Transcript of the live chat session that took place Thursday, February 26, 1998. These sessions are normally scheduled for 12 noon-1 PM Eastern Time (GMT -5) every Thursday.
These sessions are hosted by Richard Seltzer. If you would like to receive email reminders of our chat sessions, simply send a blank email message to businessonthewebchats-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/businessonthewebchats and sign up there.
For transcripts of previous sessions and a list of future topics, click here .
For an article on how to make "business chat" work (based on this experience), click here .
Since the chat itself happens at a rapid pace, it's often difficult to note interesting facts in particular URLs as they appear on-line. Here's a place to take a more leisurely look. I've rearranged some of the pieces to try to capture the various threads of discussion (which sometimes get lost in the rush of live chat).
Please send email with your follow-on questions and comments, and suggestions for topics we should focus on in future sessions. So long as the volume of email responses is manageable, I'll post the most pertinent ones here for all to see.
Pat -- i have some questions!! can anyone help me?
Pat -- is anyone interested in answering my questions for a really important project?
Mike Cosgrave -- what's the project pat?
Pat -- Mike, first question is how do i go about developing this project?? what do i look at and/or for??
Mike Cosgrave -- ok..hang on Pat..what is the project about? what is the aim...the product...
Richard Seltzer -- Pat -- Are you talking about a distance education project? If so, what are you trying to accomplish?
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Mike, Pat, Ken, Xianming, please introduce yourselves and let us know your interests. We want to continue our discussion about distance education/training -- this our record eighth week on that topic, which seems to keep growing.
Xianming Yuan -- Hi, I am a new comer. My name is Xianming Yuan, an instructional designer working @ IDX Systems Corporation located in Boston, MA. I have been wanting to participate this chat for several weeks, but couldn't make it. This is the first time I enter a chat room, probably like to watch and listen more than "chat".
Xianming Yuan -- I have been in the field of Educational media & Tech since 1985. A year ago I start to use Authorware/shockwave to develop WBT programs for our customer and am always interested in using other ed. tech for distance ed/training.
Mike Cosgrave -- It's my second time here..I lecture history in University College, Cork, Ireland...
Richard Seltzer -- Mike -- I didn't realize you were in Cork. Some ancestors of mine came from there -- Bogans. Some distant cousins are still there, including a Fred Bogan, who, I believe, is an undertaker.
Mike Cosgrave -- Yep, Richard, looking at Fred Bogan, undertaker in the phone book right now..only 2 bogans in the book!
Ken Merwin -- Ken Merwin from Wisconsin; missed last week but studied the archives. Currently coordinating a project to produce on-line "chat" etc. for all African countries as a part of "Global Learn Day II" & doing research on collaboration for the DE course I'm taking.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Marshall, glad you could join us again. Please introduce yourself for those who haven't "met" you before.
Marshall Wick -- I teach business administration courses (mostly law) at Gallaudet University in Washington D C All my courses have a web based component, and one has been taught 100% on line.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome Carole, Bob, and Mark. Please introduce yourselves.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Hello - All Bob in Texas here.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Diane, ChristianF and TJ. Please introduce yourselves and let us know your interests.
ChristianF -- Hi, my name is Christian Frosch, I'm working as secretary for the Globewide Network Academy.
Carole Soule -- I am currently working for Digital Equipment Corporation but have been involved in Distance Education since 1990
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, SteveRies, Rose Kimberley, and lynn lee. Please introduce yourselves and let us know your interests.
SteveRies -- Hello. Steve Ries here.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Sally Szydlo. Please introduce yourself and let us know your interests.
Diane -- Diane at Texas A&M University - looking for a dissertation topic and help in setting up chat room for distributor association.
Marilyn Ellis -- Hello, Marilyn Ellis Checking in. My class is not meeting today!
Rose Kimberley -- Rose Kimberley here. I work for the Army Reserve Readiness Training Center at Ft. McCoy, WI. I'm interested in knowing if anyone has experiemented with Advisor 2.0
Ken Merwin -- Hi Rose; we're almost neighbors...I live near Portage, WI. Saw your questions on DEOS (I think), no familiarity with the package so can't help but wanted to send a greeting.
Rose Kimberley -- Ken: Thanks for the courtesy message. I was on this chat last week and posed the question and wondered if I was being ignored. Now I know differently! Hi, neighbor!
jyanes -- Hello, what is the topic?
