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This TAD Consortium Information Service has been sponsored by Juta

Publishers

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Dear friends,

Please note that the next meeting of the TAD Consortium will take place

between 09:00 and 13:00 on 4 June, at Technikon SA (full directions to

follow with the agenda). Remember that the minutes are only a partial

reflection of meetings, so we hope to see you there. A slightly extended tea

is also incorporated in the agenda to allow more time for networking!!!

Below are some more snippets of information I thought you may find useful.

Regards

Neil Butcher

Study: Net use eclipsing TV

By Jim Hu

Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM

March 30, 1998, 5:10 p.m. PT

Web users are now spending as much time on the Internet as they are watching

television--if not more, a new study says.

WebCensus, a survey conducted by investment firm Hambrecht & Quist and Web

advertisement network LinkExchange, broke down the time Web users dedicate

to various media during the course of a day. Results showed that 31 percent

of the time was spent on the Internet, compared to 29 percent devoted to

watching television. Further breakdown found radio taking up 24 percent of

the time, and print media such as newspapers and magazines pulling up the

rear with 16 percent.

According to Hambrecht & Quist analyst Daniel Rimer, the figures underscore

a narrowing chasm between television and the Internet--media whose

technologies continue to converge.

"Junkies of Internet are junkies of media in general, especially

television," said Rimer. "TV users are typically more likely to use the

Internet in very large amounts. We believe there is a correlation between

heavy TV users and heavy Internet users. As the Internet matures and more

bandwidth becomes available, the correlation will increase, because the

experience on the Internet will not only more additive to television, but it

will also be a more immersive."

The study also found that 58 percent of those surveyed use the Internet in

addition to traditional media. According to Adam Schoenfeld, an analyst at

Jupiter Communications, the figure reflects the growing phenomenon of

simultaneous media usage between the Internet and television, which may open

up a lot of opportunities for cross-media promotion.

Schoenfeld places particular significance on marquee sporting events as one

of the first examples of simultaneous usage. Jupiter studies have shown that

during these sporting events, 50 percent surveyed said they had visited a

sports Web site when the program mentioned a URL during the broadcast.

Moreover, during the events, 33 percent of online users had an interest in

accessing Web content while simultaneously watching sports on television.

But while these figures may paint a rosy portrait of the Internet and

television, the study nonetheless showed signs of defection to the Internet.

When WebCensus asked which media Internet users sacrificed for the Web, 22

percent spent less time watching television; 12 percent spent less time

reading newspapers and magazines; and 3 percent sacrificed radio time.

"People are changing the channel. Not to a new TV channel, but changing to

the Internet as a new channel to communicate," said Kate Delhagen, an

analyst at Forrester Research.

Simultaneous usage aside, Schoenfeld also agreed. "It's indisputable that

the Web is siphoning usage form traditional media," he said. "No media

company can ignore the Web if they want to keep their slice of the pie."

Evidence of traditional media expanding their online presence continues to

grow. Today, for example, NBC announced it would be partnering with Net

company Launch Media to create a cobranded music site on NBC.com, featuring

multimedia content and e-commerce. NBC also took a minority stake in Launch.

(See related story)

Additional results from the survey also provided a demographic look at Web

users. Of the 100,000 Netizens that participated in the study, 40 percent

were female, which the study considered a more balanced distribution. The

average participant was 30 years old, college educated, and had a yearly

income of $50,000.

WebCensus, which was advertised throughout the LinkExchange network, offered

a voluntary questionnaire over a two-month period earlier this year. It

polled roughly 100,000 Netizens.

AN ONLINE INTERNET COURSE FOR EDUCATORS AND TRAINERS

**Delivered by distance online via FirstClass**

The Institute of Education, University of London, offers a well-established

part-time Certificate in Online Education and Training.

This course is delivered at a distance and is designed to help educators and

trainers to share their experiences of the problems of the medium, and to

discuss the relevant principles that should apply to this kind of course

delivery.

Crucially, it offers participants the chance to experience for themselves

the pros and cons of computer-mediated delivery. It uses the FirstClass

conferencing system, which integrates electronic mail with group

conferencing in a graphical bulletin board style.

Topics covered include: collaborative learning, curriculum and pedagogy in

computer-mediated courses, organisational innovation, and autonomous

learning, research and resources.

The next intake to this Certificate will be in October 1998, and the course

will run for 20 weeks.

The Institute of Education is a postgraduate college of the University of

London and is one of the premier international institutions in the field of

teacher education and of research into all aspects of educational practice,

theory and policy.

