Choosing & Using Technologies in Education & Training
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A*DEC Distance Learning Consortium
http://www.adec.edu/
An American consortium of about 50 universities and colleges providing distance education programs and services, with a particular emphasis on electronic delivery. The site includes information on the many courses available online from participating institutions. It also includes papers on distance teaching technologies, bibliographies, courseware tools and other online resources, discussion papers, news on policy debates and new developments (in the American context), and links to international bodies. The site is frequently updated and worth visiting at regular intervals.
AT&T Lucent Technologies: Centre for Excellence in Distance Learning
http://www.lucent.com/cedl/index.html URL accessed 21 July 1997
The overall purpose of this Centre is to advance the state of the art in distance learning. CEDL creates information products for AT&T customers who are planning distance learning solutions. CEDL is part of a Distance Learning Alliance with major American distance providers such as University of Wisconsin-Extension, Penn State, and University of Indiana. The website includes material or sourcing arrangements for materials produced by the Alliance such as a collection of 19 case studies of successful programs using a range of communications technologies, with particular reference to videoconferencing and other forms of interactive visual learning.
Athabasca University: Resources in Distance Education
http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca/html/ccism/deresrce/de.htm URL accessed 21 July 1997.
Athabasca University is a leading Canadian provider of open and distance learning. The goal of this project was to create a Web based resource for the use of educational technology in distance education. The references are mainly to post-secondary resources. It is excellently designed, well maintained, easy to use, and very comprehensive. Sections cover: Internet education - guides to searching the Internet, online courses, navigation tools, relevant listservs and usenet groups (and links to the major ones); Searching the Web - search engines, virtual libraries, subject indices, databases, selected catalogues of online journals and magazines (including a useful list of refereed online journals concerned with learning technologies); Distance education and Web design; Educational technology resources - delivery systems, theories of learning, theory and practice in technology, issues such as quality, copyright, and social factors in learning; and Events and Associations.
AusWeb conferences
Ausweb95:
http://www.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb95/educn/
Ausweb96:
http://www.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb96/educn/
Ausweb97:
http://www.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb97/
The annual AusWeb conferences are organised by Southern Cross University to examine a variety of issues to do with the Internet. There are sections on business opportunities, media, community and cultural issues, and technical issues, as well as a section on education and learning. This last comprises a rich array of papers and poster sessions reporting on web-based teaching strategies, software developments, and evaluations.
Charles Sturt University - Open Learning Institute
Occasional Papers in Open and Distance Learning. Also available for purchase in hard copy. http://www.csu.edu.au/division/oli/olihp.htm
Papers published periodically by the Open Learning Institute at Charles Sturt University, principally as an in-house journal which canvasses a wide range of issues in open and distance learning. It reports on best practice and evaluations of teaching strategies.
DEOS - The Distance Education Online Symposium
http://www.cde.psu.edu/ACSDE/DEOS.html
The Distance Education Online Symposium (DEOS) was established in 1991 by the American Centre for the Study of Distance Education at Penn State University. The symposium comprises DEOSNEWS, an electronic journal for practitioners and managers, and DEOS-L, an electronic forum. The purpose of DEOS is to disseminate information and to support international computer conferencing through systems accessible to professionals and students in the field of distance and technology-mediated education. DEOSNEWS publishes articles on topics such as distance education theory, the use of audio and video communications, course design and development, and adult education. It is accessed by over 4000 subscribers in 68 countries. DEOS-L, the interactive list-serve component of DEOS, has over 1500 subscribers who participate in online discussions in the areas of research, current issues and professional networking. To subscribe to DEOSNEWS and DEOS-L, post the following commands to LISTSERV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU: Subscribe DEOSNews Your Full Name or Subscribe DEOS-L Your Full Name.
Distance Education Clearinghouse
URL: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
A treasurehouse of comprehensive, up to date and archival material on all aspects of distance and flexible learning and technology-mediated education. The Distance Education Clearinghouse is managed by the University of Wisconsin-Extension, and includes information from that University plus national and international sources. It is easy to navigate through the many sections and material is added regularly. Areas of particular interest include technology and network options, design of effective technology-mediated programs, online courses offered, a database of conferences of interest to distance educators, policy and (American) legislative news, and a range of papers, bibliographies, and links to sites around the world.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
An archive of working papers on education and training which is part of the British Electronic Libraries Program and managed by the University of Leeds. Users can search the collection by keywords, an inverted word index, or the BEI thesaurus, which contains hypertext connections to automatically-generated searches for broader and narrower terms, as well as the terms selected. Although still a pilot service in 1997, Educati_on-line promises to become a major source of current education and training working papers.
