TAD Consortium January 2000 Information Update 2

ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
--- New programme for contributing to a just and free information society
with universal benefit

PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- Radio Sagarmatha
--- "Radio Browsing the Internet"

ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Online Guides to Teaching Online
--- General Guides on web design
--- Facilitating Online Discussions
--- New section on the Buddy Project web site that will help you teach
searching strategies to your students
--- Essays in Education
--- Distance Education At Postsecondary Education Institutions 1997-98
--- The Educational CyberPlayGround
--- Computer-Mediated Communication
--- Virtual Universities
--- Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide

ARTICLES
--- The Ghosts of Internet Time

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NEWS/TRENDS

1999 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS CANADIAN CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY STUDY

Canadian Consumer Technology Study, which surveyed Canadian adults about

how -- and how much - they use the Internet.

The study indicates a noticeable difference in access and usage between

Québec residents and other Canadians: for example, only 29% of Québecois

have home Internet access compared to 48% in the rest of Canada. Other

differences: among those with home access, Québecois use the Internet more

than other Canadians for banking and investing (44% vs. 34%) and for

downloading music or videos (37% vs. 27%), but less for accessing government

services (25% vs. 34%). Québecois are also less infatuated with e-mail than

their compatriots: elsewhere in Canada, 43% of respondents say e-mail is

their main reason for using the Internet, compared to only 24% in Québec,

where the main reason for using the Internet is research and finding

information (42% vs. 31%).

Across Canada, there is an almost perfectly even split among male and female

users with home access. The majority of users are in the 25-44 age range

(44%) and in the $25,000 - $74,999 household income range (51%).

The study is available online at

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INDIAN UNIVERSITY PLANS RADIO STATION TO SPREAD WRITER'S IDEALS

CALCUTTA (Eastern India) - One of India's prominent universities plans to

set up its own private radio station. This could become the first major

foray into educational radio in a country where hundreds of millions have

strong educational needs.

Visva Bharati University, founded by one of India's early Nobel literature

laureate Rabindranath Tagore, has announced plans to launch its own private

radio station to propagate the writer's thoughts and ideals.

If approved, the university, which is run under the federal government and

is located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, will be the first

educational institution in the country to have its own radio channel.

Tagore (1861-1941) was a prominent Indian author and educator. He founded a

much-praised educational institution called Santiniketan in 1901, which

later was renamed as the Vishwabharati University.

India's national anthem was written by Tagore, who also wrote love lyrics

and philosophical works. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in

1913, becoming the first Indian to get this prestigious award.

University vice chancellor Dilip Sinha said this proposal has already been

sent to Prasar Bharati, the regulatory authority for state-owned

broadcasting media Doordarshan and All India Radio. He also said he hopes it

would be accepted soon.

Sinha told journalists from Santiniketan, West Bengal that he had written to

Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Rajiv Ratan Shah explaining the need

for a separate radio station dedicated to disseminating the thoughts and

ideals of Tagore.

Tagore's contribution to the Bengali language has been much praised.

Bengali, an eastern Indian language spoken by an estimated 200 million

speakers worldwide, is seen by some as having reached its summit of glory

through the life-long service of Rabindranath Tagore.

It was actually a spiritual endeavor for the bard. Thousands of lyrics,

poems and songs, about a dozen novels, three dozen plays, volumes of short

stories and a mass of prose literature flowed from his pen.

His own translation of the work 'Gitanjali' into English brought him

international fame when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913. His work

'Gora' is considered a very outstanding epic novel in Indian literature.

Sinha said the exercise was aimed at making people in the country, specially

rural Indians, aware of the relevance of Tagore's ideas and beliefs on rural

development and his thoughts on all-round development of the human soul.

He said to begin with the proposed radio station would cover villages in the

vicinity of Santiniketan. Over time, it would gradually encompass all the

districts of West Bengal. Finally it hopes to reach out across India.

West Bengal is an Indian region with a landmass of the size of the country

of Jordan and with a population 68 million).

It would be a frequency modulation (FM) channel and is expected to cost Rs.

