__     __ __     __ __     __  web's eye view (October 27, 1999)
| | /| / /| | /| / /| | /| / /  alan levine                        
| |/ |/ / | |/ |/ / | |/ |/ /   Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction
|__/ |__/ |__/|__/  |__/|__/    http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/
===========================================================================

The leaves are falling (somehwere other than Arizona), and we are raking them up and putting them in with a fresh bag of URLs is ready for pickup at

   http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/curr.html


Alertbox
========

The Alertbox for October 17 is now online at:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991017.html

| If everything is emphasized, then nothing stands out.
| Prioritized design helps users focus on the most promising
| choices first.


Campus Computing Project
========================
| FACULTY WARINESS OF TECHNOLOGY REMAINS A CHALLENGE, COMPUTING
| SURVEY FINDS
| Persuading faculty members to embrace technology is the most
| difficult task for academic-computing officials, according
| to a Campus Computing Project survey released on Thursday. 
| Almost 40 percent of the IT officials who responded to the
| survey cited helping faculty bring technology to the
| classroom as their largest challenge.  "I think it's fair to
| say that many faculty members have ceded to their students
| the whole issue of technology skills," says Campus Computing
| Project founder and director Kenneth Green.  Over 25 percent
| of respondents listed "providing adequate user support" as
| their largest problem, while almost 15 percent ranked
| financing the replacement of older technology as a top
| concern.  Although Y2K and e-commerce are among the most
| pressing issues affecting the IT industry, few academic
| officials listed either issue as their largest problem. The
| survey also reveals that community colleges have an average
| of one IT staff member supporting every 800 students, while
| four-year colleges and universities have an average of one
| IT staff member for every 150 students. (Chronicle of Higher
| Education 10/21/99)

The latest broad scale survey data of technology use in higher 
education is available from:

  http://www.campuscomputing.net/


From EDUPAGE:
=============
Get your own regular dose of edtech news, see
  http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html

| ONLINE PRESENTATIONS BOOM AS COLLEGES COMPETE FOR THE
| BRIGHTEST STUDENTS 
| Virtual campus tours are now available at
| many college and university Web sites to attract incoming
| freshmen by offering a glimpse of campus life.  Over 800
| colleges now provide virtual tours, up from 200 two years
| ago, indicating that colleges need an impressive Internet
| presence to draw top students.  One site that offers virtual
| campus tours belongs to Washington State University in
| Pullman and allows students to navigate interactive maps of
| campus, look through a photo library of campus scenes, see
| live shots of campus, and view videos on various topics of
| interest.  However, admissions officers say virtual tours
| are intended to encourage students to visit campus in person
| rather than to replace the need for an actual visit.
| Although virtual tours can spark interest in a school or
| help refresh the memory of a student that has already
| visited campus, the many small details of campus life are
| difficult to capture online.  (New York Times 10/13/99)

| CLUNKY INTERNET SITES GET SOCIAL-SCIENCE TREATMENT
| Web site designers are trying to make their sites more
| user-friendly by hiring employees with degrees in social
| sciences and humanities.  Most Web sites are difficult for
| average people to use, experts say.  Many Web designers do
| not understand user behavior, including why users often
| leave sites soon after going to them.  One technique Modem
| Media uses is role playing, in which employees pretend to be
| users that fit a certain profile in an attempt to understand
| a user's experience of a Web site.  Modem Media intends to
| hire psychologists and anthropologists to expand its efforts
| to understand user behavior.  Meanwhile, Sapient last month
| announced plans to buy E-Lab because of E-Lab's knowledge of
| "patterns of behavior that reveal and drive the nature of
| experience."  However, Web site usability expert Jakob
| Nielsen says social scientists are not the answer, and that
| companies should focus instead on conducting usability tests
| with actual customers.  (Investor's Business Daily 10/15/99)