EdPsy490NET - Networks for Learning Handbook
CTER2 - Summer 2000
Amy Fahey

Chapter 1 - "Understanding Networks"
Network Terminology
Network Infrastructure
Network Support Systems
Network Problem Solving

Chapter 2 - "Development and Media"
Media Resources
Development Resources
Local Resources
Problem Solving

Chapter 3 - "Best Practices and Evaluation"
Evaluating Websites
Resource Site Evaluation
Web Project Evaluation
Evaluation Rubric for a Departmental Website

Chapter 4 - "General Issues"
University Policies
Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues
Funding Resources
Classroom Issues

CHAPTER ONE - UNDERSTANDING NETWORKS
Network Terminology:
Mail Server
MX Server
IP Address
Web Server
Tape Backup
10 Mbps Connection
100 Mbps Connection

Mail Server – A mail server is a term that refers either to a physical server (the actual computer itself) or the software that handles mail on a network or on the Internet.  Most technical people refer to the software and hardware together without thinking anything of it.  So when they say "mail server" they mean the entire unit.  In many cases a mail server (the physical server or computer) is dedicated to processing mail (called a dedicated server) – but often servers also do other tasks (called multi-processing).  In a large organization like the University of Illinois or a large company there are multiple mail servers working together to manage and balance the load of e-mail.  Viruses like the “LOVEBUG” virus that hit recently can really tax the resources of these servers, because they greatly increase the volume of e-mail.  That's why you hear about people shutting down mail servers at these huge corporations...they're not only stopping the spread of the virus but may be shutting down because of performance problems. 

Beyond forwarding e-mail and storing e-mail, mail server software helps network administrators manage mailing lists for groups of users.  A good example of this is the CTER2 mailing list.  A network administrator has set up the CTER2 mailing list on a mail server.  When you send an e-mail to that mailing list an e-mail goes to all CTER2 students.  You must have an account on a mail server in order to retrieve your e-mail.  Network administrators help set up those accounts, too!

Some popular examples of network-based software products that manage mail (these are software products) are Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange.  Examples of Unix operating system-based mail servers (software programs) are Majordomo and Listserv.  The word listserv has made its way into our jargon and is interchangeable with the word mailing list, much in the same way as xerox means a photocopy to some people.

Software programs include what are called “gateways” which act as translators and let different  e-mail servers “talk” or communicate with one another…this is how mail flows from one system to another across the Internet despite the fact that there are vast differences in hardware and software.   

A great and fairly simple explanation of how mail works on the Internet is at http://www.learnthenet.com/english/section/email.html.

So if you were to send me an e-mail (to amyfahey@uiuc.edu), how is it that I receive the e-mail here at the University of Illinois?  This is the magic of the Internet, DNS and its MX records, and it’s a fairly complicated process.  On the Internet, the Domain Naming Service (DNS) translates easy to remember names like aol.com, msn.com and uiuc.edu into network addresses, also called IP addresses (see a more complete definition of IP addresses below).

When your computer is set up by your network administrator to connect to the Internet, you also have a connection to a DNS somewhere.  Think of the DNS as a huge phone book.  As someone sending mail, I really don’t need to worry about where on the Internet uiuc.edu is, because DNS knows and it knows how to find my mail server.  My mail gets routed to the appropriate server and I can use my username and password to retrieve it.

MX records within the DNS are like the individual entries in an address book.  Just like in an address book, where you can look up John Brown and see his address, MX records are entries in the DNS to indicate which server on a particular domain (a domain is a name like uiuc.edu) is the mail server and which server accepts incoming mail (these types of servers are called MX Servers).   There are lots of DNS servers all over the world.

An IP Address is an identifier for a computer or device on a network.  It is its "street address".   Networks such as the Internet (or some local area networks within buildings) use TCP/IP as a language that lets computers talk with one another.  Networks using TCP/IP identify which computer is which based on the IP address.  The DNS (see above) translates common names like aol.com and msnbc.com into IP numbers.  Using DNS you can enter the IP address or the fully qualified domain name (a name like www.cnn.com) to find a computer.

The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 128.174.185.1 could be an IP address. The four numbers in an IP address are used in different ways to identify a particular network and a particular computer or another type of device (like a printer) on that network.

Within an isolated network (one not connected to the Internet), you can assign IP addresses as long as each one is unique. However, connecting a network to the Internet requires using registered IP addresses to avoid duplicates.  It's just the same as if two people had the same address within a city--it simply wouldn't work.  The InterNIC (http://www.internic.net/) assigns ranges of registered IP numbers to organizations and in general avoids this sort of problem.

