TAD Consortium May 2000 Information Update2
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CONTENTS
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NEWS/TRENDS
--- "Wizards
of High Tech on the Subcontinent"
--- Six Types of Online Consumer
Identified
--- Online News Flourishing In Botswana
--- Russian News Organizations
Play Catch Up On Web
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
--- International
Conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship
PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- The
Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning (CRIDAL)
ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Math Words and Some
Other Words of Interest
--- Secrets@Sea
--- Benchmarks For
Success In Internet-Based Distance Education
--- Imperialism
And Nationalism A Discourse On Meaning, Method And Relevance
--- 1stHeadlines
PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES
--- SAIDE Resource Centre :
Selected Abstracts
ARTICLES
--- Problem
of Technology Gap Starts With Shortage of Skilled Teachers
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
--- About Hoaxes
--- Talking To The Web? Just Say Quack
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NEWS/TRENDS
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"Wizards of High Tech on the Subcontinent"
International Herald Tribune (04/20/00) P. 1; Crampton, Thomas
The Indian Institutes of Technology train many of the world's high-tech leaders, despite extremely limited resources. The six Indian Institutes are among the most competitive schools in the world, accepting only 3 percent of applicants, compared with Harvard's 16 percent acceptance rate. Graduates who have gone on to head successful tech companies include Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla and Cirrus Logic founder Suhas Patil. Yet at one residence hall housing about 300 students, only about 30 students have their own computers, none have Internet access, and only two phones are available. In addition, up to six students often share a single textbook, with each person reading the assignment at a designated time. However, the school is allowed to update its curriculum within months; other Indian universities often take five years to introduce new courses and still teach computer science material from several years ago. Most graduates from the Indian Institutes continue their education at American universities, and many of the country's brightest students remain to work in the U.S. However, the Internet's global reach has provided opportunities for some Indian high-tech workers to remain in India.
[full story at:] http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/THU/FPAGE/india.2.html
[source: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2000-2/0421f.html#item3]
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Taken from Nua Internet Surveys: April 24th, 2000
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Media Metrix: Six Types of Online Consumer Identified
There are six distinct categories of online consumers and Internet marketers should focus on one or two of these groups rather than spreading their efforts too widely.
According to "All Visitors Are Not Created Equal", a new study from Media Metrix and McKinsey, every online consumer falls into one of the following categories: Simplifiers, Surfers, Connectors, Bargainers, Routiners and Sportsters.
Simplifiers want convenient and direct Internet shopping. They only spend 7 hours a month online but they account for half of all Internet transactions. Retailers must provide this group with "end-to-end convenience" and prove that shoppers will save time by buying at their sites.
Only 8 percent of active Internet users are Surfers but they account for 32 percent of all time spent on the Net and look at 4 times more pages than other users. Surfers are attracted to constantly updated sites with innovative design and features.
Connectors tend to be new to the Internet and they are less likely to shop online, preferring to use chatrooms or send free greetings cards. Companies with strong bricks-and-mortar brands should target this group, which constitutes 36 percent of active users, as newbies are more likely to trust a brand they are familiar with offline.
Another 8 percent of users are categorised as Bargainers, who have an unerring instinct for cheap deals. More than half of all eBay users are Bargainers. They enjoy ferreting out bargains and have a strong desire to be part of a community.
Both Routiners and Sportsters use the Internet primarily for the content it provides. Routiners tend towards news and financial sites while Sportsters like visiting sports and entertainment sites. The main challenge for marketers is to exploit the high traffic to these sites and turn visitors into customers.