Richard Seltzer -- jyanes -- We're talking about distance education and training. That's a rather broad topic -- ranging from programs in public schools and colleges, to startup businesses offering courses for credit and non-credit over the Internet, and all the people stuff and technology to make such projects successful.
Richard Seltzer -- All -- We have lots of folks connected now. And a few good questions pending. Just grab a thread that interests you and follow it. With this many folks, there's no way I'll be able to directly respond to all. But there are plenty of knowledgeable people on-line now, so we should be able to run with several separate threads going simultaneously. Afterward, as usual, I'll edit and post the transcript, trying to put the pieces back together in a more intelligible form.
lynn lee -- Hi all - Lynn here. Interested in distance/distributed learning for many years as a designer of corporate training programs. I'm at work, so my participation may be intermittent.
Shane -- Hi..
Richard Seltzer -- Hi, Shane and Joel, please introduce yourselves and let us know your interests. Then grab a thread of discussion and run with it -- adding your two cents. We have a lot of folks connected right now.
Marshall Wick -- Yes Ken, i did get it. Coombs is a blind professor at RIT where I taught almost a generation ago!
Ken Merwin -- Marshall: Yes, I recall Prof. Norm Coombs as the name. To be honest the issues covered under his portion of the program are issues I know so little about other than the obvious access issues to facilities covered under ADA...an important area of discussion.
Marshall Wick -- Norm Coombs gives online workshops on accessibility issues through an organization affiliated with the American Association of Higher Education. If any of you want the URL for his association, i can send it on to Richard.
[afterthought -- Richard Seltzer -- Coombs is also the author of The Black Experience in America. The full text of that book is available on the Internet for free.]
Richard Seltzer -- Ken -- I included your message about the call for papers for Global Learn Day as a followup message with the transcript. Do you want to say something more about what you mean by "papers" in this context? Is there going to be a physical event? Or is it all a virtual event, with papers just posted on the Web?
Ken Merwin -- Richard: Thanks for posting the call for papers. It will be totally on-line covering the entire Columbus Day weekend; a combination of web site for the papers, some chat, lots of streaming audio/video. I'm somewhat the "newbie" but it's a great learning experience.
Have any of you heard of this project? Does this compete directly with Western GovernorsUniversity (which many of you have mentioned in the past)? I thought that Western Governors had California (and the rest of the western states) all signed up. Am I missing something?
ChristianF -- CVU is separate from WGU. So far both projects are still in process of setting things up.
Marshall Wick -- CVU covers California institutions. WGU covers a number of western states (offhand i believe it is 8 of them) of which CA is one but indeed they are different projects which will eventually tie in one way or another, i believe.
Richard Seltzer -- Marshall -- Thanks for the explanation. Do you have any idea how far along those projects are? I gather that Western Governors still doesn't have a Web site, but it looks like this California project does. Do you have any idea of the time frame of when the one or the other will actually offer courses?
Marshall Wick -- Richard, Western Governors University does have a web page. The WGU is not going to actually offer courses, they are coordinating the deveopment and implementation of a consortium of state endeavors where any university that wishes to can use courses in other universities in the variouis states as part of their own online degree.
Carole Soule -- Christian, what does the Globewide Network Academy do?
ChristianF -- The Globewide Network Academy (GNA) is/was the first virtual organisation on the web. We are pretty much into Distance Education. Currently we are providing cataloging services to online educators and educational institutions. Our online catalog currently lists more than 15,000 courses and programs.
Richard Seltzer -- ChristianF -- Can you tell us more about how GNA works? Do you just list courses or do you also organize and conduct some? And those that you list -- is there a charge for the listing? And do you do any quality review? And are the courses on your list a mix of credit and non-credit? And are there particular subjects that you specialize in?
ChristianF -- to Carole: With other chat systems like MOOs, you can get very reasonable online interaction. We have been doing a number of courses in the field of biology which entirely on the Internet.
Marshall Wick -- Carole if you define distant education as any time, any place, you are right, required chats do not fit in to that. We treat chats in different ways: one it can be an option for those who wish it. If chat logs are available after a chat, those who do not wish to be time bound can still join in on the discussion. I use chat strictly as a means of establishing a collaborative environment where there is more of a human factor than in using asynchronous forums (the real 'meat' of an online course. Chats help one form a 'community'. Witness here where we add personal touches to stuff we write.
