Volume #6, Issue #1
Volume #6, Issue #1
Date: November 1992
Editor:
Jason Ohler, Director
Educational Technology Program
University of Alaska Southeast
ONLINE JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION
In the industrial age, we go to school. In the information age, school can come to us. This is the message implicit in the media and movement of distance education.
Volume #6, Issue #1
Date: November 1992
Editor:
Jason OhlerAssistant Editor:
Educational Technology Program Director
University of Alaska Southeast
11120 Glacier Highway
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Phone: 907-789-4538
BITNET USERID: JFJBO@ALASKA
Ruth RyanTechnical Coordinator:
University of Alaska Southeast
11120 Glacier Highway
Juneau, Alaska 99801
BITNET USERID: JSRMR@ALASKA
Paul J. Coffin
716 Taschereau
Ste. Therese, Quebec
J7E 4E1
Phone: 514-430-0995
Welcome to the last issue of the Online Chronicle for the year.
A combination of the recession and declining oil prices and oil production in Alaska have conspired to reduce the amount of time and staff my institution can devote to the Chronicle. It has been a struggle during the last few years to produce the Chronicle, and this year promises to be even more difficult. It is already November and the first issue is just going to press. Clearly something has to change.
So, it is time to take a year off to see if I can re-organize and return to produce a Chronicle that publishes with some regularity. If not, then it will be discontinued.
One possibility is for others from different institutions to help with production. I am very happy to consider this. Please email me with ideas.
Thank you for all of your support. 'Til next September, hopefully.
ITEM 1.
We live in a multi-national world, one with many languages, cultures,
races, and nationalities. Yet, our nations are separated by geographical,
political, and cultural differences.
In recent years, individuals all
over the world have discovered computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a
means of connecting with peers, colleagues, and family. CMC and the
presence of international CMC networks pro-vide a collaborative atmosphere
in which researchers in many fields can bridge the cultural and national
differences that separate them. From their home or office computers, they
link their minds with contemporaries across the city or across the globe.
As the messages are sent and received, individuals are identified and
recognized by their userid, and differences in nationality, ethnicity,
age, gender, and physical ability are not known unless divulged.
Throughout several years of CMC practice, I have often wondered about the
attitudes of other CMC users toward this communication medium that appears
to disguise a person's appearance and cultural identity. At a time when
conflict and unrest between nations results in late night bombing raids,
unified national boycotts, and multi-nation world wars, I have often
thought that communicating through a medium that diminishes differences
between individuals is ideal. To resolve differences and share ideas that
enhance the quality of life without prejudice and power struggles
unrelated to the issue at hand would seemingly improve communications
among nations at war. With today's technology and the availability of
computer-mediated communication, the ability to interact without regard
to skin color, ethnic background, or gender differences would seemingly
facilitate conflict resolution through intelligent exchanges of points of
view. It was with such thoughts in mind that I came upon a central
question for this study:
In July, 1992, I developed and distributed a survey to a selection of
BITNET discussion groups where topics focused on electronic communication.
The sample group for this study consisted of international CMC users who
participate in BITNET discussion groups.
Geographic location of the study participants revealed that a majority of
them were in the U.S., which is not surprising considering that the
Listservs operate on the BITNET system, which is largely a U.S. network.
It is significant to note, however, that BITNET listserv members are
strewn across the globe and are not simply neighbors using efficient
technology. This widespread connectivity most likely reflects improved
access to electronic media in further developed countries around the
world.
A listing of nationalities represented in this study shows a diverse
population of "emailers" who may or may not be living in their birth
country or the country in which they claim citizenship, as illustrated by
the difference between 64% U.S. residents vs. 45% American. Ninety
percent of the respondents are Caucasians, and 45% are American; however,
the range of other ethnic backgrounds indicates the broad reach that
electronic mail provides to those who wish to communicate outside their
geographic and national boundaries.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents are male, and 82% have graduate degrees
or degrees or has completed some graduate school. Forty-three percent are
involved in higher education (student or faculty), and another 31% hold a
job in the computer field. These percentages very likely represent the
upper-middle class segment of the world's societies who have access to
computers and higher education. Probably excluded altogether,
unfortunately, are people in less-developed third-world countries who are
less likely to have access to higher education, much less a computer and
other necessary electronic connections to communicate online.
