patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) (07/06/89)
DISTED, July 1989, part 2.
---- ITEM #6 ----
THE EDTECH EXPERIENCE-
A look at the first few months of the EDTECH Mailing List
by Mark Rosenberg (ID= 21602MR@MSU.BITNET)
& Vickie L. Banks (ID= 21602VB@MSU.BITNET)
This account offers a behind the scenes view from two list owners
of the work and advantages of starting a mailing list on BITNET
for those who are thinking of starting one and/or those who
subscribe.
On February 10, 1989 a group of graduate students and faculty at
Michigan State University (MSU) started the Educational Technology
mailing list (EDTECH@OHSTVMA). We had been learning about
electronic mail and local conferencing, and decided it would be
worthwhile to expand our discussion to include people from other
universities and institutions around the world. After researching
the procedure for starting a list, we formulated a purpose: to
promote discussions among faculty, students, and "interested
others" in the field of educational technology about hardware,
software, curriculums, & technology in education, and to study
the development of EDTECH itself as a vehicle for extending
traditional learning environments through telecommunications.
Initially the new EDTECH list was announced on other mailing lists
and promoted at several education conferences. A hard copy
announcement also went out to all university departments that
listed an Educational Technology program in AECT's 1988
Educational Technology Yearbook. The first week subscriptions
were moderate (10 or 11) mostly from Michigan State. By the end
of February there were approximately 17 people subscribed, 12 from
MSU. During February there were 6 messages (.3/day) sent to the
EDTECH list. 100% of the traffic originated from MSU. The
content of the messages was personal introductions.
As March began, subscriptions and messages to the EDTECH list
started to pick up dramatically. Topics ranged from conference
announcements to requests for information, references, and
resources, but personal introductions continued to account for a
substantial amount of the traffic flow. By the end of March there
were close to 100 people subscribed to the list and 56 messages
(1.8/day) had been sent. 43% of list traffic originated from MSU.
In April we noticed that the signal to noise ratio (messages sent
to EDTECH that were not meant for the list like "Please subscribe
me" or "John, could you send me a copy of that paper you
mentioned") increased dramatically. So on April 23rd we began to
moderate the list. This means that instead of messages being
distributed immediately to everyone on EDTECH, they are first
forwarded to the list moderator, who intercepts and redirects
private mail and command messages. Thus list members do not have
to sift through extraneous list mail.
In late April a sudden shift in the content and style of the list
occurred. Until then most EDTECH messages dealt with personal
introductions, a specific question and answer, a conference
announcement, or mistakes (mail not meant for list distribution).
There were no extended conversations on particular topics. On
April 25, a question posted about screen capture for instructional
purposes and related copyright questions started the list on its
first extended interaction. During the last few days of April and
the first several days of May there were 16 messages from 7
different members revolving around the copyright issue. Some were
more questions and answers, some contained references, and others
were speculation on possible scenarios.
During April there were 82 messages (2.7/day) with 29% of the
traffic from MSU. EDTECH had 130 subscribers at the end of April.
In May the discussion continued to expand with the intensity and
richness that started during the copyright postings. It evolved
to encompass broader and more theoretical themes like preparing
teachers to use technology, and OLD technology (books and
chalkboards) vs NEW technology (hypertext and computers). People
continued introducing themselves and their work, and sharing
references and articles with each other, but the EDTECH list
matured somewhat and became a forum for extended conversations
among groups of people on a number of topics. It offered an
informal conversational environment that fostered participation,
networking, and relationships.
At the end of May EDTECH had grown to approximately 180 members
from 90 institutions and 15 different countries. During May there
were approximately 100 messages (over 3/day) and only 18%
originated from MSU.
At present EDTECH is particularly useful in making professional
contacts with people who share similar interests around the world.