Ken Merwin -- Marshall - I think chat can benefit a class; but agree it needs to be somewhat optional if your class is truely world-wide. The class I'm taking right now has students abroad (Japan, Pakistan, Kenya, etc.) as well as US; virtually no way a "required" chat could work.
jyanes -- We initiated a MOO which has private areas for faculty communal areas for students etc. - too new to comment about effectiveness
Richard Seltzer -- Re: distance ed as being anywhere/anytime (I missed the beginning of that thread). I think of it more as anywhere. Hence "distance." Anytime may or may not be part of it -- in some instance a live element (face-to-face, chat, or video) is an important piece of the overall mix. I wouldn't want to go with too rigid a definition. I feel that much of the power of this comes from the flexibility to interact with people in a variety of ways.
Marshall Wick -- Richard, I agree with you on keeping definition flexible. My courses are not anytime, they are more flextime. Students do not need to be online at a specific time but they must complete assignments during a specific time frame (that is they can contribute anytime with in a 2 or 3 day time frame so others can benefit from the collaboration.
Carole Soule -- Marshall, good point about completing assignments in a specific time frame is critical to DE success.
Carole Soule -- Ken, Marilyn, Except for the "community feeling" chat sessions generate, it doesn't seem that they add to content. Well-designed e-mail/list serv systems seem to be the basis for real learning.
ChristianF -- besides this we had course material mounted at web sites and e-mail/mailing list discussions. Students were required to read the material prior to the lecture and session.
Richard Seltzer -- ChristianF -- I've never seen MOO used for a course. Is there a URL or other kind of address I could go to to get a sense of how that works and how it feels?
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Christian, I visited a MOO one time and was a little confused, It looked like an adventure word game. Can you briefly explain how a MOO is used for education ?
ChristianF -- MOO systems use a virtual system, where users can create their own objects including rooms. So you can set up classrooms and put in material like a slie projector to display text slides. Also, it is possible to have VRML which allows for moving through the system
ChristianF -- Since for many courses there users from all over the world, there is now a special forum, which connects 20 MOO systems around the world. Thus, a students can connect to a MOO that is physically close to him and can participate in online classes.
Mike Cosgrave -- Carole, oddly enough, I found Athena advertsing on Ireland on Line; when I read their online material, they still seemed to be in the startup pahse (that was about a year ago)
Marshall Wick -- Mike, the U of Phoenix is well respected here in the USA even if it is a profit making venture.
Ken Merwin -- Marilyn: What type of class are you teaching? I'd be pleased to react since I'm currently taking an excellent class (totally internet-based) and intereact with the Instructor quite a bit on the course direction, etc.
Marilyn Ellis -- Ken, I am teaching Data Communications and Networks. It is primarily Internet and email driven. We do have on campus testing, and I do phone students once a week. I have established a chat room for students, but this is very recent, and do not know yet how much they are using it.
Marshall Wick -- Marilyn, a tip there.... you need to join in on some chats initially and get things moving.... once the momentum is there, the students can take over it..... I know a lot of time is spent on idle chat in them but that is the idea in getting students to know each other and feel comfortable sharing.
Marilyn Ellis -- Marshall, Just before I checked in here, I sent an email to an email penpal of mine who is in Egypt, and invited him to participate. I wish I had thought of this sooner. He and I had an occasion to chat for the first time just two days ago, and a third party came on who was in New Zealand, so i personally think Chat could be a worldwide pursuit if the parties have access to a home computer, and know what time to participate.
Mike Cosgrave -- Marilyn, in F2f small group tutorials here in UCC, we start the first session with a round of introductions - -sometimes we get them to pair off and after 5 mins each person introduces their partner to the group partly this build group interaction but also it gets them talking
Marilyn Ellis -- Mike, Thank you. I did not know that, and i do not have a partner.
Marshall Wick -- Marilyn, I agree that it could be world wide assuming that someone would be willing to be up at ungodly hours for it....there is a 14 hour difference, for example between the East Coast USA and Japan/Australia. It is no longer distance that is a barrier, it is time zones.
Marilyn Ellis -- Marshall, thanks for the information. Students got an initial online introduction on Nicenet nearly a month ago. while it was not real time, it was a chance for them to post things about themselves. The chat room I did set up particularly for them to discuss projects.
Ken Merwin -- Marilyn: I'll visit your website; that is a subject I could benefit from. I note Marshall's comments re: chat. The course I'm taking does not use chat but several of us are exploring collaboration platforms and that has real potential. Course platform is e-mail/list serv and a very well organized web site and the Instructor spends a lot of time responding to most e-mails; a very personal touch.