For further information about the Online Certificate please contact Sarah

Copyright c 1998 Nando.net

Copyright c 1998 Scripps Howard

lecture and students who just listen to them, passively taking notes, are

becoming passe. These days, there's more and more to getting -- and

giving -- a college education than simply showing up for class a few hours a

week.

Personal computers, the Internet, video, audio, CD-ROM, e-mail and the World

Wide Web have gone to college, opening new worlds of teaching and learning,

in and out of class.

The possibilities are catching on fast. A survey shows use of e-mail for

out-of-class instruction more than tripling and use of sophisticated

in-class slide presentations more than doubling in just three years. About a

third of college classes now use one or the other of these new tools.

Colleges -- larger ones, especially -- are investing in the hardware for

these and other technologies, most conspicuously to equip "smart," or

"high-tech," classrooms.

Unknown just a few years ago, these wired-for-media classrooms have become

standard in new buildings. Classrooms in McDonnell Douglas Hall, which

opened last fall as the new home of St. Louis University's Parks College,

were planned that way from the start. So were those in Goldfarb Hall, the

social work building nearing completion at Washington University, also in

St. Louis.

Meanwhile, these and other colleges are rewiring and refitting their old

chalk-and-blackboard classrooms to bring them up to technological par.

New or renewed, the resulting spaces are more teaching-learning theaters

than lecture halls. Advocates say any professor can use the gear to make

classes livelier and any subject more engaging to a generation of students

weaned on television and raised on computers.

Equipment varies from room to room and campus to campus, but sophisticated

projectors and screens are givens, making it possible for:

A business class to work a spreadsheet together.

Science classes to watch animations of human organs and natural processes.

Students in any class to watch multicolored, computer-generated slides,

outlining the professor's main points.

Professors custom make the slides, using the same software business people

use to make their slick point-by-point presentations. Robert L. Bauer, an

associate professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, outlines on

slides his lectures for an introductory geology course.

In class he projects those slides on one screen and uses another to show

photographs and diagrams of the geological features he is talking about.

Students sit heads-up.

"Ideally, what this does is make note-taking a lot easier for the students

and reinforce visually what I'm saying so they can actually listen to what's

going on and, I hope, get more involved in the subject," Bauer says.

Students say they like slide shows because professors keep eye contact and

aren't always turning their backs on classes to write on a blackboard.

Lindsay Miller, a junior at the University of Missouri from St. Charles,

Mo., likes slide outlines for an even more practical reason. "It's easier to

read instead of their handwriting," she says. "It's usually easier to

follow." And the words on the slides are mercifully clear, even to students

in the back row of a large lecture hall.

Bauer, who also uses CD-ROM to show his geology students animations of

phenomena like volcanic eruptions, finds that teaching this newer,

higher-tech way takes more work. "I have to spend more time putting together

the material," he says.

Nobody says technology makes lighter work. "Our faculty say if they taught

the old way they would present about one-eighth of the material," says Rick

Breslin, provost of St. Louis University. "Technology increases the amount

of learning material available, and the teacher's job is to amass it for the

student. The new way is more demanding of everybody."

It may not seem so at first. Take e-mail, which started out so innocently,

looking like little more than a time-saving convenience. Then students

discovered they could use e-mail to ask professors questions any time of the

day or night.

The students doing so are likely to include not just the usual suspects who

readily speak up in class, hang around afterward or hunt down professors in

their offices. E-mail emboldens the shy.

"You feel more confident contacting a professor over an e-mail address than

you would face to face," says Sandy Thomas, a senior at Southern Illinois

University at Edwardsville, Ill.

Kristen Johnson, a sophomore at Washington University, agrees. E-mail, she

says, "gives you a certain sense of anonymity. In a big lecture hall I'm not

going to raise my hand and have everybody stare at me. I don't want to show

my face if I have a really dumb question."

More and more now, professors are initiating the e-mail exchange. Abed Ali,

a senior at Washington University, has watched this happen. "E-mail used to

be supplemental," he says. "Now you get assignments on it."

Using what amounts to bulk e-mail, professors send messages or assignments

to whole classes of students at once. Another twist on the same technology

puts students together in online groups, where they ask one another

questions about their courses or do joint projects, electronically

exchanging and critiquing drafts of their work as they go along.

Students in three political science classes at the University of Missouri at

Columbia are studying federal policy-making this semester by playing the

roles of congressmen, lobbyists and bureaucrats. The three groups use e-mail

to develop together their position papers and model bills and regulations.

"The hands-on approach is the best way to learn," says junior Melissa

Matovich, who is taking two of those classes. "It really throws you into

it." In addition to e-mail, her part in the project has taken her to the

Internet to download transcripts of congressional hearings, important

"up-to-the minute information" not available elsewhere.