It is also beginning to be a place for formulating group projects
and inter-university courses enabling students and faculty to use
the list and e-mail as a medium of collaboration. The first
collaborative project got underway at the end of May. Several
people are working together on a Hypercard stack that will act as
a directory of list members, and allow access to archived EDTECH
messages by key words, message threads & list members. The
project will aid in developing a stronger sense of community by
having an entry about each list member with relevant information
(even possibly a picture) so that 21602MR@MSU becomes a real
person and not just a userid. The stack will also facilitate
people accessing and making complete use of the wealth of
references and other resources being contributed to EDTECH.
Given EDTECH's current success, members of the founding group plan
to continue exploring how to nurture and develop this environment.
As the number of electronic mailing lists like EDTECH grows, the
study of how to design, implement, and maintain them will become
increasingly important. By studying the discussions and dynamics
of the EDTECH list, we hope to discover methods of effectively
managing a list as an educational medium. We expect that list
subscribers will begin collaborative articles, projects, courses,
data collection, surveys, and reading groups. As this medium has
proven to be exceptionally useful for linking people working on
similar courses or projects, we are also exploring the
possibilities of sponsoring several smaller sub-lists dedicated to
highly specific topics (example: a sublist for people teaching
introductory courses in using computers for teachers, or a sublist
on the uses of computers in social science in the lower
elementary grades, etc.). We envision that the EDTECH list will
be a more general forum for discussions about Educational
Technology and a meeting place for those who may want to
participate in a variety of more focused conversations.
For more information about the EDTECH list, send mail to:
Vickie L. Banks (21602VB@MSU.BITNET) or
Mark Rosenberg (21602MR@MSU.BITNET)
or subscribe to EDTECH by sending the message:
TELL LISTSERV@OHSTVMA SUB EDTECH Your full name
========
---- ITEM #7 ----
ONE USER'S FrEd MAIL EXPERIENCE
by Don Watkins
ID= V076GZHB@UBVMSC
I attended a teleconference in April of 1988 dealing with classroom
integration of telecommunications. One of the principal communications
networks open to elementary and secondary students at this time is a network
called the FrEdMail Network. FrEd is an acronym for "Free Education". It was
started by a gentleman, Al Rogers, in California. From what I gathered Al
was a teacher who became interested in the implications of telecommunications
among groups of elementary and secondary students. He was one of the
panelists for the teleconference and told of how groups of students all over
the United States and several foreign countries were linked via normal
telephone lines using modems and microcomputers.
These microcomputers in their respective schools were "tied" to nodes
which were in turn linked to other nodes throughout the network. There was
no line charge for any of this other than those charges that might be
incurred from the telephone company itself.
This notion of linking students at our school(Franklinville Central,
Franklinville, New York, USA) with groups of students from around the country
and perhaps the world was exciting.
I approached some of my students regarding this idea and they were
of course delighted. Some of the teachers I approached were enthusiastic
while most were very skeptical.
I did manage to "logon" to a node in New Jersey(Glassboro State
College) which was the closest node to our school. Through the help of the
system operator, Mr. Kenneth Rideout, I was able to arrange a
telecommunications link with a couple of elementary classes in Moore County,
North Carolina. Moore County is primarily a rural area like ours and there
was some commonality for the students. We managed to have two complete E-mail
exchanges which was exciting for the teachers and the students involved.
There was some difficulty encountered due to hard disk "crashes" at the
node in New Jersey. This was discouraging to all of us involved. However,
FrEdMail gives students an opportunity to write for an audience other than
their teachers. It also can help promote some social skills and understanding
among students from varied socio-economic backgrounds.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention that we owe our success
with the FrEdMail Network to the third grade class of Mrs.Diane Watkins and
the learning disabled class of Miss Kim Whitling. Mr. Richard Wachter, our
school superintendent was instrumental in approving the purchase of modem to
be connected to the microcomputer. Due to his foresight and the efforts
of these two classes in Franklinville and the two in North Carolina we
moved closer to classroom integration of telecommunications in an
elementary school.
[Note: Don has prepared a much larger article about his use of FrEd Mail
which he would be happy to send to you upon your request. His ID is
V076GZHB@UBVMSC.]
