CIT INFOBITS April 2000 No. 22 ISSN 1521-9275 About INFOBITS INFOBITS is an electronic service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information technology and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. ...................................................................... The Myth of the Dying Book and Book Industry University California Press Books Online Benchmarks for Distance Learning If John Dewey Were Alive Today, He'd Be a Webhead Report on Intellectual Property Rights in Academe Teaching with Technology Resource Site Virtual 3-D Libraries Project Recommended Reading ...................................................................... THE MYTH OF THE DYING BOOK AND BOOK INDUSTRY Based on recent articles and projects, the predicted death of the book, and concomitantly, the book industry, may be overstated. The following items point not to the book's death, but to its metamorphosis into a new format that promises to enhance the dissemination of knowledge. Over the next five years the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) will collaborate with learned societies and university presses "to assist scholars in the electronic publishing of monographs in history, to help assure the continued viability of the history monograph in today's changing publishing environment, and to explore the intellectual possibilities of new technologies." With a $3 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation the History E-Book Project will convert 500 essential, backlist history monographs into electronic format and publish them on the Web. For more details on the History E-Book Project link to http://www.historyEbook.org/ The American Council of Learned Societies is a private non-profit federation of sixty-one national organizations. Its mission is "the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of relations among the national societies devoted to such studies." For more information, contact: American Council of Learned Societies, 228 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017-3398 USA; tel: 212-697-1505; fax: 212-949-8058; Web: http://www.acls.org/ In "The Rattle of Pebbles" [THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, April 27, 2000], Jason Epstein predicts that in the next decades the book publishing industry as we know it will be "altered almost beyond recognition." In his vision of the future the "obstacles imposed between readers and writers by traditional publishing technologies . . . will wither away." The entire article is available online at http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWfeatdisplay.cgi?20000427055 The New York Review of Books [ISSN: 0028-7504] is published by The New York Review of Books, 1755 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10019-3780 USA; Web: http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/subscriptions.html Annual subscriptions are $58/US, $78/Canada, $88/all other countries. John Cole, director of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, argues for a collaboration between digital technology and the book community ["Printed Knowledge: Myth of the Dying Book," CIVILIZATION, THE MAGAZINE OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, April/May 2000]. While he believes that the traditional book will remain a staple in many fields (fiction, poetry, humanities, arts), Cole sees new technologies creating opportunities for new kinds of books. The article is one of several exploring the issue's theme of "The Knowledge Age." The issue is available on the Web (until the next issue is published) at http://www.civmag.com/ Civilization [ISSN: 1077-9795] is published bimonthly under a licensing agreement with the U.S. Library of Congress. Annual subscriptions are available for $20 US from Civilization, P. O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 USA; tel: 800-829-0427; Web: http://www.civmag.com/subscribe.html ...................................................................... UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA PRESS BOOKS ONLINE The SCAN (Scholarship from California on the Net) project is a collaboration between the University California Press and the University of California Library at Berkeley to provide a searchable textbase of online scholarly monographs. Over fifty selected books from the UC Press are on the Web in the following subject areas: international studies, classics, literature, history, anthropology, politics, and religious studies. Free of charge, you can browse through chapters, or search for words and phrases in an individual book or across the collection. To access the SCAN collection link to http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/scan/ ...................................................................... BENCHMARKS FOR DISTANCE LEARNING 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] The National Education Association (NEA) is the nation's largest professional association of higher education faculty. For more information visit http://www.nea.org/ Blackboard, Inc. is a leading online education company. Its products include Blackboard.com, a free online course Website service; and the courseware systems CourseInfo and CourseInfo Enterprise Edition. For more information see http://www.blackboard.com/ The Institute for Higher Education Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to foster access to and quality in postsecondary education. For more information, contact: The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1320 19th Street NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-861-8223; fax: 202-861-9307; email: institute@ihep.com; Web: http://www.ihep.com/ ...................................................................... IF JOHN DEWEY WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE'D BE A WEBHEAD In her opinion piece, "If John Dewey Were Alive Today, He'd Be a Webhead" (THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, April 28, 2000, p. A72), Peshe Kuriloff, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, observes that John Dewey's "dedication to experience as the foundation of education has startling relevance to the debate raging over the value of online teaching and learning. . . . Computer