Below is a description of the January/February issue of The Technology
Source (http://horizon.unc.edu/ts). Please forward this announcement to
colleagues who are interested in using information technology tools more
effectively in educational organizations. Also, if you know of Web sites
that share our purpose, please suggest to their Webmasters that they link
to TS.
If you have an article in mind that would be appropriate for TS, or if you
know of a colleague who is doing state-of-the-art work in incorporating
information technology tools in educational organizations, please send me
a note.
Many thanks, and best wishes for 2000.
Jim
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James L. Morrison [log in to unmask]
Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall
Editor, On the Horizon UNC-Chapel Hill
http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500
Editor, The Technology Source Phone: 919 962-2517
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS Fax: 919 962-1693
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When educators and media commentators talk about online education, debate
often heats up over how to evaluate the new virtual universities cropping
up all over the World Wide Web. Steven Crow knows exactly what's at stake
in these debates: as executive director of the Commission on Institutions
of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and
Schools, he coordinates decisions about what should be taught where, and
how. In this issue, he shares his own view of the virtual university with
Technology Source readers.
The online MBA program at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland,
doesn't have much in common with its traditional peers--except, perhaps,
the corporate affiliations of its students. Heriot-Watt is fully
accredited in its region, and mega-corporations like AT&T, Disney, and
DuPont endorse its MBA program by offering reimbursements to their
employees for taking its courses. Yet Heriot-Watt requires no
undergraduate degree or GMAT exam for admission to its online courses, and
no exams or thesis for completion of the MBA degree. Fred Nickols offers
his commentary on this revolutionary program.
If you've ever wanted to attend an exciting-looking conference but just
couldn't get away to attend it, you'll appreciate hearing about Jim
Shimabukuro's online events. In this issue's first case study, Shimabukuro
tells about the Teaching in the Community Colleges (TCC) Online
Conferences he has organized for the past five years with colleague Bert
Kimura. Shimabukuro and Kimura have used e-mail, live chat, and other
technological tools to create online events with all the usual conference
features-from keynote addresses and research presentations to Web tours of
Hawaii and even a virtual cafe. They expect the 2000 event, like its
predecessors, to provide the excitement of a face-to-face conference with
the convenience of an online one.
The asynchronous learning network courses at the University of
Missouri-Columbia (MU) combine academic study with practical training.
When students enroll in these online courses, part of their work consists
of connecting with laboratories and local facilities to perform
experiments and gain hands-on experience in their local areas. To make
these field explorations enriching, MU educators have integrated video
materials, lab kits, field trips, local resources, and the World Wide Web
into their curricula. Deborah O'Bannon, Jill Scott, Margaret Gunderson,
and James Noble report on the challenges and rewards of this process in
our second case study.
After a critical reading of some recent articles in The Chronicle of
Higher Education, Gary Brown verbalizes a chilling thought: "In spite of
boasts and hopes from many quarters, the window of opportunity for
significant instructional change made possible by new technologies appears
to be closing." Brown differentiates between simply incorporating
technology and successfully using it to transform student thinking. As his
critique suggests, educators need to remain committed to developing
content and pedagogy as they employ technology, or education may be
supplanted by entertainment.
Mary Harrsch may have some answers to the questions raised by Gary Brown.
At the University of Oregon, a popular faculty and staff development
program trains faculty to use technology to address classic pedagogical
issues, such as ensuring that students come to class prepared, generating
in-class discussion, and getting shy students to participate. Faculty
choose from a week-long summer course option, a lunch-hour option, and
even a personal "housecall" option, all designed to show how technology
helps to solve existing problems, not create new ones.
Spotlight Site section editor Stephen Downes directs us toward The Masie
Center Web page, where founder Elliott Masie shares his view of technology
trends in the business and academic worlds. The Masie Center site features
a description of a new publication as well as past issues of Masie's
weekly e-mail newsletter Techlearn Trends, which includes the annual
December predictions Downes calls "a must-read for the technology
enthusiast." With abundant materials on a broad range of topics, the
Masie Center site appeals to professionals involved in many different
aspects of integrating technology.
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