========
---- ITEM #8 ----
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CONFERENCES, REQUESTS, & OTHER SOUND BYTES
--
1 ==>Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
Conference.
Submitted by: Mike Molenda, Indiana Univ., ID= MOLENDA@IUBACS
"The Role of Educational Technology in Distance Education" is the theme
of this summer's Professional Development Seminar sponsored by the
Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). The
seminar will explore issues of program design, educational policy, and
research/theory as well as provide demonstrations of distance education
for school, college, and corporate instruction. Featured speakers
include Jason Ohler, Univ. of Alaska; Robert Diamond, Syracuse Univ.;
Lorne Parker, Parker Communications; and James Zigerrell, formerly
Dean of the Chicago Television College. Seminar site is Indiana Univ.,
Bloomington; July 29-August 1. Registration fee $245 for non-members.
For further info contact: Michael Molenda, Indiana University
(MOLENDA@IUBACS), or phone (812) 855-1791.
********
2 ==>Zenith Recognizes Teleconferencing as Educational Innovation
Submitted by: Norman Coombs
NRCGSH@RITVAX.BITNET
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY USA
Zenith Data Systems sponsored the Masters of Innovation
Competition in 1989 to seek out special campus achievements with
personal computers. The competition was designed to encourage PC
use in key academic areas and to reward those students, faculty
and staff members who are using their PCs in the most innovative
applications. More than 850 students, faculty and staff
submitted papers describing how they use their PC-compatible
applications to assist educational study in five fields:
business, education, liberal arts and sciences, fine and applied
arts, and engineering and computer science. "As a company
committed to education," Zenith officials stated, "we want to
encourage students, faculty and staff to creatively explore the
potential of computers within their fields of study." They said
that they want to "reward those masters of innovation who
consistently push computing forward into new and exciting
frontiers in education."
I was fortunate enough to be selected as the faculty first
prize winner in education for using computer conferencing to
teach history to distance students. Some of my students are
hearing impaired, and I am blind. The computer conference
enables us to participate in a genuine main stream experience
with physical disabilities vanishing altogether. I hope that
this recognition will help advance the acceptance of distance
education in general.
Other faculty winners covered a wide range of applications.
Charles Read, from Temple University developed an application,
"Visual Matching of Celestial Targets", which uses Zenith
portables to study visual Judgment of celestial targets in terms
of their apparent size and distance in relation to their
elevation from the horizon. He is looking for possible reasons
why visual Judgments are subject to illusion. Willlam Miller from
the University of Misouri has designed an application that tests
wooden utility poles for decay, rot or degradation using a Zenith
Data Systems portable computer.
Winners received $5,000 of Zenith equipment both for
themselves and a similar grant of equipment was given to their
institution.
Winners were flown to Chicago to demonstrate their
applications. Awards were presented at a banquet on Saturday,
April 29 by the zenith president.
********
3 ==>ISTE: Merger of ICCE and IACE
Submitted by: L. Daniel York, ID= D_YORK@UNHH
At the National Educational Computing Conference, held in Boston, Mass.,
on June 20-22, 1989, it was announced that the International Council for
Computers in Education (ICCE) and the International Association for Computing
in Education (IACE) had just merged to form the International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE). The new organization was "created in
recognition of the need for leadership provided by a single, comprehensive
organization, dedicated to improving instruction through the innovative
use of technology."
For more information, contact ISTE at:
BITNET: MOURSUND@OREGON
or,
COMPUSERVE: 70014,2177
or,
ISTE
University of Oregon
1787 Agate St.
Eugene, OR 97403 USA
Phone: (503) 668-4414
********
4 ==>New Special Interest Group for Telecommunications
Submitted by: L. Daniel York, ID= D_YORK@UNHH
Also at NECC '89, the formation of a new ISTE Special Interest Group
for Telecommunications (SIGTEL) was announced.
"SIGTelecommunications is a network of educators interested in computer-
based communications -- computers alone or in combination with television,
radio, telephone, or other media. SIGTEL supports and promotes
telecommunication as a tool for the enhancement of learning and the delivery
of instruction.
