INFOBITS 036 (June 1996) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infobits/infobits-036 IAT INFOBITS June 1996 No. 36 ISSN 1071-5223 About INFOBITS INFOBITS is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and select from a number of information technology and instruction technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. ========================================================== ENMU Virtual Classroom Resources for Social Studies Teachers Women in Science and Technology Month Get Your Daily News Fix from the Web Facts from FACS NII Advisory Council Final Reports National Geographic Online New Publications from CAUSE IAT Librarian's Links ========================================================== ENMU VIRTUAL CLASSROOM Created as part of their Teaching, Learning and Technology initiative, Eastern New Mexico University's Virtual Classroom is a comprehensive and organized set of resources that contains links for faculty interested in integrating technology into their teaching. It provides instructional ideas, templates, conceptual approaches, and examples. The collection can be found at http://www.enmu.edu/virtual/virt.html For more information contact Ed Kinley, Director of Information Technology, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM 88130 USA; tel: 505-562-2694; fax: 505-562-2766; email: ed.kinley@enmu.edu ========================================================== RESOURCES FOR SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS Marty Levine, a professor of Education at California State University at Northridge, has compiled a Web site containing resources for K-12 social studies teachers. This site points to lesson plans and teaching strategies for social studies, current events sites, relevant Usenet newsgroups, and other government, history, and Latino related sites. Connect to the site at http://www.csun.edu/%7Ehcedu013/index.html Contact Professor Levine by email: martin.levine@huey.csun.edu ========================================================== WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MONTH June is Women in Science and Technology Month, dedicated to recognizing and chronicling the accomplishments and history of women in science and technology. In celebration, the Web site for Women in Technology International (WITI) ( http://www.witi.com/ ) is publishing daily profiles of women working in the sciences and technology. June 23-30 is WITI's "Take Your Children on the Internet (TYCOTI) Week." Activities for children will include participating in a scavenger hunt on the Web, learning how to build their own homepages that will appear on the WITI site, taking an online tour of the White House Internet Service, learning how to send email to elected officials, and submitting materials for an electronic time capsule. Coinciding with the celebration is the launch of the Women of NASA Web site, designed to encourage more young women to pursue science- and math-based fields. Students can chat with women working at the NASA Ames Research Center. Link to Women of NASA at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/intro.html ========================================================== GET YOUR DAILY NEWS FIX FROM THE WEB Lead Story, a new World Wide Web service of AT&T's Business Network, offers a detailed look at a prominent issue in the news. The site explores a current topic in-depth with a synopsis of the story, links to analysis and commentary on the topic, background papers and reports, and readers' responses to the stories. While the primary audience is business professionals, educators in many areas may find this a rich source of ideas for class discussions. Recent issues include: Decency Act overturned: What next for Web control? Black church fires: What's behind the flames? Is the economy growing too fast? Medicare meltdown: Can the patient be saved? Internet security: Is government intervention the answer? Israeli cliffhanger: Peace process in the balance? Get the Lead Story at http://www.bnet.att.com/leadstory/ TechDaily, a service of CMP Publications, Inc. (publisher of Communications Week, Information Week, NetGuide, Windows Magazine, etc.), provides links each day to the top stories on computers, components, and chip products; Internet news; and computer industry announcements. Although the sources are only from CMP's family of publications, the site does provide quick access to and broad coverage for a number of key computer technology issues of the day for people who don't have time to scan the literature. Connect to TechDaily at http://techweb.cmp.com/techweb/newsroom/newsroom.html ========================================================== FACTS FROM FACS The Foundation for American Communications (FACS) educates journalists about news content through its Journalism Education Programs and helps to improve the value of news sources by educating those who act as sources for journalists. Among the Foundation's activities is FACSNET, a Web site designed to provide journalists with access to qualified sources and background material on a wide range of public policy issues. FACSNET provides links to top news issues of the day, analytical tools for reporters, annotated links to Internet resources useful to journalists, and online databases of contacts (think tanks; advocacy groups; company and association profiles; academic experts in economics, science, law, and social and political sciences). Connect to FACSNET at http://www.facsnet.org/ (Registration is required, but there is no charge.) For more information about FACS, contact The Foundation for American Communications, 3800 Barham Boulevard, Suite 409, Los Angeles, CA 90068 USA; email: facs@facsnet.org ========================================================== NII ADVISORY COUNCIL FINAL REPORTS The National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC) was created by executive order in 1993 by President Clinton to represent many of the key constituencies with a stake in the National Information Infrastructure (NII), including "private industry; state and local governments; community, public interest, education, and labor groups; creators and distributors of content; privacy and security advocates; and leading experts in NII-related fields." The NIIAC presented its final reports in