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Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 4:36 AM
From: Info@eduprise.com
eduprise/NEED-TO-KNOW, 20 October 1999
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Eduprise.com is pleased to bring you NEED-TO-KNOW, a bi-weekly summary of selected news articles on technology, education & training in today's learning organizations. Inclusion of articles in this summary does not imply endorsement by eduprise.com. We select articles that we hope will stimulate ideas and conversation in the interest of creating more effective, efficient and accessible learning environments. Eduprise.com offers scalable, enterprise solutions for online learning. We invite you to visit our web site, www.eduprise.com, to learn more about our services and to review back issues of NEED-TO-KNOW. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
REQUIRED READING Budweiser U: Every Collegian's Dream The Good, the Bad, and How to Tell Them Apart Web-Based Commission Formed to Assess Educational Software Electronic Campus Sees Itself as an Educational Mall Streamlining the Advanced Degree Process Virtual Patients Tell Doc Where it Hurts
EXTRA CREDIT The Interactive Difference Weeds in the Garden of Online Education Asking the Right Questions Technology Effectiveness GI Joe and the Digital Revolution Learning Technology: the Education Dilemma
NEWS FROM eduprise.com: Atlanta Workshop on 11 Nov 99
+++++ Required Reading:
BUDWEISER U: EVERY COLLEGIAN'S DREAM Given a choice between English Literature and beer, most self- respecting college students would choose a class in the latter. At Anheuser-Busch University, students learn all about beer -- brewing, packaging, shipping and selling. But these students aren't 18-year-old college freshmen. They're employees and wholesalers gaining a better understanding of their business. ABU is only one of 1,600 corporate education programs across the United States -- that's a 400 percent increase in 10 years. And corporate training -- whether online, in a classroom or CD-ROM based -- offers something that traditional universities can't: specific coursework, custom-tailored to the needs of one single business. In-house schools also boost a company's profile and makes it easier to recruit and retain talent. "There's a greater concern on the part of job applicants for personal development," said Ed Gaydos, ABU's director. "It's not just money anymore." (CBS MarketWatch, 6 Oct 99) http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/19991006/news/current/personal.htx?sourcetx/http2_mw
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND HOW TO TELL THEM APART Online education is the answer to many a student's dreams. For many, the burgeoning availability of Internet-based courses presents a singular opportunity to earn college credits and sharpen professional skills. But pursuing an online education is a serious commitment, and the choice of an online institution should be undertaken with the same care that you would give to choosing a bricks-and-mortar college. Tomake the search a little easier, the Distance Education Training Council's Web site, at {http://www,detc,org/), an accreditation agency for online schools, offers an extensive view of what an Internet school should be, as well as a information about the many academic and vocational schools that meet its criteria. Another site, this one sponsored by St. Louis Community College at (www.stlcc.cc.mo.us/distance/index.htm), offers a self-assessment area to help you decide if you have what it takes to succeed in an online environment. (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 Oct 99) http://www.stlnet.com/
WEB-BASED COMMISSION FORMED TO ASSESS EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE President Clinton has appointed three high-powered ambassadors from the world of technology to serve as members of the Web-Based Education Commission. John Gage, chief researcher and director of the Science Office at Sun Microsystems, as well as host of the television program "Sunergy," is the creator of NetDay, a volunteer project that has resulted in the wiring of more than 50,000 schools nationwide since 1996. Nancy E. Pfund, a general partner in the investment firm of Hambrecht & Quist, oversees the firm's investments in e-commerce, education, training, wireless communications and software. She also directs the firm's charitable giving programs and serves on the boards of several education-oriented companies. Susan Collins is a senior vice president at Jostens Learning Corp., and spent two years as director of the Education Division of Compaq Computer Corp. She has long been involved with numerous education and technology councils. The Web-Based Education Commission has been given six months to assess the appropriate federal role in identifying quality educational software and recommend appropriate action. (MD Communications 1 Oct 99) www.m2.com
