AECI- GOPH ER REACH E5

/l- rwoaL DW! DE AU DI ENCE ~ ~ Michael]. Albright

I t hardly seems possible that the Internet Gopher, one of the most dominant features of cyberspace today, is just three years old. Gopher made its

debut in late 1991 as a Campus-Wide Information System (CWIS) for the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus. The idea spread like wildfire. Within a year, more than 200 Gopher databases had been established in the U.S., and by the end of 1993 the number exceeded 800.

Today, Gopher is experiencing explosive growth. More than 2,500 Gopher sites worldwide are linked with the "All Gopher Servers in the World" directory at Minnesota. Over 1,500 of these are in the United States, with an additional 150 in Canada and more than 600 in Europe. The remainder are literally scattered all over the globe. These figures are some- what misleading because many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of additional Gophers are online but have elected for various reasons not to link with the Minnesota directory.

The concept of Gopher is simple. Gopher is essentially a menu-driven database providing infor- mation of interest to users. Many Gophers are located on college campuses and follow the original CWIS format, making available online access to computing and library resources, campus directories, online versions of the campus newspaper, information about academic programs, profiles of local communities, and a wide variety of other resources.

The United States government has embraced Gopher in a big way. Most major Federal agencies now maintain Gopher databases, providing volumi- nous information. More than 100 professional associations have established Gophers, as have many publishers and corporate giants such as IBM and

Michael J. Albright is Instructional Development Specialist, Iowa State University, Exhibit Hall South, Ames, Iowa 50011. His e-mail address is emcmike@sunbird, usd. edu.

AT&T. Gophers have also been set up by many special interest groups, providing information on topics ranging from earthquakes and UFOs to soybean prices and the Notre Dame football team.

Origins of the AECT Gopher The need for an AECT Gopher has long been

recognized. At its Winter 1994 meeting at Nashville, the AECT Board approved the author's proposal to develop an AECT Gopher on the sunbird.usd.edu Internet node at the University of South Dakota. After a lengthy development period on an experimen- tal Gopher at USD, with cooperation from many within AECT (and particularly from Joe Collette and Bob Wood at USD), the database "went public'' on July 19. The AECT Gopher is now available to the more than 20 million individuals worldwide who have Internet access. This article will describe the present features of and future plans for the AECT Gopher.

Access Information The AECT Gopher may be accessed several ways.

Persons connecting with the Internet via a host computer with Gopher client software installed may use the command gopher sunbird, usd. edu 72

The 72 is AECT's dedicated port number on sunbird and must be entered. For persons using MOSAIC, TurboGopher, or other software requiring a Uniform Resource Locator, the URL is gopher : / / sunbird, usd. edu : 72/i

Persons without access to Gopher client software but with "telnet" capability can connect with any of a number of university Gopher sites that permit direct public access. Following are three examples, with the paths to follow to reach the North America directory.

t elnet gopher, msu. edu ( login : gopher )

Help Using Gopher Other Gopher Servers

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 TECHTRENDS 15

telnet uxl.cso.uiuc.edu (login: gopher)

Other Information Sources and Gopher Servers

(North America is on p. 2 of this directory)

telnet gopher.virginia.edu (login: gwis)

Worldwide Internet Services

Other Gopher and Information Services

Once the North America directory is reached, select USA, then General. Move the pointer to the AECT Gopher (on page 2 of the General director~, then hit Return. Readers are cautioned that Internet directories am in a state of constant change, and some information provided here may be obsolete by the time this issue is distributed.

Guide to the AECT Gopher When the AECT Gopher is accessed, the first screen that appears is the "root menu," which is reproduced in Figure 1. In a Gopher directory, a line that ends with a period or no punctuation leads to a text file, while a line that ends with a slash (/) leads to another directory. Item 1 in this case simply leads to a text file providing general background information about the AECT Gopher and identifying the author as its administrator. A file such as this is sometimes helpful to persons seeking general information or wishing to contact the administrator about some matter. Item 2 is an up-to-date listing of significant new additions to the Gopher in reverse chronological order. This text file is a handy reference for persons checking to see what new files have been placed on the Gopher since last contact.