The number of unassigned registered IP numbers is running out, so a new scheme for numbering that has more addresses will eventually be implemented.  If you hear any talk about Ipv6, that’s the new standard for increasing the number of IP addresses.

The InterNIC also is the place you go to get a “registered domain name”.  For example, if I wanted to set up a web page and use the address http://www.amyfahey.com, I’d contact my Internet Service Provider and they would contact the InterNIC to register a domain name.   This type of registration comes with a setup fee and a yearly fee to maintain the registration.  The domain name and the IP address the domain translates into becomes an entry in the DNS.  In some cases one domain name may translate to many different IP addresses.   This allows administrators to balance the load of traffic they receive among many different physical computers (and sometimes locations).

A Web Server is a term used to refer to the physical hardware  (the computer) and the software for a computer system that “hosts” or holds web pages.  A web server serves web pages to people using browser software.  When I access a web server, I use a fully qualified domain name like www.microsoft.com and I type in this address in the browser address window.  DNS has the proper information, and knows where to find the web server that www.microsoft.com refers to. 

Web servers provide a variety of services, not only serving web pages but sometimes sending e-mail, processing specialized scripts and data from forms that are on web pages, and providing ftp services.  Web servers can provide more than one function but generally are dedicated to the process of serving web pages. 

Tape Backup for servers on networks is an absolute necessity, although it’s always interesting to me to hear how many people don’t do backups.  When I was hired at my current job a tape backup had not been done in the 8 months prior to my arrival. 

Tape backup in general is very reliable, assuming the backup drive and tapes are in good working condition.  It’s always good for administrators to check their tapes to make sure data is really being written on them.  I’ve heard horror stories of people backing up data up consistently for 2 years and having a catastrophic failure -- only to find out there is no data on their tapes (bad tapes or bad tape drive). 

The picture shown here is of a variety of tape backup hardware components.  The biggest one is a tape backup library.  Something like this would cost thousands of dollars but be intended for backup of a cluster of servers.   These units have autoloaders so you can load a whole set of tapes (like a week’s or months worth of backups) in one easy move.   The smallest component shown here is a single tape drive that is installed internally in a server or workstation (you load one tape per backup, and change that tape whenever needed).  These types of units run about $700 on a typical Wintel server.  They look just like a zip drive of floppy drive looks in your workstation when installed. 

On our servers at work we use DAT tapes and a software program called Arcserve, which manages the backups by scheduling them and by cataloging what is on each tape.  The tape logs let us know what was successfully backed up and what backups fail.  We even have notification at our desks every morning to let us know if the tape backup ran successfully or not.  Another popular server-based backup system for Wintel servers is BackupExec.

In general you have to rebuild servers (or workstations) after a catastrophe -- so you're just using your backup tapes to restore data files, not operating systems.  Once all of the appropriate software is re-loaded you restore your data files off tape.  There are backup software systems designed for autorecovery that restore the entire system, system software and all (most of these use your existing backup systems such as tape backup).  But these are very specialized and in general used for servers, not workstations.  Workstations can also be backed-up to a tape drive on a server by connections made over the local area network, and this is configured through the backup software. 

10 Mbps and 100 Mbps Connections refer to the connection speeds with which data is transmitted from one place to another on a network.  This is the speed at which your printer talks to the network, and computers talk to one another. Data transfer rates are often measured in Mbps (megabits per second, the Mb referring to 1 million bits). 

 The data transfer rate is limited by the medium the data is traveling on; depending on what type of physical wiring you can get faster data transfer rates.  Ethernet is the most widely-installed wiring standard used in local area networks (LAN).  It's what we saw in the education building in the first wiring closet.  You could find coaxial cable, twisted pair, or even fiber optic cable wiring on an Ethernet LAN.  Twisted pair wiring, which is most commonly found on an Ethernet LAN, is just like ordinary telephone wiring.  One type of wiring with twisted pair is referred to as 10Base-T wiring.  It can provide data transfer rates of up to 10 Mbps.  If you want faster data transfer rates within a building a Fast Ethernet LAN provides for data transfer rates up to 100 Mbps.  Fast Ethernet LANS can be implemented with either twisted pair wiring or fiber optic cable. 

It used to be more common that 10Mbps connections were used on corporate LANS and that 100Mbps connections were used for outside connections (like connecting a web server to the outside world, or connections between buildings on a campus).   As the demand for data grows, 100Mbps connections are becoming much more common within buildings, and we saw that growth demonstrated by the changes made in the education building. 

