Contents:
- ISU's Intellectual Property Policy - **Sign Up** for March 18 Workshop
- Chat's Room - News from the Faculty Computing Resource Center
- Connect to ProQuest Direct Articles - Judy Tribble
- Edible Bytes - Paula Vincini
- A View Beyond ISU
- Spring '99 CTA
- CTA Workshops - **New** Workshops Available in 1999!
- Thought for March
Welcome to Interaction, ISU's monthly electronic newsletter for people
interested in developing and teaching distance education courses. The
purpose of Interaction is to provide you with information on course
development and design, new technologies, and teaching distance
courses. As the name implies, we hope to make this electronic
newsletter "interactive," its contents reflecting current issues,
challenges, and innovations in teaching. Your part is simple-just tell
us what you want. Send us your questions, frustrations, and topics of
interest, and we will include information on that topic in a future
issue. In addition, we invite you to share your experiences and tips
on teaching distance courses, and to send us announcements of upcoming
events. Please submit your comments and requests to
interact@web.indstate.edu, a
secured access e-mail account. Your
contributions will not be posted as a "global" message to subscribers
of Interaction. The staffs of Continuing Education/Instructional Services,
the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Library, ACNS, and other
ISU offices are eager to answer your questions and offer you assistance
as you develop and teach your distance education courses.
ISU's Intellectual Property Policy
**Sign Up** for March 18 Workshop
Phil Redenbarger, Director of the Technology Services Center, will conduct a
workshop on ISU's Intellectual Property Policy on March 18 from 2:00 to 4:00
pm. This workshop is open to all ISU faculty and staff. If you would like
to attend this two-hour workshop, please contact Mary Luz Petrowski at
ext 8639 or direct questions to Nancy Franklin at ext 8452.
Chat's Room - News from the Faculty Computing Resource Center
In the past few months, the FCRC has obtained the following:
For short-term faculty checkout:
- a parallel-port hard disk (handy for moving large files from
one computer to another)
- a parallel port CD-ROM drive (for PC's and laptops without one)
- a Sony Mavica digital camera
For trial and demonstration within the FCRC:
- a fingerprint recognition gizmo (great for setting up a PC for use
by a single, or multiple users, where password administration is
undesirable, or impractical)
- a Crosspad (a paper sheet writing tablet which also records your
document in "digital ink" and which can then be downloaded to a
PC as either a graphic image, or a word-processable document)
- an iMac
- a Macintosh G3 minitower with a (back-ordered) 5-inch flat-screen LCD display.
* Here is a summary of **pros and cons** for the three internet
connectivity options we have discussed in recent issues of Interaction:
the telephone system, cable, and satellite dish. Call Chat at ext 3573
for further information and clarifications.
Telephone System (ADSL)
http://www.adsl.com - In Terre Haute: 462-9220 (Brad Speidel)
- Pros. Choice of speeds from 256 to 1440 k-bits per second (kbps), or, at
the lower end about 10 times faster than a normal phone modem. Gives you
Ethernet at home and a voice line. Cost: from $35 a month to $89 or more.
Very secure.
- Cons. Hidden costs in installation and modem rental--though ADSL modems
should become available as a consumer item soon. You must live within about
three miles of a digital telephone exchange in your area. Dependent on an
ADSL service you can connect to (an Internet Service Provider, or ISU).
Only one ISP in Terre Haute is said to offer ADSL connectivity at this
time.
Cable System (cable modems)
http://www.rdrun.com and http://www.clairemont.com/albert/roadrunner.com or in Terre Haute
call 232-5013
- Pros. Potentially the fastest system (at lower end, 100 times faster
than an analog phone modem.) Provides Ethernet at home from
4 to 30 mbps. Costs $45 a month. No installation necessary -- modem
plugs into a cable outlet. Modems are a consumer-purchase item,
therefore modems rental fees can be eliminated.
- Cons. Speeds could be compromised as more users get on the system and if
the cable company does not subdivide neighborhoods into smaller subnets.
Privacy could be compromised by a "sniffer" on the same neighborhood
subnet, or until more secure "switched subnets" become available.
Satellite Dish
http://www.direcpc.com
- Pros. Not necessary to be in an area served by either ADSL or Cable.
About ten times faster downlink than analog phone modem (400kbps
vs. 30kbps). Extremely secure. Speeds not dependent on number of
other on-line users in the area.
- Cons. One-way only -- uplink requires a regular phone modem with
subscription to an ISP. (Not a problem for ISU faculty and students who
have free local access in Terre Haute.) Expensive even when combined with
the capability of using the same dish for TV reception. High initial cost.