http://www.mediametrix.com/PressRoom/Press_Releases/04_17_00.html
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Taken from The Ifra Trend Report: No. 40
Copyright 2000 by Ifra
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ONLINE NEWS FLOURISHING IN BOTSWANA
In Botswana, where many residents have had to drive long distances to pick up a newspaper, you might not expect to find a thriving online publishing industry. But most of the larger local papers have gone online within the past year, and others are expected to hit the Net this year. This trend doesn't come cheap, though. Most papers in Botswana rely on outside firms to handle Web page design and hosting, and online advertising doesn't begin to cover the costs. However, publishing online has become something of a status symbol among the nation's papers, so the online news boom is expected to continue -- at least as long as the budgets hold out. (Jules Tewlow, Ifra U.S. Correspondent 13 April 2000)
http://www.ifra.com/website/IfraSite.nsf/html/newswatchframe
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Taken from The Ifra Trend Report: No. 40
Copyright 2000 by Ifra
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RUSSIAN NEWS ORGANIZATIONS PLAY CATCH UP ON WEB
Russian news organizations that were slow to catch on to the ways of the Net have been left in the wake of start-ups that knew little of news gathering but plenty about Web site building. Traditional news organizations, no matter how popular offline, found themselves, at best, in the middle of the Net rankings. Practically unique to Russia, the situation is pinned on publishers who tried to get paid directly for their news stories, regardless of whether it was from the current issue of a publication or from archives. Net specialists, on the other hand, quickly figured out that it was better to get paid by advertising, co-branding and other profit centers. Two giants now dominate the Russian online news: The leader, Rbc.Ru (designed exclusively for the Internet) and Lenta.Ru (established by a well-known journalist and producer). Everyone else is playing catch-up. One analyst predicts most of the successful Net publishers will be purchased by offline news corporations within a year. (ITOGI/NEWSWEEK 16 April 2000)
http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/395464.asp?cp1=1
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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
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International
Conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship
University of the Western Cape
Cape Town, South Africa
9 – 11 October 2000
Redefining higher education within lifelong learning
Higher education institutions are redefining and renegotiating their relationship with civil society, their economic partners and the public. Adult and lifelong learning are central to this institutional redefinition. It is becoming clear too, that lifelong learning can best take place where bridges are built between the academic community, its socio-cultural and economic environment, and the day-to-day actions of citizens striving to create better living and working conditions.
The UNESCO conference in Hamburg in 1997 on `Adult Learning the Key to the 21st Century` set in motion an international advocacy process. This promotes adult and lifelong learning as an essential pedagogical and organisational framework for higher education institutions to contribute to social justice and equity. In 1998, a meeting was held in India which produced the ‘Mumbai statement on lifelong learning, higher education and active citizenship`. This was used as a basis to lobby the Paris UNESCO conference later that year on higher education.
An important conference at an appropriate venue
The forthcoming conference is a continuation of this process. The University of Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town is an appropriate venue. It is an historically black university serving mainly working class communities, and has been at the forefront of the struggle for social justice in South Africa. It is supporting a successful university mission initiative on lifelong learning and is committed to developing itself as a lifelong learning institution.
The conference co-hosts are UNESCO Institute for Education (Germany), the Adult Education Research Group at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, and the University of the Western Cape. The conference is being twinned with another planned to follow in April 2001 in Denmark, on `Citizenship, adult education and lifelong learning`.
Aims of the conference
--- To discuss issues regarding changing
definitions and relationships of lifelong learning, higher education and active
citizenship
--- To develop criteria for assessing a `lifelong learning university` which can be used
for advocacy in different contexts
--- To produce a publication of key papers and conference contributions for international
distribution
Who should attend
This conference will be especially valuable for academics, researchers, higher education administrators, change agents, education planners, policy makers, and adult education practitioners internationally. Efforts will be made to bring together a balance of participants from the `north` and `south,` and women and men to help ensure a `global` conversation. It aims to have between 50 – 60 participants.
Draft programme
Four themes have been proposed to form the foundation of the programme. Participants are invited to join a workshop of their choice which will deal with issues in depth. The four themes are:
--- Lifelong learning and its consequences for higher education
Aim: To explore the possibilities and constraints of higher education institutions operating within the LLL framework, and to focus particularly on curricula issues.
--- Lifelong learning and its impact on adult education in higher education
Aim : To explore the shift from adult education to lifelong learning and consequent impacts and possibilities for adult education in higher education.
