Below is a description of the August issue of The Technology Source, a free
webzine at
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS.
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 are up to this challenge,
please review our call for manuscripts at
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/call.asp
Jim
--
James L. Morrison
morrison@unc.edu
Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall
Editor, On the Horizon The University of North
http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon Carolina at Chapel Hill
Editor, The Technology Source Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS Phone: 919 962-2517
Fax: 919 962-1693
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Our Vision article for August comes to us from Greg Kearsley, who outlines
the criteria used for evaluating online courses for the Paul Allen
Foundation Virtual Education contest. From his vantage point as a contest
judge, Kearsley was able to determine the significance not only of online
courses themselves, but also of the standards used to measure them. He also
comments on a number of trends describing the direction of online education.
In this month's Commentary, Subbiah Arunachalam compares educational
resources and technologies in developing countries to those available in
developed nations, arguing that the lack of comparable communication
technologies and Internet access in developing countries limits the
participation of scientists in those countries from the collective
international dialogue necessary for knowledge production.
Barbara Horgan, in the Faculty and Staff Development section, focuses on how
an institution can develop a program or set of strategies that will enable
faculty to use technology to enhance teaching and learning.
In this month's Case Study, David Fetterman of Stanford University discusses
his experience with virtual classrooms. In the Stanford School of
Education's Policy Analysis and Evaluation MA program, Fetterman argues, his
classes represent "a living laboratory in which to explore educational
policy and put evaluation theories and techniques into practice."
Our Site of the Month for August is The Millennium Project, hosted by the
Academy for Educational Development's National Demonstration Library for
Interactive Information Technologies. This site, which aims to provide a
forum for contemporary debates surrounding the incorporation of technologies
in the classroom, offers an archive of past debates, a yearly real-time
online conference, and a library of relevant studies, reports, and articles.
In this month's letters to the editor, Jim Mazou� responds to Ed Neal's
criticism of Gerald Schutte's comparative study of computer-mediated and
classroom-based learning. In doing so, Mazou� re-emphasizes a few of
Schutte's points, including the significance of the "inherent structural
flexibility of online information access and collaboration" and argues that
Schutte's conclusions concerning the greater effectiveness of computer-based
learning can be sustained despite Neal's objections. Ed Neal responds to
these points in the second letter.