The goals of SIGTEL are:
1. to promote appropriate use of telecommunications in learning,
2. to initiate and encourage research on instructional telecommunications,
3. to collect and disseminate research on instructional telecommunications,
and
4. to assist in the development of communications links for students and
educators.
For more information, contact Chris Clark, newly elected President at:
Bitnet: GCC1@PSUVM
or,
ISTE SIG/Tel
1787 Agate St.
Eugene, OR 97403
********
5 ==>Call for Papers and Conference Prospectus for WCCE/90
Submitted by: L. Daniel York, ID= D_YORK@UNHH
The Fifth World Conference on Computers in Education (WCCE/90) will
be held July 9-13, 1990 in Sydney, Australia, sponsored by the International
Federation for Information Processing and the Austrailian Computer Society.
"WCCE/90 is an international conference and papers are welcome from all
nations. Papers are invited from individuals as well as from representatives
of organizations, regions or nations. Colleagues from the Asian-Pacific
region are particularly invited to take advantage of this conference.
Prospective authors should submit original papers in English (the
official conference language) on new and emerging themes in educational
computing. Through its major streams, associated mini-conferences and non-
paper sessions, WCCE/90 will stress the diversity of ways computers interact
with learning in all educational environments. Papers on educational
computing themes not encompassed by the major streams and associated mini-
conferences, below, are nevertheless welcome for consideration.
Registration fees at the 'early-bird' rate will be offered to authors
whose papers are accepted for publication in the Conference Proceedings."
The six WCCE/90 Conference Streams are:
1. Informatics in Elementary Education
2. Research on Educational Applications of Information Technologies
3. Informatics Education at the Secondary Level
4. Distance Learning
5. Advanced Curriculum Projects in Information Processing
6. Vocational Education and Training
In addition, there are 4 WCCE/90 Associated Mini-Conferences
1. Advanced Research on Computers in Education (Japan, July 18-20)
2. Computers in Education: National Perspectives (New Zealand, July 4-6)
3. CBT/90 (Computer-Based Training)
4. Teleteaching/90
There will also be non-paper sessions of consisting of workshops, panel
sessions, poster sessions, and public meetings.
Draft papers must be received n Australia NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 1, 1989.
Notification of acceptance will be in January 1990.
Further information may be obtained by writing:
WCCE/90
P.O. Box 319
Darlinghurst, NSW 2010
AUSTRALIA
========
---- ITEM #9 ----
DISTANCE EDitorial-
WHAT ELECTRONIC MAIL OFFERS EDUCATORS-
Reflections of an Online Teacher
By the editor
ID= JFJBO@ALASKA
Recently I was asked by the State of Alaska to write about my experiences as
an online teacher. What follows is an excerpt from that report (titled "The
Many Faces of Electronic Mail"), which focuses on how electronic mail has
inspired new thinking among teachers.
Background
Although Alaska's statewide computer network, the University of Alaska
Computer Network (UACN), offers access to many services, such as word
processing, computer languages, statistical packages, etc., the majority of
its traffic is electronic mail. Thus the 8,000 teachers who are scattered
over Alaska's more than a half million square miles have had a way to
communicate but have needed a basic understanding of how the system works and
what they could do with it.
To address this need, in 1985 Dr. Armand Seguin of UAS's Vocational Education
program offered a course which was taken completely online via the UACN, ED
193/493: Using Electronic Mail in Vocational Education. The course quickly
outgrew its intended audience of vocational educators, and other versions
were developed by Dr. Seguin and myself and offered as a general education
course to anyone within certain guidelines: A 400 level course was offered to
certified teachers and administrators, and a 100 level course, requiring less
work, was open to everyone else. Though the course has evolved considerably,
it continues today administered by Outreach and the UAS Educational
Technology Program. In its many permutations has served over 400 students in
the last three years.