6 million (about US$ 140,000) to set up.

Visva Bharati University was set up in 1921 by Tagore, who won the Nobel

prize in 1913 for his collection of Bengali poems 'Geetanjali'. Visva

Bharati University has remained a front-ranking educational institution.

"One unique feature of the university, which came under the Central

government in 1951, is its open-air classes held under the leafy boughs of a

mango grove," said a recent news report.

Visva Bharati is also considered a leading centre for the study of Indian

fine arts, attracting students from all over the world.

Sinha has been also quoted saying that the university's proposal had drawn a

favorable response from various departments of the Indian federal

government, including the Rural Development Ministry which had assured him

of all help.

Prasar Bharati was quoted as having told university authorities that it

agreed in principle to the need for spreading the ideals of Tagore. A team

from Prasar Bharati is expected to visit the university shortly to hold more

detailed discussions on the proposed radio station.

Sinha said programmes on the channel would be in English, Hindi and Bengali

so that people across India could understand them. Bengali is the regional

language of the state of West Bengal, and is also followed in the adjoining

country of Bangladesh. English and Hindi are spoken across India.

The vice chancellor also said the university also had plans to offer mass

communication courses through radio and television.

This move comes not long after the Indian government announced in early July

1999 that it decided to privatize the FM sector in as many as 40 cities and

opening up 150 channels to private broadcasters.

It was felt that this would open the doors for the launch of community radio

stations across India too. The announcement also said that community radio

stations for "educational and public service programmes" would also be

licensed.

For the last three years, a non-profit organisation based in the South

Indian city of Bangalore, VOICES, along with other interested organisations

and individuals, has been strongly advocating for the licensing of Community

Radio in India.(ENDS)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

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UNESCO is creating a new programme for contributing to a just and free

information society with universal benefit. UNESCO's Member States wish that

the new programme, which will replace the General Information Programme

(PGI) and the Intergovernmental Informatics Programme, promote free and

universal access to information which individuals need to participate

equitably in the global information society.

The programme should also provide an appropriate framework for the

preservation and global sharing of information and knowledge and is thus of

particular relevance to the archives and library community.

Information experts are invited to submit suggestions as to the scope and

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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

(This component of the TAD Consortium Newsletter kindly sponsored by Times

Media Limited - www.tml.co.za)

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RADIO SAGARMATHA is South Asia's first community radio station, and it has

launched its website. Having already celebrated its second birthday with an

increase in broadcast time and the development of new programmes, the

profile of the organisation, a schedule of programming, information about

public access, a new programme to solicit financial support ("Friends of

Radio Sagarmatha") as well as information about the media environment in

Nepal and the story of Radio Sagarmatha's long battle for a license. An

online audio service, weekly summaries of news from Nepal as well as an

online resource center to support the development of public and community

radio in South Asia are in the pipeline.

Contact: GPO Box 6958- Kathmandu Nepal. Tel +977 1 528 091 Fax +977 1 530

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"Radio Browsing the Internet"

UNESCO's experimental pilot project implemented at Kothmale community radio

in Sri Lanka uses radio as an interface between rural people and the

Internet. The pilot has shown very promising prospects. A daily one hour

live radio programme in which the announcer together with the panel of

resource persons browse the Internet at the requests of listeners has proven

to be capable of overcoming linguistic barriers in using the Internet by

non-English speakers. The listeners phone in or send postcards asking the

panel to find specific information from the Internet. The format involves

resource persons who graphically interpret information gleaned from the

Internet. Thus those who do not have access to computers and Internet

connectivity can depend on their community radio station to tap knowledge

resources from the Internet. In addition to the radio programme, the

Kothmale Community radio station is developing a rural database

www.kirana.lk, primarily by packaging public domain information often

requested by listeners for off-line use. The Radio station has a dedicated

64KB connection, and with its server it also functions as a mini Internet

Service Provider by providing Internet access points at two public libraries

located within the radio's target area as well as maintaining an Internet

café at the radio station.

