__ __ __ __ __ __ web's eye view (May 10, 1999) | | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / / alan levine | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction |__/ |__/ |__/|__/ |__/|__/ http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/ ============================================================================ They are a bit late for Cinco de Mayo, but they are still fresh URLs, the newest bag of 43 items ready for pickup at http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/curr.html Blackboard? Blackboard? ======================= You will be hearing more about Blackboard in the coming months, as nine of the Maricopa colleges begin using this web courseware system. Last month, the company held a "summit" conference, the proceedings of which are online: | BLACKBOARD SUMMIT Blackboard Summit Overview More than 300 of the | nation's leaders in higher education and technology, including | the FCC Chairman William Kennard, gathered in Washington, DC at | the 1999 Blackboard Summit to discuss the integral role of the | Internet in academic computing. Not only was the conference a | sold out event, but it also received excellent reviews from | attendees. Barbara Kathe, Vice President for Academic Affairs, | Salve Regina University wrote, "This was one of the most | interesting and best orchestrated conferences to which I have | been." And John Harlan, Network Applications Manager, Miami | University of Ohio stated, "This was a thoroughly EXCELLENT | conference - and therefore a good use of my institution's time | and money in sending myself and my colleagues." | | Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Opens Blackboard | Summit We were honored to have the FCC Chairman William Kennard | open the 1999 Blackboard Summit. His motivational speech set the | stage of the event, emphasizing the need for higher education, | business, and government to work together to improve education | through technology. He also outlined the goals of the FCC to | increase the availability of technology to schools at all levels. http://www.blackboard.net/courses/SUMMIT99/ Animated Web Cursor in DHTML ============================ You will need a 4.0 browser to see this, but a site we stumbled across has an animated GIF that follows the path of your mouse: http://www.teknosurf2.com/ Top Ten Web Mistakes according to Alertbox =========================================== | The Alertbox for May 2 is now online at: | http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990502.html | | Nine of ten mistakes in Web design identified in May 1996 still | cause severe usability problems and should be avoided in modern | websites. Microsoft Educational Pricing ============================= | Microsoft has announced a new licensing program for schools, | colleges, and universities. The Microsoft School Agreement for | K-12 educators provides licenses for Microsoft products that | schools use most frequently at a single price, based on the | number of PCs used by students, faculty, and staff. Teachers | will also be able to use the licensed software at home. Campus | Agreement version 2.0 adds enhancements to the higher education | licensing agreement that Microsoft first launched in October of | 1998. The new version will give colleges and universities more | flexibility and software options. Students will be able to use | their Microsoft software after graduation, as long as the school | still has its Campus Agreement in place. According to Elizabeth | W. King, general manager of the Education Customer Unit at | Microsof, "These software licensing programs will help schools | maximize their technology dollars and provide faculty, students, | and staff with the most current software for teaching, learning, | and administration." http://www.microsoft.com/education/pricing/. This and That from EDUPAGE ========================== http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html | May 10, 1999 COMMONPLACES' WEB STRATEGY TARGETS STUDENTS | CommonPlaces has built an online network that is intended to | serve as an Internet hub for college students overwhelmed by the | vast resources available on the Web. The network, dubbed | CollegeBytes.com, is touted as a single resource for a variety Of | student-oriented information, from academics to socializing. | Students will be able to chat with professors, log on to online | lectures, buy textbooks and movie tickets, register for classes, | and build personal Web pages. All of the services are free, and | revenue is expected to come from electronic commerce. | CommonPlaces soon expects to announce a deal with a major book | publisher that will allow students to order books online. A few | colleges have already signed up--including New York University | and Boston's Emerson College--and another 275 schools have | expressed interest. However, CommonPlaces has competition as | WebCT Educational Technologies and Blackboard are helping schools | put classes online, while Electronic Communities sells software | for schools to create online communities for students. (Wall | Street Journal 05/10/99) | | May 10, 1999 A SHORTAGE OF TECH WORKERS? The computer industry | continues to bemoan the shortage of high-tech workers, but older | workers say the companies are ignoring the pool of skilled | workers who are willing to update their skills in order to | re-enter the workforce. SeniorTechs is looking to address their | concerns by setting up a referral service of 15,000 "vintage | techies" willing to work. Founder William S. Payson says that | despite the Information Technology Association of America's | estimated shortage of 346,000 programmers, older workers are not | being offered those jobs. The oldest person in the SeniorTechs | database is 95, but anyone over 35 is classified as "vintage." | The service is free to workers, while employers pay $1,000 per | hire. Employers often say that older workers are not being hired | because their skills are rusty, but SeniorTechs is working on a | deal to offer online training courses to seniors who want to | learn the latest programming languages and other skills. | (Philadelphia Inquirer 05/10/99) | | April 30, 1999 SIZZLING COMPUTER SKILLS REPLACE FLIPPING BURGERS | Thousands of teenagers are moving into the high-tech industry, | working for others or even starting their own companies. The | computer and data processing industry employed 29,000 people | between the ages of 16 and 19 last year, up from 5,000 in 1994, | according to estimates by the Department of Labor. Teenagers are | being hired as Web page consultants, network administrators, and | computer programmers. Several factors are contributing to this | trend--one such factor is a shortage of skilled workers, which | makes clients and companies eager to hire people with the | necessary skills. Another cause of the trend is an increase in | the number of home computers, which allowed many of today's | teenagers to begin using computers at a very early age. (USA | Today 04/30/99) | | April 30, 1999 STUDENTS SEARCH THE WEB FOR THEIR FIRST REAL JOBS | College students now rely heavily on the Internet when searching | for jobs. New York University, Georgetown University, and | Columbia University have all set up online systems to help | students connect with employers. A campus' career center Web | site is now more familiar to most students than the career center | office itself. Students with a background in computer science | may have more success with online job boards than those who do | not. Georgetown English major Tony Oliver says he received four | or five e-mail messages a day from Monster.com, but "they were | geared to people with a lot of programming experience." | Companies that employ liberal arts majors are beginning to send | job listings to career centers to be posted in their Web sites, | as well as to Jobtrak, an online service that provides a database | of job openings exclusively for college career centers. (New York | Times 04/29/99)