manufacturers and software developers are already following Dewey's lead. They don't even bother to provide detailed instructions for their products: We are supposed to learn by doing. If we get stuck and can't figure something out on our own, we can call for help. But the self-starters who persist and learn on their own quickly become tomorrow's technological elite." You can read the article online at http://chronicle.com/free/v46/i34/34a07201.htm The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033; Web: http://chronicle.com/ Annual subscriptions, which include full access to the Chronicle's Web site and news updates by email, are available for $75 (U.S.); $123.05 (Canada); $150.00 (all other countries). To subscribe contact: Circulation Department, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037 USA; tel: 800-728-2803 or 740-382-3322 (outside U.S.); email: circulation@chronicle.com; Web: http://chronicle.com/about-help.dir/subscrib.htm ...................................................................... REPORT ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ACADEME The Learning Technologies Report, "The Rights Stuff: Ownership in the Digital Academy" (Fall 1999), examines the intellectual property policies at thirty North American institutions and draws on interviews with faculty, administrators, and legal counsel to determine "what is at stake for creators of intellectual property and for the institutions that employ them." Articles in the report cover the basics of copyright and patents, how online technologies have affected intellectual property owners, and the "digital divide" between faculty and administrators over online course materials. The report is accessible online for $90 (Canadian) or $63 (US) from The Node Learning Technologies Network, 410 Dufferin Avenue, London, ON Canada N6B 1Z6; tel: 519-457-4659; email: sales@node.on.ca; Web: http://thenode.org/ltreport/ Learning Technologies Report, published online twice a year, "provides a platform for organizational decision-making. Each issue of LTReport is devoted to thorough analysis of one topic of current and critical interest in the field of learning technologies. LTReports are produced by The Node Learning Technologies Network, a not-for-profit organization which promotes effective uses of technologies in education and training. For more information about The Node and its other services, see http://thenode.org/ ...................................................................... TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE SITE The University of Maryland University College-Bell Atlantic's "Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology" is a resource for faculty seeking direction in appropriate ways to use Web-based technologies in instruction. The project is a joint initiative of two units at University of Maryland University College: the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment and the Center for the Virtual University. "The guiding principle of this project is to go beyond technical skill towards a full examination of the teaching/learning issues in technology-enabled instruction." The site consists of two modules: Module 1 assists faculty with the selection and use of Web-based media in the context of several different learning strategies. Module 2, which will be available later this year, will focus on delivery of instruction. For details on the project and to access Module 1, link to http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching/ For more information about the UMD Center for the Virtual University, see http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cvu/ For more information about the UMD Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, see http://www.umuc.edu/facdev/ ...................................................................... VIRTUAL 3-D LIBRARIES PROJECT For the past few months, Jack Colbert, Public Services Librarian in Griffin, GA, has been building virtual libraries on the Web and providing space for any librarians in any country to experiment with virtual library interfaces. His virtual world "Librarea" has room for about 75 librarians to build and control their own virtual libraries. "Librarea" is located in the Active Worlds Universe [http://activeworlds.com]. You can visit it by downloading and installing the free ActiveWorlds browser from http://ActiveWorlds.com/minidown.html. Once inside ActiveWorlds browser, click the "World" tab on the left side of the screen, scroll down to "Librarea," and click on it to enter. [Editor's note: even with a high-speed Internet connection, movement in the browser can be slow.] If you are interested in participating in this project, contact Jack Colbert, using your professional email address: Jack Colbert, Public Services Librarian, Flint River Regional Library System, Griffin, GA 30224 USA; email: colbertj@mail.spalding.public.lib.ga.us or librarea@vei.net ...................................................................... RECOMMENDED READING "Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column. The complete text of the book Moths to the Flame: The Seductions of Computer Technology by Gregory J. E. Rawlins (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996. ISBN: 0-262-18183-5), which was mentioned in last month's column, is available on the Web at http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/Moths/ Thanks to Infobits reader Arun Tripathi for pointing this out. "What Makes a Great Web Site?" by WebReference.com http://www.webreference.com/greatsite.html "What are the essential traits of great Web sites? After you visit a site and find yourself staying awhile, what makes you stay? A sense of humor helps. Flashy graphics are nice. But the fundamental traits that make a site work are more elusive. This article will break down the essential characteristics of great Web sites into some easily followed rules of thumb." ...................................................................... To Subscribe CIT INFOBITS is published by the Center for Instructional Technology. The CIT supports the interests of faculty members at UNC-CH who are exploring the use of Internet and video projects. 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