Spotlight

No. 5

August 16, 1999

Technology:

eRoom
Cheap it ain't. In fact, the price tag of $5,000 per server plus $200 per user makes it one of the more expensive propositions in its category. (No word on any educational discounts.) Is it worth it? For those, who can afford it, it probably is. Its simple, intuitive interface, with strong resemblance to Windows Explorer, hides an impressive selection of powerful features:

document storage and exchange with routing and version control

easy creation of teams

discussion boards

to-do lists

textual chat

online paging

people awareness (i.e. who is currently online)

automatic notifications of new or modified documents

polling

fine-grained access control

full-text searching of eRoom objects

spell checker

browser-based administration

The server runs only on Windows NT and requires either Microsoft Internet Information Server or Personal Web Server, but all of the features listed above are available to a mere browser (Java-enabled), making this a truly multiplatform solution on the most important (i.e. client) side. Windows users have the option to download and install a specialized plugin, which will give them enriched capabilities, e.g. submitting new files by simply dragging-and-dropping them into desired folder on eRoom, and a tight integration with Microsoft Office 2000 suite, which means that users can save their documents directly into eRoom or link to eRoom objects from Outlook.
Worth mentioning is also eRoom's ability to archive its objects in external document repositories, e.g. Lotus Notes, Web servers, Microsoft Exchange, etc. (This, however, requires an additional module called EnterConnect.) eRoom is clearly geared toward document and project management, thus teams in need of real-time, synchronous features will have to look elsewhere, either complementing it with a conferencing tool like Netmeeting, or replacing it with a more sophisticated environment, like LearningSpace Anytime. For the rest of us eRoom's rich set of features should be quite sufficient.

eRoom screenshots (click on a thumbnail):

Drag-and-drop Version control

For more information please visit the eRoom's Web site or search the ACT database of Groupwork Tools.

Addendum:
In the preceding issue (No. 4) of ACT Spotlight, I failed to mention one very interesting feature of WebMail: subscribers receive a phone number which they can dial in order to listen to their e-mail being read to them by a "text-to-voice" program. Unfortunately, the program does not distinguish between the body of a message and extraneous information, so one has no choice but to listen to all the "garbage" we rarely glance at: headers, signatures, clever quotes, etc. File attachments are, obviously and thankfully, ignored, but any URL is painstakingly spelled letter by letter... Not something one would want to replace regular e-mail client with, but whenever no Internet connection is available, this may be a lifesaver.

Initiatives:

AOL Foundation
Established in 1997, this young foundation strives to "pioneer the development of strategies and programs that leverage the power of the emerging global medium to benefit society by improving the lives of families and children, and empowering the disadvantaged. [It] has focused on the "Digital Divide," or the widening social and economic chasm between those who have access to information technology and those who do not. AOL Foundation strongly believes that technology can be an important tool to boost economic development in areas that have not traditionally had access to capital, assist non-profits in their charitable missions, spur greater civic engagement by the disenfranchised, make crucial health care information and services more widely available, and address many other intractable issues of social concern"
The Foundation's Board, chaired by Jim Kimsey, consists of a number of high-level executives of America Online. Two initiatives were launched in 1999: the Interactive Education Initiative and the Civic Involvement Initiative, with cash grants awarded to proposals solicited from schools, nonprofit organizations, groups of teachers and parents, and community leaders.
More information about the AOL Foundation can be obtained by calling (703) 265-1342, faxing (703) 265-2135, sending e-mail to AOLGrants@aol, or writing to AOL Foundation, 22000 AOL Way, Dulles, VA 20166

Conference:
EDUCAUSE 99

"Celebrating New Beginnings"

Held October 26-29, 1999 in Long Beach, CA

From the announcement: The EDUCAUSE '99 Annual Conference will be a celebration of new beginnings and a forum to shape and define our agenda for the 21st century. We are entering a new century where technology and networking will be increasingly integral components of higher education. The exponential rate of change in technology will provide both opportunities and challenges. We have a new association focused on enabling information technology to shape the nature of teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and institutional management. At this first EDUCAUSE annual conference, we will identify the opportunities, address the issues and celebrate the potential for transforming education through information technology. We will reflect on what we have learned and we will prepare for education in the new century. EDUCAUSE '99 will bring together information resource professionals to participate in a diverse, comprehensive, carefully focused program with many opportunities for interactive and one-on-one communication..

Registration fee: $425-$470 (EDUCAUSE member); $640-$695 (nonmember)

Online reading:
"Virtual Classroom : a Model"
written by Vlad Wielbut, August 1999
Rationale: While attending various conferences devoted to online teaching and learning I noticed that many of the individual experiments and implementations presented there, different as they were, had many elements in common. This article is my attempt to step back from the implementation level and gather these common elements into a comprehensive model of online classroom, which, hopefully, will be applicable in different settings. Strictly speaking, it is not a theoretical model but rather a practical blueprint, hence it contains multiple examples of, and references to actual tools that fulfill the various requirements of the model.

She said, he said:
"If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough" -- Mario Andretti

©1999 Vlad Wielbut and the Alliance for Community Technology