Marilyn Ellis -- Ken, Exploring the website I have posted will not help you. The site I use for class is http://www.nicenet.net, not one of my personal websites (for which I am webmaster). The reason that my students have chat is two of my three sites have an easily accessible chat feature, so it was easy for me to set them up. It is a little complicated, but i can provide you with the URL if you want to visit.
Ken Merwin -- Marilyn: Yes, I would love to visit if you can provide the URL. I'm trying to "fast track" my own education in this area and find it interesting to look at good models out there. All my reading shows that successful DE courses, regardless of platform (bells & whistles or more text, etc.) evolve with a lot of input from students (role of teacher sure changes, doesn't it?) and others.
Marilyn Ellis -- Diane, I have set up a chat room for my students. I am primarily using email and Nicenet for communications. We meet on test day on campus and that is about it at this point.
Diane -- Has anyone used a chat room for sales training?
Marilyn Ellis -- Lynn, I majored in Training and Development, and just received my Masters in that. Can you tell me a little about corporate online training?
lynn lee -- Marilyn, "corporate online training" is a pretty big topic to say a little about. I guess I'd say that it's been happening informally for a long time and now appears to be evolving into a major business. Major corporations are starting online universities for their employees.
Richard Seltzer -- Lynn, what company do you work for? What kind of content have you been dealing with in your training programs? And does this content make it difficult or easy to use the Internet for delivery and interaction?
Richard Seltzer -- Lynn -- Since you are dealing with a corporate environment, are you able to use any of the new bells and whistles? In other words, does everybody have a high bandwidth connection and do they have audio/video capability? Or, like most of the rest of the world, are you still limited to typing text?
lynn lee -- Richard, I'm an independent instructional design consultant. I'm currently on a project for an insurance company that's rolling out some new internal software applications for its sales, service, and claims employees. Initial training will be instructor led, with a web-based overview. "Steady-state" training will be web-based with CD-based practice scenarios. Because I've been working mainly in high-tech for the last dozen years (8 of them at Digital), most of the content I deal with is related to computer technology in some way. Web delivery makes a lot of sense.
Marilyn Ellis -- Lynn, Can you give an example of an online corporate university?
lynn lee -- Marilyn, I'm not on my home computer, so I don't have access to my files on online universities. But a few that come to mind are Sun, Motorola (I think), HP. Many of the high-tech companies will probably be in the forefront. Another development that interests me a lot is web-based knowledge bases and performance support environments that allow employees to capture their learning and share their expertise. Some of the large consulting companies have been developing these.
Mike Cosgrave -- Lynn, when you are at your home computer, URLs for some of those online universities you mentioned would be nice to have attached to the transcript!
Richard Seltzer -- SteveRies -- Which state are you doing that for? How big is the project?
SteveRies -- to Richard : Missouri - it's called the Missouri State Court Automation project and represents training about 2500 judges and judicial employees in various new automated systems. We also have a support system in place and plans for ongoing re-training and new hire training.
Richard Seltzer -- SteveRies -- do you have a particular reason for considering Lotus for that project? do the folks involved already have experience with such a system? (I'm inclined toward AltaVista WebForum for such a purpose; but, then, I'm not familiar with the Lotus product).
SteveRies -- to Richard S. (please excuse if this gets posted twice) Our intranet currently uses a Domino server and it based on Lotus Notes. By the end of the roll out of the project, each judicial employee will have Lotus Notes on their desktop. Because of the number of licenses purchased, we have a pretty good support relationship with Lotus and have received information regarding LearningSpace from time to time. My thought was that, since our intranet is based on Notes, our conferencing software could be more seamlessly integrated into our training if it was a Lotus product. What do you all think?
Marshall Wick -- Steve, I use Lotus Domino for my classes too. It is widely used in the corporate world as Lotus Notes. It is very powerful and i find it much better than a listserv. Rose, one other use of chat is to make announcements or give reminders.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Mike -I read about it online in one of the industry ezines. I'll see if the link is stll active. Also try IBM's web site.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Mike - Laptops for Kids can be found at http://www.toshiba.com/tais/csd/products/education
Mike Cosgrave -- Thanks Bob.