An analysis of age data reveals a significant representation of young
adults in the 19-30-year age group (31%). Of these, 47% are employed in
the computer science field, 33% are students, and another 20% are working
in their chosen profession. These figures perhaps represent the
traditional-age college/graduate students and those just establishing a
career. The largest percentage of respondents (53%) fall into the 31-49-
year age group of whom 31% work in the computer science field. The other
categories are as follows: Professors (25%), researchers (8%), teachers
(7%), library science (7%), and a few professionals in other fields.
Respondents fifty and older, the other predominant age group, are
primarily professors (50%), computer scientists (14%), and teachers (14%).
Almost all of the respondents indicated active use of electronic mail (81%
are online several times per day) and communicating with colleagues or
peers as their most important purpose for being online. Interacting with
friends seemed to be moderately important, but several respondents
indicated that many of these friendships were established online as a by-
product of academic or work-related interactions. Such active use of
the electronic medium is perhaps the direct result of CMC's nearly
instantaneous delivery of messages.
The availability of electronic networks reported by the respondents
reveals the presence of a structure that facilitates electronic
connectivity. This effort is impressive, as it suggests that
organizations and commercial interests within the developed countries
around the globe recognize the need for improved communication routes for
their people and are working to facilitate such needs. In the information
age, the electronic transfer of information virtually eliminates national
boundaries. As one individual in Turkey commented, "CMC helps me feel as
a world citizen."
With a CMC population consisting mainly of well-educated, professional,
Caucasian people, issues of nationality and cultural orientation might
seem relevant to the status of electronic mail users. Yet the
overwhelming majority (90%) of the respondents indicated that it is not
important that people they talk to online be of the same cultural origin
or nationality. In response to the question about the importance of their
cultural identity, only 25% indicated strong degrees of importance, while
75% indicated minimal or no importance. A closer examination of the
responses shows that those outside the U.S. indicated a higher level of
importance linked to their cultural identity than the U.S. residents (22%
vs. the U.S. response of 14%.). This difference may be the result of the
"melting pot" of nationalities and cultural backgrounds of the U.S.
citizens.
In further support of the non-significance of cultural differences online,
70% of the respondents indicated that cultural differences present little
or no impact to their interactions with others online. When examining
only U.S. respondents' replies, a somewhat higher percentage indicated "no
impact" compared to those outside the U.S. (41% U.S. vs. 31% outside
U.S.). Perhaps the fact that BITNET is an electronic network of largely
U.S. colleges and universities, and thus serves predominantly American
users for whom English is the dominant language (and thus presents fewer
cultural obstacles for Americans), accounts for this difference. Non-
American discussion group participants are connected to BITNET via a
gateway from their own network (e.g., JANet and EARN), and English may not
be the dominant language on their own network.
When respondents were asked if they were aware of any differences in the
ways they interact online with those of another culture or nationality
compared to how they interact with those within their own culture, 40%
said yes. Some attributed their perceptions to a desire or need to
accommodate language differences. Others said they were more careful in
the way they expressed themselves in order to avoid misunderstandings due
to perceived cultural differences.
An awareness of one's own attitudes and behavior appears to be easier to
discern and report than guessing about how others feel. When respondents
were asked about their perceptions of the attitudes of others when
interacting with them, the affirmative response was not as high; only 25%
reported an awareness of national or cultural differences perceived by
others, though some opinions were strong and strenuously expressed.
Among the differences noted was an increase in formality in addressing
others and the frequency of forming and acting on assumptions about
characteristics of nationalities. Here, then, the differences that
interfere with multicultural exchanges are due to differences in ability
to express ideas in terms that are clearly understood or to interpret the
ideas of others because of the language used to express them.
When the educational levels of respondents were compared to their
attitudes about cultural differences in a collaborative/negotiative
situation, a significant increase in the level of importance attributed to
cultural differences was revealed among those with graduate degrees. Of
those with graduate degrees, 21% responded that they felt their cultural
origin was very important to their colleagues when involved in negotiation
of a collaborative effort. To those without graduate degrees, their
perceptions of impact by cultural origin were less pronounced--only 10%
perceived their cultural origin to be important to their colleagues. One
explanation for this difference may be that higher education employs a
greater command of language; thus, differing abilities to express and
clarify ideas are more apparent to this group.