February, and they are available on the World Wide Web. "KickStart Initiative: Connecting America's Communities to the Information Superhighway" describes community-based efforts to bring the Information Superhighway to all individuals through schools, libraries, and community centers. The report "offers guidance, ideas, tools, and real-world examples to help community leaders launch KickStart Initiatives" and contains the following sections: Connecting People and Communities to the Information Superhighway; A Leadership Guide to Getting There; Resource on Intellectual Property, Privacy, and Security; and Resources for Communities. The report is available on the Web at http://www.benton.org/KickStart/kick.home.html "A Nation of Opportunity: Realizing the Promise of the Information Superhighway" identifies five areas where the Information Superhighway will have the most dramatic effect in terms of changing the way Americans live and work: Electronic Commerce, Education and Lifelong Learning, Emergency Management and Public Safety, Health, and Government Information and Services. The report is available on the Web at http://www.benton.org/KickStart/nation.home.html For more information, see the NIIAC homepage at http://www.uark.edu/~niiac/ ========================================================== NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ONLINE Check the Web after June 20, 1996, when NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine's new homepage debuts. Not only will you be able to access back issues, but additional stories will be developed to add interactive elements to the magazine's articles and their Explorer television documentary series. Visit the site at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ ========================================================== NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM CAUSE DISTRIBUTED LEARNING, CAUSE Professional Paper #14, explores the potential for technology not only to enhance, but actually to transform the delivery of higher education in the information age. Authors Diana G. Oblinger and Mark K. Maruyama explain the impetus for change to a learner-centered paradigm, and offer real-world examples from 15 institutions of higher education using technology to accommodate such change. Oblinger [who is stationed here at the IAT] and Maruyama are manager and consultant (respectively) of academic programs for the Higher Education Division of IBM North America. The publication was sponsored by IBM. Copies are available to anyone on a CAUSE member campus at $16 per copy, or to non-members at $32. For orders, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; tel: 303-939-0310; fax: 303-440-0461; email: orders@cause.colorado.edu CAUSE is an association for managing and using information resources in higher education. For more information on CAUSE, link to their Web site at http://cause-www.colorado.edu/ CAMPUS FINANCIAL SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE, a joint CAUSE and NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) publication, is a handbook for campus executive decision-makers that was developed to help colleges and universities navigate the complex process of planning and implementing a financial management system. The book stresses the importance of devising the most appropriate strategy for meeting an institution's unique and specific needs, as well as the importance of teamwork and partnership between the financial executives and information technology administrators on campus. Eight authors from institutions of various sizes and scope brought a broad set of experience in financial and technology management to this comprehensive study. Copies of the book are available from NACUBO for $29.95 to members of CAUSE or NACUBO, for $44.95 to non-members. For orders, contact the NACUBO Publications Department, One Dupont Circle, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-861-2500; fax: 202-861-2583. For more information on NACUBO, link to http://www.nacubo.org ========================================================== IAT LIBRARIAN'S LINKS Intranets are a hot technology in the corporate sector, but they're not just for businesses. In academe they can save paper by linking to electronic copies of departmental handbooks, annual reports, and other lengthy publications; help with collaborative projects; and act as a bulletin board for an academic community. Here at the IAT our intranet provides links to internal information such as our workshop calendars, employee and visitor policies, monthly reports, library catalogs, and publications. Our external resources include links to our campus directory, state job listings, online news sources, area recreational information, and conference listings. Find out what intranets are with our new Information Resource Guide, "Intranets: Readings and Resources," at http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-34.html. Most of the cited articles have links to electronic copies for easy access. ========================================================== To Subscribe INFOBITS is published by the Institute for Academic Technology. The IAT is a national institute working to place higher education at the forefront of academic technology development and implementation. A partnership between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and IBM Corporation, the IAT strives to facilitate widespread use of effective and affordable technologies in higher education. To subscribe to INFOBITS, send email to listserv@unc.edu with the following message: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS firstname lastname substituting your own first and last names. Example: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS Drew Gilpin Faust INFOBITS is also available online on the IAT's World Wide Web site at http://www.iat.unc.edu/infobits/infobits.html (HTML format) and at http://www.iat.unc.edu/infobits/text/index.html (plain text format). If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future issues, contact the editor, Carolyn Kotlas, at carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu ======================================================= Copyright 1996, Institute for Academic Technology. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.