Kothmale Internet Community radio is a pilot project implemented by UNESCO

in collaboration with the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and the

Media, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, Sri Lanka Telecommunication

Regulatory Commission and the University of Colombo to assess the potential

benefits of new communication technologies to rural areas.

While UNESCO provided computer equipment and training the Government of Sri

Lanka through its Telecommunication Regulatory Commission are absorbed by

the Government for two year period within which community radio will have to

develop an income generation strategy to sustain the facility. This would

mean that the community radio would have to generate additional income of

US$ 1,000 per month. Some income will come from charging for print outs of

the public domain Information retrieved from the Internet. Already work has

begun to host a number of commercial WEB sites at the Internet server

available at the radio station. The local youth have be en trained to design

and develop WEB sites for private sector. The server also has facilities to

provide seven additional access points, which the community radio intends to

rent for governmental and non-governmental organisations.

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ONLINE RESOURCES

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Online Guides to Teaching Online

---

An online tutorial for beginners is available at the TeleEducation NB Web

At Penn State's World Campus we developed a resource called "Fac Dev 101"

(Faculty Development 101) that is such a guide. It covers both authoring

on-line courses and teaching on-line courses. It has proven to be extremely

valuable! While originally a password-protected resource, our lead

instructional designer on the project, Cathy Holsing, has just "unveiled" a

publicly-accessible version so that we can share it with the rest of the

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General Guides on web design

---

Carl Czech

---

This is one of my favourite web design sites. It works from a graphic

Janet Reid

---

As far a guidelines/principles, you need only go to the source...The World

The W3C is headed up by Tim Berners-Lee, the actual inventor of the World

Wide Web. It is a vendor neutral group that works with the global community

in developing standards, specifications and common protocols that promote

the web's evolution and growth.

Neil Rigole

---

You know that to teach a concept well, you need non-examples as well as

examples.

www.websitesthatsuck.com has loads of *negative* examples of good design

practices!

Corrie Bergeron, Jr.

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Facilitating Online Discussions

---

Donna Reiss

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I've just created a new section on the Buddy Project web site that will help

This tutorial addresses the following:

*Concept Mapping Your Topic

*Searching Strategies (Boolean and Mathematical)

*Choosing the Best Search Engine for your Topic

*Assessing Credibility of the Resource Found

*Resource Links which include Lesson Plans for Teachers and Students

Also, there are Adobe page files that you can download and use to help you

teach this. I hope that you find this helpful!

Tammy Payton

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Essays in Education

Essays in Education is a scholarly, peer-reviewed electronic journal that

seeks to explore the sweeping array of issues that shape and impact

contemporary education. Originating from the Department of Education,

Columbia College, and reviewed by scholars across the country, EIE welcomes

articles in all fields of education. Thus, articles concerning vouchers,

educational litigation, gender issues, international or comparative

education, and critical theory are a few of the issues that may be addressed

in EIE. The target audience is admittedly broad by design anyone interested

in the field of education can gain information and insight from accessing

EIE. EIE is a bi-annual, non-fee journal, accessible via the web.

Contact:

Editor: Tim Lintner

Email: tlintner@colacoll.edu

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DISTANCE EDUCATION AT POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 1997-98

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department

of Education has released a major study of distance education activities at

the approximately 5,000 post-secondary two- and four-year institutions in

the United States. The report, Distance Education at Postsecondary

Institutions: 1997-98, is based on data collected during the twelve-month

1997-98 academic year.

Highlights from the report:

INSTITUTIONS AND ENROLMENTS: Just over one third of the institutions

surveyed offered distance education courses, while another fifth planned to

begin offering distance education options within the next three years.

Distance education was much more common at public institutions than private

institutions: 78% of public four-year institutions offered distance

education, compared to only 19% of private four-year institutions. At

two-year institutions, the public/private split was 62%/5%. Medium and large

institutions were also more likely to offer distance education than small

institutions. Institutions reported 1,661,100 distance education enrolments.

COURSE OFFERINGS: Institutions reported 54,470 distance education courses

offered during the 1997-98 academic year. Most of these were in the

humanities and social sciences or in business and management. Half of the

institutions involved in distance delivery offered 15 or fewer distance

courses.

