About INFOBITS
Infobits is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.
Call for an Educational Theory of Technology
IT-Enabled Plagiarism
Humanities Scholars and Information Technologies
What Makes a Good Course Website?
More on Good Course Website Design
Educational Technology Review Goes Online
Multimedia Resources
Website for Web Accessibility Resources
Infobits Subscribers -- Where are We in 2001?
CALL FOR AN EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF TECHNOLOGY
Concerned that "[n]ew 'partnerships' of designers and developers committed to technology for its own sake now create products for the 'education marketplace,' with little or no experience of, or interest in, underlying educational goals," Suzanne de Castell, Mary Bryson, and Jennifer Jenson ("Object Lessons: Towards an Educational Theory of Technology," First Monday, vol. 7, no. 1, January 2002), make a case for an educational theory of technology, as opposed to a theory of educational technology. "The difference between these is that whereas theories of educational technology take for granted, whether as good or as harmful, the integration of education and technology; an educational theory of technology, by contrast, would investigate technology from the standpoint of educational values and purposes, and with reference to what can be discerned from a study of 'educational technology' as a socially-situated artifact. . . . In order to learn from our tools, we have also to take seriously the study of them, in the multiple and variable contexts of their intended and actual use."
The article is available online at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_1/castell/index.html
The authors are members of GenTech, an applied research project whose mandate is to create conditions within which girls and women have maximum access to, and confidence in, a wide range of new information technologies. For more information about GenTech, link to http://www.shecan.com/
First Monday [ISSN: 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv@uic.edu; Web: http://firstmonday.dk/
See also:
Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom
By Larry Cuban
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN: 0-674-00602-X
Larry Cuban, Stanford University Professor of Education (Emeritus), "argues that when teachers are not given a say in how the technology might reshape schools, computers are merely souped-up typewriters and classrooms continue to run much as they did a generation ago. In his studies of early childhood, high school, and university classrooms in Silicon Valley, Larry Cuban found that students and teachers use the new technologies far less in the classroom than they do at home, and that teachers who use computers for instruction do so infrequently and unimaginatively." The book is available for online browsing at http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CUBOVE.html
In "Plagiarism: IT-Enabled Tools for Deceit?" (Syllabus, vol. 15, no. 6, January 2002, pp. 8, 11), Phillip D. Long provides links to web-based term paper services and to anti-plagiarism websites. The article is available online at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5916
Syllabus [ISSN 1089-5914] is published monthly by 101communications, LLC. Annual subscriptions are free to individuals who work in colleges, universities, and high schools in the U.S. Contact Syllabus Press, 345 Northlake Drive, San Jose, CA 95117-1261 USA; tel: 408-261-7200; fax: 408-261-7280; email: info@syllabus.com; Web: http://www.syllabus.com/
See also "Faculty Guide to Cyber-Plagiarism" in the November 2001 issue of CIT Infobits: http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/bitnov01.html#1
HUMANITIES SCHOLARS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
The Scholarly Work in the Humanities Project set out to discover how
humanities scholars conduct their research and to learn how academic
libraries can better serve this community. The project report,
Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving Information
Environment, by William S. Brockman, Laura Neumann, Carole L. Palmer,
and Tonyia J. Tidline, is now available online in either HTML or PDF formats at
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub104abst.html.
The report is published by the Digital Library Federation and the
Council on Library and Information Resources (December 2001; ISBN
1-887334-90-4).
Some of the study's findings show:
"There is a sense among humanities scholars, except for those who work almost exclusively with obscure primary sources, that use of technology makes the research process easier, faster, and more up-to-date."
"Remote access to library catalogs and finding aids integrates travel efficiently into scholars' programs of research. Scholars are able to find out what is available-and not available-much more easily than in the past."
"Views on the quality and utility of Web resources vary greatly. The Web is used more for teaching than for research."
"Concerns about the archival stability of digital resources have made scholars wary of electronic publication and of the maintenance of personal files in electronic form. The potential instability of electronic texts threatens humanists' fundamental assumptions about the reliability of their resources."
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) "embraces the entire range of information resources and services, from traditional library and archival materials to emerging digital formats, and the entire network of organizations that gather, catalog, store, preserve, distribute, and provide access to information." CLIR collaborates with many associations, networks, and scholarly societies and serves as the administrative home to the Digital Library Federation. For more information, contact CLIR, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-939-4750; fax: 202-939-4765; email: info@clir.org; Web: http://www.clir.org/
The Digital Library Federation (DLF) is a consortium of libraries and related agencies that are pioneering in the use of information technologies to extend their collections and services. For more information, contact DLF, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-939-4750; fax: 202-939-4765; email: dlf@clir.org; Web: http://www.diglib.org/
WHAT MAKES A GOOD COURSE WEBSITE?