The Results
The course has succeeded largely without advertising and has received
almost entirely positive feedback from students. There are several logistical
and pedagogical reasons for this. The class is open-entry, open-exit, so
students don't need to plan taking it within the semester system. It is
performance-based, so students always have a good idea of how well they are
doing. Because the UACN can be accessed 24 hours a day, students can work
when their busy schedules allow. And because people learn privately, it tends
to diffuse a potentially threatening, (and in a group setting, embarrassing)
situation. For this reason, it appeals to a diverse student body whose
members would not ordinarily gather together for group instruction, such as
superintendents, teachers, and office personnel.
But ultimately the course works well because it offers an extremely
valuable service, particularly for remote educators. The course focuses on
those functions of the electronic mail system which are most popular and
useful for educators, including sending and receiving individual and group
mail, sending and receiving word processing files, using bulletin boards, and
helping users help themselves through the system's explain and help
functions. Educators find they suddenly have a tool that is immediately
useful in pursuing relationships with colleagues, resources, and students at
a distance that would otherwise simply not be possible. To many, electronic
mail is an end to isolation.
Inspirations
But email was more than helpful- it was inspirational. As part of the
course, students were asked to brainstorm ways to use electronic mail as
educators. Many of the ideas were fresh, exciting, such as:
-SCHOOL COUNSELORS wanted to use email to contact other counselors in
the state for insight and information in dealing with particular student
problems, especially as they related to counseling in remote areas.
-STATE EDUCATION OFFICIALS saw immediate use for it as a tool to keep
in closer contact with central office staff, key advisory groups,
legislators. They saw email shortening the lag time between requesting and
receiving information they needed in order to make statewide policy
decisions.
-MATH TEACHERS had creative ideas for the use of email, like the
creation of "Challenge Math," a contest which would post math problems and
collect answers via electronic mail. As a result of the email course, the
head of the statewide math consortium used email to send out audio conference
agenda and gather input from members.
-SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS envisioned using email with the deaf,
cerebral palsy victims, and people with other handicaps to reduce their
isolation and put them in better contact with special educational resources.
They also saw it as a promising administrative tool to be used to coordinate
special ed. efforts within districts, and to exchange critical medical data
with medical institutions much more efficiently.
-LIBRARIANS cited a number of reasons to use email, among them, to
expand "our pitifully small library," to significantly reduce the time and
paper work needed in inter-library loans, and to reduce the number of times
librarians in a district need to meet face-to-face to exchange information.
My first job as a telecommunications teacher was to train all of our local
school district's librarians to go online for just these purposes. When I
last checked, they were still active emailers and extremely appreciative of
the time, energy, and busy work that email spared them.
-BUSH TEACHERS wanting to take summer school recency courses saw using
email as a way to obtain guidance from university teachers about course
offerings to better enable them to plan their summers. Many remote teachers
noted that email could also be used to help compensate for the communication
lost due to the severe travel restrictions caused by falling state revenues.
Some commented that as a communication system for those trying to reach them
from outside the school (like parents), it was preferable to phoning, which
often interrupted their day. One teacher suggested creating an occupation
bulletin board to help students understand the employment opportunities
beyond their own communities.
-WRITING TEACHERS had a number of ideas for the use of email, such as
the creation of a creative writing bulletin board through which students
could share poetry, fiction, and essays on an informal basis, as well as in a
contest atmosphere. In addition, some wanted to pursue 'cultural awareness'
by having students email with other students around the state in order to
compare and contrast their communities and environments. One suggested a
writing project in which students create character sketches of email partners
they had never seen in order to determine how much of one's personality could
be revealed via electronic mail.
-SCIENCE TEACHERS saw joint statewide projects, such as animal
migration tracking and weather data collection. One suggested starting a
weather forecasting service for the state based upon student efforts.
-SOME TEACHERS SAW EMAIL AS A TOOL TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS within
THEIR SCHOOL. One commented that while individual attention was an
impossibility because of class size and diversity, email might be effective
for reaching some students because it adapted to the teacher's schedule.
