has been sponsored by Juta Publishers

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Dear friends,

Attached please find the latest selection of information snippets. Please

remember to diarize the next TAD meeting, taking place at Microsoft South

Regards

Neil Butcher

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Date: 16-09-98

Source: The Associated Press

Subject: Online university is virtually empty

SALT LAKE CITY -- Only 10 students have enrolled in the Western Governors

University since the Internet-based school spanning 17 states opened in

cyberspace this month.

The school is still processing 75 applications. WGU spokesman Jeff Xouris

said enrollment has been snarled by problems -- computer problems.

Officials had set an enrollment goal of 1,000 by the end of this term.

"It would have been great to have a massive enrollment when we first

(opened), but we're finding students want to know more ... they want to

of marketing. "It's a real new idea."

The idea for a virtual university came out of a Western Governors

Association meeting three years ago as a way of serving sparsely populated

areas at a low cost.

WGU has a staff of about 20 working in Denver and Salt Lake City and has

raised $9.5 million in public and private funds so far. It does not offer

any of its own classes, but acts as a broker for Internet and television

classes provided by existing schools, who charge whatever they want.

The university has not received accreditation and currently offers only

two-year associate of arts degrees.

In addition to the Internet classes, WGU offers competency-based degrees

which will be awarded to students who pass WGU's tests. There are no

requirements that any classes be taken.

That is one of the reasons for the slow enrollment, Edwards said. Students

want to talk to WGU advisers to learn more about how to get a degree, not

just take a few courses.

************************

Below is a description of the September issue of The Technology Source, a

As always, we seek illuminating articles that will assist educators as they

face the challenge of integrating information technology tools in teaching

and in managing educational organizations. If you would like to write such

an article, please review our call for manuscripts at

James L. Morrison morrison@unc.edu

Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall

Editor, On the Horizon The University of North

Editor, The Technology Source Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500

Fax: 919 962-1693

-------------------------

In September's Vision article, Terrence Redding explores the world of

distance education as he discusses ways in which Internet technology

overcomes many of the limits of traditional education. He suggests that

Global Learn Day, a yearly conference on and celebration of the use of

technology in education, may serve as a gateway to the future of online

interaction.

Our Commentary for this month comes to us from Brett Swope, who debates the

future of the written word as embodied by the many different forms of

electronic books currently in development. Each of these books has

different

features and a unique format, and there are both advantages and

disadvantages to each. New horizons are within our reach, if we can decide

which roads will bring us to them.

In using new technologies in distance education, it often seems as though

they dehumanize and limit the interaction between instructor and student.

But if used to their full potential, telecommunications and Internet

technology can actually allow for greater interactivity among the

participants. Stephen Buchanan illustrates this for us in this month's Case

Study.

Iola Peed-Neal offers us "teaching centers, instructional technology, and

course development" in this month's Faculty and Staff Development section.

By outlining a generic model for course development, she addresses the

development. Both the faculty involved and the centers assisting them have

certain rights and responsibilities, and being aware of this fact can lead

to better and more fruitful interaction.

This issue's Site of the Month features The League for Innovation in the

Community College, a group that encourages experimentation and new forms of

teaching in community colleges, technical institutes, and other

organizations. By sponsoring projects and providing useful links in the

for educators in community colleges and elsewhere.

The debate continues to rage over virtual versus classroom learning, as

Jerald Schutte and Ed Neal respond to critiques in this month's Letters to

the Editor. Schutte responds to Neal's earlier criticisms by further

explaining the design and methodology of his study comparing the two

delivery systems, and Neal responds to earlier letters from Ralston,

Ehrmann, and Brown in defense of Schutte's study and the Flashlight

project.

**********************

Acacia is announcing the availability of a new document on the Internet.

"Telecentre Research Framework for Acacia" is a comprehensive report that

outlines the evaluation and impact assessment framework for Acacia's

telecentre projects.

The report are available at the following URL:

****Note: The report is available in the original written format. Email

users without WWW access can use a Web-to-Email service to retrieve the

report. In order to do that, send an email message to

getweb@unganisha.idrc.ca with the body containing GET

Frank Tulus

Research Officer - The Acacia Initiative

International Development Research Centre

Tel: 613-236-6163 ext. 2605

Fax: 613-567-7749

E-mail: ftulus@idrc.ca

*************************************

United Nations launches online program to protect domestic animals

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net

Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

Siberian

cattle, Mozambican pigs and Kazakh dromedaries are some of the 1,700

domestic animal species a United Nations agency hopes to save from

extinction through a new online program.

Each of the species has developed unique adaptations: Siberian cattle can

tolerate temperatures of -140 degrees, while Mozambican pigs are resistant

to African swine fever and Kazakh dromedaries produce nourishing milk on

little water or food.