--- Developing the adult learner friendly institution (ALFI) within a lifelong learning framework
Aim: To develop indicators and explore strategies for organizational transformation within higher education institutions in order to develop ALFIs
--- Learning to be active citizens locally and globally
Aim : To explore the links between lifelong learning and globalization, and the roles of higher education in promoting active citizenship locally and globally
Language
The working language for the conference will be English.
Conference proceedings
These will be published either as a special edition of a leading journal or as a separate publication (to be finalised).
Finances
Self-funding will be necessary, so intending participants are urged to raise their own funds in advance. Possible support for some participants may be available depending on suitable motivation.
Organisers
Shirley Walters (South Africa), Ove Korsgaard (Denmark), Werner Mauch (Germany) form the management team for the conference.
Expressions of interest
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in participating in the conference. You will then receive further details as they become available regarding registration costs, accommodation, background readings etc. As we will be striving to have a balance of participants we cannot guarantee acceptance. The conference promises to be well-attended, so early indication of interest is advised.
Advance Notification of Interest
International Conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship
University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
9 – 11 October 2000
Please reserve a place, and send me further details. My contact details are as follows:
Title First Name
Surname
Institution
Postal Address
Telephone
Fax
Email
Please return your contact details by fax or email to:
Conference Organiser
Division for Lifelong Learning,
University of Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7530, South Africa fax 27-21-9592481; email lifelong@uwc.ac.za;
phone 27-21-9593787
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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
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The Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning (CRIDAL) (http://www.ouhk.edu.hk/cridal/) at the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) (http://www.ouhk.edu.hk) was established in May 1997 to enhance research and scholarship in open and distance learning.
In order to promote greater academic exchange and collaboration amongst researchers in open distance and adult education in Asia, CRIDAL has compiled a database titled Educators in Open Distance and Adult Education Research: An Asian Inventory (CRIDATA) (http://www.ouhk.edu.hk/cridal/cridata/main.shtml).
The databank contains information on 289 open distance and adult education researchers from 17 countries and regions in Asia. It includes their names, correspondence addresses, education and training, research areas and interests, language proficiency, recent major publications, abstracts of recent research projects and possible future studies. CRIDATA also includes the educators' proposed collaboration with other Asian open distance education institutions.
It is hoped that this database provides suitable information especially for networking purposes, and also gives the international academic community a better understanding of the current state of open distance and adult education research in Asia.
Please take a look at CRIDATA and happy surfing!
Thank you very much.
Dr Zhang, Wei-yuan
Research Fellow
Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning
The Open University of Hong Kong
30 Good Shepherd Street
Homantin, Kowloon
HKSAR, China
Phone: (852) 2768 6708
Fax: (852) 2715 9042
E-mail: wyzhang@ouhk.edu.hk
Homepage: http://www.ouhk.edu.hk/cridal/staff/zhang/index.html
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ONLINE RESOURCES
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Taken from Education Planet Newsletter
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Math: Math Words and Some Other Words of Interest
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/1861/etyindex.html
Have you ever wondered where those math terms really came from? How did anyone even think about that? You can find this information and more at this web site. There are 330 words in all. Amaze your students with these ancient roots to math. The word circle derives its origins from the name of the enclosure which surrounded the chariot races in Ancient Rome. This is a great way to get students to see that Math is all around them - not just in their textbooks.
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Taken from Network Nuggets
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For grade 4-7 classrooms/labs with reasonably robust Internet connections (one computer
per pair of students and a 56K connection speed or better), the Vancouver Aquarium hosts
an engaging game, Secrets@Sea (http://www.secretsatsea.org/).
Here is their description:
"Secrets @ Sea is a curriculum-based adventure story for grade 4-7 students on the World Wide Web. This engaging website game complements ocean-theme units of study in the classroom and enhances students' learning experiences using the Internet. Students play the starring role of "Ace", assistant investigator to Paula Pacific, who is assigned to examine unusual behaviours noticed in killer whale populations..."
This simulation meets a number of learning outcomes in Grades 4 through 7. An online Teacher's Guide has the details.
