Volume I: Issue I August 2007

Inside the Tent: Moving New Technology from the Margins to the Mainstream

As the pace and complexity of technological change increase, the value of WCET’s unique role as an unbiased source of expertise and a pathfinder is greater than ever.

We live and work in an age when technology and education are continuously informing, inspiring, and advancing each other. It’s no exaggeration to say that the place where technology and higher education meet is one of the most exciting frontiers in human knowledge. This is the place where WCET does its work.

For 18 years, WCET’s members and staff have played a seminal role in this synergy of technology and higher education. WCET has brought together innovative thinkers from universities, companies, and non-profit organizations around the nation to advance educational access and excellence through the innovative use of technology. WCET has been integral in the development of distance learning, which began in the West and quickly became a mainstream national resource. We are known and sought out for our expertise in a wide range of issues critical to technology and learning, including: the quality of online classes; regulatory structures and principles of good practice; virtual universities; quality assurance; and consumer protection.

Within the history of WCET, what was once “distance education” is now considered education; it’s become part of the core work of many institutions and integral to the way students learn and teachers teach across the nation. Likewise, what was once e-learning, and relevant only to “distant” students, has also become a primary mode of teaching and learning. Practices that were once outside the tent are now inside—and leading innovators such as the members of WCET have been joined by the rest of the world.

As technology innovations move into the mainstream, WCET continues to do what we do best: look ahead, evaluate new possibilities, and help higher education put the best of them into practice. As the pace and complexity of technological change increase, the value of WCET’s unique role as an unbiased source of expertise and a pathfinder is greater than ever. We will continue to do our best and most important work where critical thinking and leadership are needed—at the forefront of new ideas.

In the weeks and months to come, I will use this forum to highlight trends and topics that I believe are vital to our various missions of learning, discovery, and engagement. If you agree that these are important to our institutions and constituencies, we can use our newly refreshed WCET communications vehicles to continue the discussion, and perhaps move toward action.

That said, I’d like to kick off the conversation in this inaugural issue of Frontiers with the topic of e-science. I know I’m not alone in believing that e-science will transform the process of discovery and learning in all fields of science and engineering. One of my teachers in this arena is Professor Ed Lazowska, a renowned computer scientist and the keynote speaker at our upcoming annual meeting on November 7-10 in Atlanta.

For centuries, there were only two modes of scientific discovery: theory and experiment. In the past several decades, a third mode has risen to equal status: simulation. Like simulation, e-science relies on the extraordinary power of the digital computer. But in e-science, the focus is on data rather than computation. The data comes from real–time sensors that can be located virtually anywhere and on anything we want to learn about: from the sea floor to buildings and roadways, telescopes, gene sequencers, and living organisms—including ourselves. The volume of data is overwhelming, and the challenge is to store, organize, mine, visualize, and interpret it in order to extract knowledge. This data explosion, layered with the fundamental challenge of understanding massively complex systems in general, lies at the heart of twenty-first century discovery. Given the imagination and experience of WCET members, who have thought deeply about new modes of engagement using Internet technologies, this mode of discovery could become another core of learning that we help usher into the mainstream.

E-science is just one example of how technology’s role in education is continuously evolving; today’s radical notion is tomorrow’s mainstream practice. As a cooperative that reflects and supports our members’ interests, WCET will always be discovering, and sharing, new ways to advance educational quality and access through the innovative use of technology.

Louis Fox
Executive Director

WCET Members Can Anticipate New Services this fall

Welcome to the first issue of WCET’s new newsletter: “Frontiers.” Each issue will feature a main article penned by WCET staff or guest experts offering commentary on issues facing our members. The newsletter will also highlight notable works by other member institutions and organizations, as well as projects and professional development events conducted by WCET.

In the newsletter banner, you will note the new WCET logo. You will also see our new tagline (“Partners for change. Technologies in practice. Advances in education”) which resulted from input received from WCET members during our strategic planning process undertaken earlier this year.

“Frontiers” is the first of several new services that will be unveiled in the coming months. The website is being updated using new community-based tools to better help members connect with each other. WCET will pilot Common Interest Groups (CIGs). These groups will be created among members interested in a common issue, sharing a common profession, or working in a common organization or institution. Common Interest Group members will be tasked with sharing information and developing activities to meet the needs of their constituents. WCET members will be able to stay abreast of selected issues through WCET’s eTopics. Members will share relevant resources and can subscribe to receive updates on the issue.

Watch for more announcements on these and other new services from WCET.

Steering Committee Working Groups Suggest Future Directions

By Ed Klonoski, Chair, WCET Steering Committee
President, Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium

The past six months have been a productive time for the WCET Steering Committee. As a logical next step of our contributions to the mission, vision, and goals planning, we have had several ad hoc “working groups” addressing issues related to the core functions of WCET: membership, caucus/common interest groups, and activities. These three groups were populated by volunteers from the Steering Committee, including their respective chairs—Ed Klonoski, Al Powell, and Patricia Cuocco. Each working group met several times and documented their discussions in minutes, notes, and reports back to the Steering Committee. The results of these discussions have been quite exciting.