ELECTRONIC CAMPUS SEES ITSELF AS AN EDUCATIONAL MALL "The best thing about this program is that we are not a flea market. We are a mall, an educational mall," says the president of the Southern Regional Education Board, which launched Electronic Campus (http://www.sreb.org) two years ago with 104 courses. Electronic Campus has mushroomed into more than 2,000 courses, with some 20,000 students. All levels of degrees are offered in 65 programs, and the e-campus is connected to the Georgia Galileo library system, which expands reference readings. The Web-based campus is governed by the colleges that offer courses, and coordinated by the Education Board, which emphasizes regional cooperation. The colleges maintain records of the students, keep track of their progress and decide what credits are given for the work. The Board acts as the switchboard for the courses, as dean to monitor the caliber of the courses and puts together support services like Galileo. (The Palm Beach Post 3 Oct 99) http://www.gopbi.com/
STREAMLINING THE ADVANCED DEGREE PROCESS Helping to streamline the advanced-degree process, colleges are tailoring programs to graduate students' needs. Finding that working adults can handle a faster pace, courses that once ran 10 to 12 weeks may now last just five to eight weeks, with some accelerated programs crediting hours spent in required study groups outside class or in classroom chat rooms on the Internet. This can shave six months off a master's degree course time. Some schools are filling the undergrad gap with credit for life experiences such as child rearing, real estate sales and military service, though students must write a paper to demonstrate that learning. What they may not have to write, if they're an MBA candidate at Davenport College, is a master's thesis. Instead, they can take part in applied research projects. And students worried about entrance exams should check out schools like Central Michigan University and Cornerstone University, which don't require the GMAT. (The Grand Rapids Press 10 Oct 99) http://gr.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/19991010degrees021802.frm
VIRTUAL PATIENTS TELL DOC WHERE IT HURTS If you've ever had the pleasure of being gawked at by a team of medical students while in the hospital for some procedure or other, you'll appreciate the value of a new "virtual patient" tool being used at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Using CD-ROM technology, third- and fourth-year students can choose any of 16 virtual cases, each of which begins with a video of a patient describing his symptoms, which range from chest pain to jaundice. Students type in questions, which are answered in the patient's own voice. Students can order lab tests, seek the advice of a virtual specialist, and view close-ups of the patient's body. Those who opt for unnecessary work-ups are corrected by an unpleasant buzzer. The program was created partially in response to changes in the healthcare environment. Many patients today arrive at the hospital with decisions already made by their primary care physicians, limiting the opportunity for student training. (Reuters 6 Oct 99) www.reuters.com
+++++ Extra Credit:
THE INTERACTIVE DIFFERENCE Perhaps the single biggest differentiator in online learning programs is the level of interactivity they offer. "One of the biggest issuesfacing companies wading into online learning is the degree of interactivity they're willing to settle on," writes Tom Barron, editor of Technical Training. "Just what constitutes 'interactivity' is by no means clear. To some people, it means enabling learners and instructors to share ideas in a virtual chat room; to others, merely posting questions on a bulletin board qualifies as interactivity." As the cost of technology decreases, many companies are finding ways to bring the benefits of the classroom into a distance-learning setting. At Aetna U.S. Healthcare, two-way audio capability means that no more than 15 minutes ever elapses without interaction between the student and the instructor. Achieving an acceptable level of interactivity has been worth the trouble for Aetna, which estimates that the new online training system has saved the company $3 million in 18 months. (Training & Development, Sept 99) http://www.astd.org
WEEDS IN THE GARDEN OF ONLINE EDUCATION Brave new world and all that aside, some traditional educators are questioning the quality of education being offered via the online route. "Education is not reducible to the downloading of information, much less to the passive and solitary activity of staring at a screen," said the University of Washington chapter of the American Association of University Professors in a recent letter to Washington Governor Gary Locke, an outspoken proponent of digital education. One of the big complaints leveled at digital ed is the lack of qualified professors in teaching roles. In many cases, a professor may prepare the coursework, but students interact online with a less qualified tutor. History professor David Noble, author of a series of articles titled "Digital Diploma Mills," draws a comparison to earlier-day correspondence courses of questionable note. "What's happening with distance education is a repeat, the only difference is instead of using the post office and the mail, they're using online delivery." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 Oct 99) http://www.seattlep-i.com:80/local/crit11.shtml
[Comment from eduprise.com: As with any instructional delivery method, it's possible to produce poor quality. Eduprise.com's planning, evaluation, and instructional design services help our clients ensure an effective, high-quality learning experience for students and for instructors.]
