Vol. 1 Number 3, Summer Workshops, Institutes and Other Activities for Distance Educators, Summer 1996

This was a busy year for distance education. Many more institutions realized distance education's value and are using distance education technologies in new and innovative ways. Exciting examples include two-in-one satellite delivered classroom lessons and teacher inservice, and student focused interactive web sites.

While summer is traditionally a time for wrapping-up, reflecting, and relaxing, some ambitious folk will be taking advantage of the "free" time to brush up on old skills or acquire new ones. This issue of DLRN-J will focus on summer workshops, institutes, and other activities for distance educators.

Although funding cuts have decreased the number of projects able to provide summer workshops, a multitude of options remains. In addition to those workshops and services mentioned in this issue of DLRN-J, check with your local school district, community college, university, public broadcast station, and cable or satellite provider for more possibilities.

STAR SCHOOLS ACTIVITIES

HealthLinks
This month HealthLinks is introducing an interactive Web site as a summer activity for its demonstration sites. HealthLinks will post a health education site on the World Wide Web during the months of July and August. The series will feature a character named Reginald who will have a different health-related problem each week. Participants can log into the site to provide input and discussion that will help Reginald deal with these various health issues.

This site has been designed to be language friendly (to accommodate English as a second language [ESL] participants), user friendly, and appropriate for multiple age levels.

In addition, HealthLinks will continue to provide support and technical assistance to its demonstration sites throughout the summer months.

 For more information on the Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET) and the HealthLinks project, visit http://www.mcet.edu/healthlinks/ email Bram de Veer, HealthLinks project coordinator, at bram@mcet.edu; or telephone: 617/252-5700 or 800/556-4376, ext. 765.

Ana G. Mendez University System Star Link Network
The Star Link Network, a project in Puerto Rico that serves Puerto Rican students and Hispanic students in the United States, is designing a cooperative learning workshop for teachers. The Network also is developing a healthy lifestyles program and an on-site training workshop that will be piloted next summer.

For more information on the Star Link Network and programming, contact Maria Lopez, director, at 809/751-0178.

TEAMS Distance Learning
TEAMS recently added a Los Angeles County regional coordinator, Judi Sydner-Gordon, to provide direct support for Los Angeles County area teachers. TEAMS also has been busy developing a new primary literacy program, Windows on Reading, for grades K-3. Windows on Reading includes 6 staff development programs, 10 student programs for grades K-1, and 10 student programs for grades 2-3. The program orientation will begin Sept. 30.

Interested Los Angeles area teachers should check the TEAMS Web site (see below) later in the summer for information on this and other upcoming events and training. For more information on TEAMS, contact Kitty Salinas at 310/940-1616 or visit http://teams.lacoe.edu.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

The Online Internet Institute: Distributed Learning for Professional Growth
The Online Internet Institute (OII) provides educators with a learning environment to support integrating the Internet into their individual teaching styles. Teachers select a starting point based on their own goals. Then, through a combination of online and face-to-face collaborations, teachers develop online projects specifically for their classrooms.

Technology Summer '96 Opportunities for Educators
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology is spotlighting summer technology-related professional development opportunities. These opportunities are listed by state, making a search easy.

 If you are offering a course, or if your district, university, company, nonprofit, or other organization is offering a summer professional development course, institute, or intensive seminar in instructional technology, you may use the online form for information dissemination.

CONFERENCES

NECC '96 Notes
DLRN-J staff recently spent productive time at the annual National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). Below are highlights from various presentations. "Online in the Great City Schools: Hard Data for Hard Decisions" by Sari Follansbee, Michael McTwigan, and Michael Casserly. This study found evidence that telecommunications increases student learning.

The study focused on fourth-sixth graders, including 500-600 kids in 28 elementary and middle school classes. The classes were divided into two groups: experimental (with online access) and control (without online access). For consistent measure (to reduce the disparity of prior learning opportunities), study coordinators developed a civil rights unit and student learning was measured in student projects.

As with other studies, this one found that the three crucial elements for success are (a) staff development, (b) community building, and (c) curriculum structures.

Student projects were scored on the following criteria: completeness, organization, demonstration of "best work," effectiveness of presentation, effectiveness of stating a civil rights issue, accuracy of information in relation to selected issue, presentation of a full picture (who, what, when, where, why, how), demonstration of insight into civil rights, and effectiveness of bringing together different points of view.

