Section A · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Graduate Nick Nourie works on his computer at the Online Academy. The Academy is developing online courses to teach educators. Photo by Joseph Griffin/KANSAN
KU at head of point-and-click classroom
By John Franey Kansan staff writer
On the second floor of the Dole Human Development Center, an average of 40 undergraduate and graduate students are creating the Online Academy under the direction of Ed Meyen, professor of special education.
The Online Academy, a three-year project funded by an Office of Special Education Programs grant, is aimed at teacher educators nationwide.
Although the grant is for teacher education, Meyen said he would like to make the online short courses, or modules, available to practicing teachers.
"We're getting great feedback in terms of what we're doing," Meyen said.
The feedback comes from a national evaluation team. The team is a cross section of 32 universities that are sampling and evaluating the online modules.
Meyen said that the modules are independent and free of charge, are designed to be fully online, and can be used with or without the aid of a teacher.
The modules, which are researchbased training programs, concentrate on three content areas: reading, positive behavioral support and technology in education.
Writing teams, comprised of students from different majors and levels, contribute to the development of the modules.
"We utilize each one's unique talent." Meven said.
All of the modules have a text-based option, but most utilize various multimedia technologies like streaming audio and video software programs that allow the user to access the contents.
Meyen said the modules are designed to work in all environments. For instance, some modules are designed for hearing, or sight-impaired users.
He stressed the rich content of the modules, and said they were far more comprehensive than a face-to-face classroom.
The Online Academy plans to continue to develop and revise the modules for next year and to release them in December 2000.
tion of the nation's teachers' programs would be using the modules by that time. Programs from 24 states currently are involved with the academy
Meyen said that a significant propor-
Meyen, who has taught online courses in curriculum development full time for three years, said he believed that online courses would be commonplace in the near future but that they would never totally replace the classroom.
"It will cause face-to-face instruction to get better," Meyen said. "The teaching process is private; instruction is public."
He said he couldn't imagine a student going through college five years from now without taking at least one online course.
—Edited by Derek Prater
New students get enrollment help from peers
By Matthew Friedrichs
By Matthew Friedrichs
Kansan editor
Aaron Swarts, Topeka senior, has been explaining the enrollment process and advising his friends about which classes to take since his second semester at the University of Kansas.
"It's something I like to do; help my friends with their enrollment," the business administration and sociology major said.
Unlike many students who dislike the cumbersome system used to determine student schedules, Swarts said he is fascinated by enrollment.
"Most (new) students agree that it's good to have a student perspective." Durham said.
Tammara Durham, assistant director of the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center, said that peer advisers are important to the advising process.
During a typical summer advising session, freshmen and transfer students hear a short presentation by a faculty member.
This summer he's helping more than his friends. Swarts and 19 other students are peer advisers who help full-time faculty members advise about 5,000 students enrolling for their first time during new student orientation sessions.
The students then ask questions and select courses with the help of faculty members and peer advisers.
On days when students who want to study busi-
ness attend orientation, Swarts is paired with a business adviser, Jerry Lewis, assistant professor of business.
"The people who do the orientation, including the student assistants, are just too quality." Lewis said.
student assistants, are just top quality." Lewis said. As students pondered enrollment options on a July Thursday afternoon, Lewis and Swarts circled the room offering advice about humanities options, explaining what a discussion group is, that labs are required for certain science classes, and helping students pick alternatives if their first choices weren't available.
Which classes and teachers does Swarts recommend?
"It's all situational," he said. "It's going to depend on the student, the teacher and both personalities."
Kathryn Tuttle, director of the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center, said that peer advisers provide important one-on-one contact with the new students.
Despite his previous experience assisting friends, Swarts and the other peer advisors needed additional training.
They spent a week before the summer with the student orientation assistants learning about the academic departments and their requirements, as well as student services.
Gerhard Schroeder proclaims Germany protector of democracy
And the peer advisers' jobs won't end this summer.
The Associated Press
Tuttle said they also would help students during fall advising and enrollment for spring classes.
Edited by Mike Miller
BERLIN — In a ceremony fraught with symbolism of Germany's Nazi past, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday welcomed army recruits by proclaiming his country's new tradition as a protector of democracy.
Germany demonstrated in the Yugoslavia conflict, its first battle engagement since World War II, that the military really is a force for peace, Schroeder said at the swearing-in of 432 army recruits.
"Our soldiers put into practice what we have learned from history: to take responsibility for human rights, including in places where German armies have wreaked terror and crime in the past," he said.
The ceremony coincided with the
55th anniversary of the best-known assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, taking place next to the courtyard of the former Nazi army command headquarters in Berlin where the main coup plotters were executed.
The building, known as the Bendlerblock, now is a memorial to German resistance to Nazism.
By staging the event in Berlin, the German government wanted to make a point of claiming the former Nazi capital for democratic post-war Germany before the government returns here in the fall.
The recruits marched in to the beat of a single snare drum, swinging their arms from side to side in ordered columns before taking their oath of service.
"There always must be an army for
peace, to protect the peace." Markus Zdravkovic, 23, one of the green-bereted recruits, said afterward. "My mission is peace in all of the world."
Police wearing riot gear surrounded the event, where about 1,000 leftists and other demonstrators gathered, some shouting "Killers!" at the recruits as they arrived. Their din of whistles and blasting music could be heard faintly as Schroeder spoke.
About 10 protesters briefly disrupted the ceremony, some running halfnaked across the courtyard. The protesters were quickly tackled by security guards, and Schroeder himself stepped out of the stands to pick up some of the debris, drawing the audience's applause.
Previous swearing-in ceremonies have drawn protests and strong criticism, including complaints that they cost too much and are antiquated references to the nation's militaristic past. Critics of yesterday's events also complained about the site, saying it represented Nazi aggression, not resistance.
The ceremony took place just yards from where Lt. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators were executed on July 20,1944, for their failed assassination attempt on Hitler.
Stauffenberg left a briefcase bomb at a field headquarters in East Prussia where Hitler was meeting with top aides. After seeing the bomb go off and believing Hitler dead — Stauffenberg sped to Berlin, where he was to have seized the Bendlerblock along with fellow plotters.
But hearing that Hitler survived, some of the plotters lost their resolve, and the coup fizzled. Stauffenberg was shot along with other conspirators.
As many as 200 plotters eventually were shot, hanged or in some cases strangled with piano wire and strung up on meat hooks after being tortured by the Gestapo to reveal the names of others in the scheme.
Today, the Bendlerblock contains a museum on Nazi resistance and has been the site of previous commemorations of the assassination attempt.
It also has been the offices of the Defense Ministry outside the post-war capital, Bonn, since 1993. It will continue to serve that role after most of the government completes its move to Berlin.
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