Networked Information in an International Context

A CONFERENCE ORGANISED BY UKOLN IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE BRITISH LIBRARY, CNI, CAUSE AND JISC

9th and 10th February 1996 at the Ramada Hotel, Heathrow, UK

NEW LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN THE NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT

JANA BRADLEY, Assistant Professor, Indiana University - Purdue University of Indiana

At the request of the speaker, this presentation has not been reported here in full. Interested readers are referred to the URLs shown at the end of the paper.

ABSTRACT

This presentation described the innovative instructional projects that combine networked information technology and resources, interdisciplinary teams for design and delivery of instruction and interests in student collaborative learning. The descriptions were based on data from the ten project teams who participated in the Coalition for Networked Information’s second invitational Conference on New Learning Communities, held at Indianapolis in November 1995.

NEW LEARNING COMMUNITIES

The first New Learning Communities conference was held in July 1994 in Phoenix and was furthered in a subsequent conference in November 17-19 1995 at Indianapolis. Both were organised under the auspices of the Coalition for Networked Information, CNI. The programme seeks to promote cross-fertilisation of the different types of professionals in higher education who use networks to enrich their curricula and broaden students’ learning experiences.

To achieve this aim, the programme brings together institutional, or inter-institutional, teams of varying compositions and roles, comprising faculty, librarians, information technologists, instructional technologists and students. The exchange of ideas and exposure to different viewpoints will lead to a greater understanding of the total perspective in terms of campus utilisation of networks and the development of a set of "best practices" for the benefit of the wider educational community.

THE PROJECTS

From the propositions put forward in response to a call for projects issued by CNI early in 1995, ten teams were selected to participate in the Indianapolis conference. The projects are:

• Collaboratory (University of Hawai’i at Manoa and University of Alberta)
• Collaborative Development of Web Pages for Students in a First Year Colloquy Series (Gettysburg College)
• Distance and Electronic Education Project: A Mini-Grant Program (John Hopkins University)
• LC Online (Louisiana College)
• UWired: Teaching, Learning and Technology (University of Washington)
• The California Young Scholar Program (California State Polytechnic, Pomona)
• Student Directed, Information Rich (SDIR) Learning (North Carolina State University)
• Fine Arts 121: A Model for Developing a Digital Undergraduate Curriculum (University of Southern California)
• Integrating Networked Information into Instruction (Mesa and Estrella Mountain Community Colleges)
• The Delta Project Integrated Database: Biological Sciences and Art (California State University System)

Further information can be obtained from the following URLs:
http://www.cni.org/projects/nlc/www/nlc.html
ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/projects/nlc
gopher://gopher.cni.org.70/11/cniftp/projects/nlc

British Library R&D Report 6250
© The British Library Board 1996
© Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Bodies 1996

The opinions expressed in this report are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the sponsoring organisations.

RDD/C/187

The primary publication medium for this report is via the Internet at URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/bl/rdr6250/
It may also be purchased as photocopies or microfiche from the British Thesis Service, British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ.

This report of the conference was prepared by The Marc Fresko Consultancy Telephone +44 181 645 0080 E-mail marc@easynet.co.uk

Converted to HTML by Isobel Stark of UKOLN, July 1996