The Networked Academic Worker

On Wednesday, 13 December 1995, a presentation titled 'The Networked Academic Worker' was delivered by Ms Mauri Collins, an invited visitor/guest lecturer of the Monash Distance Education Centre from Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Mauri's connection with Monash has come through her association with Mrs Jean Wood, an educational developer in the DEC, (and HEPCIT presenterin July, 1994!)

Mauri writes: 'I don't remember now HOW I met Jean Wood... seems like it might have been associated with DEOS-L or some mutual friend, but I have been participating in NetFace workshops for the past year or so... as Jean's off-site "See... I am totally divorced in place and time and I can STILL play" person. This eventually led to my visit here (to Monash) and this seminar.'

In this HEPCIT presentation at the Clayton campus, Mauri in person presented content along the lines of that which she developed for the Second Virtual Seminar Series offered by the DEC in 1995. The main objective was to share and reflect a little on how being a networked academic worker impacts and adds value to her life, both professionally and personally.

She referred to the email lists of which she is the moderator. Foremost among these is DEOS-L (the Distance Education Online Symposium), sponsored by the American Center for the Study of Distance Education, which Mauri has moderated for around 2 years. This list has over 2500 members in over 55 countries, and Mauri enjoys name recognition with all of those people.

She is a co-owner of IPCT-L, the Interpersonal Computing and Technology List at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.) This list was established by Zane Berge at GU, with the objective of using it as a stepping stone towards creating an electronic journal as part of the activities of his Center for Teaching and Technology at GU... however, the list soon took on a life of its own, growing to over 1200 subscribers world-wide who engage in free-wheeling discussion and argument of issues related to technology in teaching.

The IPCT Journal in electronic form is now published quarterly, and has its own Web site in Finland. Mauri serves as the 'Managing Editor', receiving the accepted articles, line editing them and formatting them for the screen.

A further initiative spawned out of IPCT-L discussions is the book series 'Computer Mediated Communication and the Online Classroom', which, while published in print form, was entirely assembled and edited through online communication between the contributing authors and editors, with a dedicated listserv used to allow rapid dissemination of information.

The HEPCIT Steering Committee thanks Mauri Collins for her presentation, and also Jean Wood for suggesting this as a HEPCIT event.

For further information, please visit Mauri's Web page , or contact her direct by sending email to Mauri@cac.psu.edu