* The Faculty Computing Resource Center helps faculty maintain web
pages and chat rooms, answers technical questions, and has a variety
of technical resources at your disposal including hardware repair
facilities, in-house technical consultation, and even a technical
periodical library for faculty check-out. We're open from 8:00am -
4:30pm, Monday through Friday. Call for details: 237-2603.
Connect to ProQuest Direct Articles
Judy Tribble
Many of you and your students have benefited from searching and
reading the full text of articles made available through UMI's
ProQuest Direct product. Ever wish you could have your students
read a useful article from ProQuest? Well, now you can, thanks
to Site Builder from UMI. Site Builder is software which enables
the library to "fix" an URL for the ProQuest articles so that you
can link to them from your homepage or CourseInfo site.
How do you gain the benefits of Site Builder?
Simply send the bibliographic citation(s) to Tina Tapy, Reserve Desk
Supervisor, at libtapy@cml.indstate.edu Ms. Tapy will place the
linked article on electronic reserve at:
http://odin.indstate.edu/level1.dir/reserve.dir/course2.html
For questions or additional information contact Ms.Tapy at ext. 2546.
Edible Bites - Brief Summaries of Articles and Links of Interest
Paula Vincini, Instructional Designer
In this month's Interaction I want to share only **one** URL:
Discipline and Publish: Faculty Work, Technology, and Accountability by
Randy Bass (Georgetown University), the Plenary address delivered at the
AAHE Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards in San Diego, CA (January 22, 1999).
You can find this article at http://www.georgetown.edu/bassr/disc&pub.html
This is a **must-read** for any instructor (and administrator, department
head, staff person) in higher education who is thinking of joining the
growing number of online faculty.
Here are a few quotes from this article to whet your interest:
I want to use my experience to raise three questions:
- What is the impact of new media technologies on the
nature of faculty work?
- What are some of the problems in valuing new kinds of
work in the faculty reward process?
- And in what ways are new kinds of faculty work tied to
values about teaching and learning in the academy?
In this next quote, Bass describes how he felt after receiving poor student
evaluations for the " most technology-intensive teaching I had ever done, in
cluding my first ever (and Georgetown's first ever) freshman writing course
taught in a networked computer classroom":
"Now very close to tenure--with my case wholly mortgaged to new
technologies--this left me particularly vulnerable. I have come to refer to
that semester simply as "the Fall" and tend to divide my whole career into
two parts in relation to it--Before the Fall and After it. This is in many
ways the central crisis point of my career. It was a moment when I felt as
though I had lost all grounding as a teacher. I was completely surprised by
the extent to which the integration of technology into my teaching changed
the nature of my work and the nature of my interaction with students. I was
also surprised at the extent to which it led me to ask completely new
questions about why I taught the way I taught what I taught."
One of the problems that he feels is at the heart of the difficulty faculty
have in integrating new media technologies into their courses is that
"the problem is that we won't really understand the impact of
technology on education until we know more about learning at the
collegiate level.".
Although I said I would only give you one URL to look at, if your time is
really limited, I offer you here the Internet sites he mentions in his
article as places to see what other online faculty are doing:
* World Lecture Hall, "an extensive index to courses on the Web, where
faculty can "self-publish" and disseminate their own online course
materials.
http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/
* A Microbiology Course, "A well known example of a microbiology course
that goes by the name "the microbial underground." The microbial
underground, like a rapidly growing number of other such sites on
the Web, offers a complete package of content and course materials,
complete with tutorials and study guides.
http://www.lsumc.edu/campus/micr/mirror/public_html/index.html
* The Virtual Geography Department. "An NSF funded project out of
University of Texas, Austin, the Virtual Geography Department
is not only a place where geography teachers and students can access
resources related to the Geography curriculum, but it is a place where
geography faculty from any kind of institution can contribute curriculum
modules.
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/virtdept/contents.html
* The project on Chemical Sciences at the Interface of Education. This
site, "... combines the idea of a discipline-based scholarship of
teaching --at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, with the
flexibility of electronic networked spaces as a way to make visible
the intellectual activity within teaching, including the connections
between faculty practice and developmental student learning."
http://www.umich.edu/~csie/
* The American Studies Crossroads Project. "I created and have
directed the Crossroads Project since 1994. At the center of the project
is a comprehensive set of online resources for the study of the United
States, including professional resources for the American Studies
community, the organization of indexes to scholarly resources, the
creation of curriculum and faculty development materials, and the
coordination of an ongoing research project in which 30 faculty
developed case studies documenting their experimentation with
new technologies in the teaching of culture and history."
http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/
Well, I hope now you want to read the full article - it prints to about 16
pages off the Web but is well worth the paper!
