IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 December 18, 1995 Volume XII, Number 49 Issue 286 ********************************************************** II. JOBS 1. U. Massachusetts: Assistant Professor, IR III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. Proceedings: New Learning Communities Conference B. Meetings 1. Reminder: SIGIR '96 C. Miscellaneous 1. Obituary: Ian Mcleod IV. PROJECTS C. Grants & Proposals 1. For US researchers: NSF Database & Expert Systems Program ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Jean Ziemba Re: U. Massachusetts: Assistant Professor, Information Retrieval The Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR) at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst Department of Computer Science invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions at the assistant professor level. (See WWW for more info. on CIIR at http://ciir.cs.umass.edu). QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Computer Science or related area and should show evidence of exceptional research promise. Our primary interest is in candidates whose research interests are related to the general area of information retrieval. This includes a wide range of topics such as retrieval models, text and multimedia representation, indexing and object management for information retrieval, interfaces for information retrieval, browsing and visualization, information routing and filtering, distributed information retrieval, data mining using text databases, and networked information discovery. TO APPLY, send a letter with your vita and names of at least three references to: Search #37931, c/o Chair of Faculty Recruiting, Department of Computer Science, LGRC, Box 34610, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-4610. Review of vitae begins January 1, 1996 and will continue until available positions are filled. Salary commensurate with education and experience; comprehensive benefits package. The University of Massachusetts is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: Paul Evan Peters Re: New Learning Communities Conference I am very pleased to attach the summary report on the proceedings of CNI's New Learning Communities Conference on the campus of Indiana University - Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI) on November 17-9, 1995. This event was a great success, due in no small measure to the insights and hard work of Joan Lippincott, CNI's Assistant Executive Director, Philip Tompkins of IUPUI, Susan Perry of Mount Holyoke, and so many other people I can't even begin to name them. Additional information can be found at URL:http://www.cni.org/projects/nlc/www/nlc.html Paul Evan Peters Executive Director Coalition for Networked Information 21 Dupont Circle Washington, DC 20036 Voice: 202-296-5098 Fax: 202-872-0884 Internet: paul@cni.org URL: ftp://ftp.cni.org/ URL: gopher://gopher.cni.org:70/ URL: http://www.cni.org/CNI.homepage.html =========================== SUMMARY REPORT NEW LEARNING COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE November 17-9, 1995 INTRODUCTION: "Using the Web is intrinsically engaging and inherently encourages active learning," stated one of the participants in the Coalition for Networked Information's New Learning Communities conference held in Indianapolis on November 17- 19, 1995. Many of the participants in the conference, all of whom had created collaborative teaching and learning projects in the networked information environment, agreed. The conference attendees, early adopters of networking technologies into the teaching and learning process in higher education, are finding that many others on their campuses are seeking their expertise and insights in order to develop programs in additional content areas. The key challenge for many institutions is to find a way to scale these early initiatives and to build a campus infrastructure to support these new modes of learning. BACKGROUND: Under the leadership of Philip Tompkins, Indiana University - Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI), and Susan Perry, Mount Holyoke College, CNI's New Learning Communities Program seeks to promote cross-fertilization of professionals in higher education institutions across the country who use networks such as the Internet and networked information resources to enrich their curriculum and broaden their students' learning experiences. The program brings together institutional or inter-institutional teams of faculty, librarians, information technologists, instructional technologists, and students, to share perspectives, critique each other's programs, and develop a set of "best practices" for the benefit of the larger educational community. The goals of the program are: 1. To provide a mechanism and a venue where experienced, collaborative teams of individuals working on curricular programs involving the use of networks and networked information can benefit from peer advice, moral support and program critiques. 2. To provide the means for others in the academic community, nationally and internationally, to benefit from the expertise and experience of teams who have implemented teaching and learning programs using networks and networked information. 