Richard Seltzer -- RE: audio/video, I understand that a number of colleges are now requiring students to purchase laptops. Do you know if any are requiring that the laptops be multi-media? If so, that would begin to create the infrastructure necessary for the audio/video part of distance ed to take off. If not, it could be 3-5 years before we get there.
Marshall Wick -- Someone asked about laptops.... there is a compilation of Universities around the world that require them... will have to pick up the URL for that too. Lots of info exchanged on here!
Mike Cosgrave -- Oh yes please Marshall..I'd really like to push that idea required laptops idea here on our campus, that info would be a great help
Richard Seltzer -- Shane -- I don't think we have to wait for INTERNET 2. Compression makes it possible to do amazing things already over modem-type connections, if you have a fast processor. And I expect to see more such progress. (And I'm also looking forward to getting a cable-modem connection when the cable company finally offers that in this neighborhood.) The problem isn't the lines so much as the fact that so few people today have audio-video capable hardware and software.
Marilyn Ellis -- Richard, what do you mean by a fast processor, like a pentium chip? or is this something modem-related (please excuse my ignorance).
Richard Seltzer -- Marilyn -- I mean the processor -- yes, Pentium -- 100 MHz minimum, but the bar keeps getting raised. The processor in your PC is doing lots of work with compression and decompressions making it so you can get ever more lifelike results with a slow connection.
Ken Merwin -- Yes, Cu-SeeMe video: a couple of weeks ago I "lurked" on a program on elephants from National Zoo; everytime an elephant moved the video scrambled big-time. Audio was ok. I think the product has merit, though but one has to know what the downside is or you'll be very disappointed.
Rose Kimberley -- Ken: I've heard of CU-SEE-ME. Isn't it a lot like Netmeeting? We've experimented here with the latter. I have a matrix sent to me from someone on DEOS on choosing authoring tools.
Ken Merwin -- Rose: I am currently looking at several collaboration tools (Cu-SeeMe, etc.); I will make it a point to look at the package you note. My focus is on those that are "cross platform" (Mac, Windows, Unix shell account)...also useful in low to mid-bandwidth environments as my interest area is "developing" country applications. Why Cu-SeeMe? Good question...
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Ken - I believe that Netmeeting requires a server, but CUSeeme can be point to point with anyone using the software.
Ken Merwin -- Bob: Yes, Cu-SeeMe can go one on one; I'd love to try a session with someone now that I've got my new system up & running. No video, yet...but a good sound card. I do have the White Pines version, not Cornell.
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- I'm a bit confused by CUSeeMe. I believe that you need to go through a "reflector" site. Maybe that is different from a "server," but it means that I can only carry on my conversation/video session if there is a reflector available and with capacity to handle me and the folks I want to connect with and that is will to have my kind of traffic go through their site. If I were going to use that software for a course, I would want to be sure to have dedicated capability available. Hence wouldn't I have to set up my own "relector"? And what would that entail? (Pardon my ignorance. I'd really like to better understand what is needed.)
Ken Merwin -- Richard: There is an educational reflector site that I believe one can reserve reflector time but I'd have to look up the URL. I had a web site bookmarked that had all sorts of reflector IP addresses but it's still over on my "crashed" system...I also have a new system that has a video card that I should be able to plug my Sony videocam into but haven't tried it out yet.
Marilyn Ellis -- All, can anyone give a URL for visiting a CU-SEE-ME site?
Ken Merwin -- Marilyn: I've spent quite a bit of time looking at "Cu-SeeMe"; audio & video (two way, at least) need good bandwidth; lacking a good connection you do get "chat". I am still looking at the whiteboard capability. One question, of course, is the computer/software/modem speeds required of the students? I can post some good URL's I've found after chat...Ken
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Ken - please do post. Richard will add them to the transcript.
Marilyn Ellis -- Ken, yes please post the URLs. thanks
Shane -- I had some experience with the POW WOW for Class interaction. It went very well.. One of the biggest problems I have found with online training is to keep focused on the task at hand...
Rose Kimberley -- Richard: Masie's site is http://www.masie.com
Rose Kimberley -- The reason I ask of familiarity with Masie is that he talks of ensuring there is audio capability in addition to email chat in areas where there might be confusion among the students. This makes a lot of sense to me. Any comments?
Marshall Wick -- Rose, i tried to get into your Home Page but the URL you gave is apparently wrong. Can you give us it again please.
Rose Kimberley -- Marshall: I asked co-workers again. http://www.masie.com is the right address.