Updated May 24, 2000

Network Infrastructure:

This is the administrative network at the College of Applied Life Studies.  This is an overly simplistic representation of what is going on, but it gives you an idea of how things are structured.   We have six physically separate sites, with the primary site being Huff Hall where our primary network servers are located.  All of our six sites (six separate buildings) are attached via networking cable to the campus backbone, and in each building there are workstations and servers that are attached to routers via the wiring closets in each building.  Those routers connect to the campus backbone, and from there to the outside world or the greater "Internet".  There are lots of layers of what we call networks involved here, with networks for the campus, networks in colleges, and networks in departments overlapping with the larger network called the Internet.  Think of this network shown above as the tip of a branch (or maybe more accurately a leaf) on the tree of the Internet.

Updated June 1, 2000

Network Support Systems:

The Office of Information Technology and Systems (ITAS), of which I am the director, provides support for the faculty and staff administrative computing environment.  We also provide some upport for educational technology and instructional technology, and provide web services.   Here is the ITAS website, which will tell you more:  http://www.als.uiuc.edu/itas/

Updated June 1, 2000

Network Problem Solving:

I've put together a list of the most common network troubleshooting utilities, and what they do.   They are for Microsoft's NT implementation of the TCP/IP protocol, which is the one I'm most familiar with.   These tools are high-level administration methods used by most network administrators to diagnose and fix problems.  The solutions offered here are basic ones, not intended to be complete, but I think they give a general idea of how troubleshooting is done at the network level. 

Diagnostic utilities network administrators use and what they do:
arp - Lets you view the ARP (address resolution protocol) table on the local computer to detect invalid entries.

hostname - Prints the name of the current host.

ipconfig - Displays current TCP/IP network configuration values, and update or release TCP/IP network configuration values.

nbtstat - Checks the state of current NetBIOS over TCP/IP connections, update the LMHOSTS cache, and determine the registered name and scope ID.

netstat - Displays protocol statistics and the state of current TCP/IP connections.

nslookup - Checks records, domain host aliases, domain host services, and operating system information by querying Internet domain name servers. Nslookup has two modes:  interactive and non-interactive. 

ping - Used to verify whether TCP/IP is configured correctly and that a remote TCP/IP system is available.

route - Prints the IP route table, and add or delete IP routes.

tracert - Checks the route to a remote system.

Here are a couple of examples of "practical use" of these utilities:

What command will let you see if an ftp session you currently have going is good or has actually stopped responding?  The NETSTAT command displays protocol statistics and the current activity of TCP and UDP ports on the local system by transport prototype, local address and port number, foreign address and port name or number, and (for tcp only) the state of the connection.  The state of a good connection is usually ESTABLISHED and the state of a problem connection is usually IRREGULAR.

What should I do if I can't connect to a specific IP address (specific computer or network device)?
Troubleshooting at this level requires a process of elimination.  What is wrong, and where is it?   Using the utilities is the way administrators check for problems, since admins can't just go and check all of the hardware and software that may be involved in getting from point A to point B.  You should check to see if your TCP/IP configuration is set up improperly.  Chances are everything is fine here but ask yourself--have they been changed recently?  If so, that may be your problem.  To check these settings, use the IPCONFIG command to check what those settings are.  Second, PING the "loopback address" (127.0.0.1) to see if your network card is working.  Failure on this point if you know your network settings are correct would tell you your network card is not working.   Third, PING your computer's ip address.  If you receive an error message at this point, there may be a communication problem between your network operating system and your network interface card (in your computer).  You can also do something called "clearing the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) Cache", which lets you clear the list of recently resolved IP to MAC address mappings.  This is where you would use the ARP command.  Next, try to verify whether your computer is reaching the router...here you would PING the address of your building router, called your default gateway.  Last resort, PING the ip address of the other computer.  If all of the prior steps you tried work and this one fails, the computer or device you're trying to reach probably is down, and unless this device is on your network the best solution is to wait awhile and try again.

Updated June 1, 2000

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CHAPTER TWO - DEVELOPMENT AND MEDIA
Media Resources:

One of the best clipart sites on the web is Clipart.com.  Another option is to use the built-in clip art galleries in the Microsoft Products like MS Office or MS FrontPage.   From within the software you can link automatically to Microsoft's Clipart Gallery Website and import clips, graphics, sound and movies into your software archive.  I also have used and recommend Corel's Gallery products, which are commercial software.  The advantage with commercial software is that you have a decent indexer and have access to not only color and black and white photographs, graphics, sound and video clips.  Yes, I have found lots of good, free graphics on the web but I've also spent hours looking for what I wanted.