The Membership Working Group, consisting of Shannon Meadows, Janis Hall, Barry Willis, Gary Wixom, with Mollie McGill and Pat Shea in support, concluded the following:

WCET could support 500 member institutions/organizations.
As new member benefits are developed, they should persist for at least 2-3 years.
Member services should include BOTH staff-supported and member-supported benefits.
At some point in the near future, the organization should survey current members and potential members to discover more about the value of existing and potential member services.

The Caucus/Common Interest Group Working Group, consisting of Al Powell (chair), Ritchie Boyd, Fred Hurst, Ted Kassier, Paul Marquard, and Terry Norris, with Mollie McGill and Sherri Artz Gilbert in support, proposed that WCET begin exploring the creation of Common Interest Groups (CIGs) with an eye toward possibly replacing the current caucus structure with them. To pilot this effort and to assist in developing a model for future CIGs, Myk Garn (Kentucky Virtual Campus) and Susan Scott (Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System) are exploring a CIG involving distance learning consortia. In addition, the working group has proposed several other CIGs (e.g., community colleges, innovation in technology-mediated education) that staff are currently exploring as additional pilots.

Finally, the Activities Working Group is responding to the feedback on possible WCET activities that we received from the caucus meetings at last year’s annual conference. The working group, consisting of Patricia Cuocco (chair), Mike Abbiatti, Darcy Hardy, Dee Ludwig, Tim McGee, Don Olcott, with Mollie McGill and Russ Poulin in support, sorted through some of these suggestions and also started work on criteria to be used in judging the suitability of future suggestions for activities to be implemented by WCET.

As a result of these discussions, new services and opportunities for WCET members are under development. Watch for announcements coming this summer and into the fall.

WCET Partners with China to Promote Open Educational Resources

Earlier this summer, Dr. Fun-Den Wang, Chairman of the China Open Resources for Education (CORE), met with WCET Executive Director Louis Fox and they renewed an agreement to promote cooperation between the two organizations to advance the use of open courseware in China. The open courseware model is supported by the Chinese Ministry of Education as a significant educational resource to expand educational opportunities for its growing population. The leadership, management and coordination of China’s involvement in this arena are led by CORE, a non-profit membership organization with connections to China’s major universities and other international groups. The WCET/CORE alliance will begin by promoting more interactions between the two organizations through their respective conferences and possible exchange visitations. WCET and CORE also agreed to explore ways in which they might address some of the language translation issues (Mandarin Chinese and English) that are required to make the open courseware model successful. To date, CORE and its network of member institutions have translated 1,100 courses, created a mirror website for MIT’s OpenCourseWare, and is an active member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium.

The open courseware movement gained visibility and momentum in 2001 when MIT announced that it would provide free and open access to its digitally formatted courses and related instructional materials. Today, students, faculty and lifelong learners can view and study materials from thousands of courses, created by faculty from more than one hundred institutions worldwide. Since the inception of the open educational resources (OER) model, WCET has been directly engaged in international discussions of how these free digital resources might assist developing countries meet the educational needs of their citizens.

WCET’s annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, will feature sessions addressing open educational resources, practical considerations for using OER content in online courses and the future of the open courseware movement.

Meet WCET’s New Staff

Long-time WCET members will welcome the return of Mollie McGill as an associate director for WCET and WICHE. She spent nearly 20 years working for WICHE in the early part of her career and, among other accomplishments, was instrumental in founding WCET in 1989. Most recently she directed learning innovations and technology initiatives for the University of Colorado System and served in leadership roles for several Colorado statewide e-learning projects. Mollie has stepped down as Steering Committee Chair and Executive Council member to be on the front line of WCET’s emerging Innovation agenda and WICHE’s Technology, Science, and Innovation agenda.

Megan Raymond, Events Coordinator, has “hit the ground running” to oversee the myriad logistics of the 2007 Annual Conference and the related registrations and communications. Megan, whose pastimes include trail running, marathons and Randonnée skiing, also coordinates for Pat Shea the smooth “running” of WCET’s student services projects and membership recruitment.

Peggy Green, Administrative Specialist, has a joint appointment with WCET and WICHE to provide administrative and financial services support. Peggy is a perfect match for WCET’s membership-based organization. She brings a strong background in customer relations and, as a seasoned volleyball player, she is skilled at keeping many balls in the air!

Paul Huntsberger brings exceptional technical and design talents to his position of Web Developer for both WCET and WICHE. He will lead the implementation of WCET’s web redesign efforts and will use those experiences to assist other WICHE programs develop a more robust web presence. Paul put his career as a professional musician on hold and recently completed his degree in web development and multimedia.