The study revealed that the experimental classes scored higher on 7 of 9 criteria than the control classes. Furthermore, in the teachers' evaluations of student performance, experimental teachers reported that students with online access were able to view information in ways that made the material more relevant to their lives, found information more quickly than students who covered similar material off-line, found higher level and more varied information than students who used traditional sources, and were more engaged in the topic than students without online access.

In contrast, control teachers often reported that the lack of resources in their schools and their communities severely limited the information with which students could work.

The completed study will be available in September. For more information, contact Bob Hughes, research coordinator, at 508/531-8555.

"Keeping It Legal: Questions Arising Out of Web Site Management" by Jamie McKenzie. This was a very interesting and informative scenario-based session on copyright and Web use in schools. McKenzie believes that schools should follow the same publishing policies for the Web as those for school newspapers.

"Enhanced Learning Through Electronic Communities: A Research Review" by Sheryl Burgstahler. This research report suggests how electronic communities can deliver and enhance precollege education, and details successful and unsuccessful practices of these electronic communities. The report also gives a summary of advice from other existing online communities and is a good resource when planning an electronic community.

Two interesting sessions led by Gary Stager included a review of his favorite software for kids and teachers and What Australian Schools Learned When Every Student Had a Laptop. Stager discussed how these laptop schools can lead the way in professional development. Based on this work, Microsoft Corporation is now conducting a pilot project in schools in the United States.

"Union City Online: An Architecture for Networking and Reform." Union City School District implemented strategic, systemic reform prior to implementing technology, and received national recognition when President Clinton and Vice President Gore acknowledged its accomplishments. The district has hard data showing that in grades where curricular reforms have been established, students are systematically performing at or above national averages. This case study demonstrates how reforms and curricula must drive the technology. For this project, Union City School District partnered with the Education Development Center, Bell Atlantic, and Lotus Development. Although these partnerships raise the question of replicability to other urban districts, the project itself is impressive.

"Tracking Technology to Real Jobs." A pilot program between a rural school district and Microsoft Corporation was developed with the goal of getting high school students on track for careers in technology. During the session, the presenters mentioned a similar program at Irvine Valley Community Center in California. Perhaps this model will be used in school-to-work programs as a bridge between cooperate distance learning models and education distance learning programs.

For information on next year's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Seattle, WA call 541/346-3537.

12th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
Another good conference is the 12th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning on Aug. 7-9 in Madison, WI. This year's theme is "Designing for Active Learning." This conference offers wonderful tutorials, workshops, and tours for the distance educator. Workshop titles include, but are not limited to:

• "Orientation to Distance Education and Training";
• "Introduction to the World Wide Web";
• "Producing Your Own Interactive CD for Instruction";
• "Interactive Strategies for Two-Way Video Courses";
• Active Learning and the Legal Scene: Creating an Innovative Environment While Attending to Copyright and Intellectual Property Concerns";
• "Getting it Together: Faculty Training and Support in Distance Education";
• "Preparing Learners for Distance Education";
• "Creating an Active Learning Environment With CD-ROM Technology";
• "Applying Active Learning In Online Computer Environments: Preparing Learners for the 21st Century"; and
• "Funding Resources and Grantwriting for Distance Learning."

OTHER NEWS

Mobile Satellite Truck
Through a School District of Philadelphia television production and satellite up-link truck, school children will be able to visit Philadelphia's historic sites and cultural institutions and make other educational field trips without ever leaving their classrooms.

The television production and satellite up-link truck is the newest addition to the School District of Philadelphia. The lessons will be sent to classrooms live via satellite, and students can telephone questions into the on-the-air teacher while the lesson is in progress.

Because the truck was made possible through the efforts of retired State Senator Jeanette F. Reibman, the truck has been named the Reibman Mobile Distance Learning Facility. The mission of the facility is to provide interesting and engaging classroom instruction. Realizing that distance learning could benefit millions of Pennsylvania children who might never visit, for example, the Philadelphia Museum of Art or this city's African American Historical and Cultural Museum, Senator Fumo worked with former Senator Reibman to secure a $400,000 grant for the School District of Philadelphia from the Commonwealth to build the distance learning facility and equip it with the latest in television production and satellite equipment. Already 250 Philadelphia public elementary school children have seen demonstrations of the facility.

The mobile distance learning facility also will benefit teachers. The school district already has the capacity to receive faculty and staff training programs from distant colleges and universities. With this powerful new tool, the school district will be able to distribute professional development programs of its own.

