`D-Learning' Thrives on the Internet

[John Walker]

Note:

Link at: http://www.networx.on.ca/~jwalker

Select

--> Internet Resources then
--> Search the 'Net

Thanks to all the folks who checked out the Websitz search 
engine and passed their comments on to me. It appears to do
the job it was designed for, searching .com sites.

There was some confusion as to what this search engine actually
does. Below is an example of the type of search it was designed
for.

Hi John;
I read your posting with interest since I do some web searching and
have found I often need all the help I can get............

I typed in the word Parkinson's and was not overly impressed by the
results.  I then typed in roche since I was looking for some info on
Tasmar / tolcapone and Roche Canada is the maker here.  This search,
focussed on the roche group of companies, got me all I wanted and
more.  I found out that Roche Canada has a website under development
and one thread led to another to give me the F. Hoffman-LaRoche
sponsored site at:

http://www.parkinsonsdisease.com/onsite/whatnew0.htm

I found Tasmar Prescribing Information (interesting reading) at:

http://www.parkinsonsdisease.com/pcp/tasmarpi.htm

and COMT inhibitors etc.

I also found exactly what I had been looking for in response to
Ellen Peck's posting and how to contact the maker of tolcapone.

Hoffman-LaRoche has a website form you can fill out with requests for
information and they will e-mail you a reply.

John, WebSitz gets a thumbs up from me.  For domain searches it
clearly beats anything else I've tried thus far.  Thanks.


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`D-Learning' Thrives on the Internet

   By DIANE E. LEWIS
   c.1998 The Boston Globe

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/feeds/nytsyn/1998/03/11/cndin/4811-0012-pat_nytimes%7C%7C/h ome
/content/users/imds/feeds/nytsyn/1998/03/11/cndin/4432-0010- pat
_nytimes%7C%7C

The Forum Corp., an international management consulting firm in
Boston, was facing a dilemma: how to teach several dozen of its 350
employees to market a new product when so many of them were spread
around the country and the world.

The solution? Distance learning, or d-learning in cybertalk.

``It was important to be able to synchronize training on line,''
recalled Catherine Lang, the company's Internet capabilities
consultant.

Relying on software from Interactive Learning International Corp. in
Troy, N.Y., or ILINC, Lang developed the content for an on-line
learning system with chat features, audio, and other options that
permitted employees in New York, Chicago, and London to share Web
site information with employees in, say, Boston. What's more, some of
the firm's staff took the course while at home.

D-learning is not new. Still, experts say the Internet and other
technical advances have brought a new dimension to a form of learning
that dates back to the mid-17th century, when Sir Isaac Pitman of
Bath, England, developed a for-profit mail-order school for rural
residents. Pitman's clients copied Bible passages in shorthand, and
then mailed them back to him to be critiqued.

Today, with so many new options available through the Internet,
cable, or satellite, the virtual classroom has come of age. In some
cases, new forms of distance learning are popping up in cyberspace
that make current television programming seem downright outdated.

One example: synchronized distance education. It allows students to
log on to live lectures that include colorful graphics and visual
aids.

Another option now being developed by Indianapolis University offers a
vivid example of how the practice is being revolutionized. Called
video streaming technology, it permits interactive discussions
between teachers and distance learners.

``Distance learning is the fastest-growing element of the education
market today,'' says Inabeth Miller, vice president of academic
affairs at Massachusetts Communications College in Boston. ``Almost
every college in the country is talking about or thinking about using
one technology or another to reach graduates or alums. Corporations
are also looking at it as a learning tool for employees.''

When offered through the Internet, distance learning allows the
student to receive text and visuals. Under this system, people sign
up, receive weekly assignments and, in some cases, participate in
on-line study groups via e-mail.

Classroom instruction through compressed video permits the viewer to
participate in actual classes, in real time, with the help of a tiny
camera located on top of a computer monitor. An interactive program,
it permits questions to be asked and answered, with support from
e-mail for assignments.

