Outreach & Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) Exchange
(From the Web Editor)
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Outreach & Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) Exchange (From the Web Editor) |
The OTAN Exchange is a forum for posting messages, asking questions, and making general announcements relevant to the field of adult education. It is not a place to make Commercial announcements about products are not welcome, but participants often ask each other for practical suggestions about available software, videos, textbooks, etc.
OTAN Exchange is part of the OTAN Round Table, which also offers email discussion groups and live chats to registered users. Registration is free, and users set and confirm their own passwords for subsequent speedy login. Once inside the Members Area, you'll find that a lot of the information is geared to the California Department of Education (CDE), particularly its Adult Education Office, and to various initatives in which the CDE or the AEO is involved. While this somewhat limits the usefulness of the site to non-Californians, judicious exploring uncovers some useful advice and discussion broadly relevant and interesting to any educator working with adults and especially to online educators.
You should look for yourselves, of course, to make your own verification of the value of OTAN. My guess is that, apart from joining the Exchange, many WAOE members will want to get into the other interactive forums in For Teachers/Teacher Discussions area. This offers opportunities for networking and information-pooling and resource-sharing under the headings, Classroom Activites, Lesson Plans, and Adult Ed & Technology Vendors.
There are also links to Special Topic Workgroups operated by a variety of agencies for their members or specialized topics. Some of these areas are public and some are private. Public workgroups include Adults with Disabilities (aimed at teachers and coordinators), the Distance Learning Project (for sharing ideas about distance learning), and a number of mall School Initiatives of the CDE. Private workgroups include Adult Education Leadership (a staff development program for new administrators in adult schools), the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, and Greater Learning Acquired by Distance Learning Innovation. Just how the two categories differ from each other is not made clear. Access to workgopups in either category is a matter of sending an email message to the Workgroup Manager, whose address is given alongside the workgroup title and brief description. On the face of it, the private groups seem to be narrowly confined to specific areas of California, or particular groups recognised by and working with the CDE.
Online resources pitched at "instruction" (OTAN's term) include English as a Second Language, Interactive Online Instruction, Literacy (National and International), and Professional Education. Internet in the classroom features a different curriculum area and three or four relevant sites each month, providing downloadable resources for teaching.
It was rather difficult threading one's way through the many different parts of this site, calling for much patient re-sizing and refreshing and enlarging of frames to see various items clearly and completely.
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WEB thanks Arun Tripathi's distancelearning discussion group for bringing this interactivesite to our attention. |
The declared purpose of the Millennium Project is "to engage the community at large, educators and policy makers, researchers and learners, in the U.S. and throughout the world, in an ongoing, mediated discussion of the evolving role of technology in education. In doing so, we hope to create an atmosphere in which all voices, representing the widest range of experience and perspective, can be heard. The ultimate success will depend on you, the participants, who have the power to create a rich resource to help inform the policies and practices of education in the next millennium."
The core of the site - and source of probably its greatest relevance and interest to WAOE members - is the discussion forums. This page is more tightly organised than is common for discussion groups on the Web. Currently there are five topics:
Technology and Teacher Professional Development
Technology Efficacy
Distance Learning in Higher Education
Technology and Educational Reform
Technology as a Cognitive Tool
and each topic is organised into five parts:
About (an brief overview of the topic and the presentation)
Discuss! (reverse threaded listserve)
Expert Perspective (a short, sharp paper by an acknowledged authority on the topic)
Expert Biography (bio notes and relevant links)
Related Resources (link(s) to one or more supplementary papers or discussions)
Participation levels in some sections of the site are disappointingly low, in spite of the inventiveness they show. The Q and A Exchange Board, intended to provide quick answers to urgent questions, has no entry later than November 1998. Similarly the Weekly Quick Poll, which invites a vote on a few responses to a question drawn from a current development in public policy or some other aspect of online education or distance learning, has links to material about the topic, and provides a form for emailing comments. And neither the Online nor the Offline Resources for, say, the Distance Learning topic on the Library page are quite as recent as they might be, although the listings include some major contributors to the field as well as some intereseting but more off-beat items.
The site also displays a lighter touch - which may or may not appeal, of course - with competitions for the best Webliography or calls for stories from the field. All in all a good place to spend some of your Web time, and deserving of greater support than it seems to be getting in certain respects.
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alt.education.distance.teaching Very recently, Kim Young anounced to the IFETS discussion group the formation of a new newsgroup forum. Here's the main text of that notice: |
Hi, folks:
You are cordially invited to join <alt.education.distance.teaching> - a new newsgroup forum for distance education students and professionals. Please ask your newsadmin/ISP to activate this newsgroup for you - if it does not show on your NG list.
You may read/post to <alt.education.distance.teaching> via deja <http://www.deja.com/home_ps.shtml>.