Education Network Australia (EdNA)
http://www.edna.edu.au
EdNA was established in 1995 by Australia's federal and state Ministers of Education and Training as a national electronic network to facilitate cooperation among all education sectors to maximise the benefits of integrating technology into teaching and learning, and avoid duplication of costs and effort. EdNA is managed by the Open Learning Technology Corporation (http://www.oltc.edu.au). It is developing a directory of online education and training information and services as a 'one-stop shop' of Australian resources and material useful for education and training - e.g. online help, lists and links to Australian education institutions, information on discussion lists, and reports of discussions.
http://www.educom.edu/
Educom is a nonprofit consortium of over 600 higher education institutions, mainly in the USA, which facilitates the introduction, use, access to and management of information resources in teaching, learning, scholarship and research. Its National Learning Infrastructure Initiative is designed to demonstrate how information technology can improve the quality and cost effectiveness of education and training. Its Networking and Telecommunications Taskforce works on policy issues and concerns. Educom publications include: the Educom Review - a bimonthly magazine with interviews and articles on policy, evaluation or future requirements; Edupage - a summary of news about technology, updated three times a week; and Edulib - publications available from Educom and instructions on how to obtain them.
Faculty Internet Service Centre, University of Berkeley
Web-Based instruction. URL http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~fisc/WebBasedInstruction.html. URL accessed 26 June 1997
A jumping off point for teachers looking for help on examples of Web-based instruction in a variety of courses from K-12 to university level. It also provides links to relevant networks, design information, articles and research papers on Web-based instruction.
International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL)
http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk/
The ICDL is a documentation centre specialising in collecting and disseminating information on distance education worldwide. It is located in the Institute of Educational Technology of the UK Open University and has a close connection with the Commonwealth of Learning agency (http://www.col.org). Its database is very extensive and services offered through the site include: distance education literature (bibliographic references including abstracts to the literature of distance education); distance education database (online access through telnet and on CD-ROM to the distance education database containing detailed information on courses, institutions and literature worldwide); and full text chapters of the classic (but out of print) text, Mindweave: Communication, Computers and Distance Education, eds. R. Mason & A. Kaye (http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk/mindweave/mindweave.html).
InterNIC and Library & Information Technology Association
15 Minute Series URL: http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/15min/intro.html
The 15 Minute Series is a collection of Internet training materials provided by the InterNIC and Library and Information Technology Association which is part of the American Library Association. Each module is structured as a mini-slide presentation and is designed to answer clearly and concisely a specific Internet-related question ranging from the specific (e.g. 'what is RTF?' or 'how do I do xxx?') to the broad (e.g.'what is the Internet?'). They can be downloaded in two formats - HTML or Powerpoint, so that trainers can incorporate them into their own material. The site includes browsing and search options in the broad categories of Internet history, the basics, Internet organisations, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, technology, tools, indexing and search services, and the future. The site is constantly updated and modules reviewed. The material is equally valuable for the practitioner wanting to learn more about the Internet themselves, and the teacher wanting materials to assist them in teaching students how to use the Internet.
Kotlas, Carolyn
Evaluating Web sites for educational uses: bibliography and checklist. Institute for Academic Technology, University of North Carolina. http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-49.html Site accessed July 1997.
'With millions of pages on the Web purporting to serve educational purposes, how do educators sort out the good from the bad, the useful ones from the time-wasters?' This site is run by librarians and other information specialists who give references to articles (which themselves contain bibliographies) on selection and evaluation of Web materials. It also includes a useful checklist of questions to use when evaluating a potential Website.
URL: http://www.LearnTel.org/ManageLearn/overview.htm
A 1996-97 project sponsored under the European Commission's Socrates program, to produce a selective bibliography and literature review on open and distance learning for use by conventional educational institutions. The bibliography will cover the whole range of open and distance learning, with particular emphasis on multimedia telematics. The project also aims to produce an information resource to assist policy and decision makers in pedagogical and management issues concerning technology-based education. The project is coordinated by the International Centre for Distance Learning (http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk) in partnership with 11 other educational institutions in Europe.
McKeown, Lindy
1996, oz-TeacherNet - teachers helping teachers. Paper presented at AusWeb96 Conference, Southern Cross University. URL: http://elmo.scu.edu.au/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb96/educn/mckeown/ URL accessed 25 July 1997.
Description of an online network for teachers from K-12 who require online tools, resources and training to help make greater use of the professional development and curriculum opportunities offered by the Internet. Its aim is to develop a community of Australian teachers who can share experiences, debate issues and reflect on their practice. The site includes curriculum projects, an electronic magazine, and email listservs.