Marshall Wick -- Rose, I meant YOUR home page, not Masie's
Marshall Wick -- Rose, I am not familiar with Masie, do tell us more about him.
Rose Kimberley -- Marshall, Richard and others: Eliot Masie is a guru in training, a technology futurist, and very prominent in the field. We're following his work closely. He often gives audio and video conferences. He is definitely worth pursuing for anyone in the distance learning arena!
Ken Merwin -- Rose: I get Eliot Massie's "free" e-mail report and am looking at one of his training programs coming up in Chicago. He has an interesting web site. BTW - I see the Mauston campus administrator job just opened up; that's close to your location.
Richard Seltzer -- Rose -- it isn't easy managing audio in chat when there are lots of folks connected, unless you have special software to help in the management. A few months ago, we did an experiment using the platform at http://www.placeware.com It felt promising, but was really demanding in terms of the high level of equipment that everybody had to have to make it work.
Rose Kimberley -- Mike: The audio would be an alternative means used between instructor and student to preclude confusion. You don't see the need?
Mike Cosgrave -- No, Rose, well.. at least not in a group situation.. too hard to keep everything going.. I'd hate to try and mange it all as an instructor
Richard Seltzer -- Rose -- I see that there is benefit to adding audio and video to the mix, because then I can multiplex and juggle some more, and keep track of more threads at the same time. But I don't see them as eliminating any confusion. What's the confusion you were trying to eliminate in the first place?
Marshall Wick -- Rose the more tools one uses (like including audio/video, etc.) the better as long as they do not over confuse/complicate the users with the need to download clients, plug-ins, etc. Javachat, for example, does not require any client on the user end.
Rose Kimberley -- Marshall: Interesting comment. However, we in the military deal with varied technology on the user end as it is.
Marilyn Ellis -- Rose and Mike, I am intrigued with the idea of audio, and even video, with those tiny little cameras that mount on top of the computer, but am certainly not equipped for either. Any suggestions?
Marilyn Ellis -- Richard, this is akin to the course I took in the Scate room at UH, where all of us students learned how to use the SCATE equipment, but this is a huge, expensive operation compared to having access to audio/video at home for DL students.
Marilyn Ellis -- To all, does anyone have a simple audio/video system up? How do you set one up?
Richard Seltzer -- Marilyn -- a few months ago, I spent the bucks to upgrade my system so I can do neat audio and video things. But I have yet to find something compelling that I need that capability for. Yes, I could videophone etc., but the folks that I normally communicate with can't. It's like having a telephone, but being the only person around who has one.
Richard Seltzer -- All -- please send me email with your followup messages -- all the things you wanted to say but didn't get a chance to. seltzer@samizdat.com I'll add such messages to the transcript.
Richard Seltzer -- All -- thanks very much for joining us. Hope you can come again next Thursday. Please spread the word. (And those of you who have referenced resources out on the Web, please send email with the URLs so I can add that info to the transcript.)
Marshall Wick -- Marshall Wick emwick@gallaudet.edu http://www.gallaudet.edu/~emwick signing off for another week. Glad to be here with you all and Richard, thanks once again for your work on organizing this and doing the editing and archiving each week.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Once
again - Enjoyed it ! Bob Zwick bob@cottagemicro.com Cottage Micro Services
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Marilyn Ellis -- To Richard and Bob, Enjoyed it very much, may be some time before I can tune in again. Marilyn
Carole Soule -- Carole Soule carole.soule@digital.com See you all next week!
Marilyn Ellis -- my email: mellis@bayou.uh.edu
ChristianF -- It was an interesting meeting. Christian Frosch, Globewide Network Academy, Secretary E-mail: secretary@gnacademy.org http://www.gnacademy.org
Diane -- Folks, Enjoyed it See you next week!
Rose Kimberley-- KimberleyRM@arrtc.mccoy.army.mil
Ken Merwin -- Next Thursday - Ken Merwin, Wisconsin kmgraduw@centuryinter.net
Mike Cosgrave -- m.cosgrave@ucc.ie see you all again...
Mike Cosgrave -- Oh and on the subject of stuff on the web, although it isn't strictly related to DE, we have a new Online ejournal of history being launched Monday - you can see it at http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/chronicon/
Rose Kimberley -- Thanks all for making me feel a part of the chat and for being patient with my undeveloped skills at this! See you next week if possible. . .