DEGREE AND CERTIFICATE PROGRAMMES: One quarter of institutions with distance

education courses offered distance degrees and/or certificates, with

graduate and professional programmes more prevalent than undergraduate

programmes. Graduate and professional programmes were most likely to be in

business, education, engineering and health professions.

DISTANCE EDUCATION TECHNOLOGIES: The most popular primary modes of

instruction among institutions with distance education were asynchronous

Internet instruction (58%), two-way interactive video (54%) and one-way pre-

recorded video (47%). Institutions currently offering distance education or

planning to offer distance education reported that they would be

concentrating on Internet technologies and two-way interactive video more

than other technologies over the next three years.

TUITION AND FEES: Three quarters of institutions offering distance education

levied the same tuition fees for distance courses as for comparable

on-campus courses, while two thirds did not charge extra fees for distance

courses.

The full report is available in PDF at

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A helpful resource to teachers, parents, librarians, home schoolers and even

those with little or no on-line experience, to use the Internet effectively

to aid teaching."

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COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

--- Computer-Mediated Communication

on how to set up asynchronous and synchronous communications

--- Computer-Mediated Communication Resources

on CMC

--- Computer-Mediated Communication Resources

communication over the web

--- The Electronic Journal of Communication

method

--- How-To Guides for Computer-Mediated Communication

on numerous areas for establishing computer-mediated communications

Compiled by Jonathan Foster

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VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES

--- American Distance Education Consortium - Virtual Universities

also includes links to online resources and courseware tools

--- The Chronicle of Higher Education - Colloquy on Virtual Universities

reader discussion on accreditation of virtual universities

--- Generic Elements of Successful Virtual Universities

generic issues surrounding the development of virtual universities

from the US Association for Institutional Research

--- Virtual Universities: Are They for You?

investigating the development of virtual universities from a students point

of view

Compiled by Jonathan Foster

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Released July 8, 1999, revised November 1999. Third report in the Falling

Through the Net series on the Telecommunications and Information Technology

Gap in America.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Information tools, such as the personal computer and the Internet, are

increasingly critical to economic success and personal advancement. Falling

Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide finds that more Americans than

ever have access to telephones, computers, and the Internet. At the same

time, however, NTIA has found that there is still a significant "digital

divide" separating American information "haves" and "have nots." Indeed, in

many instances, the digital divide has widened in the last year.

This report, NTIA's third in the Falling Through the Net series, relies on

December 1998 U.S. Department of Commerce Census Bureau data to provide an

updated snapshot of the digital divide. The good news is that Americans are

more connected than ever before. Access to computers and the Internet has

soared for people in all demographic groups and geographic locations. At the

end of 1998, over 40 percent of American households owned computers, and

one-quarter of all households had Internet access. Additionally, those who

were less likely to have telephones (chiefly, young and minority households

in rural areas) are now more likely to have phones at home. (Chart I-1)

Accompanying this good news, however, is the persistence of the digital

divide between the information rich (such as Whites, Asians/Pacific

Islanders, those with higher incomes, those more educated, and dual-parent

households) and the information poor (such as those who are younger, those

with lower incomes and education levels, certain minorities, and those in

rural areas or central cities). The 1998 data reveal significant

disparities, including the following:

*** Households with incomes of $75,000 and higher are more than twenty times

more likely to have access to the Internet than those at the lowest income

levels, and more than nine times as likely to have a computer at home.

(Chart I-2)

*** Whites are more likely to have access to the Internet from home than

Blacks or Hispanics have from any location. Black and Hispanic households

are approximately one-third as likely to

have home Internet access as households of Asian/Pacific Islander descent,

and roughly two-fifths as likely as White households. (Chart I-22)

*** Regardless of income level, Americans living in rural areas are lagging

behind in Internet access. Indeed, at the lowest income levels, those in

urban areas are more than twice as likely to have Internet access than those

earning the same income in rural areas.

