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Techonolgy
By Hans Johnson
The Spy Who Raised MeMany students are learning the hard way that home Internet access has its drawbacks. Two online companies are among the growing ranks of firms to take the concept of transparency to new levels by allowing parents to check in on their children’s grades and schoolwork by way of the Web.
Thinkwave.com, launched in August and currently free to all users, claims to be adding "over three thousand new members each day" to its secure Web site, which allows teachers to post homework assignments and grades. Using a personal identification code and password, parents can log in to get status reports on what their children have and have not completed and their overall progress in a course. Another free site specializing in parental surveillance is Homeworknow.com, which claims over one hundred fifty thousand student enrollees and insists that "teachers and administrators cannot believe how easy the service is to use."
While both sites now target K–12 teachers and parents of grade-school children, neither rules out expansion into the higher education market. Says one teacher testimonial, "The dog can no longer eat the homework of [my] students." Those expecting glowing reviews from students, however, should not hold their breath.
Faculty Organizer Wins Allies on WebFor unionized faculty members, few aspects of campus life prompt as many questions as contract negotiations. The scattering of the bargaining unit across a whole state and a looming strike deadline only augment the confusion. So Steven Jackson, a professor of political science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a leader in a 5,500-member statewide faculty union, decided to take a page from the playbook of distance educators and go online.
The result is a comprehensive Web site with everything from instructions to colleagues for dealing with a work stoppage—"Arrange for care of lab animals," says Jackson—to statements of solidarity from parents of college students. In part, says Jackson, his posting at www.iup-apscuf.org was motivated by the difficulties of maintaining a cohesive membership located on fourteen geographically dispersed campuses. But another instigator, he explains, was "the frustration of students who weren’t hearing any reliable information from administrators."
By a lopsided margin, Jackson’s colleagues approved a new labor contract on November 18.
New Web Site for Medical FacultyThe proliferation of courses by computer now includes continuing-education resources for medical faculty. They are the target audience of a new site called CardioVillage, sponsored by DuPont Pharmaceuticals and created by doctors Ralph Buckley and Larry Gimple. The site aims to familiarize cardiologists with new techniques of the trade and provide credits toward license renewal without the need to travel to conferences. Internet users can consult the site, still in its preliminary stages of development, without a password at www.cardiovillage.com.
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