Development Resources:

One of the most complete web development resource sites on the web is Webmonkey, which gives lots of advice on authoring, design, multimedia, e-business, programming, and server issues.  Some web programming resources I like for doing active server page programming are Activeserverpages.com, and MSDN Online Support for ASP.  If you're interested in doing ASP programming, check out Macromedia's new UltraDev product.

Recently, I've been using Dreamweaver more than FrontPage to create web pages, although I hate to admit it I still feel more comfortable with FP and am using it now.  Still, here's some good Macromedia Dreamweaver resources that some of you might find useful:   Dreamweaver Depot,   Massimo's Corner of the Web,  and Yaramot.com's dreamweaver extensions website.

Local Resources:

The network administrator and I are the main contacts for support of creating and hosting web pages, administrative or instructional in nature.  I have an IIS server and provide support for Dreamweaver and FrontPage, as well as some limited support for Photoshop.  Since our Office was just formed in August 1999, we haven't got a lot of training resources, although it is a very good idea.  Most high level development is done by staff, faculty or students themselves, and what we end up providing is server support and access to the web server.  At times, I provide some consulting on what types of approach should be taken to complete a project.  For instance, I did some consulting last fall for a faculty member who wanted to create a web-enabled database for an Internship program.

Problem Solving:

For instructional technology training we have developed or are developing some software tutorials, which include a tutorial for using CourseInfo, FrontPage, etc.  These tutorials are located in our edtech portion of our website, along with some other faculty resources.  All of this is located at http://www.als.uiuc.edu/edtech/edtech.html.  

Updated June 8, 2000

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CHAPTER THREE - BEST PRACTICES AND EVALUATION
Evaluating Websites:

Evaluating higher education websites is something I've been very interested in, especially since I'm the ALS Webmaster.  We have only very recently begun as a university to realize the importance of our web presence.  This is evidenced by the fact that a formal "webmaster's group" was only just formed a few weeks ago (end of May, 2000).  I've sought (in vain) for any books that truly address about developing websites for higher ed.  The truth is that this really touches on topics of marketing -- marketing academic programs and figuring out what drives student enrollment.  Who are the potential audiences?

Some evidence that some higher ed institutions that are realizing the importance of the web presence is UConn's web survey -- asking its users of what they "think" about its website.  

Resource Site Evaluation: and Web Project Evaluation:

It's difficult for me to do a resource site evaluation or a curricular site evaluation, since I do not teach but am essentially supporting others.   Instead, what I'm presenting here are some thoughts on some of the issues in developing college and departmental websites. 

We have had a website at ALS since 1996, when we established our initial "presence" on the web, just like everyone else did at about that time.   In the past couple of years, we have tried to restructure and maintain, although there have been some limiting factors. 

The purpose of the college and departmental sites started out as a mechanism to provide information about what it is we do, to broadcast news and events, disseminate information about the offices and units and how to contact us, and provide our usual printed materials in a new medium.  In addition to this it served as a great "start page" for everyone's browser here at ALS.  But the goal (and our needs) have grown -- we need to use the web to recruit potential undergraduate and graduate students, provide relevant information to them, highlight faculty accomplishments, and foster relationships with alumni and prospective donors.

And, we need to do this in the container of complying with university accepted standards, as well as make our website accessible to all. 

We looked outside the university to see if anyone (including local marketing firms) had a better idea than us of how to evaluate our website and restructure and redesign it to make it better.  But in the end, we agreed that we are the most knowledgeable about our target audiences and the types of questions they have. 

Then comes addressing the real issue which is once you redesign it how do you support it?  It's not just about redesign and realignment, but providing resources from within each of the units to keep things current and make the web interactive and truly dynamic.  We're not there yet, but at least we're thinking about it.

For this section, I did some work with one of our departments to develop a focus group and ask that focus group some questions about graduate student information.   The target audience for our site is potential graduate students, so we plan to survey seniors who are finishing up and who have expressed an interest in attending graduate school. 

I put together some questions to first start thinking about how to put together our focus group.  We are wondering:
How do we get focus group members to attend?
--from classes?
--from mass e-mail?
--what incentives?
--do incentives "skew" results?
How large a group will work?  (10-15?)  Split into smaller groups?
Length of focus group meeting and location?
Video or tape recorded session?  Does this change the results?