Marilyn Ellis -- Thanks, Richard, please keep me on the mailing list. i really enjoyed it. In about a week i am going to have a URL of my own setup maybe I can install a chat room for further distance learning chats there. What do you think?
Richard, since you had questions about WGU and CVU, I thought you might find this of interest.
Lynn Elena Lee, Instructional Design Consultant & Principal, Lilac Learning Technologies, http://www.ultranet.com/~airedale/Lynnlee.html
>Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:01:27 -0500
>Reply-To: <morrison@unc.edu>
>From: "James L. Morrison" <morrison@unc.edu>
>To: "horizonlist" <horizon@listserv.oit.unc.edu>
>The announcement below describes the November-December issue of On the Horizon, which focuses on distance/virtual education. On March 20, 1998 we will have a netmeeting to discuss the implications of virtual universities for the future of higher education. We invite your participation. Details on how to download and use NetMeeting software are on the Horizon Web site <http://horizon.unc.edu>. Details on how to access the November-December
>issue are found at the conclusion of the summary below.
> SUMMARY
>Below is a summary of the November/December 1997 issue of On the Horizon <http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon/online/html/5/6/>
>Money, Technology, and Distance Education
>Kenneth C. Green
>Green notes that many institutions are rushing into the distance education (DE) market because they think that they will find gold there. He argues, however, that only when they view DE as a fully capitalized business will they begin to understand the options and opportunities for them. And they must be able to respond to the question: what happens if (or when?) Disney, Dreamworks, or Microsoft enters the market.
>New Higher Education Trends Reflected in the Design of the Western Governors University
>Sally M. Johnstone and Dennis Jones
>Johnstone and Jones describe the design of the Western Governors University, which reflects the evolution of higher education as it accommodates and takes advantage of a rapidly changing technological environment. They point out the faculty reward structure at WGU will place greater emphasis on activities for which faculty have unique competence--curriculum design andmaterials development.
>California Higher Education Extends Its Reach
>Diane Vines, Barbara Thorpe, and Robert Threlkeld
Vines, Thorpe, and Threlkeld, in describing the origins and structure of the California Virtual University, note that the purpose of CVU is to prepare the California workforce, promote economic development, expand access within California to postsecondary education, and promotes the global export of California education and training.
>The Significance of Virtual Universities
>Donald M. Norris
>Norris notes that the virtual university movement may be decisively important to the future of knowledge age learning and will be a significant lens for focusing political pressure and reallocating resources in public higher education.
>Enhancing On the Horizon
>James L. Morrison
>Morrison describes OTH On-Line, the electronic edition of On the Horizon. Subscribers now have access to all issues published since the preview issue in 1992. Moreover, they can review and comment on drafts submitted for publication consideration as well as participate in scheduled netmeetings with authors. The online version of the issue described above is found at <http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon/online/html/5/6/>, one of the pages in OTH On-Line. If you are not a subscriber to OTH On-Line, you may gain entrance to the page for a 60-day free trial period by completing the requested subscription information on the page. Note that institutional on-line subscribtions allow everyone within the same Internet domain access to OTH On-Line. Please forward this note to your organizational librarian.
>James L. Morrison, morrison@unc.edu, Professor of Educational Leadership, The University of North Carolina
After reading last week's archives I can see that the Thursday "chat" is one of those "must do" activities, taking precedence over virtually everything!
One question I'm going to pose tomorrow, if appropriate, is how someone in my situation (no Master's yet, approximately a year's immersion in mail lists, the "global knowledge forums, a course I'm taking right now via the 'Net, etc.) can get into some "paying" activity even on a part-time basis.
My instructor in the course I'm currently taking talked to me at length this past weekend; she'd like to work me into an expansion of her course starting this summer but also needs to try a "creative" approach since I don't have a Master's but feels I'm making a positive contribution to the course, etc. She reads your "archives" weekly but hasn't jumped into the chat just yet.
She considers me, as one of the "older" class members, to have the patience/interest in the issues of other class members; also appreciates my more concise writing style.
In fact she quickly checked your "hyperbio" and noticed you do have a Masters; this when I mentioned you noting your involvement with the Nova program as a mentor.
I realize this is an issue that may or may not be appropriate for the open "chat", although I noticed some discussion on how to get paid for the efforts.
Appreciate any feedback - catch you tomorrow.