Regardless of educational background, the majority of respondents (95%)
indicated they had encountered differences in communication using computer-
mediated communication as opposed to face-to-face or traditional print
methods, and many offered comments to elaborate on their claim. Physical
limitations in transmission of data was the most frequently mentioned
difference. Many felt they encountered more sarcasm and personal attacks
within the CMC environment, while others claimed to experience a greater
freedom of expression and encountered more egalitarian attitudes. Some
respondents spoke of anonymity and minimized status differences as unique
to the online environment, and further noted that gender, race, and age
differences are "clouded" online. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents
indicated that they had made some degree of adjustment to their
interaction style online in order to communicate effectively. These
figures indicate a definite willingness to accommodate differences in
order to interact effectively.
The most important issue I sought to address in this study was the extent
to which cultural and national differences are evident and considered
significant by users of the online environment. Analysis of the data
provided by international participants suggests that it is not the
beliefs, customs, traditions, or practices unique to individual cultures
or nationalities that most greatly influence connectivity among
international emailers. Rather, what seems to be most important is their
ability to express their views, beliefs, and ideas in an effective manner.
This is a language issue. While language is a significant component of
each civilization, and thus a reflection of unique cultures, it is the
ability to use language that appears to be the key to successful
interaction in computer-mediated communication. In an electronic medium
where language is the vehicle for connectivity, it seems to be essential
that participants be skilled in using not only the most widely adopted
language but also other lanuages as well. Individuals around the world
may be, in many ways, more similar than they are different; yet, without
written communication skills in a common language, those individuals'
ideas hold less power and less influence in the online environment.
Perhaps, in time, and with expanded access to computer-mediated
communication tools, we might all feel "as world citizens."
For a complete copy of the study report, send your postal address to the
author at JSRMR@Alaska.Bitnet.
ITEM 2.
Those who are aware of the development of teaching at a distance
from its earliest to its most contemporary form probably agree that the
movement that began over a hundred years ago is far from over. From very
basic correspondence courses put on the market by small private
organizations to full multimedia-based instruction supplied by national
distance universities, we have, more recently, moved into an era of
interactive and spontaneous delivery systems being developed by just about
every kind and size of organization imaginable.
I am particularly interested in the development of distance education in
what is generally termed "conventional" universities. This is of course
not new in countries like Australia where distance education seems to have
always been within the scope of conventional university activity. But it
does appear to be a relatively new trend in Canada where distance
universities such as Athabasca and Tele-Universite have tended to
supply the lion's share of distance courses. Burge (1991) mentions that
some thirty universities in Canada offered courses at a distance in 1990.
The Canadian Association of University Continuing Education (CAUCE) lists
nearly forty. What may be common knowledge to some but not to all is that
the new generation of distance teaching institutions will most likely be
. conventional universities!!
Given adult educational needs, a drop in recruiting from within the usual
ranks of high-school (or "collegial" in Quebec) graduates, given the age-
old requirement for universities to "get the knowledge to the people"
wherever they be and numerous other factors currently affecting higher
education (such as the use of CMC), a boom in conventional university
distance teaching has apparently begun and may soon account for (if it
doesn't already) most DE activity in the country.
On the other hand, what do we actually know about how conventional
universities organize, structure and develop distance education?
Apparently not very much according to Kovel-Jarboe (in M.G. Moore, 1990)
who states that very few studies actually exist on the subject. Most
practices seem to be "home-grown" in response to pressure for
"decentralizing" resources and course offerings. Since most of the
research findings in distance education published in specialist journals
seems to be carried on primarily by academics at distance "autonomous"
universities, little in the way of day-to-day activities in a "distance
teaching centre", or "extension unit", etc. within the precincts of a
traditional university appears to be known.
Do distance educators in traditional universities base their practice on
autonomous-university models? Are these models appropriate given
the change in context? Do conventional university-based distance
educators adjust these models to "fit" their needs? Are those involved
trained distance educators or have they simply developed an interest in
the field and responded as best they can to imperative needs with regard
to expanding services and expanding enrollment? And is there one
conventional university distance education model? Not according to
Medsker (1975) and Medsker and Edelstein (1977) in Kovel-Jarboe. They
indicate that there are at least three general types of distance education
organizations within conventional universities that correspond to the
latter three categories in the Keegan & Rumble (1982) typology: As
mentioned earlier, since we are not aware of much that has been published
in Canada with regard to conventional university-based DE, and even less
with regard to the specificity of small-scale mediation and tutoring
systems within conventional universities, we would welcome input from
fellow readers who are interested in this line of enquiry and would like
to share experiences, insight and ideas.