In the end, we will start with a group of 5-7 students and will expand this to include other groups in the fall. 

Evaluation Rubric for a Departmental Website

Student Focus Group
June 2000
Leisure Studies Web Survey

Thank you for participating in this focus group to evaluate the department of Leisure Studies Website.  Please answer each question as completely as you can. 

At the end of the form there is a space where you can write in your e-mail address.  This is optional but would allow us to follow up with a few additional questions after the focus group session.  We really appreciate your time and assistance in making our website more student-friendly!

I.  General Use of the Internet

Where do you use the Internet from?

Home  Work  Other (if other, please specify)__________________

On average, how many minutes per day do you use the Internet?

Rarely use      Less than an hour      Less than two hours      More than two hours

What sites do you most frequently visit on the web?

www.cnn.com  www.weather.com  www.mapquest.com www.yahoo.com
www.espn.com  www.abcnews.com  msn.com  hotmail.com
other sites (if other sites, please list a few)__________________________________

What search engines do you most frequently use (mark the top three)?

Infoseek  AltaVista  Goto.com  Lycos  MSNSearch  Excite! Google
Webcrawler  Yahoo Other search engine (please list) ___________________

II.                Use of Internet for Graduate School Information

Have you used the Internet to search for information about graduate programs, including the University of Illinois?  Yes  No

Have  you used the Internet to browse the University of Illinois department of Leisure Studies website for graduate studies information?  Yes  No

On the following list of college-search websites, please check whether you are familiar with the site and if you have visited the site before:

Website Name                       I’ve never heard of this site  I’ve heard of this site  I’ve visited it
Review.com
Embark.com
www.allaboutgradschool.com
AUAP American Universities Admission Program
collegeapps.about.com
www.gradadvantage.org
www.gradview.com
www.gradschools.com

Are there other websites you frequently use to get information about graduate school?  If so, please list:_____________________________

What features are important to you on a website when you’re searching for information on graduate school? (Rank each by importance.   Write in other features if they’re important to you but not listed.)

                                                             must have     would be helpful      neutral      of little value      don’t need

Schedule of classes                                
Graduate program information                 
Library information                                 
Faculty phone book/directory
Calendar of events
Student organizations
Departmental news
Graduate student news
Job/career information
Financial aid information
Admissions information
Disability resources
Day care services
Assistantships
International student services
Parking information
Housing Information
Community information
Faculty profiles
Faculty research projects
Application status
History of the department
Other features________________________________________
Other features________________________________________

III.            Evaluating Other Websites

Please take a look at the two websites listed below.  Please circle 1-5 to rate the features of these two websites (5 – Excellent; 4-Good; 3-Somewhat good; 2 – Not good; 1 – Poor)

http://wwwrpts.tamu.edu/rpts/         http://www.hehd.clemson.edu/PRTM/

                                                        Poor          Excellent                                 Poor          Excellent
Relevant Content                                     1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Logical organization of site and pages       1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Page Design and Layout                           1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Navigation                                              1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Search Capabilities                                  1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Personalization                                        1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Images                                                   1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Cutting Edge Technologies                       1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Accessibility                                            1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5
Feedback/Interactive Features                  1 2 3 4 5                                    1 2 3 4 5

For those you ranked as a 5, please explain why you rated them highly:

_______________________________________       _________________________________________

_______________________________________       _________________________________________

_______________________________________       _________________________________________

_______________________________________       _________________________________________

IV.              Evaluating Our Website

Please take a look at the the Department of Leisure Studies website at http://www.leisurestudies.uiuc.edu/.  Which of the following attributes would you apply to the Leisure Studies website?  Circle all that apply:

Easy to Read                   Hard to Read
Incomplete                     Complete
Fresh                             Dull
Artsy                              Busy
Organized                       Disorganized
Easy to Navigate Hard to Navigate

Please circle 1-5 to rate the features of the website
(5 – Excellent; 4-Good; 3-Somewhat good; 2 – Not good; 1 – Poor)

                                                        Poor          Excellent            
Relevant Content                                     1 2 3 4 5
Logical organization of site and pages       1 2 3 4 5
Page Design and Layout                           1 2 3 4 5
Navigation                                              1 2 3 4 5
Search Capabilities                                  1 2 3 4 5
Personalization                                        1 2 3 4 5
Images                                                   1 2 3 4 5
Cutting Edge Technologies                       1 2 3 4 5
Accessibility                                            1 2 3 4 5
Feedback/Interactive Features                  1 2 3 4 5

For those features on the Department of Leisure Studies you ranked as a 3 or below, how could we improve our website:

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

V.                 Follow-Up

Please list your e-mail address below if you wouldn’t mind us following up with an e-mail to ask additional questions.