Secrets@Sea requires Macromedia Flash 3.0 or better, and continuous connection to the Web while students are playing it. For classrooms with insufficient Web connectivity, Secrets@Sea can also be purchased on a CD-ROM, which requires no Internet connection. Secrets@Sea is by Engaging Science (http://www.engagingscience.org), a partnership of the Vancouver Aquarium, Science World, and the Pacific Science Center in Vancouver, B.C. Funding came from the B.C. Ministry of Education; the site carries no advertising and there is no charge for its classroom or individual student use.
Thanks to John Goldsmith of Fraser Valley Distance Ed
School for mentioning this site.
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Taken from CIT INFOBITS -- April 2000
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QUALITY ON THE LINE: BENCHMARKS FOR SUCCESS IN INTERNET-BASED DISTANCE EDUCATION lists twenty-four quality benchmarks for distance learning in higher education. The study, released in April 2000, was commissioned by the National Education Association (NEA) and Blackboard, Inc. and produced by the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Benchmarks were identified in the following categories: institutional support, course development, teaching/learning, course structure, student support, faculty support, and evaluation and assessment. Faculty, administrators, and students at selected institutions were interviewed to assess the degree that the benchmarks were incorporated into distance education courses and programs. A full copy of the "Quality on the Line" report is now available in PDF format on the Web at http://www.ihep.com/quality.pdf
[The PDF file format requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/download.html]
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PAPER: IMPERIALISM
AND NATIONALISM A DISCOURSE ON MEANING, METHOD AND RELEVANCE
The full text of the public lecture on Imperialism and Nationalism which I delivered recently at Seton Hall University is now available at www.strategiesdirect.com Please download a copy for yourself or group at this site. Both html and MSword versions are available. If you would like to have a print-out with full schematic diagrams, I suggest you download the MSword version. If you encounter any problem please contact me.
Best regards
Ndiribe A. A. Ndiribe
ndiribnd@SHU.EDU
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Taken from The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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This handy current-awareness resource links to literally thousands of headline news stories each day from over 300 hundred newspapers, broadcast, and online sources. While the homepage offers links to the day's front page stories, unlike some news sites, users can also browse current stories in the business, health, sports, technology, or travel sections, or even by topics such as the olympics, animals, education, fires, aviation, etc. In addition, visitors can search for news stories by keyword, view newspapers and their headlines by state, view US political news by politician, and access international headlines by country. Additional resources include a list of top stories for each of the main sections and scrolling news tickers. While our test searches and browsing invariably found a few broken links for older stories, the vast majority of links were stable. A very helpful, well-organized, and easy-to-use resource for a wide variety of current news. [MD]
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PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES
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SAIDE
Resource Centre : Selected Abstracts
No.3/2000
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Distance Education
The Asian Distance Learner ed. By Ronnie Carr, Olugbemiro J Jegede, Wong Tat-meng and Yuen Kin-sun. Hong Kong: Open University of Hong Kong Press, 1999.
The 12th Asian Association of Open Universities Conference
had as its theme: "The Asian Distance Learner". This book comprises
selected papers from the Conference, in many cases extensively revised. While the
focus is on Asia, the issues, and at least some of the findings, are relevant to distance
educators in other parts of the world. The articles, most of which are
research-based, cover a wide range of topics related to distance education students and
the institutions in which they study - access, course design and development procedures,
students' approaches to learning, student support systems and aspects of administration.
Also, a number of themes run through many papers in the book, even when they are
not the central focus of the articles concerned, such as: the influence of cultural
context on teaching and learning, and the related issue of the globalization of learning;
the impact of the rapid developments in technology on student learning and course
provision, and the need for research data on how they can be used to improve learning; the
value of sharing knowledge among institutions - perhaps even the necessity for
collaboration in the light of the effects of technology on the operations of both
conventional and distance education institutions.
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Open Teaching Toolkit: Effective Group Work by Sue Cole and others. Milton Keynes : Open University, 1999.
