CTL's Weblogs

Instructional Technology Blogs: a Primer

A Beginner's Guide to Blogs

The above link is a brief and useful explanation of weblogs, as they're being used by folks interested in Instructional Technology - with a number of useful references to a range of sources and resources.

Check it out ...

-mike

The Computer World Could Use More IT Girls

The Computer World Could Use More IT Girls
"Women in equal numbers surf the Web and enjoy instant messaging, but only about 20% of computer science majors are female. Only 17% of high school students taking the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam are female. Though women accounted for 46.6% of the U.S. workforce in 2002, when administrative and support positions were excluded, women made up only 25% of the IT workforce."

Notre Dame Selects SCT

Notre Dame Selects SCT :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"One of the nation's most prominent institutions, the University of Notre Dame, today announced it would replace its legacy campus software systems with new technologies from SCT (Nasdaq: SCTC). This agreement between Notre Dame and SCT represents a major partnership between the leading Catholic institution of higher learning with the industry-leading provider of software and services supporting higher education. The agreement was signed during SCT's second fiscal quarter."

Online Learning Fills Void in

5/21/03 -- Online Learning Fills Void inNations Coping With SARS -- Education Week
"The steep escalation of people contracting the potentially fatal respiratory illness known as SARS forced many government and school officials in Asia to close school for more than 2 million students. Schools are gradually reopening, and, surprisingly, many students aren't behind academically. That's because while school buildings stood empty, students still attended classes—virtually. Their experience, a U.S. observer says, could hold lessons for American educators as they make contingency plans for a host of different emergencies."

Online Universities Promising "Accredited" Degrees & Diplomas

Online Universities Promising "Accredited" Degrees & Diplomas
"They're not approved by the Department of Education. But these questionable accreditation services can make a mail-order diploma sound like a sheepskin from Harvard. And two of the more notorious services list Nevada as their home address.you can get your degree online -- but can you be sure the diploma is worth the paper it's printed on? Experts say you should make sure any cyber college is accredited by an agency recognized by the US Department of Education."

Report On Technology To Protect Digitized Copyrighted Works

The Department Of Commerce's United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) Releases Report On Technology To Protect Digitized Copyrighted Works :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today released its report to Congress on technology designed to protect digitized copyrighted works from infringement, as required under the 'Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002' (TEACH Act)."

Computing's Lost Allure

Computing's Lost Allure
"Today, empty classroom seats, like the vacant offices once occupied by high-flying start-ups, are among the unmistakable repercussions of the dot-com bust. At the height of the Internet boom in the late 90's, computer science talent was in such demand that recruiters offered signing bonuses to students who agreed to drop out of school. Now, spooked by layoffs and disabused of visions of overnight riches, many undergraduates are turning away from computer science as if it were somehow cursed."

Secretary Paige Unveils New Guide to Help Schools Plan for Crises

New Guide to Help Schools Plan for Crises
"As part of his continuing efforts to help keep our schools, our teachers and our students safe, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that a new guide, 'Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities,' is available to help schools plan for any emergency, including natural disasters, violent incidents and terrorist acts."

Tech Downturn Victims Look to Teach

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / Tech downturn victims look to teach
"After a long year of sending resumes to technology companies without response, Rob Ayres, a laid-off computer products manager, changed direction last summer and mailed his resume to school departments, offering himself as a math or physics teacher. Suddenly, the silence ended. Ayres, who holds a master's degree in electrical engineering, landed four interviews in a week -- even though he lacked state certification to teach in public schools. Ultimately, the missing credential kept him from getting a job, but the encouraging response put him on a new career path. Today, some nine months later, Ayres has passed certification exams, earned a provisional license to teach math, and become hopeful that, come September, he'll be working again -- albeit at a salary around $30,000, about one-third that of his last job."

Computers That Speak Your Language

Computers That Speak Your Language
"Building a truly interactive customer service system like Nuance’s requires solutions to each of the major challenges in natural-language processing: accurately transforming human speech into machine-readable text; analyzing the text’s vocabulary and structure to extract meaning; generating a sensible response; and replying in a human-sounding voice. Scientists at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and other universities, as well as researchers at companies like IBM, AT&T, and the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), have struggled for decades with the first part of the problem: turning the spoken word into something computers can work with. The first practical products came in the early 1990s in the form of consumer speech recognition programs—such as IBM’s Voice Type—that took dictation but forced users to pause after each word, limiting adoption. By the mid-1990s, the technology had advanced and led to dictation systems such as Dragon Systems’ NaturallySpeaking and IBM’s ViaVoice, which can transcribe unbroken speech with up to 99 percent accuracy."

Step Away From the Spell-Checker

Wired News: Step Away From the Spell-Checker
"A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software. In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to proofread a one-page business letter -- half of them using Microsoft Word with its squiggly red and green lines underlining potential errors. Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores."

Cal U's Online Master of Science Degree in Exercise Science

The Herald Standard
"Cal U's master's in exercise science and health promotion will be delivered to a cohort of 30 students beginning July 14. The cohort will work together through the entire program, which is scheduled in an accelerated format over 12 months. McGlumphy and three other faculty members will teach the program of 10 three-credit courses. They will start this second summer term and take two courses, followed by three courses in fall 2003, three in spring 2004 and two the first term of summer 2004."

Blind Group Urges Online Improvements

Blind Group Urges Online Improvements (TechNews.com)
"The National Federation of the Blind on Monday introduced an online seal of approval, hoping to prod more Web sites to extend a helping hand to visitors who can't see what's on the computer screen. The 50,000-member federation, which bills itself as the largest U.S. organization representing blind people, awarded its initial certificates to the online arms of Wells Fargo Bank, Hewlett Packard Co. and the Social Security Administration."

