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From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 09:21:42 +0000

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 386.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:03:41 +0000
         From: "Carolyn Kotlas" <kotlas_at_email.unc.edu>
         Subject: TL Infobits -- November 2007

TL INFOBITS November 2007 No. 17 ISSN: 1931-3144

About INFOBITS

INFOBITS is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning division. Each month the
ITS-TL's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a
number of information and instructional technology sources that come to
her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to
educators.

NOTE: You can read the Web version of this issue at
http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/bitnov07.php.

You can read all back issues of Infobits at
http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/.

......................................................................

Observations on Scholars' Use of Digitized Resources
Technology Standards for Students
Preventing Online Exam Cheating
Call for Papers on Academics in Virtual Environments
Recommended Reading

......................................................................

OBSERVATIONS ON SCHOLARS' USE OF DIGITIZED RESOURCES

"[D]o many 'producers' of technological tools and systems pay much
attention to the unconvinced, indifferent, tired, frustrated, or
thwarted academic 'consumers'? Or do they simply dismiss many
nonadopters as aberrations, luddites, or dinosaurs, with little
reflection about the complex reasons why many scholars have not yet
embraced the promise of the 'new, new' technological thing?"

In "Use and Users of Digital Resources: A Survey Explored Scholars'
Attitudes about Educational Technology Environments in the Humanities"
(EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 7, 2007), Diane Harley, Senior
Researcher in the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the
University of California, Berkeley, reports on a survey of faculty in
the humanities and social sciences devised to "map the universe of
digital resources available to undergraduate educators . . . and to
examine how understanding use, users, and nonusers might benefit the
integration of these resources into scholarly environments." The survey
asked such questions as

-- how often faculty use various types of digital resources in their
        undergraduate teaching

-- why they don't use digital resources in certain teaching situations

-- why they have difficulty using digital resources the way they would
        like

The paper, along with data from the survey, is available at
http://connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/UseandUsersofDigital/45536.

EDUCAUSE Quarterly [ISSN 1528-5324], is a "practitioner's journal for
college and university managers and users of information
resources--information, technology, and services" published by EDUCAUSE
(http://www.educause.edu/). Articles from current and back issues of
EDUCAUSE Quarterly are available on the Web at
http://connect.educause.edu/eq/.

In "Future Reading: Digitization and its Discontents" (THE NEW YORKER,
November 5, 2007) Anthony Grafton writes that "Google's projects
[Google Book Search, Google Publishing Partners], together with rival
initiatives by Microsoft and Amazon, have elicited millenarian
prophecies about the possibilities of digitized knowledge and the end
of the book as we know it. . . . Others have evoked even more utopian
prospects, such as a universal archive that will contain not only all
books and articles but all documents anywhere--the basis for a total
history of the human race." Grafton debunks the hyperbole as he traces
the history of information overload and the methods devised to control
it through the millennia. He predicts that "for the foreseeable future"
readers and scholars will rely on both digitized resources and the
collections still physically in libraries. "[S]treams of data, rich as
they are, will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and
manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you."

The article is available online at
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_grafton.

The New Yorker [ISSN 0028-792X] is published 47 times a year by
CondeNet. For more information, contact The New Yorker, Inc., 4 Times
Square, New York, NY 10036 USA; Web: http://www.newyorker.com/.

......................................................................

TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS

In 1998, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
published the National Educational Technology Standards for Students
(NETS-S), a "U.S. consensus defining what students needed to know about
and be able to do with technology. The standards, used in every U.S.
state and many countries, are credited by most with significantly
influencing expectations for students and creating a target of
excellence relating to technology."

In June 2007, ISTE released a new version of NETS-S that reflects the
changes in technology since 1998 and the changing expectations of
students' technical skills. The standard is available
http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=3DNETS.

The new standards are part of ISTE's NETS Refresh Project which will
introduce NETS for Teachers (NETS-T) in 2008 and NETS for
Administrators (NETS-A) in 2009.

ISTE is a nonprofit membership organization which "provides leadership
and service to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by
advancing the effective use of technology in PK=AD12 and teacher
education." For more information, contact: ISTE, 1710 Rhode Island Ave
NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 800.336.5191; fax:
541.302.3778; email: iste@iste.org; Web: http://www.iste.org/.

......................................................................

PREVENTING ONLINE EXAM CHEATING

"An instructor cannot have the same degree of control over the online
exam environment that they have for traditional classroom exams. For
this reason, we must re-design our exams (to the extent possible) to
ensure that they are effective in the online environment." In "Ways to
Prevent Cheating on Online Exams" (EDUCATOR'S VOICE, vol. 8, issue 6,
November 15, 2007), Gail E. Krovitz offers guidelines and tips to help
instructors reduce cheating when they use objective exams in online
courses. The article is available at
http://www.ecollege.com/Educators_Voice.learn.

Educator's Voice is published monthly by the eCollege Instructional
Design Team. For more information contact eCollege, eCollege Building,
4900 S. Monaco Street, Denver, CO 80237 USA; tel: 888-884-7325; fax:
303-873-7449; Web: http://www.ecollege.com/.

......................................................................

CALL FOR PAPERS ON ACADEMICS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

INNOVATE, edited by James Morrison, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Emeritus,
is a peer-reviewed e-journal that began publication with the
October/November 2004 issue. The journal covers cutting-edge research
and practice in the field of using information technology tools to
enhance teaching and learning. Readers can also comment on articles,
share material with colleagues and friends, and participate in open
forums.

Innovate is soliciting manuscripts for a special issue on academics in
virtual environments. This issue focuses on the use of Multi-User
Virtual Environments (MUVEs) as an enhancement to education. A MUVE
combines graphics and audio with the ability to communicate with
multiple users in real time within the context of a 3-D virtual
environment. MUVEs are not necessarily considered games, as programs
like Second Life and There have no end goal or objective.

For more information go to
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=3Dspecial_issues and click
on the Academics in Virtual Environments paragraph.

To submit a manuscript go to
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=3Dsubmit.

......................................................................

RECOMMENDED READING

"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or
that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or
useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits
subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas_at_unc.edu for
possible inclusion in this column.

Infobits subscriber Karen Ellis, founder of the Educational
CyberPlayGround (http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/), recommends the
following:

STUDIO THINKING: THE REAL BENEFITS OF VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION
By Lois Hetland, Ellen Winner, Shirley Veneema, and Kimberly M. Sheridan
New York: Teachers College Press, 2007
$24.95
ISBN 978-0-8077-4818-3

"The authors set out to tell us why arts education is important and to
give art teachers a research based language they can use to describe
what they teach, and what is learned. They reached their conclusions
after studying a number of well-taught studio classes in two schools.
Over the course of a year, they observed what they call a 'hidden
curriculum' that defines what art education is and what it does. Studio
Thinking presents their findings in a cohesive model along with lesson
examples and commentary. The authors say they want to 'change the
conversation about the arts in this country' and that could happen if
they can resurrect, or reinvigorate, some of their earlier work. Studio
Thinking presents what the authors say is the right 'reason' for arts
education as opposed to some other rationales, which they say, are just
plain wrong."

-- Review by John Broomall, Executive director of the Pennsylvania
        Alliance for Arts Education
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/StudioThinkingArtsAdvocacy.html

......................................................................

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If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future
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Article Suggestions

Infobits always welcomes article suggestions from our readers, although
we cannot promise to print everything submitted. Because of our
publishing schedule, we are not able to announce time-sensitive events
such as upcoming conferences and calls for papers or grant
applications; however, we do include articles about online conference
proceedings that are of interest to our readers. We can announce your
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Received on Sun Dec 02 2007 - 04:43:22 EST

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