Please e-mail Michael_Power@uqar.uquebec.ca or (if you can't get
through, as it sometimes happens) try Mpower@chapparal.fse.ulaval
hr width=50%>
ITEM 3.
an exerpt from: The University of the World NEWSLETTER
Universities must develop a worldwide network in order to be "world-
class" institutions, according to the leaders of three prominent academic
institutions.
Southwood said political freedom in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Bloc nations will undoubtedly send a flood of students to the
world's universities. He added that schools must handle "a great
information overload" and rising costs in providing services, while
preserving high standards.
The three university heads said universities around the world must
adopt some strategies used by the business community to compete in a
global market.
"Global University" is a trade mark of GLOSAS/USA. Dr. Takeshi Utsumi,
Chairman of GLOSAS/USA and President of Global University in the USA is a
board member of the University of the World. Dr. James Grier Miller,
Chairman of the University of the World is an executive advisor of
GLOSAS/USA.
ITEM 4.
Want to involve students in real world problem solving activities? Join
in the Grand & Everyday Challenges for Education. Questions and problems
and other challenges, both "grand" and everyday, will be posed by folks
for whom these are real challenges. These will be sent electronically to
interested school groups so that they can find ones relevant to their
curriculum. They can then interact with the challenge posers and develop
solutions. Groups of students and teachers will be able to form "tele-
task forces" to work together over the network to solve challenges.
Successful solutions will in some cases lead to a reward for the school
group.
Goals: To develop students problem solving skills, especially working
collaboratively with others, both locally and remotely. To have students
learn skills and knowledge within a broader, more motivating context.
Grade levels: This project can involve students of any grade level or
ability level. The ways in which students become involved can vary, but
all are welcome to participate.
Duration: This project will run throughout the 1992-1993 school year. If
you send us a list of what topics you'll be dealing with during which
periods of the year, we'll send you those challenges that are related to
those topics.
Content Area: All content areas can be involved.
Attached are some examples of how we plan to have this project work. If
you're interested in participating in the Grand & Everyday Challenges for
Education, send me a message and I'll add you to our electronic mail list
and send you further information.
Project coordinator:
Here are some examples of how the Grand & Everyday Challenges for
Education can work:
A world class mathematician posts an unsolved theorem that's important to
the progress of his work. A high school math class teacher selects that
challenge and poses it to her students, who apply a new piece of
visualization software to the problem and develop some promising new
approaches which assist the mathematician in developing a new way to think
about the theorem that allows an innovative solution.
A panel of ecological experts is concerned with the issue of how to
increase the rate of recycling plastics. They are particularly concerned
about the impact of "juice boxes", since they are a composite of plastic,
paper, and aluminum. They post as a challenge how to deal with the
problems raised for recycling of "juice boxes". Two elementary school
classes choose to consider this challenge jointly. They interview their
fellow classmates about what they like and dislike about juice boxes, they
interview their parents about why they buy them, they observe the ways
that they and their classmates use and dispose of them. They consider
alternatives to juice boxes, and develop an alternative that they write up
and submit to the ecological panel, which considers it, and includes it in
their report to Congress. Congress changes regulations about the
manufacture of such containers to encourage the more effective solution
suggested by the elementary school class and refined by the panel.
A team of scientists developing state-of-the-art supercomputer-based
models of tornados posts a description of a puzzling mismatch between
their model and data from a set of recent tornados in Illinois. A middle
school science class in Illinois examines aspects of the model though
their network connection, accesses additional weather information about
those tornados from their online state weather database, and formulates
some new hypotheses to explain the anomalies. They communicate
electronically with the team of scientists to clarify some aspects of the
mismatch, and to get suggestions for ways to test those hypotheses by
applying the model to additional tornado data. Then the class submits the
surviving hypotheses back to the team of scientists for further
investigation.
Everyday Challenges
A local park district is in the process of deciding where to locate a new
playground structure. They'd like to conduct a survey to help them
decide. They post their challenge, and a local elementary school teacher
organizes her class to formulate the questions, collect the data, enter it
into a statistical analysis program, and print out the results.
A university professor, as part of her research project, needs to know
what middle school students think about advertising on Saturday morning
TV. She posts the challenge, then several schools together take up the
challenge, conducting the surveys, analyzing them, and sending a report
and the data to the professor.
A local agency serving homeless people faces a shortage of child care
workers. It posts the challenge. A group of schools contact the homeless
shelters in their areas, and compile a list of different ways in which
child care is provided. One approach, to work with a local retirement
home to involve retired people as child care providers, is proposed as a s
solution to the challenge. Details of how that solution works in another
location are provided, along with some suggestions of modifications that
would make the solution more effective in the challenge location.