A more common option involves use of a satellite. In this case,
information is beamed to the student via satellite from a studio to a
TV in what usually is a carefully scripted program such as a panel
discussion or town meeting.

``Many distance learners are middle-aged and older people who, as
they grow older, are more and more reluctant to go to a school
building,'' said Miller, author of the ``Kaplan Guide to Distance
Learning.'' (Published in 1997 by Simon & Schuster, $18).

``We've also seen this with welfare recipients in Mississippi,'' she
continued. ``They were terrified of going back to a classroom because
they had felt so inadequate there in the past.''

Gary Kaplan, executive director of Boston-based Jobs for Youth, hopes
for the day when his jobs program will train and place not just 20 or
30 but as many as 300 low-income youths and former welfare recipients
a year.

``Imagine what could be accomplished,'' Kaplan says during a tour of
the program's new quarters in Boston. ``Yes, we've made a difference
in terms of the training we do and in placing people in growth
industry jobs, but we could do much, much more and all it requires is
access to the Internet.''

In Washington, meanwhile, there is some movement afoot to expand
distance learning by offering financial aid to d-learners. Another
government proposal, announced recently by the Clinton
administration, would set aside $30 million for an experimental
project to help institutions of higher learning develop and use new
technology that supports the trend.

Unfortunately, the plan doesn't earmark funds for the low-income
students or high school dropouts enrolled at Jobs for Youth, but
experts say the next step will be to use this ever-evolving learning
method to reach the country's under- and unemployed at local
libraries, union halls, churches, and community centers.

``D-learning, unquestionably, has a tremendous future,'' says Richard
Judy, senior research fellow at the Hudson Institute, a public policy
think tank in Indianapolis.

---------------

Also in this issue:

- China Has 620,000 People Surfing The Internet
    BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ranks of Internet surfers have swollen to
    620,000 from less than 20,000 five years ago, the official Xinhua
    news agency said today.
- AT&T May Boot Net Hogs Off Line
    While some Internet service providers are raising prices or limiting
    service, AT&T's Worldnet is considering ways to deal with heavy
    network use that include automatically logging off subscribers who
    hang on the line for hours at a time.
- Microsoft Sets June 25 As Windows 98 Retail Launch Date
    At its retail summit next week, Microsoft will finally disclose the 
    June 25 delivery date for Windows 98, sources said this week.
- `D-Learning' Thrives on the Internet
    The Forum Corp., an international management consulting firm in
    Boston, was facing a dilemma: how to teach several dozen of its 350
    employees to market a new product when so many of them were spread
    around the country and the world.
- One In Ten Canadians Rely on Net for News
    [March 12] According to a recent Angus Reid Group and Canadian
    Corporate News study, 10% of all Canadians report using the Internet
    "a great deal" as a news source.
- "Hot Off The Web" Lets Users Comment On Web Pages
    [March 12--ProductWatch] Insight Development Corp. announced Hot Off
    The Web, a product that allows users to capture a Web page, add
    comments, then e-mail, fax, print, or save the annotated page.
- ISPs Spotlight New Services, Alliances
    Spring Internet World '98 provided a gusher of sorts in the way of IP
    services this week, as ISPs rolled out products ranging from
    high-speed access, hosting, and IP faxing.
- Plotting an Internet Address Revolution
    [March 12] Here's a bold plan: Devise a whole new domain-address
    system that lets companies register their trademarks, product names,
    and advertising-pitch phrases (such as "Think Different" and "Get
    Free Stuff"), build an independent domain-name database that links
    these "Real Names" to URLs, entice people to perform searches at your
    site instead of at HotBot (or others), and convince Netscape and
    Microsoft to build browser add-ins so users can search your database
    within their browser command lines.
- New Lists and Journals
    * SYP - "20-something" Single Parents
    * WildGardens Mailing List
    * Discovery - Discovery process in product development
    * L-ANAPAT - Foro sobre Anatomia Patologica



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