This section lists URLs for key Websites within WAOE itself, and other URLs related to online education which have been identified by members.

WAOE Organisation and Communication Sites
 

NEW LINKS

Electronic Collaboration: A Practical Guide for Educators

This is a guide designed for teachers, school leaders, curriculum experts, technical specialists, and anyone else interested in the emerging information and telecommunications technologies.  The guide is also intended to show those outside the education field?business executives, museum curators,
parents, and the community at large?the value of educational electronic collaboration.  This may make its pitch a little simple for some WAOE members, but this is more than made up for by the commonsense and eminently do-able suggestions offered about making effective use of the Internet and and other technologies to enhance teaching.  And by the many resources identified, some of which will certainly be followed up in later issues of WEB.  Here is the overview of the guide in its authors' own words:

You can be involved in electronic collaboration in many ways, from participating, to setting up a collaborative environment, to moderating a discussion. This guide tells you about:
Ways to collaborate electronically (Chapter 2)
Designing and implementing a collaborative project (Chapter 3)
Becoming an effective online moderator (Chapter 3)
Choosing appropriate tools to support a collaboration (Chapter 4)

We’ve also included a list of resources to help you explore the possibilities of electronic collaboration on your own and to assist you in getting the latest information about tools and collaborative projects (Chapter 5). This guide provides information about many forms of electronic collaboration, but focuses on discussion groups, as they are the most common online collaborative activity.

The guide stems from the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory At Brown University (LAB). which is one in a network of ten regional laboratories, each with its own specialised focus, funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the US Department of Education. The purpose of LAB is to promote school improvement through the collaboration of researchers with schools and their communities.

The guide can be read online at  http://www.lab.brown.edu/public/ocsc/collaboration.guide/index.shtml.  Alternatively, you can download a PDF version from this Web page, and there's a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 available if you need it.

**********************

Degree.Net Central

Degree.net describes itself as a "newly revamped website ... designed to be a one-stop resource for anyone interested in education.  While our primary focus is degrees at a distance, we intend to offer complete information on every postsecondary school in the world, traditional or nontraditional, accredited or not."   The site has a number of useful features, including: Guides: an ongoing series of targeted guides which zeros in on topics of particular interest: MBAs by distance learning, demystifying accreditation, checking out a school, how to tell if an accreditation agency is on the level, glossary of terms, a reading list ... Schools: Links to over 400 accredited schools that offer distance-learning programs, as well as a list of unaccredited schools Links: a wealth of distance-learning-related links, allowing you to research and browse everything from academic papers to study hints, corporate training to informal discussions.
 
 

**********************

CIT Infobits

CIT Infobits  is an electronic service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Academic and Technology Networks' Center for Instructional Technology.  Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information technology and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.  WEB is indebted to Erin Bale's monthly newsletter for the Note Learning Technologies Network for the following enthusiastic description of the service:

My e-mailbox is jammed full of CIT INFOBITS mailings: not because it is a high-volume list (indeed, it is a once-monthly, one-way mailing), but because INFOBITS is so consistently useful that I cannot bear to throw it out. ... This is a top-notch newsletter: unfailingly professional, precise, and packed with information of timely interest.  Typical items include news of online utilities, summaries of studies and reports in distance and online education, compilations of resources, and announcements of conferences and new publications.

Here's just a sample of items from the last four months' issues, well representing the range of topics covered:
  CIT Infobits August 1999

Report on Virtual Education around the World
Full-Text Assessment and Evaluation Library Online
New Government Information Resource
CIT Information Resource Guides Updated