Teacher Education Internet Server The Society for Technology and Teacher Education (STATE), the University of Virginia, and the University of Houston have collaborated to establish a Teacher Education Server on the Internet. The STATE Teacher Education Server was established to explore the ways in which the Internet could benefit teacher education programs around the world. The Teacher Education Server is physically located at the University of Virginia on an IBM RS-6000 UNIX workstation donated by IBM. The Internet offers a variety of electronic services for support of academic collaboration. The Teacher Education server provides access to two of the most widely used services, archived documents and interactive discussion groups. Internet Gophers A "gopher" is a tool for accessing documents across the Internet. This tool was developed at the University of Minnesota (home of the "Golden Gophers") to provide a mechanism which would "go for" information. Documents stored on Internet gophers may contain sounds, images, and digitized video as well as text. Discussion Groups (Newsgroups) In contrast to Gophers, which are generally "read-only" tools, Usenet Newsgroups provide one of the most widely-used avenues for interactive discussion on the Internet. Currently there are more than 2,000 discussion groups (or "newsgroups" as they are formally called) on the Internet. The Interactive Resources section of the Teacher Education Server also provides other interactive services, such as the ability to submit articles to Interface, interact with authors of Interface, and obtain a subscription to Interface. The STATE Teacher Education Internet Server provides access to both gopher capabilities and interactive resources. Tim Sigmon, director of Advanced Technology and Academic Projects at the University of Virginia, developed the software which underlies the server, using tools and concepts previously employed in the development of Virginia's statewide K-12 Internet network as well as gopher software. The Teacher Education Server will provide teacher education faculty and students with access to information in this discipline. The Teacher Education Server was designed to appeal to an audience with the same needs as Interface readers, and will be particularly well suited for discussion of ways in which educational technologies may be integrated into the instructional process. The Teacher Education Server is a prototype system. Therefore, the menus will be changing to reflect the development of new and useful resources. However, the general concepts outlined below will hold true, even though enhanced features may alter the menus. Because the Teacher Education Server contains interactive resources, users can communicate with others or access a wide variety of resources related to the use of technology in the area of teacher education. Resources available on the Teacher Education Server include: -- Teach-It Modules -- downloadable self-instructional hypermedia modules on various subjects in instructional technology. -- Telecommunications and Networking Information -- resources such as an overview of the Internet, frequently asked questions about telecomputing, bibliographic information, and articles on using telecomputing in the classroom. -- Electronic versions of the Society for Technology and Teacher Education Annual and Ed-Tech Review (the member magazine of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, AACE) -- An on-line version of Interface newsletter which will allow users to submit articles, interact with authors, and obtain a subscription. -- Links to other resources on the Internet. In addition, users can: -- participate in on-line discussion groups; -- apply for STATE membership; -- "talk" in real time with other STATE users; and -- use an electronic suggestion box to submit questions and comments about the Teacher Education Server. The goal of the STATE Teacher Education Server is to lead the way in exploration of electronic resources related to technology in the field of teacher education. Users are invited to log onto the system and explore the initial resources that have been established. Other resources which are currently under development include materials related to specific content areas such as mathematics education, science education, language arts, social studies, and elementary education. Connecting to the Teacher Education Server ------------------------------------------ The best way to access the Teacher Education Server is through a gopher with a graphical interface, such as "PC Gopher" (for IBM) or "TurboGopher" (for Macintosh). This software establishes a client-server relationship in which part of the gopher program (the client) resides on your machine while the other part of the gopher program (the server) resides on a system such as the STATE Teacher Education Server. Your university computing center should be able to assist with installation and configuration of this software. You will only need to know the name of the STATE Teacher Education Server: state.virginia.edu Gophers have swept the Internet during the last year, but if your campus computing center or system administrator does not have experience with gophers, they can obtain free gopher client software from the University of Minnesota for installation at your school. (Contact the University of Minnesota's Computer and Information Services via e-mail at gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu) It is possible to access the STATE Teacher Education Server even if you do not yet have access to gopher software, by using the standard Internet Telnet capability. To access the Teacher Education Server through Telnet at most universities, you will enter the following command through your network: telnet state.virginia.edu (Some computing centers have menus to facilitate Telnet access by inexperienced users. Contact your computing center for details on using Telnet at your university.) When you are prompted for a login, type "gopher" and press . You should then see: Enter terminal type (default is vt100): In most cases your Telnet software will support vt100 terminal emulation. Simply press to accept "vt100" as the default terminal emulation. (In the rare instance of telecommunications software which does not support vt100 emulation, enter "?" for a list of other supported terminal emulation types.) If you are using a text-oriented gopher or accessing the Teacher Education Server through Telnet, you should see: /----------------------------------------------------------------\ Root gopher server: state.virginia.edu --> 1. About the STATE Server/ 2. STATE Information/ 3. Teach-It Modules/ 4. Electronic Publications/ 5. Software Archives/ 6. Telecommunications and Networking/ 7. Interactive Resources 8. Other Internet Resources/ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page:1/1 \----------------------------------------------------------------/ Introductory Screen of the State Gopher once you are connected to the STATE server. Use your arrow keys to move the selection arrow "-->" to the menu item you wish to explore and press . Press "u" to return to the previous menu. If you are using a graphical gopher which establishes a client- server connection on your microcomputer, the basic content will be the same, but additional features which facilitate ease-of-use will be available. For example, rather than following a multi-step downloading procedure to save a file, you will simply select "Save" on the menu just as you would in your word processing program. To access the discussion groups and other interactive resources, choose the last item on the menu, "Interactive Resources." Type "interact" and press at the first login prompt. You will now be asked for your STATE User ID. Before you can participate in the discussion groups or use the interactive resources of the Teacher Education Server, you must create a STATE User ID. If you have previously established an account on the Teacher Education Server, simply enter your STATE User ID and password at the prompts. Your name and the email address which you gave when you established the User ID will now be added to your contributions to the Interactive Resources. If you are a first-time user, type at the User ID prompt and select the last menu item, "Create Your Own Account with the STATE Server." You will be given an on-line form to fill out which will require you to enter some information about yourself and what you would like your STATE User ID and password to be. Despite the advances in networking technology represented by new tools such as Internet gophers, the ultimate success of the Teacher Education Server will depend upon participation by educators. Leadership is needed in all content areas. If you are interested in participating in the on-going development of the STATE Teacher Education Server, please contact Bernard Robin (brobin@uh.edu). For more information,contact: Bernard Robin, Teacher Education Server Curator Department of Curriculum & Instruction University of Houston , (713) 743-4952 Internet e-mail: brobin@uh.edu .