small}
![[new!]](newyahoo.gif){kind=small}
![[updated]](updated.gif){kind=small}
IT Curriculum. The summer IT Curriculum is available at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/>. The summer curriculum is almost over, and we're working on the fall version. For FCN members, consider:
PROVOST SURVEYING COURSE WEB USAGE. The Provost has requested that each dean compile a quarterly list of all courses that provide materials on-line. Your department head will probably be surveying your department sometime this month, but you can get there first by sending her or him a note with the information in advance! The listings will be published on the web. Courses will be categorized:
NEW FACULTY ORIENTATION. The Faculty Consulstants Network each fall provides an orientation session for incoming faculty in the use of educational technology at UO. This year's session will be during the afternoon of Sept 16. We need tenure-track faculty volunteers to participate in this September's session. If you are interested in talking about your experience applying educational technology at UO, contact JQ Johnson, <jqj@darkwing>.
EMAIL BUGS. Serious security problems in several popular email packages have been discovered during the last 2 weeks. If you use Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, or PC Eudora 4.0, you should upgrade your email system. Contact you local computer support person or the Computing Center Microcomputer Support group for more information.
GRANT SOURCES FOR EDUCATORS. A site with resources of use to anyone interested in writing an educational technology grant proposal. <http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/business/grants.htm>
RESOURCE FOR ONLINE TEACHING. Visit "Bob Jensen's Web Site", and you'll find an eclectic and useful collection of resources for teaching with technology. Jensen, a professor of business administration at Trinity University, in San Antonio, was this week featured in a story in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. It's a site you won't want to miss! <http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/>
HOUSE PASSES COPYRIGHT REFORM. The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed the most sweeping changes in copyright legislation since 1976. H.R. 2281 creates a new class of copyright related felony, circumventing a "copyright protection system." The bill also provides limitations on copyright liability of Internet service providers, and includes a controversial restriction on the use of public domain facts extracted from databases without permission of the database publisher. <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281:>
GROWING DISPARITY BETWEEN INFORMATION HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) last week released its second report on the status of Americans' access to information technologies. Entitled "Falling Through The Net II: New Data on The Digital Divide", the NTIA's report found that despite a dramatic increase in computer usage in America, the division between "information haves" and "have-nots" is growing. The full report is on line, <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/>.
OFF-CAMPUS USERS HOGGING COLLEGE PCS. The free Internet access enjoyed by college students and faculty members is proving popular with non-university types as well, with librarians reporting a surge in walk-in PC users who use school facilities to read e-mail, check stock quotes, do research or skim the news online. And it's not just adults, but children and teenagers who are dropping in to do some surfing. The problem is especially noticeable in the summer when kids are out of school and have time on their hands. "On many afternoons, every terminal was in use by a student too young to be a Rutgers student," reports a reference librarian at Rutgers University who has co-authored a paper on the subject. The Association of Research Libraries found in 1996 that a majority of the 39 institutions it surveyed were dealing with incidents of "improper computer usage" at their institutions, and the association is now conducting a more formal survey of its membership to determine how they are handling such problems. (Chronicle of Higher Education 31 Jul 98)
STANFORD OFFERS ON-LINE MASTERS DEGREE. The electrical engineering department at Stanford will offer a complete master's degree program via online distance ed beginning this September. <http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/news/july29/webdegree.html>
ONLINE WRITERY WEB SITE. To help students write more effectively, the University of Cincinnati has developed a free tutorial Web site staffed by English instructors. The University of Cincinnati Online Writery site includes bulletin board, chat capabilities, e-mail, and access to instructors for one-on-one tutoring. <http://ucaswww.mcm.uc.edu/english/ucow>
INTERNET PUBLISHING FOR ACADEMIC AUTHORS. A new site for test marketing Academic, Literary, and Scientific manuscripts. <http://www.upublish.com>
If you use a majordomo list in your classes, you may occasionally find that you can't post a particular message to the list. Majordomo rejects the message because it contains text that makes Majordomo think you've sent a list-management command to the whole list. For example, a student might send a message to the class mailing list with a subject line of like:
Subject: Help! I don't understand Assignment 3
The message is not accepted because Majordomo confuses it with a majordomo "help" command.
If you find this annoying, you can turn off the "feature" in majordomo for any particular list. As list owner, you can see the complete list configuration by sending a command "config listname listpassword" to majordomo@lists. Edit the email response you get back to change the value of "adminstrativia" to "no", and send a "newconfig" message to majordomo@lists containing the revised configuration. For example, the text of the update message might begin and end:
To: majordomo@lists Subject: newconfig fcn fcnpassword admin_passwd = fcnpassword administrivia = no advertise << END END . . . which_access = list who_access = list EOF
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:
A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made
it.
An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who
made it.
(anonymous)
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/>.