James Endersby, one of three professors involved, says the exercise drives

home its lessons better than the "passive learning" that happens when

students only go to lectures and read textbooks. "We couldn't do this

without technology," he says.

All three groups will e-mail in their final completed work. Turning in

"papers" this way "takes a little more pressure off you," especially when

the professor sets a deadline of midnight on the due date, says Lori Cohen,

a Washington University senior.

A course Web site eliminates much of the rest of the paperwork. This is the

alternative to hard-copy syllabuses and handouts for a technologically adept

professor like Roger A. Gafke at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

His site for one of his journalism classes is typical. It's a one-stop guide

to the class schedule, policies, main topics, class members, outside

readings and not just assignments but also hints on how best to do them.

A similar Web site of a certain professor at SIUE is a boon to a class that

has "a lot of trouble keeping up with him sometimes," says junior Mary Ann

Morelli.

E-mail and Web sites add to scheduled class hours a kind of virtual class

time that never ends. "The class isn't over at 5:30 on Tuesday," said Abed.

Not when the class he's talking about requires a certain amount of online

time between physical meetings.

Students say they like the freedom of logging on and plugging into a class

at will -- at 3 a.m. if they like. One hears fewer complaints about whatever

extra work is involved than about those few professors who don't answer

their e-mail promptly.

Clearly, technology has changed the way students and professors relate to

each other.

"E-mail has changed things like office hours," says Endersby. "I don't get

as many students coming in. A student who would be hesitant to come in

during office hours doesn't hesitate to send me e-mail."

Gafke says technology has brought him "a lot closer to the students." "I

don't think it replaces anything," he says. "It just enriches the

relationship."

Still, some professors worry about losing one-on-one, eye-to-eye time with

students. Others fear the new technologies will encourage colleges to make

classes larger, thereby eliminating some of their jobs. And with teaching

generally less important than publishing for getting tenure, younger faculty

members may see the time it takes to learn the new technologies as time

better spent writing and doing research.

>From other perspectives, professors aren't getting up to speed fast enough.

"A lot of professors are using technology to enhance what they've been doing

for 300 years," says James Morrison, an education professor and expert on

educational technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Probably less than 5 percent are really using technology to enhance active

learning."

Steven Gilbert, senior associate of TLT Group, a nonprofit organization that

studies technology in education, sees another problem. Too often, he says,

colleges are "focusing on the technology first in designing their rooms

instead of focusing on the way teachers and students interact in that

classroom."

Typically, he notices, the new classrooms are designed the same old way --

all student desks facing forward, implying the same old giver-taker

relationship between professor and students.

Gilbert also sees and fears for a widening gap between colleges that can

afford the new technologies and colleges that can't, with woe to the

graduates of those that can't.

As he says, "Employers want technologically astute graduates."

By SUSAN THOMSON, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

What is GEL? GEL is a multimedia system encouraging environmental

awareness and action that aims to generate positive family and community

action through its younger members. It is non-political,

non-denominational and non-threatening.

The foundation for GEL is 6 jargon-free, modular,sequential,

cross-curriculum charts addressing all teaching/learning areas from

beginning primary school to upper secondary levels. It includes

print-based materials, CD-ROMs, and Internet on-line support and is based

on 46 integrated, but self-contained, modules.

Each chart is organised into 6 strands -

1. Quality of water, land, air, atmosphere and Cleaner Production module.

2. Sustainability of resources through reducing, reusing, recycling,

remaking.

3. Plants

4. Animals

5. National pride and accomplishments.

6. National heritage, social interaction and work practices - volunteer

and paid work.

92 books for teachers and/or students contain 56 pages and address the

individual sub-strands or modules. Each book is modular in nature to

address the key learning outcomes across the curriculum - as such content

can be accessed by either horizontal or vertical arrangements. The teacher

support manuals provide suggestions for classroom organization, ideas for

assessment and evaluation, and high interest activities for immediate use

- but requiring few materials or resources.

CD-ROMs present interactive adventures for each of the sub-strands through

the E-Team. E-Team members have personalities that match areas of Bloom's

taxonomy. with Ellie, Grilla, Ro, Purr, Wally and OWL (Old Wise Leader)

acting as mentors to guide and encourage students through their

adventures.

The Internet on-line support has not yet been released, but contains extra

information, activities and resources to further explore each sub-strand.

GEL is unique in that it is the only completely integrated and

cross-curriculum program of global significance possessing the essential

components of system, content and process which are clearly defined,

extensively developed and educationally relevent. It integrates

traditional curriculum areas with local, national and global environmental

issues. It can be adopted and adapted totally or partially for

incorporation into existing national curricula.