Ken Merwin, Wisconsin
Richard, thought this might be of interest
John Watkins
>Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 13:06:31 -0600
>From: Gleason Sackman <gleason@rrnet.com>
>Subject: LISTS> The Virtual Community Mailing List
>Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:59:34 -0600 (CST)
>From: "S. Kritikos" <napoli@wwa.com>
>I would like to let you know that a mailing list has been set up for people interested in Virtual Communities.
>With the spread of Internet new social groups are formed around technologies such as:
* USENET groups
* mailing lists
* Multi User Domains
* Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels
* WWW sites
* community networks
>The purpose of our mailing list is to bring together people who:
* participate in online communities,
* are involved in their design or anticipate doing so in the future,
* interested in the theory about virtual communities,
* try to assess various technologies that make them possible,
* or are concerned about the social implications of online life.
>In short if your are interested in virtual communities this is the list to be on!
>To join the Virtual Community Mailing List, please send email to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
with message:
subscribe gna-vc [first name] [last name]
>where [first name] and [last name] are your names. The listserv will then email you back asking for confirmation.
>More information about the list is available at:
http://www.gnacademy.org:8001/uu-gna/text/vc/gna-vc.html
>The Virtual Community Mailing List is sponsored by the Globewide Network Academy (http://www.gnacademy.org:8001/uu-gna) and St Johns University (http://www.stjohns.edu).
>Regards
>S. Kritikos
http://207.33.42.186/bfranklin/ednews.cgi
My manager just forwarded this to me. It looks interesting. http://www.witi.org/Techctr/Learning/
Nice discussion last week. I look forward to this week's chat session.
Carole
While reading the transcript of last week I realized that I unfortunately, did not address your questions about the GNA. It's due to the fact that I used the non-frame version of the chat last week, so your questions probably scrolled off the screen. I am going to be at the meeting today (with frames enabled :-). I have included my responses to your requeusts below:
>Richard Seltzer -- ChristianF -- I just got an email from John Watkins of Simple Society about a Virtual Community listserv that is just starting up. If I remember correctly, Globewide Network Academy is one of the sponsors of that. Can you tell us something about it? the purposes, the content, how to sign up, the relation to distance ed.
Yes, there is a Virtual Community Workshop home page at http://admin.gnacademy.org:8001/./~napoli/VC/vcw.html The workshop was run at the beginning of 1997 and is now continued via a mailing list gna-vc http://uu-gna.mit.edu:8001/uu-gna/text/vc/gna-vc.html
"The Virtual Community Mailing List (gna-vc) was established in 1996 as a forum for discussion and news about online life, the technologies that support it, and their effects."
The information for subscribing to the list is available via that page, too.
>Richard Seltzer -- ChristianF -- Can you tell us more about how GNA works? Do you just list courses or do you also organize and conduct some? And those that you list -- is there a charge for the listing? And do you do any quality review? And are the courses on your list a mix of credit and non-credit? And are there particular >subjects that you specialize in?
Currently we are providing cataloging services for educational institutions, which means that we tailor catalogs to the needs of an institution which can then be used to list all of their courses and make them available online. The courses can be linked to registration forms which then put the information into a registration database. Besides this we maintain the Online Distance Education Catalog (ODEC) which currently lists more than 15,000 courses and programs from over 400 institutions. Every institution can list its programs and courses in the catalog at no charge and can update the information in the catalog 24 hours a day. There is no preference for specific subjects, but the courses should be available online or as correspondence courses.
Institutions that grant credits or degrees for their programs need to be accredited to have their courses listed, but non-accredited schools can list their courses also. The accreditation info is displayed with the school entry.
Currently we do not offer courses but most of the GNA personnel have been actively involved with the setup and delivery of online courses as educators. At the moment we are sponsoring a Virtual Information Technology College (VITC), which is already offering courses.
ChristianF, Globewide Network Academy, Secretary, E-mail: secretary@gnacademy.org,http://www.gnacademy.org
PS -- A link where you could see a MOO environment is http://moo.du.org:8888
hi Richard... here are some URLs i said i would get you:
Western Governors University Home Page http://www.westgov.org/smart/vu/vu.html
Western Governors University Project Information http://www.wiche.edu/Telecom/projects/projwgu.htm
Comprehensive listing/links of Universities and Colleges with Laptop/Notebook requirements: http://www.vcsu.nodak.edu/offices/itc/notebooks/other.htm
cheers!
marshall
Previous transcripts and schedule of upcoming chats -- www.samizdat.com/chat.html
To connect to the chat room, go to www.samizdat.com/chat-intro.html
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