166 - George Washington University Develops e-Learning Tool for Faculty; Growth of Wireless Access to Internet Coming at Hurricane Force Speed

1. George Washington University Develops e-Learning Tool for Faculty --- Now to Market: GWU
developed a tool for their faculty to make the leap into the world of e-learning. The goal was to
create an on-line content authoring, delivery and management system for faculty to use for
both "digital surrounds" of classroom based courses as well as for fully on-line
offerings. Technicians at the university decided to create a courseware system, which
was eventually named "Prometheus," for the Greek god who provided fire to man.
Now, the university as entered the commercial market as it attempts to sell it to other universities.
This is a trend that we should be focused on, as multiple higher education groups take their
internal e-learning tools to Level 2 and potentially to market. The news story about this tool
and effort can be found in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/free/2000/04/2000042001u.htm

2. Growth of Wireless Access to Internet Coming at Hurricane Force Speed:
Over the past 12 months, The MASIE Center has been monitoring the growth of
(and venture development for) wireless access to the internet. Simply,
imagine your cell phone or palm computer device able to make queries of the
internet for instant display. While we might start with queries for stock
prices, access to email and checking the time for the local movie theater,
the commercial and e-learning opportunities are huge. Placing the power of
the internet in a wearable and mobile device changes dramatically people's
perceptions of how it can be used. Already in Finland and Japan there are
major uses of mobile internet access underway. Commercial applications will
include queries to ERP and other corporate databases as well as the use of a
form of Instant Messenger. Watch for coaching and other e-learning
processes to rapidly expand to wireless internet access. A study was just
released by IDC that predicts that wireless "surfers" will outnumber wired
ones by 2003:
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/000412D4A2

3. Learning Quotation: John Wooden
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
---- John Wooden

4. Benchmark Paper on Internet Based Distance Education Released: We
recently received a copy of a paper that was developed by the Institute for
Higher Education Policy (and supported by National Education Association and
Blackboard). The paper focused on Benchmarks for Success in e-learning.
While it is entirely focused on higher education, it is a good read for all
that are looking at the effectiveness issues of e-learning. The PDF file is
viewable at: http://www.ihep.com/quality.pdf

5. Help! 5 Minute Survey on the Role of Trainers in e-Learning: We already
have over 1,300 responses, but we would like more. Could you take a few
minutes to complete our April survey on your wishes for the roles of
trainers in an e-learning offering. Executive summary of the results will
be published in 2 weeks. Just go to: http://www.masie.com/survey/

Upcoming MASIE Center Events: (info at http://www.masie.com )
* Digital Collaboration Conference (with ASTD): May 22 to 24 Dallas, Texas, USA
* e-Learning 2000 - Europe: July 10 and 11 Dublin, IRELAND
* TechLearn 2000 + e-Learning 2000 World Congress: November 12 to 15, Orlando, Florida, USA
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