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS "Whereas education has traditionally meant bringing students to sources of knowledge, the time has come to bring sources of knowledge to students." That said, author Stephen Barley, co-director of the Center for Work, Technology and Organization at Stanford University, sets out to determine how the Internet can best be used -- for which types of courses, in what settings, and for whom? "Little is known about... the limitations and opportunities of Web-based courses," he writes. "Surfacing such data is critical for accurately assessing the potential of distance-based education and for fostering a community of practice around development." Among other factors, Barley notes that research is needed to determine how cultural and socioeconomic differences fit in to the equation, and how successful existing online educational efforts have been. Without answering these and other questions, Barley asserts that there's no way to determine if online teaching strategies are hitting their mark. (The Education Digest, 1 Oct 99) http://www.eddigest.com/
TECHNOLOGY EFFECTIVENESS A conference on research in educational technology effectiveness will be held in March 2000 at Temple University in Philadelphia. For information on the conference and on the call-for-abstracts see: http://www.temple.edu/iclt.
GI JOE AND THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION The Army is marching into the Internet Age with a high-tech plan to eventually provide long-distance training to tens of thousands of soldiers. Called "Classroom XXI," the plan calls for construction of 15 digital training access centers (DTACs) that will enable networking of 270 Army classrooms within 10 years. Even longer term, hundreds more high-tech classrooms will most likely be built. Ultimately, the system is a way to bring lessons learned on the battlefield into the classroom. Soldiers will be able to take the courses they need, wherever they are, and collaborate online with their peers around the world. And the Army will have the assurance that the same message is going out to all its troops. (Government Computer News, 4 Oct 99) http://www.gcn.com/
LEARNING TECHNOLOGY: THE EDUCATION DILEMMA While it's dangerous to draw general conclusions from specific facts, in some cases the temptation warrants the risk. A large-scale survey of U.S. schools, colleges and departments of education -- commissioned by the Milken Family Foundation and conducted by the International Society for Technology in Education -- found that the number of hours teachers spent in formal, stand-alone information technology instruction had only a moderate correlation to their success in using and teaching technology in the classroom. Teachers gained more value from information technology instruction delivered as part of other classes. The lesson is simple. Teachers are interested in curriculum and teaching methods. Incorporate technology into those study areas, and teachers will embrace it with enthusiasm. Extending the idea logically, technology may best be taught as a component of the core subject matter: as a way to expand creative options for graphic artists, or as a route toward better diagnoses for medical students. In the larger arena of human motivation, the results seem to point to a basic truth: people learn what they are interested in. (Education Digest, 1 Oct 99) www.eddigest.com
+++++ News from eduprise.com: Eduprise Road Show in Chicago, Long Beach, & Atlanta
eduprise.com will be attending the League for Innovation's Conference on Information Technology http://www.league.org/ in Chicago October 20-23 and the Educause http://www.educause.edu/ annual conference in Long Beach next week (October 26-29). Stop by our booth and identify yourself as a "Need toKnow" subscriber!
eduprise.com is also pleased to be a participant in the upcoming workshop, "The Learning Marketplace: New Resources for Teaching and Learning," sponsored by the Center for Academic Transformation" on November 11, 1999, in the Renaissance Concourse Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia. This workshop offers an opportunity for you to compare corporate services, identify potential partners for developing learning environments, and network with colleagues who are dealing with the same set of issues. For registration information see www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/LMWkshp.html
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