GEL program components have been designed to embrace the linguistic,

cultural, environmental, geographic and technological requirements of

individual countries. It can also be translated, re-acculturated,

repackaged or used to address specific priorities determined by individual

countries.

Affermative recognition of GEL has been achieved from a number of national

and international organisations, including the United Nations Environment

Programme, the Earth Charter, the Habitat Trust, the Banksia Environmental

Foundation and Save the Children. GEL was shown with much success at the

First Asia-Pacific Round Table in Cleaner Production in Bangkok last

November, and discussed with much interest in China during the last

fortnight.

The GEL marketing strategy provides for one whole-of-country license to be

taken at government/NGO level, a team working within the specified country

to address particular needs and priorities, and an unlimited number of

units able to be distributed at cost.

GEL does not spread 'doom and gloom' but provides immediate insight and

hope about how to achieve a happy and sustainable future. 39 countries in

the developed and developing world have already commenced dialogue

concerning how their students, families and communities can become

involved.

I hope that this outline of GEL has been of assistance, and am willing to

be your conduit into this much-needed program. GEL is about teamwork and

networking rather than the setting up of a business monolith - so

comments, suggestions and expressions of interest are extremely welcome.

Robert Palmer

robertp@ne.com.au

Report: Traffic, commerce on Internet growing by leaps and bounds

By Ted Bridis, Associated Press, 04/15/98 17:18

WASHINGTON (AP) - Traffic on the Internet is doubling every 100 days, the

government said Wednesday in the latest snapshot of the exploding

information technology industry. Business use is growing fastest, but as

many as 62 million Americans are now using the worldwide network and are

even getting comfortable making credit card purchases.

The Commerce Department said 10 million people across the United States and

Canada made purchases - from airline tickets to books to automobiles - on

the World Wide Web by the end of 1997, up from 7.4 million people six months

earlier.

It said business-to-business purchases, such as the wholesale purchase of

supplies, could reach $300 billion by 2002 and routinely save some of

America's largest companies hundreds of millions of dollars by lowering

their costs and reducing inventories.

``What is the report telling us? That the digital economy is alive and well

and growing,'' Commerce Secretary William M. Daley said.

But the department cautioned that consumers ``must be more comfortable that

credit card and personal information given online will not be tampered with,

stolen or misused'' before the potential of digital commerce is realized.

Some customers who already have made purchases say they aren't particularly

worried about the chance for credit theft. Edith Sorenson of Houston said

she often buys books and makes travel arrangements, but generally only from

established Web sites she's familiar with.

``I usually feel pretty comfortable with it,'' Sorenson said. ``I'm a

terrible shopper, anyway. I hate to leave my house. And with books - it

takes like three or four days to get here. (Brick-and-mortar) book stores

are badly stocked.''

``I bought a cigar humidor on the Internet and a print of a picture I saw at

a museum, and in both cases I used my credit card,'' said Peter Lucht of

Washington, D.C. ``I felt as comfortable doing that as I do giving it over

the phone, maybe even more because of the encryption technology (retailers)

say they're using.''

Other key findings of the report:

-The Internet is growing faster than all other technologies that have

preceded it. Radio existed for 38 years before it had 50 million listeners,

and television took 13 years to reach that mark. The Internet crossed the

line in just four years.

-In 1994, a mere 3 million people were connected to the Internet. By the end

of last year, more than 100 million worldwide were using it, including 62

million Americans. Other estimates have put that number slightly lower, at

49 million Americans.

-The information technology industry is growing twice as fast as the overall

economy. Without information technology, inflation in 1997 would have been

3.1 percent, more than a full percentage point higher than the 2 percent it

was.

-Workers in the information technology industry earn an average of almost

$46,000 annually, compared to an average of $28,000 in the private sector.

Workers in the software and service industries are the highest wage earners,

at almost $56,000 annually.

``Information technology is truly driving the U.S. economy - more than

previous estimates had revealed,'' said Rhett Dawson, president of the

Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington-based trade group of

U.S. information technology companies.

The report recommended that governments stay out of the growing industry,

saying electronic commerce shouldn't be ``burdened with extensive

regulation, taxation or censorship.''

Government instead should help provide legal frameworks for business on the

Internet, and rules should result from ``private collective action, not

government regulation'' whenever possible, the report said.

Last month, the National Governor's Association and local officials endorsed

legislation by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., to impose a three-year

moratorium on new Internet taxes. President Clinton also support the bill,

which is pending in Congress.

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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