ITEM 5.
Three years ago representatives of 23 United States land grant
institutions met in Chicago to discuss a satellite network to serve the
changing needs of agricultural education across the United States. Irvin
Omtvedt, Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Natural Resources and Jack
McBride, Educational Television Director both of the University of
Nebraska, focused the meeting on the opportunity for the participating
institutions to obtain a federal grant to construct the technological
backbone for a nation-wide satellite network.
By October 1989 the Agricultural Satellite Corporation (AG*SAT) had been
formally established by 27 land grant institutions with headquarters in
Nebraska. The initial steps had been taken toward the development of a
proposal to the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) of
the U.S. Department of Commerce. Meanwhile the institutions began to
develop programming to be shared nationally via satellite, a formal
administrative structure was established and AG*SAT began to take shape.
The Phase 1 proposal seeking Federal equipment support was submitted in
January 1990 with a formal funding announcement in September. The
initial grant to AG*SAT from PTFP was $735,000 which was matched by the
participating institutions. This funding provided for construction of
five satellite uplinks, 10 downlinks which can be converted to uplinks and
16 downlinks.
The land grant affiliates didn't wait for the Federal grant or
construction. By November, 1990, programming began to flow via satellite
to a national audience. Two trial programs in late 1990 led to an
extremely active "pilot" year, 1991, which saw more than 70 extension
programs and three credit courses totaling more than 300 hours of
programming viewed 70,000 persons nationwide. These programs and courses
had widely varied content and origination points. Such subjects as safe
pesticide handling, food science, dairy waste management and absentee
ownership issues were among the long list of programming shared via
AG*SAT.
In January, 1991, a second equipment proposal went to the PTFP. The
$500,000 Federal grant, awarded in September, has been matched with an
equal amount by the affiliated institutions to provide six additional
uplinks, a microwave connection to an uplink and eight downlinks. These
facilities are complemented by existing transmit and receive equipment at
many locations across the country making the Agricultural Satellite
Corporation's network one of the largest and most flexible in the
country.
In addition to the eleven uplinks and 30 downlinks purchased with Federal
assistance, the institutions and Extension Centers own or have access to
an estimated 10 uplinks and nearly 1,000 downlinks nationally.
Many significant events and activities mark the third anniversary of the
AG*SAT:
It is clear that AG*SAT has met a real need within the agricultural
education system. The dedication of the distance learning network and
service in June, 1992, marked the beginning of a new era for affiliated
institutions, the USDA and the service they provide to the agricultural
sector of the economy.
For further information, including program listings, contact:
Dr. Randall Bretz
ITEM 6.
A. ANNOUNCEMENT: World Conference on Education Multimedia and Hypermedia
ED-MEDIA 93 -- World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia
is an international conference sponsored by the Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). This annual conference
serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the dissemination of information
on the research, development, and applications of multimedia and
hypermedia for all levels of education.
We invite you to participate in the ED-MEDIA 93 Conference by submitting
proposals for papers, workshops, panels, and demonstrations/posters. All
proposals are reviewed for inclusion in the conference program.
The Conference welcomes research, development and application proposal
submissions on all topics related to multimedia and hypermedia for all
disciplines and levels of education.
Conference History
Due to the increasing popularity of ICCAL, a yearly interval and a more
solid organizational base was deemed necessary. Discussions between ICCAL
and AACE have led to the creation of the ED-MEDIA conference series.
Thus, ED-MEDIA 93 is considered the fifth in a series of meetings,
formerly called ICCAL. The stronger conference emphasis on multimedia and
hypermedia reflects recent developments in the field.
For more information, contact:
ED-MEDIA 93
CoSN is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in the
District of Columbia. Application for 501 (c)(3) status has been
made to the Internal Revenue Service.
Officers and Members of the Board of CoSN
To become a Charter Member of the Consortium for School
Networking, return the form below to cosn@bitnic.bitnet or
the Consortium at P.O.Box 65193, Washington, DC 20035-5193
CHARTER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Attention: Membership Committee -- Bobbi Kurshan, Chair
Please provide the information requested below and we will enroll
you as a charter member and invoice you or your organization for the
amount due.