<alt.distance.education.teaching> charter:
This group's main function is to deal with all issues affecting persons and organs involved in providing distance education (DE) - facilitators, admins, service/product providers, etc. The discussion topics include online methodology, faculty pays, visiting/exchange faculty relationship, job openings, legal and political issues affecting DE, DE class-room problems and solutions, unusual DE situations and so on. Constructive critiques of and suggestions for DE teaching from the DE students - past, present and future - are welcome.This group is unmoderated and open to all DE faculty, admins, students, service/product providers and other parties interested in promoting DE providers' welfare and professionalism.
Young Kim, Ph.D.
U of Phoenix Faculty Online
http://www.kimsoft.com/dista.htm
The Vitual Interactive Training and Learning conference is a global virtual event, designed to facilitate collaboration among interactive training and learning practitioners and educators from around the world. It will run from September 27 to October 15 1999, with a focus on issues in the design, development and effective use of Interactive Training and Learning programs delivered online. The event will feature three interactive keynote addresses led by Wayne Hodgins, Richard Karash, and Paula Briki respectivley, and six learning session workshops led by some of today's leading thinkers in the field - Tim Kilby, Kord Kutchins, Maggie Martinez, Robin Mason, Patti Shank and Harvi Singh - plus a large contingent of authors who will be discussing the books they have written. plus a virtual exhibition hall where participants can meet the exhibitors, learn about products and services, experiment with the latest web based training tools, and participate in real time demonstrations. There's also a virtual cafe, an online bookstore, and a reference center.
Detailed information and online registration are available now at http://www.trainingplace.com/vital99/ . Or you can email Russ Williams.
This event is included in Conference (Re)Call because it meets the prime criterion that it will be conducted entirely online and so maximise its openness to online and distance learning educators around the world. The VITAL '99 site makes a virtue of this:
Attending VITAL '99 requires no travel! Registration for VITAL '99 provides you with the opportunity to interact with a diverse worldwide audience of your peers and some of the leading thought leaders and practitioners in the industry. Plus, the event archive will be available online for 6 weeks after the event ends, so you may review the event information at your own pace.
Why, then, flying in the face of this ringing commitment to accessibility. do the organisers charge $US 299 for registration prior to September 7, and $399 after that. Compare those hot prices with $350 to register by September 7 ($375 thereafter) for the Fifth International Asynchronous Learning Networks Conference which will be held October 8 - 10 at the elegant Inn and Conference Center of the University of Maryland University College, where the registration fee covers all sessions and materials; Friday evening reception, dinner, and entertainment; Saturday and Sunday breakfast, luncheon, and coffee breaks; parking; and shuttle service between the meeting and accomodation venues.
It seems there may be more than just educational concerns that WAOE needs to address in developing standards for online education!
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ALTAC (Applying Learning Technologies Across the Curriculum) |
At £25 (about $US40) for a year's subscription, ALTAC might also seem more
than a little highly priced to WAOE members. This
organisation, supported by the Scottish
Council for Educational Technology and the Scottish Further Education Unit,
ALTAC organises seminars, workshops and
conferences for practitioners in education, with a particular
focus on the successful intgegration of information and
communication technologies into the curriculum. There is a
newsletter, and a Members Room for networking and
discussion. This year ALTAC will conduct a one-day
conference, Delivering Lifelong Learning with Information and
Communications Technology, at the Lauder Business Centre in
Dunfermline, Scotland, on October 7. Leading experts from
Britain and abroad will cover themes such as: heightening the
educational experience through the use of the new learning
technologies; Scottish University for Industry and its programme;
opening up learning for the community. There will in addition be
a range of workshops featuring ICT in the curriculum, support
services from existing agencies, local authority centres and case
studies including an international co-operative project and a
SME-Educational partnership. An exhibition will also be part of
the day and feature products from a range of firms and
organisations with an interest in the field of computer-based
training.
Registration for this event, including lunch, will cost £70 ($US112) for members, and £80 ($US128) for non-members who register before 7 September and £85 ($US137) after that.
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The Conference (Re)Call column aims mainly to provide feedback from members on the new knowledge or other value they gained from attending a recent conference or other event to do with one aspect or another of online education. It also includes a Coming Events section, advertising relevant conferences, seminars, workshops or other forums which members will be able to attend at little or no cost. This section will concentrate mainly on online events, because that is WAOE’s special interest, and because the idea is to promote opportunities which are more or less equally available to WAOE members no matter what part of the world they live in.
The success of Conference (Re)Call therefore depends very heavily on input from members. WAOE officers are already out there reporting on events they’ve attended and spotting others to come. We’d like to see all other members doing likewise. You will see from the items in this issue that reports don’t need to be lengthy or detailed, let alone polished. We think the segment will work best on the simple premise that whatever any one member found worthwhile in attending an online education event, or attractive about an event in the offing is likely to benefit and interest other members. So, let’s keep those reports and notices coming in to the WEB Editor.