Self-Repairing Computers

Scientific American: Self-Repairing Computers
"Our group of research collaborators at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley has taken a new tack, by accepting that computer failure and human operator error are facts of life. Rather than trying to eliminate computer crashes--probably an impossible task--our team concentrates on designing systems that recover rapidly when mishaps do occur. We call our approach recovery-oriented computing (ROC)."

Online Classes Provide Better Way to Teach Global Education, Researcher Says

Online Classes Provide Better Way To Teach Global Education, Researcher Says :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"Web-based college classes are more than just a technological novelty for graduate students who are learning global education, according to an Ohio State University researcher. Courses taught on the web allow Americans to interact with people from around the world and to learn new perspectives that they could never experience in a typical classroom, said Merry Merryfield, professor of social studies and global education at Ohio State University."

A Comparison of Interaction in AV-Based and Internet-Based Distance Courses

A Comparison Of Interaction In AV-Based And Internet-Based Distance Courses :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"Two of the most commonly used forms of distance education are 1) two-way, fully interactive audio-video classrooms and 2) on-line instruction through the Internet or Worldwide Web. This study used qualitative methods to compare and contrast the interaction that occurred in distance learning courses offered via each medium. The research process confirmed findings that there were fundamental differences in the interaction that occurred in the two environments. On-line interaction is so profoundly different than interaction in the traditional and AV-based class room that it appears instructors and students will need a substantial period of adjustment to feel comfortable with it and to fully appreciate its value. It appears that, as distance teaching and learning moves to a “mixed media” approach to teaching and learning, how interaction is handled with each of the media may be important to the success of a distance program."

The Evelyn Wood of Digitized Book Scanners

The Evelyn Wood of Digitized Book Scanners
"Putting the world's most advanced scholarly and scientific knowledge on the Internet has been a long-held ambition for Michael Keller, head librarian at Stanford University. But achieving this goal means digitizing the texts of millions of books, journals and magazines — a slow process that involves turning each page, flattening it and scanning the words into a computer database. Mr. Keller, however, has recently added a tool to his crusade. On a recent afternoon, he unlocked an unmarked door in the basement of the Stanford library to demonstrate the newest agent in the march toward digitization. Inside the room a Swiss-designed robot about the size of a sport utility vehicle was rapidly turning the pages of an old book and scanning the text. The machine can turn the pages of both small and large books as well as bound newspaper volumes and scan at speeds of more than 1,000 pages an hour."

Video Streaming Of Lectures Via The Internet: An Experience

Video Streaming Of Lectures Via The Internet: An Experience :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"This paper reports on an investigation into methods of efficiently introducing video streaming into subjects in a large Economics and Commerce faculty. Several software options were investigated before finally settling on RealSystems. The paper provides a brief review of the background of the project followed by a general overview of video streaming. The challenges we identified in effective video streaming are outlined together with a discussion of possible solutions. The paper concludes with an outline of key indications from our investigation of this mode of subject delivery."

Encouraging Good Student Contact

Syllabus Article: Encouraging Good Student Contact
David Brown, keynote speaker at the ITeach Conference 2003, weighs in on the importance of student/faculty contact. There is also a link to good practices in undergraduate education.

Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom

Syllabus Article: Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom
"Colleges venturing into online education face a great deal of scrutiny among educators over the question of academic integrity. They often assume that Internet technology and online classrooms provide students with new and easier ways to cheat. However, the potential for cheating in online courses is about equal to that in traditional courses. In fact, with the Web sites and software now available, educators have a better ability to detect and battle plagiarism and cheating in virtual and traditional classrooms alike. And various online assessment tools, assignments, and activities available within a virtual course, including threaded discussions, chats, quizzes, and group presentations, are by their very nature a deterrent to cheating."

Educause Review Articles

EDUCAUSE Review, May/June 2003
Check out the May/June2003 issue of Educause Review to read articles such as Presidential Leadership for Information Technology, The Status of Ubiquitous Computing, and Research Universities and the Central IT Organization.

Video Devices Benefit the Deaf

Mercury News | 05/08/2003 | Video devices benefit the deaf
"The SideKick's popularity is the latest sign that the communication revolution that began with e-mail and instant messaging isn't slowing for the estimated 20 million people in the United States who have limited or no hearing -- it's accelerating as Internet connections get faster and go wireless. Technologies such as faster cellular data networks and 802.11 wireless standards have gained popularity in the last two years, and while many businesses are unsure just how to employ the new tools, deaf consumers are taking the lead."

Technology Education Becomes Requirement

Technology education becomes requirement
"In its decades-old fight for respectability, technology education won an important victory yesterday as Gov. James E. McGreevey signed into law a requirement that the subject be included in the state's core curriculum standards. McGreevey said in a Statehouse ceremony that the economy and society as a whole requires skills in the use of technology, from computers skills to design and engineering. New Jersey had been in the minority among states for not having explicit standards or requirements in technology."

IBM and Marist College Team to Build Digital Media Infrastructure

IBM and Marist College Team to Build Digital Media Infrastructure
"Marist College and IBM today announced plans to build an interactive digital media infrastructure to provide online resources and tools to the university community. Under the collaboration, IBM is supplying Marist with a combination of software, hardware and services to enable a digital media infrastructure that will support the creation, storage and exchange of digitized content via the Internet."