For organizational members only:
Name of Organization:___________________________________
Name and title of Organizational Representative:_________________________________
Type of Organization -- Professional ( ) -- Business ( ) (please
mark one only)
Description of Organization:_________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________
(In case of business member organization, please specify if last
complete year's annual revenues are under $100,000, to qualify for
"small business" membership dues.)
For individual affiliate members only:
Name:______________________________________________
Title and Organization for whom you work:__________________
___________________________________________________
(It is understood that affiliate membership does not imply that
you represent this organization to CoSN)
For all member organizations and individual affiliate members:
Street Address:______________________________________
Apt. No.:____________________
City, State and Zip Code:_______________________________
Telephone:__________________________________________
Fax:_______________________________________________
Electronic mail address:_______________________________
We are trying to extend membership in the Consortium as broadly as possible.
Please share this invitation with potentially interested colleagues and
friends. Thank you.
C. THE "POLAND NOW" TELECONFERENCE
[reprinted from GLOSAS News]
In honor of the First National Entrepreneurship Forum in Poland, a
satellite conference was broadcast from Poland to the United States,
designed to bring together university faculty and business owners in the
U.S. and Poland. Polish business owners have been chosen as model
success stories who could share the problems they have overcome in
developing a privately-owned business in the former communist country.
The teleconference was broadcast from 1:00 to 2:30 P.M. EST on Monday,
May 11, 1992.
The Solidarity Economic Foundation organized the conference with
assistance from Ohio State University. Polish Now teleconference was
produced by Egret International and was funded by the U.S. Agency for
International Development. For further information please contact:
Egret International
D. ANNOUNCING A NEW DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE FROM CARNEGIE MELLON
UNIVERSITY...
ETHICAL ISSUES IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE:
MULTIMEDIA COURSEWARE
The Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics at Carnegie Mellon
University invites you to view "Ethical Issues in Professional Life:
Multimedia Courseware" that is being aired nationally by Mind Extension
University (ME/U) this fall. This program may serve your educational
needs in various ways as:
"Ethical Issues in Professional Life" is designed to provide students
with an understanding of and a framework for analyzing the many ethical
issues, problems and dilemmas facing contemporary professionals. It
consists of 14-half hour videos, an accompanying workbook and audio tapes.
Students will address ethical issues and dilemmas of professionals in
medicine, law, business, engineering, journalism and media, public
administration, accounting and the natural and the social sciences among
others.
The video and audio segments showcase nationally known professionals
and ethicists including: Hon. Lawton Chiles, Governor of Florida; Roger
Boisjoly, space shuttle Challenger whistleblower; Talbot D'Alemberte,
president, American Bar Association; Lisa Newton, director, Program in
Applied Ethics, Fairfield University and project consultant for the PBS
series "Ethics in America" and Manuel Velasquez, director, Center for
Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University and author of Business Ethics:
Concepts and Cases.
The workbook serves as a course text with self-paced study questions
and weekly assignments. Edited and condensed transcripts of the videos
are also included in the workbook as well as suggestions for additional
readings.
It has or will be used at Carnegie Mellon University, the University
of South Florida and Eckerd College and may be accessed by satellite
through Mind Extension University in the Fall of 1992.
Check your local cable listings for the Mind Extension University
(ME/U) showing of "Ethical Issues in Professional Life" or ask your
instructional technologist to receive the program in a downlink from ME/U.
The program is scheduled to be aired starting on Monday, October 26, 1992
and following Mondays and Fridays at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
For more information on ordering workbooks and audio tapes contact
Peter Madsen, Executive Director
"Simulation & Gaming: An International Journal of Theory, Design and
Research" (Sage Publications) is the world's foremost journal devoted to
computerized simulation, gaming, modeling, play, role-play and active,
experiential learning and related methodologies in education, training and
research. The broad scope and inter-disciplinary nature of "Simulation &
Gaming" is demonstrated by the variety of its readers and contributors, as
well as its Editorial Board members, such as sociologists, political
scientists, economists, psychologists and educators, as well as experts in
environmental issues, international studies, management and business,
policy and planning, decision making and conflict resolution, cognition,
learning theory, communication, language learning, media, educational
technologies and computing. Manuscripts are welcome at any time.