NETTRAIN@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu URL: http://lawlib.slu.edu/faculty/milles/nettrain/
NETTRAIN is a discussion list for Internet trainers and practitioners wishing to use the Internet for education and training. It is moderated from Saint Louis University in the US and began in 1992; it presently has over 3000 subscribers worldwide. They also maintain a WWW home page with archives and frequently asked questions.To subscribe, send the command SUBSCRIBE NETTRAIN Firstname Lastname to LISTSERV@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu
Network for the Evaluation of Education and Training Technologies (EvNet)
URL: http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/srnet/evnet.htm URL acessed 27 June 1997
EvNet is a national multi-discipline, multi-sector network of researchers and practitioners in 61 public and private educational institutions and corporations in Canada. It was established in the belief that technology take-up for the delivery of education and training has been slow or inappropriate largely because of lack of rigorous evaluation. The network's purpose is to evaluate and compare alternate means of education and training delivery in terms of learning effectiveness and cost efficiency, to evaluate the mediating role of collaboration in learning, and to use the results of such evaluation to produce new learnware products and training modules and develop better teaching practice. The site contains reports on projects in progress or completed and many links to related networks. EvNet has a particular interest in computer-supported collaborative learning, a variety of literacy issues, and the adoption of computer technologies by educators. It is a component of the TBL.CA network (http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~misc2/tblca1.htm).
Online Chronicle of Distance Education and Communication
http://www.fcae.nova.edu/disted/index.html
An electronic journal produced by Nova Southeastern University in the USA. It appears semi-annually, and includes abstracts, short articles and information exchange about distance education and communications. It is strongly focussed on information technologies used in distance education.
Online journals, Listservs and Usenet news groups
URL: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/lobline.htm
These types of electronic publications and communications links are constantly proliferating. One of the best ways to survey what is published or accessible is via the Distance Education Clearinghouse of the University of Wisconsin-Extension. It includes links to journals on educational technology, interactive media, distance education, open learning and adult education, and links to numerous flexible learning-related listservs and newsgroups, as well as archival and searchable directories of others.
Open Learning Technology Corporation (OLTC)
http://www.oltc.edu.au/
The OLTC was established in 1993 as a company owned by Australia's Ministers of Education and Training. Its role is to facilitate and support the equitable provision of high quality, cost effective open learning on a national basis in all educational sectors, and it provides a focal point for promoting collaborative activities. OLTC was given a new charter in 1996 to manage the development of Education Network Australia (EdNA) (http://www.edna.edu.au/) and its related technology initiatives, in partnership with federal and state education systems. OLTC interprets 'technology' broadly, and the OLTC site contains publications and reports on open and distance learning, a comprehensive listing of Australian distance education programs, and numerous case studies of uses of technology in many teaching situations.
http://www.opennet.net.au/
Open Net (a subsidiary of Open Learning Australia) has as its primary aim the development of educational products, especially online. The site includes sections on educational materials and learning resources in a wide variety of subjects. Entries under the heading of 'educational resources' are likely to be of particular interest to teachers - e.g. the links to special and disability education resources, electronic journals, teaching and learning on the Web, case studies, and materials available elsewhere in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
URL: http://owl.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/
A network mainly for K-12 teachers but with interest for teachers at other levels too because of the concern with online tools, resources and training to help make greater use of the professional development and curriculum opportunities offered by the Internet. Based at the Queensland University of Technology, the network links teachers around Australia with a view to building a community of users who share experiences, debate issues and reflect on practice. The site includes curriculum projects, an electronic magazine, opportunities for collaboration, and discussion lists.
Quality Distance Education Project
URL: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/qde/home.html. URL accessed 16 July 1997
This Website lists dozens of institutions worldwide, which provide examples of how the application of quality factors in distance education and training can impact on a program's overall excellence. The examples were selected for review as part of the QDE Program, a six month series of events which occurred between November 1995 and April 1996 in a program sponsored by the University of Wisconsin and 46 other American universities and colleges. It outlines the factors for success or failure in providing quality distance learning - knowing the learners, creating confident and committed faculty, designing for active and effective learning, supporting learners' needs, maintaining the technical infrastructure, sustaining administrative commitment, and evaluation for continuous improvement. The material includes an extensive bibliography on instructional design, audioconferencing, audiographics, computer assisted learning, interactive television, and videoconferencing.
Swedish Council for Renewal of Undergraduate Education
URL: http://www.hgur.se/
The Council channels funds, through a competitive grants process, to teachers developing innovative, flexible approaches to delivery of education and professional training. This site includes reports on completed and in-progress projects which cover a wide range of communications technologies and multi media, in disciplines ranging from science and technology to applied arts, teacher education, languages, humanities and social sciences, medicine and health care, and agricultural science.
URL: http://fenrir.ces.ncsu.edu/. URL accessed 27 June 1997.