For many groups, the digital divide has widened as the information "haves"

outpace the "have nots" in gaining access to electronic resources. The

following gaps with regard to home Internet access are representative:

*** The gaps between White and Hispanic households, and between White and

Black households, are now approximately five percentage points larger than

they were in 1997.

*** The digital divides based on education and income level have also

increased in the last year alone. Between 1997 and 1998, the divide between

those at the highest and lowest education levels increased 25 percent, and

the divide between those at the highest and lowest income levels grew 29

percent.

Nevertheless, the news is not all bleak. For Americans with incomes of

$75,000 and higher, the divide between Whites and Blacks has actually

narrowed considerably in the last year. This finding suggests that the most

affluent American families, irrespective of race, are connecting to the Net.

If prices of computers and the Internet decline further, the divide between

the information "haves" and "have nots" may continue to narrow.

Until every home can afford access to information resources, however, we

will need public policies and private initiatives to expand affordable

access to those resources. The Clinton Administration is committed to

connecting all Americans to the National Information Infrastructure.

Pro-competition policies, to reduce the prices of basic phone and

information services, and universal service policies will continue to be

important parts of the solution.

Community access centers (CACs) -- such as schools, libraries, and other

public access points -- will play an important role. The 1998 data

demonstrate that community access centers are particularly well used by

those groups who lack access at home or at work. These same groups (such as

those with lower incomes and education levels, certain minorities, and the

unemployed) are also using the Internet at higher rates to search for jobs

or take courses. Providing public access to the Internet will help these

groups advance economically, as well as provide them the technical skills to

compete professionally in today's digital economy.

Establishing and supporting community access centers, among other steps,

will help ensure that all Americans can access new technologies. As we enter

the Information Age, access to computers and the Internet is becoming

increasingly vital. It is in everyone's interest to ensure that no American

is left behind.

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ARTICLES

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The Ghosts of Internet Time

by [65]Andy Oram

Dec. 17, 1999

In the murky light of dawn I was bestirred by a sound I had not heard for a

long, long time. Groggily stumbling toward the piercing beep, I exclaimed,

"Why, it's the old Unix talk program! That strange little full screen

utility--discussed by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical Themas--that

prefigured chat and instant messaging." In response to the letters flashing

on the green monitor, I quickly entered "talk ghost" and pressed the RETURN

key.

"This is the Ghost of Internet Past," wrote my mysterious correspondent.

"NSA, poppy, Castro. I shall show you the Internet in its glorious early

days. Tools were clunky back then, but we all studied a bit and learned to

understand the medium we were using; and such a wonderful community we built

online!"

I remembered what the ghost was talking about. True, 99% of all newsgroups

degenerated into philosophical spats between leftists and libertarians, and

three-quarters of all the alerts circulated had been hoaxes, but we still

exploited the incredible power of instant worldwide diffusion to carry out

some impressive campaigns. Lotus was a pretty big company when an Internet

protest made it withdraw its database product on consumer spending.

"Look, Andy, you were more idealistic then too," admonished the ghost. "It's

been years since you contributed to free software projects. Look at the

dates on these files." A stream of file names, dates, and sizes dribbled

down my screen.

I squinted at the vaguely familiar output format. "Yeah, those dates are

old. Where did you dig up that list?"

"Archie," typed the ghost.

"Oh, Ghost," I hammered out. "What has happened to the flame of the Internet

community? Why do so few of the new users understand it?"

"What do you expect once ANS took over the backbone?" spat out the ghost.

"Canter and Siegel, eye candy, streaming media."

"But mere commercial usage isn't bad," I replied. "When people trust a

medium enough to put the very stuff of which life is made there, it has come

of age. Non-profit organizations can be self-seeking information hoarders

just as much as for-profit organizations."

"Damned private-sector hegemony--"

"Humbug. I've heard that all before; you're putting me to sleep," I typed,

and as if to lend credence to that statement, fell into unconsciousness once

again.

Next I was awakened to a furious rush of talk. It was as if someone had

started several dozen RealPlayer streams at once. The babble of many

contributors crowded out all hope of understanding. "Can anyone make sense

of this!" I cried.