On Monday, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization launched an

interactive database on the Internet -- also available on CD-ROM -- known

The program aims to help farmers and scientists around the world exchange

views on how to safeguard dwindling species or discover where the genes of

animals resistant to a particular disease or adapted to a particular

Keith Hammond of the FAO's Animal Genetic Resources called saving the

animals "cheap insurance." He said scientific breakthroughs about

nutritional needs, the outbreak of new diseases or changes in climate could

all prompt the need for animal species currently at risk of extinction.

"If we did nothing for the next 30 years, most (of the 1,700 species) would

be lost," Hammond said. About 30 percent of the world's domestic animal

breeds risk extinction, he said, and they are being lost at about one

species per week.

According to the FAO, the livelihood of 2 billion people depends at least

partly on domestic animals.

***************

This information was supplied by George(s) Lessard

The CBA is a membership-based organisation (including national radio and

television stations in over 50 countries throughout the Commonwealth) which

trains broadcasting organisations, fosters freedom of information,

disseminates broadcasting information, promotes public service

NEWSFLASH - Commonwealth Television

Commonwealth Broadcaster Directory 1998

Links to other broadcasting related sites

Contact the CBA

Secretariat of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association

17 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1AA.

Tel: 171 583 5550

Fax: 171 583 5549

email:

cba@cba.org.uk

*******************

here are two publications for your reading pleasure:

"Cyberspace as an Academic Publishing Medium: Observations and Proposals."

New York University: The WWW Journal of Online Education (JOE). URL:

The e-journal URL is:

It's also my pleasure to announce the fruition of another project:

"East-West Biculturalism," a Web study tour for Global Learn Day:

Collegially,

Steve McCarty

Professor, Kagawa Junior College, Japan

President, World Association for Online Education

*********************

The Commonwealth of Learning will be hosting a Pan Commonwealth Forum on

Open Learning jointly with the Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam and

Universiti Brunei Darussalam from 1 - 5 March, 1999 at the International

Convention Centre in Brunei Darussalam.

To enable a wider participation and discussion, four virtual conferences

have been organised to take place preceding the Forum.

1. Distance Education and Challenged Communities (1 - 22 October 1998)

Moderated by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President and CEO, The

Commonwealth of Learning

2. Library/Information Systems and Student Support (10 - 30 November 1998)

Moderated jointly by Dr. Neela Jagannathan, University Librarian and

Information Officer, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi

National Open University and Ms. Elizabeth F. Watson, Librarian, Learning

Resource Centre, The University of the West Indies.

3. Accreditation/Quality Assurance/Credit Banking (11- 29 January 1999)

Dr. David Woodhouse, Director, New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit

4. Staff Development (date and moderator to be announced later)

may be sent to:

Angela Kwan
Forum Executive Co-ordinator
Pan Commonwealth Forum
The Commonwealth of Learning
1285 West Broadway, Suite 600
Vancouver BC V6H 3X8
CANADA

***************************

needs of our two principle audiences: practitioners and learners.

Practitioners include educators, trainers, researchers, administrators and

anyone interested in the use of technologies in teaching and learning in

traditional and nontraditional learning environments. Learners can be any

one of the growing number engaged in lifelong learning, including workers

in

corporate training programmes, learners in community-based programmes and

post-secondary students studying on- and off-campuses.

technologies for learning (tfl)

* The NODE's information about learning technologies has been reorganized

into a searchable database. The information in this database will help you

in deciding which technologies to employ in your teaching.

* The NODE's collection of tfl special topic resources deal with issues

arising from the use of technologies in teaching and learning.

* networking, the NODE's learning technologies newsletter, is a free

electronic news publication reporting on technology issues of relevance to

the Canadian post-secondary sector.

* NODE forums give you the opportunity to network with colleagues and to

share expertise around areas of common concern.

* professional contacts is a valuable resource for helping you find people

and organizations with an interest in learning technologies.

* upcoming events is an up-to-date listing of major conferences and events

of relevance to the post-secondary educational technology community.

* The reference shelf, a listing of online basic reference tools, as well

* The virtual librarian, which provides resources on how to search for and

evaluate information on the Internet.

* The study buddy, which includes tips to plan effectively, write

* The technology toolkit, which explains common Internet applications,

including e-mail, mailing lists, and Web browsers.

* The course databases page, which provides links to the NODE's database of

distance education courses available at Ontario post-secondary institutions

as well as to other databases of distance education courses worldwide.

We invite you to peruse our redesigned site, and to forward this message to

your colleagues.

--Leslie Fournier

**************

The paper "Gender and Telecommunications, an Agenda for Policy" - prepared

by the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UN/INTECH)

and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is on-line at:

***********************************************************

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

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