Another saw it as a means for the distribution of lunch menus, quizzes and
legitimate note passing for students, as well as way to reduce the amount of
paper memos for staff.
Conclusion
Many of the suggestions for electronic mail's use fall within a few
categories: convenience of communication, equity of access to resources, new
styles of cooperative learning, more efficient administration, and increased
student motivation. While some students were ambivalent about electronic
mail's use in education, most saw it as extremely worthwhile and no one saw
it as useless. The most negative comments centered around very practical
matters such as the high cost of using email for remote communities without a
local node or AKNET access, unsympathetic administrators who do not
understand email's educational value and did not support the need for things
like modems and phone lines in a classroom, and the lack of support for email
at the state level as a bonafide instructional tool. Rural districts have at
least one ID on the UACN courtesy of the Dept. of Education, but quite often
it is used administratively rather than instructionally. More and more
teachers are realizing the power that email has, particularly in remote
areas, but claim they need their own IDs and administrative support to turn
that power into a classroom reality.
========
---- ITEM #10 ----
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
WHAT IS THE ONLINE JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
AND COMMUNICATION ?
[What follows is an excerpt from the first issue of the Journal.
Feel free to send suggestions to the editor.]
This first issue will be primarily concerned with the Journal
itself. Once we provide an idea of the Journal's identity and
direction, we hope you will contribute to this rapidly growing
field of education and communication.
THE MEDIUM
==========> We want short contributions, 4 screens maximum. Rather
than trying to compete with a paper-based magazine which does a much
better job of presenting long articles, we want contributions that
present overview information. Based upon information gleaned in
contributions, readers can directly contact the author for
more details.
THE MESSAGE
===========> The issues that the Journal is concerned with fall into
four basic content areas:
Content Area #1- *** Distance Education ***
The Journal is interested in distance education as the
organized method of reaching geographically disadvantaged
learners, whether K-12, post secondary, or general enrichment
students. Areas of interest include:
* delivery technologies,
* pedagogy,
* cross cultural issues implicit in wide area education
delivery,
* distance education projects that you are involved with,
* announcements, workshops, or programs of study,
* anything else regarding the theory and practice of
distance education.
Content Area #2- *** Distance Communications ***
The Journal recognizes that education encompasses a broad area
of experience and that distance education includes distance
communications that fall outside the domain of formal learning.
The Journal welcomes contributions that deal with serving people
at a distance who aren't necessarily associated with a learning
institution. The Journal welcomes information about, for
examples:
* public radio and television efforts to promote cultural
awareness,
* governmental efforts to inform a distant public about social
issues,
* or the many training programs run by private business to
upgrade employee skills.
Content Area #3- *** Telecommunications in Education ***
Once the distance education infrastructure is solidly in
place, local learners will want to tap into it, because they
simply prefer learning in a decentralized setting or because
they want to expand their learning opportunities and resources
beyond those immediately available to them. This phenomenon,
which we call 'bringing distance education home,' will grow in
the coming years and we look forward to hearing from people
about telecommunications in education, as a tool or a content
area.
Content Area #4- *** Cross Cultural Communication Efforts ***
--> Particularly Between the US and the USSR <--
The Journal is interested in projects concerned with
overcoming cultural barriers through the use of electronic
communication. The Journal particularly looks forward to
contributions concerning:
* efforts to improve electronic communication between the USSR
and the US
* international electronic conferences
* cultural domination through the inappropriate use of media
* the use of telecommunications to promote understanding of the
human condition
* * * * * * * * * *
To subscribe to The Online Journal of Distance Education and
Communication, send the following command to LISTSERV@UWAVM :
SUB DISTED your_full_name
All contributions should be sent to JADIST@ALASKA
Any other questions about DISTED can be sent to: Jason B. Ohler, Editor
JFJBO@ALASKA
or
Paul J. Coffin
JXPJC@ALASKA
Disclaimer: The above were the opinions of the individual contributors and
in no way reflect the views of the University of Alaska.
* * * * * * * * * ** *
***** End of the Online Journal of Distance Education & Communication *****
--
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