_________________________________________

Thanks for your time and help!

Updated June 12, 2000

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CHAPTER FOUR - GENERAL ISSUES
University Policies:

The University of Illinois Networking Policy is the basic document that governs how campus units use and access campus-owned computing and networking resources.  This includes the network backbone and the services provided by our centralized Computing and Communications Services Office (CCSO).  It also provides guidelines on what units and departments should expect. 

There's a certain framework that is assumed for a university under which the policy is written.  First is the principle of academic freedom which applied to faculty, and to some extent to academic staff.  Next, university rules and regulations apply, and state and federal laws govern campus resources, since the resources belong to the taxpayers.

We operate in a fairly free environment, which ultimately means that policies and procedures are perhaps that much more important.  The free environment has led to some misuses of the network, which increase costs and ultimately might cause problems.   I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Here are some examples of other computing policies at other universities:
University of Nebraska
Northwestern University
Syracuse University
Indiana University

Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues:

Copyright and intellectual property issues are something I've been interested in but have not had a lot of time to delve into.  This became a huge issue when copying machines became common, and with the web the problem has grown.   Hopefully this short discussion will touch on some of the issues with copyrights, but certainly not offer any solutions. 

First, some definitions.  A "copyright" is a legal protection given to the copyright holder on original works.  These works can be art, literature, music, etc.  It's important to note that the author is not always the copyright holder.  The copyright holder has certain exclusive rights to the work.   However, there is a doctrine called "fair use" which limits the exclusive rights of the copyright holder.  Fair use refers to the limited use of copyrighted materials in a way that does not infringe upon the publisher or author's ability to earn income from the work itself.  Educators, in general, have some reasonable expectation of fair use of copyrighted items.  However, overstepping the bounds of fair use is a danger, and if schools or universities overstep those bounds they can be liable for legal action and financial damages.  If an item is said to be "public domain" that means it is not protected by copyright, and is available for use. 

Of course, the laws that govern technology and publishing (and copyrighting) on the Internet are in their infancy.  Not many legal precedents have been set yet that form a body of law on these topics. 

The Association of America Publishers gives some guidelines on how to obtain copyright information.

A couple of good explanations of copyright issues in higher education are at Colorado State University and the University of California. 

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also has some copyright guidelines. 

Funding Resources:

Resources internal to UIUC:
In the Office of the Provost here at the University of Illinois, we have an Educational Technology Board (ETB) that oversees and tries to support the development of instructional technology on campus.  For the last two summers there have been training sessions for faculty on various courseware management software packages, and the ETB has accepted proposals from faculty on courses they would like to develop using this software.  This year's RFP provided for two training sessions, with a $2,000 grant awarded to each participant.

External grant programs:
Last year the U.S. Department of Education awarded $75 million in grants to prepare future teachers to use technology.  There were three types of grants available -- capacity building grants, implementation grants, and catalyst grants. 

The Illinois Century Network (ICN) is a learning network designed to provide high-speed access to educational resources from  schools, libraries, colleges, universities, museums, and other entities.  The ICN is a joint venture of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Illinois State Board of Education.  According to the IBHE, "the ICN is designed to connect more than 4,000 public elementary and secondary schools, 48 community colleges and satellite campuses, 12 public university campuses, private schools, government agencies, museums, and libraries.  The ICN Backbone Content Development grants are designed to promote and encourage the development of pedagogically sound instructional materials that can be shared and delivered via the ICN."

Classroom Issues:

For us at UIUC, I think perhaps the most daunting issue is evaluation of the use of technology in the classroom.  We haven't done a whole lot on evaluation in our college -- instead we are focusing on getting faculty and instructors to use the technology.  This is the case even at the campus level.  One important aspect of educational reform (which I hope to work on as my major project for this next class) is figuring out ways of implementing evaluation, so we have meaningful uses of technology. 

Here are some relevant links:

Higher Education Funding Council for England, Centre for Higher Education Practice, The Open University:  Institutional learning and teaching strategies -- A guide to good practice.

Gauging the Educational Value of A College's Investments in Technology by Stephen C. Ehrmann, Ph.D.

Planet Innovation, a program designed to support the development, enhancement and use of new technologies through the creation of tools to assist in the planning, implementation and evaluation of technology programs and curriculum.

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