A View Beyond ISU
Ethics, quality, creativity, leadership, communication skills, teaming,
understanding diversity, and a desire for lifelong learning. Goals
of a well-designed course?
Yes, and according to Brenda Sumberg, Director of Education Systems
Alliances at Motorola University, these are also the *primary*
characteristics that businesses and industries are seeking in
employees. The reason? The fast rate of change, globilization,
and technology advances that are bombarding industry.
At the Februrary joint meeting of the Illinois Council on Continuing
Education and the Indiana Council for Countinuing Education, Ms. Sumberg
stressed the need for collaborative partnerships between education and
industry - a partnership in which both parties benefit and share strengths.
The following summarize her comments:
* A newly hired college graduate's technological skills are "outdated"
within two years of graduation from college. The answer: lifelong
learners. One solution: Training and educating employees with backgrounds
in the liberal arts. Motorola is finding that these individuals are
sometimes more inclined to embrace and practice lifelong learning.
* At Motorola's plant in China, affiliated Chinese businessmen opted for a
managerial program taught by U.S. faculty. We must be doing something
right!
* Many opportunities for collaboration between industry and universities
are lost due to the inability of universities to develop and deliver
educational programs within a timeframe acceptable to industry.
As a result, many corporations have been forced to develop their
own systems, such as Motorola University, to ensure educational
program are available for their employees within a workable timeframe.
Ms. Sumberg indicated that these entities are not in competition with
universities but exist to provide tailored, quickly developed educational
opportunities unavailable within the university environment.
* An interesting note: Motorola and other corporations hire and use
cultural anthropologists who provide insight into the impact of *new*
products in *new* markets. Her example: The impact of putting the instant
communication of a cellular phone into a small, isolated village or
community.
Other presenters at the conference included Ken Sauer, Indiana Commission
for Higher Education, and Lou Jensen, Dean of CEIS, who discussed ISU's
DegreeLink Program.
Spring '99 CTA
The following ISU faculty and staff members are
attending the Spring 1999 CTA:
College of Arts and Sciences
* Dele Omosegbon
Library Services
* Judy Tribble
School of Business
* Newell Chiesl
* Andy Cooper
School of Education
* David Gilman
* Georgi Hambrecht
* Cathleen Rafferty
* Mark Stimley
* Jim Thompson
|
School of Health and Human Performance
* Alan Lacy
* David Langley
* Cat Stemmans
* Amy Woods
School of Nursing
* Cathy Adler
* Suzy Fletcher
* Veda Gregory
* Tammy Halterman
* Julie Mitre
* Dale Ann O'Neal
* Michelle Pantle
* Pamela Pethtel
* Marilyn Sample
School of Technology
* Robert Nora
* Donna Ourand
* Chris Zirkle
|
CTA Workshops - New Workshops Available in 1999!
March '99 CTA "Update" Workshop:
Please note that Continuing Education/Instructional Services is
planning a CTA "Update" Workshop March 17-18,1999 from
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m for CTA graduates Spring 1997 through
Fall 1998. The focus of this computer-based, hands-on
workshop is to provide faculty participants with a working
understanding of the CourseInfo (aka Interactive Learning Network)
product which allows web-based courses to be developed on a
streamlined schedule. This two-day workshop will conclude with a
***special*** two-hour session on ISU's Intellectual Property Policy.
If you are interested in attending, please call Mary Luz Petrowski at
ext 8639 to reserve a spot.
CTA for Your Colleagues
Are any of your faculty colleagues planning to develop web-based
courses and looking for help getting started? The next CTA workshop,
scheduled for May 17-21, 1999, is a one-week, intensive CTA modeled
after last summer's well-received intensive version. Those interested
should call Mary Luz Petrowski at x8639 to register, or direct
questions to Nancy Franklin at x8452.
Thought for March:
"Any activity becomes creative when the doer
cares about doing it right, or doing it better."
-John Updike
Interaction is an electronic newsletter delivered on the first day of
the month via electronic mail. Each issue offers information on
teaching, learning, course design and educational technologies, and
events pertaining to distance education at Indiana State University.
We invite your comments, articles, and suggestions. Please contact
Interaction at interact@web.indstate.edu
Interaction is published by the Office of Continuing
Education/Instructional Services.