This toolkit is about working in groups and aims to support the practice of "following process" as a means of enhancing the learning that goes on in group contexts. By "following process" the authors mean the capacity to be in touch with what happens in groups and to respond and act in ways that are of benefit to the group. The primary focus is on the role of the tutor (or tutor-counsellor) in running more formal learning groups. The authors hope, however, that many of the principles and practices might also be helpful in advising and supporting students involved in self-directed groups. The premise is that all tutors can gain from closely observing and reflecting upon the processes that take place in the groups in which they are involved. Further, what is learned can aide the way in which tutorials are planned including other group sessions. In particular, the authors give attention to the widespread practice of dividing larger groups into smaller groups for specific learning purposes and identifying at what points it is best to do this and why. The authors look at how the groups are divided into smaller groups; what the groups are asked to do; what to do with what they have done; and what is learned from what happens in smaller groups and how this influences how tutors use such groups in the future.
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Higher Education
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Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise researched by The Task Force on Higher Education and Society. Washington DC : World Bank, 2000.
Higher education is the modern world's basic education, but
many countries are falling further and further behind. The Task Force on Higher
Education and Society explores the current crisis in higher education in developing
countries and outlines a coherent vision of future progress. It presents a powerful
message: higher education is no longer a luxury, it is essential for survival. The
Task Force on Higher Education and Society was convened by the World Bank and UNESCO to
bring together some of the world's foremost education and development experts. This
book reports on eighteen months of research, debate and deliberation.
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Using Emancipatory Action Research for Implementing Self-Evaluation in South African Higher Education Quality Assurance by D.Hay and M.Fourie. In: South African Journal for Higher Education vol.13, no.2, 1999 pp44-53.
Quality assurance of higher education has become a crucial
issue all over the world. In South Africa, it is even more complicated to implement
than in many other countries, because of the fragmentation and inequalities in the higher
education system. One way of overcoming this is by focusing on self-evaluation as a
basis for the quality assurance system. Self-evaluation is a process undertaken by
individuals or members of a group in order to reflect on their activities, achievement of
objectives and performance for the purpose of facilitating improvement or planned change.
Self-evaluation normally has one of two purposes: accountability or improvement,
and it can take place at different levels of the institution. It can also have
different scopes. Because of the natural suspicion of academics to processes that may
interfere with the quality or standards of education, an emancipatory action research
approach to the implementation of self-evaluation in a higher education institution is
proposed and described.
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Using the SAQA Critical Outcomes to Inform Curriculum Planning in Higher Education in
South Africa by R Killen and W Spady. In South African Journal of Higher Education
vol. 13, no. 2, 1999 pp200-208.
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has
defined seven Critical Outcomes and five Developmental Outcomes that it suggests should
inform all teaching and learning and be embodied in all qualifications. These
outcomes form the cornerstone of South Africa's attempts to introduce outcomes based
education (OBE), yet the manner in which they should guide curriculum planning is not
described in any detail by SAQA. This article describes a curriculum design approach
that is consistent with SAQA's broad guidelines and which is feasible within the realities
of higher education in South Africa. The three major steps in the approach are:
defining the purpose of the programme, mapping the key attributes of the graduates, and
developing a framework of significant outcomes for the programme.
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Technology Enhanced Learning
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Changing University Teaching: Reflections on Creating Educational Technologies by Terry
Evans and Daryl Nation. London : Kogan Page, 2000.
Increasing use of communication and information
technologies is resulting in radical change throughout learning communities around the
world. With the rise of the virtual university, coupled with new and innovative
methods of course delivery on and off campus, professionals in higher education are faced
with a range of new opportunities and challenges, problems and solutions. These real
changes to the way practitioners are approaching university teaching, influenced by
economic, political, social and technological factors, are what sit behind and drive the
hype of the virtual university. The book presents a diverse range of ideas, opinions
and practical information. Against the background of new knowledge and new approaches to
teaching, the authors consider how change can improve teaching, but also, essentially, how
the university enterprise itself is changing. With staff structures, roles and
responsibilities all in transition, the book addresses issues of concern for all and
explores in detail the practical process and effects of developing educational
technologies.
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Information Literacy in Schools in the Western Cape: A Preliminary Study by Laura Czerniewicz. Cape Town : Admastor Trust, 1999.
