Email list of potential participants
Advance Workshop Program: This is a very very rough draft under discussion by the WS organizers. Anybody can comment via email (sorry couldn't implement a News/WWW system on short notice)
Workshop organization:
In Australia, universities are beginning to open up Internet access for students via AARNet, the Australian Academic Research Network, as the opportunities exist for the application of NIR (Networked Information Retreival) devices such as Mosaic and other interactive networking tools, in open learning and distance education courses. This paper describes the problems and experiences in providing these tools on the desktop to a group of 16 distance education library science students, in a networked laboratory workshop at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Issues such as Internet connectivity, the user interface, relevance to the needs of distance education students and some future WWW projects are also discussed.
Ken Eustace, Philip Tsang and Geoff Fellows Charles Sturt University, Australia
To continue our role as a leader in promoting world wide learning and community building through new technologies, I am starting a program at Apple Computer which will recruit volunteers from the sciences, arts, and business to agree to help children problem solve beyond their classroom. Apple has been involved in some experiments connecting scientists and students throughout California. These have proven to be enriching experiences for all those participating. A program involving on-line experts will provide students with multiple sources of information and varying opinion on the subject, thus giving students the occasion to form their own opinions, sort theories, see points of view, etc.
In addition, I have interest in MUDs, MOOs and MUSEs and their potential in K-12 education. The Learning Concepts Group is also working with a consortium of schools in California who are hoping to receive Frame Relay connectivity to enable them to experiment in this area.
My interest is in discussing experiences of different authoring models and what tools are available or are required in order to support them. I am responsible for a conversion tool (LaTeX2HTML) which has already been used in the production of courseware material (eg the CRS4 Active Books, lecture notes and assignments or similar material, training manuals). I participate in a large scale ``hypertextbook'' project (CSEP) involving many authors.
As my submission suggests we have not yet reached the stage of trying to write WWW course material. It is something we will be devoting time to in the near future, and we are hopeful that we can benefit greatly from your workshop.
I am interested in W3 for distance learning. We already use it for static resource lists but I am also interested in developing CGI programs for automatic marking of multiple choice self paced tests using forms and inline images. This requires adding state to a stateless protocol.
There is also the question of whether it is better to use W3 as a delivery vehicle for such tests, transmitting a MIME typed file to be used with a supplied 'viewer' and the results sent back, perhaps with a POST ?
(b) the development of a course to teach academics how to use the WWW to present course material to their students
The Web is a distance thing after all...
We are currently offering courses by videotape, audiographic teleconferencing, satellite transmission, seminars, and on-site instruction. We offer also nearly 600 correspondence courses in many subject areas. We've done that for _years_. It seems like we are just getting started with WWW, Internet, Mosaic, and the new tools for publishing and delivery via networks.
But, we do have practical experience, and practical results to show.
See for example the Wisconsin Experience
Daniel Schneider
Thanx to Saba Ghazi (BSDAC, University of Chicago) for designing the workshop logo !