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently interviewed Charles Kerns, one of the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) management team members, to get his views on designing instructional websites. In "Logging In With . . . Charles Kerns: Designer of Free Course-Management Software Asks, What Makes a Good Web Site?" (by Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 21, 2002), Kerns shares what he has learned as part of a project to develop standards for course-management systems. The article is available online at http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002012101u.htm)
OKI is a collaborative effort of MIT, Stanford, and six other higher education institutions that "addresses a critical need in higher education: meaningful, coherent, modular, easy-to-use internet-based environments, for assembling, delivering and accessing educational resources . . . [and] seeks to drive collaboration and spark an open-source developer community to build a sustainable support model." OKI's mission is not to compete with the learning management systems market, but to offer architectural and functional specifications and a proof-of-concept implementation at OKI institutions. For more information about OKI, link to http://web.mit.edu/oki/
The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly
by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033;
Web: http://chronicle.com/
To subscribe contact Circulation Department, The Chronicle of Higher
Education, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel:
800-728-2803 or 740-382-3322 (outside U.S.); email:
circulation@chronicle.com; Web:
http://chronicle.com/about-help.dir/subscrib.htm
MORE ON GOOD COURSE WEBSITE DESIGN
In the summer of 2001, the University of Oregon Library System's Web Publishing Curriculum was redesigned to incorporate many of the newer standards, including HTML 4.01 and Cascading Style Sheets. The site, aimed at developers in colleges and universities, includes web page design tutorials, guidelines for good practice, and a collection of handouts for use in web publishing workshops. The site is available at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/webpub/
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY REVIEW GOES ONLINE
As of November 2001, Educational Technology Review (ETR), originally a print journal, is available as an online publication. This new format allows readers to participate in online discussion of each issue's articles. Articles in the premier online issue include: "Defining Distance Learning and Distance Education," by Frederick B. King (The University of Connecticut), et al.; "Pedagogical Challenges for the World Wide Web," by Tony Fetherston (Edith Cowan University); and "The Laptop University: A Faculty Perspective," by George Kontos (Zayed University). ETR is available at http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/
Educational Technology Review: International Forum on Educational Technology Issues & Applications [ISSN: 1065-6901] is published three times a year by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). AACE is an international, educational and professional not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching, at all levels, with information technology. For more information, contact AACE, P.O. Box 3728, Norfolk, VA 23514 USA; tel: 757-623-7588; fax: 703-997-8760; email: info@aace.org; Web: http://www.aace.org/
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) announces new, expanded, and updated documentation for those who are interested in exploring digital multimedia. The documents were written in collaboration with multimedia support professionals from a range of departments at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Recommended Resources -- bibliography of print- and web-based resources
for multimedia.
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-12.html
Software Applications -- a survey of commonly used multimedia software
applications (such as Macromedia Flash and Adobe Premiere) together
with examples of how they might be used in an instructional setting.
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-15.html
Glossary of Terms
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-14.html
The software survey is designed especially to help newer users distinguish among some of the common multimedia software applications currently available; the glossary and bibliography are geared for users with all levels of expertise.
WEBSITE FOR WEB ACCESSIBILITY RESOURCES
The CIT's new website on web accessibility may be of interest to Infobits readers. The site includes accessibility guidelines, tools for making your web pages accessible, and links to readings and tutorials. The site is at http://www.unc.edu/webaccess/
INFOBITS SUBSCRIBERS -- WHERE ARE WE IN 2001?
Each January issue of Infobits includes an annual subscriber tally listing the countries represented by our subscribers. As of January 8, 2002, there were 5,895 subscribers. Here are some brief statistics about our current subscribers:
The majority of the subscribers are in the United States (3,020) and other English-speaking countries: Canada (409), Australia (233), and the United Kingdom (151).
Each of the following countries has between eleven and fifty subscribers:
Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Spain.
The following countries have ten or fewer subscribers:
Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Colombia,
Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Ireland, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia,
Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russian
Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab
Emirates, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
In addition to subscribers that we can positively identify by a geographic location, 1067 subscribers are from commercial sites, 154 subscribers are from .org sites, and 395 are from .net sites, none of which have been attributed to a particular country.
Many thanks to all the subscribers for your support in 2001!
-- Carolyn Kotlas, CIT Infobits Editor