This baseline study is intended to indicate what is known about information literacy in schools in the Western Cape and to identify what information gaps there are to fill in. It also locates the discussion about information literacy in the Western Cape in a broader provincial and policy context, sets out to raise and begin to explore some key issues relating to actual and potential work in information literacy in the Western Cape, and suggests areas for future information literacy projects. The first part of the report contextualises the discussion about information literacy in schools in the province and describes the work of the INFOLIT Project. The report then considers the various policy frameworks in which any potential information literacy initiative in schools in the Western Cape might be located. The second part outlines research and discusses organisations relevant to information literacy in South Africa beyond the Western Cape. It also touches on some relevant information literacy activities in other countries. The third part deals with information literacy activities in the schools sector in the Western Cape. A brief overview of the school sector in the province is provided and the provincial ICT situation is outlined. The last section of this part describes current information literacy activities and plans. The final part of the report is a discussion of the potential activities in wich the INFOLIT Project might engage.
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Simulation - a Bridge Between Theory and Reality: The Case of Electric Circuits by M Ronen and M Eliahu. In: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol. 16, no.1, Mar 2000 pp14-26.
This study aimed to examine the role of a simulation as a potential aid that may help students bridge the gap between theory and reality, in the case of electric circuits. Sixty-three pairs of students aged about 15 yrs were presented with two tasks involving real circuits. An open simulation environment was available as an optional aid for the experimental group. Significant differences were found between the achievements of the groups. The use of the simulation contributed to students' confidence and enhanced their motivation to stay on-task. The detailed analysis revealed the role of the simulation as a source of constructive feedback, helping students identify and correct their misconceptions and cope with the common difficulties of relating formal representations to real circuits and vice versa.
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Telematics in Education: Trends and Issues ed. By Micelle Selinger and John Pearson.
Oxford : Elsevier Science, 1999.
This book provides readers with an examination of the use
of computer based technologies within education. Discussion ranges from whether new
forms of teaching and learning involving telematics can replace existing methods, to how
far collaborative learning can take place through telematics. The authors consider
the possible implications for psychological and organisational issues in education and how
an increased use of telematics could radically alter the relationship
between education and society.
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User Reactions to Videoconferencing: Which Students Cope Best? By Steve Wheeler. In: Educational Media International vol.37, no.1, March 2000 pp31-38.
This article reviews a study conducted to establish the
psychological basis for user responses to digital videoconferencing. Left and right
brain laterality and the demographic factors of age and gender were examined as possible
predictors of user response. Behavioural and affective responses were measured in a
small group of distance learners (n=60). Affective measure 'A' concerned user
perception of equipment functionality and usefulness, and the intention to repeat the
experience whilst behavioural measure 'B' examined anxiety level and self-consciousness.
Significant differences were observed between age groups with older participants
expressing greater satisfaction with functionality and less anxiety overall. A
lesser effect was observed between males and females with the latter reporting higher
satisfaction levels and lower anxiety with the technology. No significant difference
between left and right brain lateralities was observed.
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Youth
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Enterprise Development for Target Groups - Youth: Evaluation of the School Leavers Opportunity Training Programme (SLOT). Pretoria : Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency/Joint Education Trust, 1999.
The School Leavers Opportunity Training Programme (SLOT) is a youth enterprise development programme funded by the Targeted Assistance Division (TAD) of the Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency (Ntsika). In an attempt to establish the impact of the programme, the Joint Education Trust (JET) was contracted to conduct an evaluation of the programme, reporting on its background and structure, outlining the theory of impact around its model, and juxtaposing it (ie, the model) against similar enterprise development models being used in the country. The evaluation would also analyse the different phases of the programme and report on their effectiveness in attaining their phase-specific goals. From the analysis of the programme model, JET was requested to make recommendations regarding benchmark principles to evaluate other youth enterprise development programmes. The final report had to also be inclusive of recommendations regarding the starting, managing and replication of youth enterprise development programmes in the South African context. The research was carried between January and November of 1998. The results of the research are contained in this report.