Coming to my rescue, a voice rose above the rest. "Welcome to the debates

over Internet policy. As the Ghost of Internet Present, I have to follow

them all."

"What on earth are they talking about?" I demanded.

"Do you mean: what do they claim to be talking about, or what are they

really talking about?"

"Both, I guess," I answered, nonplussed.

"Well," explained the ghost, "they think they are talking about which of the

old regulatory models to apply to a revolutionary new space."

"Sounds pretty pointless."

"And that's why so few bother to listen. But really what they're talking

about is bandwidth."

"Yeah, I heard of that--won't dark fiber solve everything?"

"That's a 90s panacea," interrupted the ghost scornfully. "The current fad

is packet radio. But I was not talking about physical bandwidth at all. I

was referring to control. Who has the power to use the Internet? Will it

have job postings for the underprivileged or only stock quotes for the

affluent? Can communities grow up spontaneously around great works of

creative art or must they pay a middleman? Should taxpayer-funded research

be sold for hundreds of dollars a document or made freely available to all?

Who can be reached simply by requesting a name -- big corporations or small

voices?"

"For goodness' sake," I exclaimed, "why don't people talk about the issues

that way!"

"A few try," replied the ghost, "but as soon as you start looking closely at

the legal, social, and implementation implications, the answers get

so--well, technical."

I wanted to ask more, but my ghost said, "The present is fleeting. I must

depart; the Ghost of Internet Future will be here in my stead."

Excitement seized me. "Oh Ghost of Internet Future," I cried, "show me what

glories the medium has still to offer!"

Someone grasped my arm and dragged me running through mazes of clattering

streets under gray skies, where no creature tread and no breeze stirred.

"Where is the Internet Future?" I yelled. "Where did everybody go?"

"The Internet is gone," said my companion, stooped and hoary.

"How could that be--what could replace its bounty?"

"The international financial institutions have a proprietary satellite-based

network, imposing and impenetrable. The entertainment companies put out 6500

programs a week, all strictly metered by kilobyte and filtered to isolate

controversial content. The electric companies--which always controlled the

ultimate pipe, and therefore ended up controlling the medium--run the

network that activates devices in the home. Everything the vendors want is

built into powerful circuits costing a thousandth of a penny, making

software and the culture that accompanied it obsolete. So there are many

separate networks, each specialized and tightly controlled."

"But what about democracy? What about a public space? Is there no forum for

the average citizen?"

The old Ghost's wrinkled face cracked in a sputtering, hollow laugh. "Forum?

You want a forum? I'll give you a million of 'em. Every time Consolidated

Services, Inc. or Scanditek puts up a new item on their media outlets, they

leave a space for viewers to post reactions. And they post, and post, and

post. Nobody can track the debates..."

"They forgot," I sighed. "People forgot that the Internet enables discussion

and community; they acquiesced to an overly rationalistic and impersonal

approach that fragmented protocols and media in such a way as to remove the

human element. What can I do to prevent this, Ghost? Tell me what to do when

I return to my present life!"

But mists swept over the scene and the hand of the Ghost of Internet Future

slipped invisibly from mine. "I am fading," it whispered. "The Internet is

gone..."

And so I awoke, but I lay with eyes closed and addressed my three Ghosts in

my thoughts: "I promise I will learn the lessons you taught tonight!

"Ghost of Internet Past, I promise I will learn about the technologies that

affect my life so that I can control them.

"Ghost of Internet Present, I will talk to ordinary people about the

everyday issues that are effected by Internet politics. And I'll use the

information I get to fight real problems: racism, income gaps, war,

ecological devastation.

"Finally, Ghost of Internet Future, I will always insist that the Internet

is more than a means of transmitting data--it is a place for building

community."

And the day was still just dawning.

---

Andy Oram, [66]andyo@oreilly.com, is an editor at O'Reilly & Associates and

moderator of the Cyber Rights mailing list for Computer Professionals for

Social Responsibility. This article represents his views only. The article

may be forwarded in its entirety for non-profit use.

References

66. andyo@oreilly.com

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