An American Website in progress, with a particular focus on K-12 course design, but relevant to any interactive multimedia course development. Its main sections are: What makes for effective Web-based teaching? How do I use HTML to create a web page? What is good web design? How do I know if it was effective? How do I get people to use it? To answer these questions, the site is building a 'Toolbox' with materials for people creating Web pages for learning - e.g. tutorials on HTML, standards and definitions in HTML, style guides and suggestions about 'good' HTML practice, and tools for submitting pages to multiple search engines. It also includes reference pages with links to other (mainly US) sites, on teaching innovations using Web delivery, evaluation of sites, and principles of good practice teaching and learning.
TECFA - Training Technologies and Learning
URL http://tecfa.unige.ch/
TECFA (Technologies de Formation et Apprentissage, or Training Technologies and Learning) is an academic unit of the University of Geneva with teaching and research interests in educational technology. The research section of the site includes material on collaborative projects of traditional and distance universities in Europe on the use of technology-mediated education to increase real and virtual mobility of students. The Virtual Library is an easy to use database of material under four broad themes of educational technology, educational software, learning environments, and technologies for distance education. There is a wealth of material on computer mediated communications, virtual reality, and applications such as MUDs and MOOs.
Technology Based Learning Network Canada (TBL.CA)
URL: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~misc2/tblca1.htm. URL accessed 26 June 1997
TBL.CA is a Canadian network of over 120 universities, government agencies, industry, and community organisations, with a budget of over Can$50 million for cooperative ventures covering every area of teaching and learning on campus, at work, in cultural venues, and at home. The projects examine state of the art applications of technologies from animation and multimedia to interactive networked communications, and develop systematic methods of evaluation for studying both the personal and the social impact of these innovations. EvNet is a part of this network. It has five thematic areas: evaluating and enabling technology based learning; sharing the wealth K-12; post-secondary learning in virtual and distributed environments; technology-based, work-related learning; and cultural understanding. The site includes an enormous collection of indexes of educational technology Websites with world-wide links - both a general index, and ones linked to the five themes. It also contains information on the multi-institutional research and evaluation projects under these themes.
Telecom Information Resources on the Internet
URL: http://www.spp.umich.edu/telecom/telecom-info.html
This website contains references (and over 3,500 links) to information sources relating to the technical, economic, public policy and social aspects of telecommunications. All forms of telecommunication, including voice, data, video, wired, wireless, cable TV and satellite are covered. Its aim is to provide a constantly updated, high level of pointers to other websites with a brief description of the information they contain, and it is a good starting point for searches.
URL: http://tenb.mta.ca/
TeleEducation NB is a network of community learing centres in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. These 'electronic classrooms', established in partnership with local communities, educational institutions and industry are outfitted with specialised equipment for receiving and delivering courses. TeleEducation NB takes advantage of New Brunswick's advanced telecommunications infrastructure to provide leading-edge technology-mediated learning environments. The site contains specific resources for the New Brunswick projects and also links to other distance education resources, as well as a large amount of valuable information on web development and training.
URL: http://online.anu.edu.au/uniserve/
UniServe Australia is an initiative of the Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (formerly the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching), which publishes curriculum materials and reports on innovations in teaching and learning through a network of a coordinating centre and five clearinghouses. Teachers will find a wealth of subject specific materials in the areas of engineering, health, humanities and social sciences, law, and science.
University of Berkeley, Faculty Internet Service Centre
Web Based Instruction. URL: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~fisc/WebBasedInstruction.html. URL accessed June 1997.
A jumping off point for teachers looking for help on examples of Web-based instruction in a variety of courses from K-12 to post-secondary education and training. It also provides links to relevant networks, design information, articles and research papers on Web-based instruction.
University of Southern Queensland Library
Do-It-Yourself Internet. URL: http://www.usq.edu.au/library/pubsexms/elecinfo/diy.htm. URL accessed 27 June 1997
A one-stop shop of links to programs and sites offering guides and tutorials to aid in learning about the Internet, Netscape etc. The Library provides links to comprehensive and specialist guides and self-instructional training programs. The list is regularly updated.
University of Southern Queensland Library
Referencing of electronic documents. URL: http://www.usq.edu.au/library/pubsexms/elecinfo/cite.htm URL accessed 27 June 1997.
Helpful advice from the USQ Library on how to reference electronic documents using various well-known referencing systems.
Victorian Open Learning Network (VOLN)
http://www.eduvic.vic.gov.au/voln/
The Victorian Open Learning Network is a Department of Education initiative involving all sectors of education and training in Victoria. Its role is to facilitate cooperation among all sectors of education and training, links with industry, and good practice in the use of electronic networks in open learning. The site is frequently updated. It includes open learning, and language and literacy resources, online publications including the VOLNews, information on government policy and strategy statements in relation to flexible delivery, links to other relevant sites, and a lively email list. To subscribe to the latter, send a message to VOLN-ADMIN@EDUVIC.VIC.GOV.AU. Turn off your signature file if you have one. Leave the subject line blank and in the body of the message, put SUBSCRIBE VOLN.
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