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ARTICLES
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Problem of Technology Gap Starts With Shortage of Skilled Teachers
By Gary Chapman
Copyright 2000, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved
President Clinton has put the "digital divide" at the top of his deck this past month, pushing the issue into headlines and editorials all over the country. But there is still a great deal of confusion, contradiction and muddled thinking in how politicians and the technology industry are talking about bringing more Americans into the "new economy."
The president convened a White House summit on the new economy in April that was attended by 125 national leaders and experts. He followed that with his national digital-divide tour. He visited both East Palo Alto, the persistent and by-now-familiar symbol of the digital divide, and a Navajo Indian reservation. Then he urged executives at an industry convention in Chicago to do something about the technology gap.
Clinton announced $2.25 billion in proposed federal programs and tax breaks to expand technology access and skills in low-income communities. A dozen or so high-tech companies pledged an additional $200 million in programs aimed at employing more minorities, women and disabled workers.
The White House has tied the issue of the digital divide to the high-tech industry's growing anxiety about the nationwide shortage of skilled technology workers. In East Palo Alto, the president held up a copy of a local newspaper's classified ads section and said there were 10,000 jobs in it that could be filled by local residents if they had the right training.
This is a predictable, if limited, approach to the problem of the digital divide. It helps focus the technology industry's attention by attempting to link the industry's No. 1 problem -- the shortage of workers and the resultant high salaries for technical talent -- to the employment deficits in low-income neighborhoods.
In other words, the president is trying to show an otherwise preoccupied industry that its self-interest is attached to closing the digital divide.But both the White House and the technology industry need to grapple with some significant holes in their thinking. Before we can start to turn out more skilled technology workers, for example, we need more people who can train those workers.
Barbara Simons, president of the Assn. for Computing Machinery, told the participants at the White House summit last month that when teachers acquire advanced technology training, they often leave teaching for higher-paying jobs in the industry itself. This was confirmed recently in a report by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley organization.
"Systems administrators can get starting salaries of $80,000 per year in the valley now," Simons said. "And many of these people have no degree in computer science." That figure is often double or more the salary of public school teachers, and there's far more money to be made after just a few years in the private sector.
The lack of qualified teachers in high-tech subjects is reaching crisis proportions in schools, from K-12 to top-tier university research programs. Some experts refer to this as the "seed corn" problem. That is, if we eat our seed corn -- meaning the people who will train the future generation of technologists -- we may stifle economic growth altogether.
There are many obstacles to a solution. Teachers unions, for example, have opposed salary differentials for teachers in public schools. But the most fundamental obstacle is that most schools and universities simply can't pay salaries competitive with the private sector.
This problem is compounded by the technology industry's campaign to keep the Internet a tax-free zone. If e-commerce grows as expected and remains tax-free, public revenues will decline and the prospect of improving schools and raising teacher salaries will become even more remote.
The technology industry is sending mixed signals about the kinds of workers it needs. Top-level managers consistently say they want workers with generic skills such as problem-solving, communication, ability for teamwork and independent initiative.
But the classified ads tell a different story: There, employers say they want people with specific technical skills and experience. The employment ads are a blizzard of technical acronyms and jargon that must be discouraging to young job-seekers.
Technical workers also know they are largely self-taught. Young computer experts even complain that school programs get in the way of what they need and want to know.
Judith Lambrecht, a business professor at the University of Minnesota, agrees that most formal training programs are not very helpful. "Students who just get the basics, and that's all, never really link it to real-world problems. This is what people have when they're self-taught," she said.
The best training programs get students into internships, real-world exercises and problem-solving and foster students' ability to tinker with software and hardware, she said.
But for most schools, there's an imperative pointing to "efficiency, credits and serving lots of students at once," Lambrecht says. "That's why teaching devolves into such systematic, mindless learning," she says, exactly the opposite of what attracts or prepares students.
Finally, there's a spectacular gulf between how people learn technology skills and the current enthusiasm for standardized tests. Both Al Gore and George W. Bush have endorsed standardized tests for school accountability. Bush has staked his reputation for educational improvement in Texas on the state's public school exam.
But there is little or no connection between such tests and acquiring technology skills. Indeed, some Texas schools have de-emphasized computer use because the technology is a distraction from preparing their students for the state test.