3. To encourage and assist information technology professionals and librarians to serve as partners with teaching faculty members in the design and delivery of instruction using networking and networked information. CNI's first New Learning Communities conference was held in Phoenix at the Estrella Mountain College Center of the Maricopa County Community College District in July, 1994. Both conferences were co-sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), and Educom's National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII). CNI received a grant from the Department of Education's HEA Title II-B "Library Education and Human Resource Development" program to assist with the funding of a three- phase implementation of the New Learning Communities Program in 1995-6. The first phase of the work under this grant was a three-day conference at IUPUI. THE INDIANAPOLIS CONFERENCE: Teams were selected to participate in the Indianapolis conference based on their responses to a call for participation issued by CNI earlier this year. The ten teams selected and their projects were: * "Collaboratory," University of Hawaii at Manoa; * "Collaborative Development of Web Pages for Students in a First Year Colloquy Series," Gettysburg College; * "Distance and Electronic Education Project: A Mini-Grant Program," Johns 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; and, * "The Delta Project: Integrated Database: Biological Sciences and Art," California State University System. These projects speak to the wide range of subjects and types of institutions that are integrating networking and networked information resources into the curriculum. The content for the courses represented included the fine arts, English, natural resources, nursing, and social sciences. Higher education institutions of all types have innovative projects involving new learning communities, from community colleges to liberal arts colleges, to large state and private universities. In addition to team members from the faculty, library, computing center, and instructional development center on campus, some programs also collaborated with local museums, high schools, and university bookstores. Team members attended presentations by selected IUPUI administrators and faculty on such topics as the nature of faculty work (William Plater, Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of Faculties), collaborative learning (Sharon Hamilton, Professor of English), teaching, learning and technology (Garland Elmore, Associate Executive Vice Chancellor), and assessment (Trudy Banta, Vice Chancellor, Susanmarie Harrington, Assistant Professor of English, and Joe Lovrinic, Management Advisory Office). But, most of the work at the conference was done in small group sessions during which teams were paired to share information about the successes of and problems with their projects. Other small group sessions allowed each team an opportunity to reflect on their project and plan next steps. Participants particularly enjoyed the opportunity to see each project in action during a demonstration session in IUPUI's Center for Teaching and Learning. FINDINGS: The participants discussed many aspects of their collaborative projects. At least two kinds of collaboration were identified: collaborative development of the course content and delivery mechanisms by a cross-sector team of faculty and professionals; and, collaborative learning among students and among students and faculty during the delivery of the course. Based on their experiences and the frameworks provided by the speakers, the team members described some of the most important features of their programs. They included: students working as self-directed learners; students learning to work collaboratively; and, verbally reticent students expressing themselves on the network. One project team noted that the integration of visual materials, sound, and text made possible by today's technologies can improve the ease and quality of learning in some fields, particularly in music and art. Many of the team members reported that faculty became excited and motivated by working with other developers in a team environment, projects prompted collaboration among units on campus that previously had not worked together, and interaction between colleagues was deepened. Some advice that team members had for others developing similar efforts was to keep the central role of faculty in the process, to encourage students to be part of the development team, to incorporate information literacy into the curriculum, to learn about each team member's competencies, to have students build a network resource that has genuine use for the course as part of the curriculum, and to tie the use of technology closely to the curriculum. One team's advice to others is simply, "Start!" Key impediments identified by the teams included insufficient infrastructure (networking, personnel, equipment, facilities, etc.), difficulty scaling projects (reaching more courses and more students), the time commitment required to develop such projects, problems with off-campus access, and copyright of materials that might be incorporated in the networked resources. In the sixteen months since the first New Learning Communities conference, a number of differences could be observed in the projects described in the 1995 event compared to those represented at the 1994 event. Some of those differences were that now some projects were being developed within a campus infrastructure that supports network-based teaching and learning, there are fewer problems with the technology, there is heavy reliance on the Web and associated browsers (e.g. Netscape), there is more cross-sector collaboration, and more projects include an assessment component. Some of the issues discussed most by the participants were the scalability of their projects (how to enable large segments of their institution to use similar techniques without heavier investments in technology and personnel), and how to encourage and assess "engagement" by students in this environment. NEXT STEPS: In order to assist other institutions who wish to develop similar initiatives, case studies of each project will be mounted on the Web for access by the entire Internet community. Under the direction of Jana Bradley, Assistant Professor at IUPUI, each team member completed a template providing initial information about their project and the process that they used to develop it. Bradley also interviewed each team at the conference to assist her in understanding key elements about the project. Abstracts