Before submitting a manuscript, potential authors should write for a copy
of the Guide for Authors, enclosing a self-addressed, sticky label and $2
in stamps (in the USA only). Write to David Crookall, Editor S&G To subscribe, write
to:
Gleason Sackman
BBS:sackman@sendit.nodak.edu
F. ANNOUNCEMENT: A CONSORTIUM FOR NETWORK PUBLICATION OF REFEREED
RESEARCH JOURNALS
The University of Manitoba has received funding commitments to organize
and hold an international conference to promote the establishment of a
consortium of universities and learned societies to sponsor computer
network publication of refereed journals. The consortium would be a non-
profit publishing cooperative intended to make use of the Internet as an
important medium for the publication of scholarly research in any
discipline. Since the summer of 1991, an ad hoc group at the University of
Manitoba has been developing the idea of the conference and the proposed
consortium, and has been working on funding proposals since the Autumn of
1991. The conference is now tentatively slated for the Autumn of 1993 and
will be held at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. We hope to
enlist the interest and cooperation of major research universities and
learned societies across North America and elsewhere. Over the next year
or so, we will be communicating the vision behind the conference and
consortium to the academic community. This is the first advance notice,
and we plan to provide updates with more specific information on the
conference details as plans for it develop. As an analogy of sorts for the
proposed consortium, in the traditional publishing of books and paper
journals, Scholars Press (Atlanta, Georgia) is a unique example of such a
cooperative, operating under several major U.S. learned societies (e.g.,
American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature, American
Philological Society), with a number of universities in the U.S. and
Canada as sponsors of particular publication projects such as major
monograph series. It is an example of groups in the academic community
taking collective responsibility to see that worthy scholarship gets
published, without commercial considerations determining the question. The
Internet is the major new medium for dissemination of research, and it is
vital that the scholarly community, through its major institutions of
universities and learned societies, become acquainted with the enormous
potential of the Internet for scholarship. Commercial companies are
already devoting attention to developing computer network publication
projects. It is imperative that the scholarly community not leave this
major medium to be developed solely by commercial interests. The basic
aims are
Our initial objective
at this point is to inform as many in the scholarly community as possible
of the conference and the consortium proposal, and to solicit interest in
these plans. Please contact us for more information, and to be kept
informed on the progress in our planning. We also sincerely invite you to
offer your ideas on things to be included in the conference, key people to
inform and possibly invite to the conference, and any other matters
relevant to the conference and consortium proposal. For more information,
and to express your interests in the conference and consortium, contact
the convenor of the University of Manitoba ad hoc Committee on Electronic
Journals:
ITEM 7.
One possible approach to determining distance education credits is based
on relating the distance delivered learning experience to the face-to-face
learning experience on a "per/hour involvement" basis.
I identified five kinds of face-to-face university course experience
offered at our institution, identified the six primary activities in which
students engage in the process of taking a course, and then developed a
matrix which allows the planner to figure total number of hours spent by
the student.
A first pass at this process looks like this:
Issues for distance education: What is "lecturing" in a distance education
learning environment? What qualitative differences are there between
listening to a lecture face-to-face, watching it on video, listening to it
on audio tape, or reading it, either online or in print?
Issues for distance education: Some distance education technologies, like
computer conferencing, offer expanded student-to-teacher interaction.
Others, like correspondence study, often offer less. How does this aspect
figure into the overall time equation?
Issues for distance education: Again, some technologies like computer
conferencing vastly increase the amount of student interaction possible,
particularly when compared to other forms of distance education. To what
degree does this activity figure into the overall time equation? In an
era of changing pedagogies which include more student interaction, should
we reconsider the degree and relative value we should assign to this
particular pedagogy?
Issues for distance education: Can online searching be utilized? What are
the costs? Will students be able to request library searches by phone?
How do students get books and other materials? Would it just be easier to
provide a wide range of current research articles as part of the learning
packet? Is this part of the time equation figured for in face-to-face
classes? Should it be in distance delivered courses?
Issues for distance education: Should these kinds of activities be figured
into the time formula?
Issues for distance education: Do we use the same formula as we do for
face-to-face classes? Should we assume more self-monitored work in
distance education and therefore not de-value it as is often done for
independent study courses?
Other considerations
Issues:
Your comments are welcome.
by Ruth Ryan, JSRMR@Alaska.Bitnet to what extent are cultural and national
differences evident and considered significant by users of the online
environment?
by Michael Power
Michael_Power@ugar.uquebec.ca
I am an educational technologist working at a conventional university
(Universite du Quebec a Rimouski) that has developed what was initially a
uni-departmental model of DE but which has recently been reorganized to
become a multi-departmental model (as another department is currently
getting involved). This "upbeat mood" in DE at the UQAR has led us to
develop a research project on improving the process of mediation through
increased use of interactive technology that best suits our needs.
