Below is a description of the September/October 2001 issue of
The Technology Source, a free, refereed, e-journal at
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=issue&id=44
If you want to write a letter to the editor in response to an
article, please use one of our interaction options
("discuss"); your comments will then be posted to the
Technology Source Discussion Forum
(http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=discussion ).
Please forward this announcement to colleagues who are
interested in using information technology tools more
effectively in their work.
As always, we seek illuminating articles that will assist
educators as they face the challenge of integrating
information technology tools in teaching and in managing
educational organizations. Please review our call for
manuscripts at http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=call
and send me a note if you would like to contribute such an
article.
Many thanks.
Jim
--
James L. Morrison [log in to unmask]
Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall
Editor, The Technology Source UNC-Chapel Hill
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500
Editor Emeritus, On the Horizon Phone: 919 962-2517
http://www.camfordpublishing.com Fax: 919 962-1693
IN THIS ISSUE:
Editor James Morrison forecasts that when historians look back
at higher education in the year 2050, they may well view the
advent of virtual universities as having had as great an
impact on American higher education as did the land grant act
of 1864 and the GI Bill. Michigan Virtual University's dynamic
president, David Spencer, adds credence to this forecast as he
describes the programs and projects that MVU has already
implemented since its founding in 1998.
Wallace Hannum provides an account of the Carolina On-Line
Teachers (COLT) program, a professional development program
recently created by the University of North Carolina School of
Education. The COLT program gives K-12 teachers the chance to
cultivate their skills in Internet-based instruction, to
develop their own online courses, and to serve as mentors for
future participants in the program. While in its inaugural
year COLT faced obstacles--software challenges, difficulty in
establishing group projects, and time constraints for both
coordinators and participants--the program, Hannum asserts,
promises to have a long-ranging impact on North Carolina
education as a whole.
Offering a vantage point from within the school system of
Victoria, Australia, David Gurr discusses his interviews with
21 school principals regarding the effect of information and
communication technology (ICT) on their schools. In his
commentary Gurr underscores three main issues for principals:
their own need to develop the technical skills to use ICT; the
qualitative transformation of their daily work experience; and
the impact of ICT on the teaching and learning environment of
their schools.
In their commentary, Stephen Ruth and Jiwan Giri stress the
need for an effective, two-dimensional field model for
comparing distance-learning programs, and propose a model of
their own. Through this model, one may chart a given program
through two variables that designate the roles of
instructional technology ("tech") and personal interaction
with the instructor ("touch"). Ruth and Giri generate nine
categories based on these variables, defining each category
and providing examples of institutions that fall under each
category. They propose that their model may not only be
helpful to researchers, but also to administrators who want to
make gradual, cost-effective changes in the structure of their
programs.
In a commentary on the role of technology in education reform,
Frederick Bennett attempts to diagnose the limited results of
recent initiatives: why has the computerized classroom not
resulted in higher test scores for K-12 students? The problem
does not lie in teacher training, Bennett suggests, but rather
in how schools integrate--or fail to integrate--such
technology with pedagogical practice.
In our fourth commentary, Linda Peters provides a frank
overview of the various factors underlying student perceptions
of online learning. Such perceptions, she observes, are not
only informed by the student's individual situation (varying
levels of computer access, for instance) but also by the
student's individual characteristics: the student's
proficiency with computers, the student's desire for
interpersonal contact, or the student's ability to remain
self-motivated.
Mary Harrsch provides a case study of her work using streaming
audio to broadcast a series of radio interviews with education
experts over the Internet. Looking back on the project,
Harrsch outlines the technical problems that she faced, many
of which involved an incompatibility between RealMedia and a
range of computer platforms. While such problems undermined
the goal of providing a real-time broadcast, the project
achieved its fundamental goal: reaching out to a larger
community of educators, both within the state as well as on a
national level.
In his assessment discussion, Tom Henderson provides an
account of his use of a classroom assessment technique (CAT)
for a distance learning course, as well as a helpful outline
of CATs for online instructors. While Henderson notes some
crucial differences between classroom assessment in
traditional and distance learning environments, he also notes
that they share common criteria for success: careful planning,
targeted questions, and a timely response by the instructor.
In his review of our Spotlight Site, Ed Fernandez offers an
introduction to the Learning Support Centers in Higher
Education (LSCHE) web portal. While still in development, the
LSCHE portal offers a spectrum of tools: access to learning
support research, discussion of terminology relating to
"learning support centers," links to resources for learning
assistance and distance learning, and information regarding
employment opportunities. Such features, Fernandez claims, not
only provide learning assistance experts with a valuable tool
in their duties, but also represent another step forward in
defining this professional field.
In our first letter to the editor, Midi Cox offers an
introduction to the fifth annual installment of Global Learn
Day, a continuous, 24-hour education conference that will be
offered online. Through a combination of real time webcasts,
radio broadcasts, and telecenters, this interactive conference
will feature a range of professionals, all of whom will
address the many ways in which e-learning has served to
revolutionize access to education around the world. With a
projected 7,000 participants from more than 200 countries, as
well as a projected audience of more than 500,000, Global
Learn Day will remain devoted to offering "a convincing
demonstration of affordable, accessible education, worldwide."
In our second letter, Kathryn Winograd and Maureen Atkins
discuss how The Virtual High School Symposium, an event
inaugurated last year in Louisville, Kentucky, has reflected
broader national trends in the development of virtual high
school education. As all states have begun to pursue different
means of incorporating Internet technology in their K-12
programs, the upcoming installment of the symposium in Chicago
will be examining further ways in which such innovations may
be put into practice.
In our third letter, Steven Gilbert invites readers to
contribute to the "Open Source Professional Development
Environment for Higher Education." Gilbert's model of a
systematic and coordinated "open source" framework would allow
educators to share the various resources that they have used
in their professional development activities and thereby
assist us to keep up with fast-paced changes in information
technology.
As computer technology continues to transform teaching and
learning, it has also compelled a re-evaluation of criteria
for academic record keeping. Robert Spindler, in our final
letter, addresses this issue with a description of Clifford
Lynch's keynote presentation for the 2000 ECURE (Electronic
College and University Records Events) Conference and invites
readers to the 2001 conference.
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