of each project and the meeting agenda are currently available on the CNI's Internet server. CNI expects to produce a videotape with excerpts from the conference. A videotape from the 1994 New Learning Communities conference along with a handbook of materials to assist institutions with developing a similar program at the local or regional level is available from the Coalition for $25.00. In late spring 1996, CNI will hold a conference on New Learning Communities for collaborative teams that are just starting teaching and learning projects or who wish to gain some insight into how to begin such an effort. Participants from teams from the two previous conferences will present their programs and assist with small group facilitation. The date and place of this conference have not yet been set. On July 5, 1996, a full-day preconference on "Librarians as Leaders in New Learning Communities" will be held at the American Library Association in New York City. Under the auspices of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the program will focus on the role of the librarian on collaborative teams. FURTHER INFORMATION: Information on New Learning Communities can be located on CNI's Web site: URL: http://www.cni.org/projects/nlc/www/nlc.html The same information is also available via CNI's FTP and gopher servers: URL: ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/projects/nlc URL: gopher://gopher.cni.org:70/11/cniftp/projects/nlc Additional information, particularly on ordering the videotape or registering for a future conference, can be obtained from: Joan K. Lippincott Assistant Executive Director Coalition for Networked Information 21 Dupont Circle Washington, DC 20036 202-296-5098 Fax: 202-872-0884 Internet: joan@cni.org ********** III.B.1. Fr: Gabriele Sonnenberger Re: Reminder: SIGIR '96 SIGIR '96 Call for Papers 19th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval Held at ETH, Zurich, Switzerland August 18 - 22, 1996 Organized by: UBILAB, Union Bank of Switzerland, Zurich ETH, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich In co-operation with: ACM, AICA-GLIR (Italy), BCS-IRSG (UK), CEPIS-EIRSG (Europe) GI (Germany), IPSJ (Japan), OCG (Austria), SI (Switzerland) ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: SIGIR '96 is an international research conference on information retrieval (IR) theory, systems, and applications. The ACM SIGIR conference occurs annually, alternating between locations in North America and elsewhere (e.g. Europe). It attracts a broad range of professionals including theoreticians, developers, publishers, researchers, educators, and designers of systems, interfaces, information bases, and related applications. IMPORTANT DATES: -Presently: E-mail sigir96@ubilab.ubs.ch with subject 'subscribe' and an empty message body to be added to the mailing list. -January 26, 1996: Submission of papers to the relevant Program Co-chair. -March 1, 1996: Submission of proposals for tutorials, panels, demonstrations, posters, and workshops to the relevant Chair. -April 3, 1996: Author notification. -May 10, 1996: Final manuscript due in camera ready and electronic forms. FURTHER INFORMATION: Detailed information on the SIGIR '96 conference is available on the World Wide Web. URL: http://www.ubilab.ubs.ch/sigir96/welcome.html. Questions should be addressed to sigir96@ubilab.ubs.ch. Dr. Gabriele Sonnenberger Tel.: +41-1-234 44 57 Union Bank of Switzerland Fax.: +41-1-234 65 18 UBILAB e-mail: sonnenberger@ubilab.ubs.ch Postfach WWW: http://www.ubilab.ubs.ch CH-8033 Zuerich Switzerland ********** III.C.1. Fr: Mike Shepherd Re: Obituary: Ian Macleod It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the death of Ian Macleod of Queen's University, Canada. On Friday, December 15, 1995, Ian was struck and killed by an automobile while he was walking home from work. The streets were snow-covered and very slick. Ian was 52. His wife Becky is a faculty member in the School of Business at U of Toronto. They have three daughters - the oldest in grade 7. Ian had been a member of the IR community for many years and was a founding member of the Dept. of Computer and Information Science at Queen's University. He will be greatly missed. ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.C.1. Fr: Barbara Blaustein Re: For US researchers: NSF Database & Expert Systems Program A friendly reminder that the next target date for regular proposals to the NSF Database & Expert Systems Program is approaching -- it's JANUARY 15, 1996. ***Note that proposals are accepted any time, but proposals arriving much later than the target date may miss an evaluation panel, so their processing may be delayed.*** Projects supported by the Database and Expert System Program can be divided into interrelated areas: (1) data/information/knowledge modeling; (2) information access, (3) physical and system aspects; and (4) system development and administration. I strongly encourage the submission of proposals in these (and related) areas. For more information, see http://www.cise.nsf.gov/cise/IRIS/DBEShome.html Looking forward to seeing some great proposals, --Barbara Blaustein ================================================================== Barbara Blaustein bblauste@nsf.gov Database and Expert Systems Program National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115 Arlington, VA 22230 Phone: 703/306-1926 Fax: 703/306-0599 Bitnet: bblauste@nsf Internet: bblauste@nsf.gov URL: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/cise/IRIS/DBEShome.html ================================================================== ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests and submissions to: NCGUR@UCCMVSA.UCOP.EDU Editorial Staff: Clifford Lynch calur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu The IRLIST Archives is set up for anonymous FTP. 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