(January/March 1992, Vol. 5, No. 1)
"The number one challenge is that the university community has to cope
with increasing numbers of persons and increasing knowledge, but must
maintain its excellence and sophistication," said Sir Richard Southwood,
Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.
Southwood, who also teaches biology at the esteemed English
institution, joined Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine and Wellesley
President Nannerl Keohane to tell an Oxford alumni group in Cambridge,
Massachusetts that social and political changes in the world dictate that
universities expand or be left behind.
"I think universities should be working on networks, through exchanges
of students and exchanges of information," Southwood said. (...)
Dr. James Grier Miller, UW's Chairman, also was invited to the seminar
entitled "Global University: Challenges for the 21st Century," to discuss
the history and present activities of the University of the World.
"I told them the idea of a global university is not just some fantasy
about the future, but is becoming a reality," Dr. Miller said. He
described the rapid growth of interest in the University of the World
since its inception in 1981, saying the organization now is represented in
24 countries.
Though the three leaders of the other universities expressed surprise
over the growth of distance education, each told Dr. Miller of their
interest in the concept. "To me, this was an important event," Dr. Miller
said. "All of these leaders were willing to consider the concept
seriously." UW
by Jim Levin
Jim-levin@uiuc.edu
Jim Levin
University of Illinois
210 Education Building, 1310 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820
FrEdMail address: jlevin@uiuced2.uiuc.fred.org
Internet address: jim-levin@uiuc.edu
Grand Challenges
Jim Levin, Jim-levin@uiuc.edu
THREE YEARS OF PHENOMENAL GROWTH
by Dr. Randall Bretz
ASAT001@UNLVM.UNL.EDU
Assistant Director/Program Manager
AG*SAT
Box 83111
Lincoln, NE 68501
voice: 402-472-3611
fax: 402-472-9060
e-mail: ASAT001@UNLVM.UNL.EDU
The ED-MEDIA conference series ties together a number of strands of
activities that have been present since about 1985. The two major ones
are activities of AACE in the area of educational multimedia and
hypermedia (one result of these activities is the new Journal of
Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia) and the ICCAL Conference series.
ICCAL, (International Conference on Computers and Learning), has been
held as a major international symposium four times, in Calgary, CANADA
(1987), Dallas, USA (1989), Hagen, GERMANY (1990), and in Wolfville,
CANADA (1992).
ED-MEDIA 93 deadlines (postmark dates):
Submit proposals: October 15, 1992 Acceptance of Proposals: January 15, 1993 Receipt of Final Papers; March 1, 1993 Pre-Registration: May 15, 1993
AACE
P.O. Box 2966
Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
E-mail: AACE@Virginia.Edu,
Phone: (804) 973-398
Fax: (804) 978-7449
Professional member organizations: Government agencies, state and regional networks $ 2,500 School districts, schools, postsecondary
institutions, libraries, professional groups,
non-profit organizations: $ 500 Business member organizations: Small businesses (under $100,000 annual revenues): $ 500 Other business: $ 5,000 Individuals: $ 35
Members of the Board:
Satellite Conference Between Poland and U.S.A.
May 11, 1992
Produced By Egret International
Sally Lucke or Sandra McCourtney, Co-Directors
ph(s): 813-923-8533; 813-349-2460
Fax: 813-924-3215
Internet: Mccours@firnvx.firn.edu
Bitnet: Mccours@firnvx
Center for the Advancement of Applied
Ethics
234 Smith Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-5703
FAX: (412) 268-6074
e-mail: pm2n+@andrew.cmu.edu.bitnet
E. CALL FOR PAPERS: "Simulation & Gaming"
Morgan
Hall, Box 870244
U of AL
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Sage Publications
2455 Teller Road
Newbury Park, CA 91320, USA;
6
Bonhill Street
London EC2A 4PU, UK.
Coordinator
BOX 5164, NDSU Computer Center
Fargo, ND 58105
Voice: (701)237-8109
Fax: (701)237-8541
Internet:sackman@plains.nodak.edu
SENDIT - NoDak's K-12 Telcom Network Bitnet:
sackman@plains.bitnet
Professor Larry W. Hurtado
Institute for the Humanities
108 Isbister Bldg.,
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2
Phone: (204) 474-9114
FAX (204) 275-5781
E-mail: hurtado@ccu.umanitoba
by the editor