Lessons will originate from the Reibman Mobile Distance Learning Facility early next school year.

For more information, contact Bernard Solomon of the School District of Philadelphia at 215/875-3781.

Mobile Technology Laboratory
CyberEd, a public-private partnership, will deliver hands-on training in the latest communications technology to teachers in more than 400 of the nation's most disadvantaged schools. The deliverer will be "Ed," the program's mobile technology laboratory. Ed will spend the season traveling from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, making stops in 15 Congressionally-designated "empowerment zones."

Because "Ed" is equipped with personal computers and printers, CD-ROMs, presentation facilities, faxing and videoconferencing facilities, and Internet connectivity, the program will provide hardware, connectivity, and Internet access as well as training.

CyberEd is the product of a partnership of the White House, Tech Corps, and MCI.

For more information on this project, including a schedule of events, visit the Tech Corps homepage at http://www.ustc.org and scroll down to "CyberEd," or contact Dierdre Blackwood of MCI at 800/644-6397.

Satellite Town Meeting
This month's U. S. Department of Education Satellite Town Meeting will focus on what schools and communities can do to ensure that female students have opportunities to excel in science, mathematics, and other disciplines. The live teleconference will take place at 8:30 p.m., Eastern time, on Tuesday, July 16.

Education Secretary Richard Riley and Deputy Secretary Madelenie Kunin will host a panel of educators and local leaders from around the country who will share successful strategies for helping female students succeed in math, science, computer technologies, and other fields where females are underrepresented.

Call your local cable access station to find out if the town meeting is being broadcast regularly. If not, you might ask them to. Many cable access stations are willing to broadcast free programs like this if requested by a community member.

Call 800/USA-LEARN to find out if there is a downlink site already established in your community. If not, start one! Local PBS member stations, schools, community colleges and universities, and cable access stations often are willing to serve as downlink sites. Just gather a group of interested members of your community and join in.

The following satellite coordinates explain where to direct your satellite dish to receive the July town meeting:

C-BAND: Telstar 401, Transponder/Channel 7, Vertical Polarity, Downlink frequency 3840 MHZ, Orbital location 97 degrees West

KU-BAND: SBS-6, Transponder/Channel 17, Horizontal Polarity, Downlink frequency 12120.0 MHZ, Orbital location 74 degrees West

Audio subcarriers: 6.2 Spanish and 6.8 English

This town meeting is part of a regular series broadcast on the third Tuesday of every month at 8:30 p.m., Eastern time. For more information about the Satellite Town Meeting, call 800/USA-LEARN.

More "Net Days"
Back in March California held "NetDay", an event that brough together more than 8,000 volunteers--parents, teachers, corporate employees, and community members to wire classrooms for Internet access. Now 35 other states and 9 countries are interested in setting-up their own NetDays. Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, and North Carolina are just a few states planning for participationr, and California is planning for NetDay ll October 12, 1996.

(The following note comes directly from the July 10, 1996 ED Initiatives listserv press release) At the "NetDay96 How To" conference in Washington on June 29, Secretary Riley released his national long-range plan for education technology. Called for by Congress in the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, the plan looks at the BENEFITS of technology; CHARACTERISTICS of schools using technology successfully; how much it COSTS; ROLES of the federal government, states, communities, higher education, business, & others inpromoting effective uses of educational technology; the President's 5-year, $2-billion TECHNOLOGY LITERACY CHALLENGE FUND; and more. Also, the plan lays out goals in four areas: teacher training & support, computers, classroom connections, and software & online resources. The plan, "Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge", was developed under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology, with input from hundreds of individuals.

Fun, Learning Activities for Families and Children
The U.S. Department of Education has put together a listing of more than 60 fun, learning activities for families and children. You may obtain a copy, while the supply lasts, from the National Library of Education 800/424-1616 or you may visit our site for the complete listing.

AT&T Grants for Distance Education
AT&T recently announced grants totaling $1 million to support 15 distance education projects involving collaborations among 60 universities in 26 countries as part of a new program, the AT&T Global Distance Learning Initiative.

Administered by the AT&T Foundation and the International Council for Distance Education, the program is designed to encourage the use of communications technologies in teaching, curriculum development, and educational research.

For more information about the AT&T Global Distance Learning Initiative, contact John Heath at 908/221-6659, jheath@attmail.com; or Sue Fleming at 908/221-8824, susanfleming@attmail.com.

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