Lambrecht says the best practices for technology training and standardized testing "are diametrically opposed."
"It's hard to do project-based learning and get predictable outcomes," she says.
Standardized testing turns out students who are more or less the same, shaped by the questions on the test, whereas the tech industry wants innovators, tinkerers and people who think "outside the box."
Controversies about educational philosophies and approaches are not new in the U.S. and probably will never go away. But it's certainly time for the technology industry and politicians to get beyond empty, uninformed and contradictory placebos and photo ops with poor people, and to start to engage the hard problems we need to solve.
Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu.
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TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
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Taken from Techno-Update, 28 April 2000
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With the increase in the growth of viruses and Trojan programs, many computer users have turned to the Internet as a fast and easy tool to warn friends and co-workers of these threats. At the same time, there has also been a growth of virus hoax warnings. These warnings often describe fantastical or impossible virus or Trojan program characteristics, but appear to be real or forwarding these hoax warnings to friends and co-workers only perpetuates the problem. Here are some points to remember when receiving or reading email messages:
1. If you receive an email with an attached file from an
unknown source, simply delete it.
2. Viruses and Trojan programs must have code that is executed in order to infect. If you
"double-click" an attached file on an email message, you are executing code and
may infect your machine.
For more information go to: http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoax.asp
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Taken from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter' (www.e-accessibility.com)
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TALKING TO THE WEB? JUST SAY QUACK
A new breed of web portal that you can access by ordinary telephone – no need for a 'web-enabled' mobile phone - is under development in the US and set to cross the Atlantic, in a potentially valuable development for blind and visually impaired web users.
Several big players have already explored the possibilities of voice access to their e-commerce sites in the US including telecoms giant AT&T, the online video store BigStar.com and the auction site Priceline.com. However, it is now recognised that the potential of voice access extends beyond e-commerce to new 'voice portals' - gateways to a whole range of information online that can be accessed using a phone instead of a visual browser.
The services generally use an automated system that responds to a combination of voice and key-pad commands. They can then translate the information you give into commands to seek certain information from the internet, which can then be relayed back to you using a computer-generated voice.
One of the first voice portals, launched this month across the US, is Quack.com, which allows anyone to access specific information from the internet by phone. Users dial a freephone number and speak to an automated host who guides the caller to the information they want by asking simple questions.
Central to the service is its ability to offer 'personalised' information. When users sign up, they key in preferences on the Quack.com web site which then allows callers to automatically access information on specific share prices, regional weather, specific sports teams and other topics via the phone.
"While our service wasn't originally designed with visually impaired people in mind, it has become apparent that it's very useful for that particular group," Quack spokesman Alex Quilici told E-Access Bulletin. He said visually impaired users have offered positive feedback and suggestions for additional services.
Information (which is channelled from a variety of different web sources) is currently limited to news and lifestyle topics including the weather, film reviews and news, restaurants, sports, stocks and shares, travel and traffic news. Quack intends to offer more sophisticated services in due course, including the ability to shop online. "As a result of the technology's flexibility, the company can quickly add new applications and features, and a range of new consumer services is currently in development," the company says.
Just as impressive as the technology is the fact that Quack is free to use. Calls are made to freephone numbers and registration is free. So where's the catch? Although the Quack web site fails to refer to it directly, the service does carry short advertisements which are slotted in depending on what information is being accessed by the caller. However, Quilici says that all ads are opt-in (in other words the user has an option to request further details) and must be informative - "For example, if someone requests a baseball score for the Minnesota Twins, the ad might be 'would you like to know about the Twins upcoming home games?"
So when will the UK see its first voice portal? Given the companies involved in voice access to the internet a UK appearance appears certain in the near future. IBM, AT&T, Amazon.com and Deloitte and Touche are all involved in developing the technology and it is inevitable they will be looking to markets beyond the US in the next few years.
For more on Quack see: www.quack.com
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Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
neilshel@icon.co.za
www.saide.org.za
* To view an archive of previous updates visit: www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm
* For resources on distance education and technology use in Southern Africa visit: www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm
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