Figure 2 provides a general road map to the rest of the Gopher as it existed in October 1994 when this manuscript was prepared. The intent has been to provide a variety of information of interest to mem- bers and nonmembers alike. Item 3 in particular was structured to provide background information about AECT itself.

Directories and files in the Gopher are nested to make information as easily accessible as possible. Large documents are broken up into smaller units, with each placed in its own file. For example, each individual bylaw in the Constitution and Bylaws directory can be accessed independently. So can each section of the AECT Vision 2000 strategic plan. Each article in the electronic versions of the Division and Affiliate newsletters can be retrieved without the need to scroll through the rest of the document.

Internet Gopher Information Client

v2.0.12

Association for Educational Communica-

tions & Technology Gopher

i. About the AECT Gopher

2. New On the AECT Gopher

3. About AECT/

4. Announcements/Calls for Papers/

5. AECT Vision 2000/

6. Conferences/Meetings/

7. AECT Awards Program/

8. Publications/

9. Committees/Divisions/Affiliates/

Chapters/

i0. Assembly/

ii. Placement Center (Job Announce-

ments)/

12. Other Resources Related to In-

structional Technology/

Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up

a menu Page: i/i

Figure h AECT Gopher Root Menu.

The structure of the Gopher illustrates how dependent the author is upon the membership, and especially the AECT leadership, to provide him with material for posting on the Gopher. He also routinely scans about a dozen Internet mailing lists for position announcements, calls for papers, new Gopher announcements, and other material that may be appropriate for the Gopher. Every attempt is made to keep information in the database current.

Access Statistics In early September 1994, the system was reconflgured to enable us to maintain a log providing access information. The log does not list user IDs (we have no interest in identifying the individuals who access the Gopher) but does identify all directories and files accessed and the Intemet host computer from which the contacts came. Therefore, the log is extremely helpful in tracking demand for information on the Gopher.

For the purpose of deriving statistics to report in this article, the log was analyzed for the two-week period September 19 through October 2, 1994. Although we anticipate that connections will have increased dramatically by the time this issue of Tech Trends is published and distributed, these figures do provide some interesting details about the demand for information related to AECT and instructional

16 TECHTRENDS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

i. About the AECT Gopher

2. New On the AECT Gopher 3. About AECT

l. What Is AECT?

I.AECT Brings Colleagues Together 2. AECT Gives Recognition 3. AECT Offers Information 4.AECT Overview

5.Mission Statement and Goals

6. Other Member Benefits 2.National Office Staff

l. National Office Staff 2.Whom to Call About What

3. Constitution and Bylaws

[full text provided] 4. Code of Ethics

[full text provided]

5. Membership Enrollment Form 4. Announcements/Calls for Papers

l. Announcements

2. Calls for Papers 5. AECT Vision 2000

i. President's Comments on Long Range Plan

2. Task Force Membership

3.AECT Vision 2000 Strategic Plan [full text]

6. Conferences/Meetings

[empty at time of manuscript prepara- tion]

7. AECT Awards Program

[detailed info and application forms for each of AECT's 17 major awards]

8. Publications

i. Periodicals i. ETR&D

2.TechTrends

2. Electronic Publications [full text] i. Division Newsletters [CHANGE,

DEMM ]

2. State Affiliate Newsletters [TAET] 9. Committees/Divisions/Affiliates/

Chapters

i. Committees [charge, list of members for each]

2. Divisions [CHANGE, DEHM newsletters]

3. Affiliates [directory info for each State, National affiliate]

4.Chapters [directory info for each] i0. Assembly

I. Board Response to 1994 Assembly Resolutions

ii. Placement Center (Job Announcements) l. October Deadlines 2. November Deadlines 3.December Deadlines 4.No Deadlines

12. Other Resources Related to Instruc- tional Technology

i. Electronic Documents

i. I Saw It on TV: Guide to Broadcast Programming Sources

2.Other Gophers [direct links to 52 other Gophers]

3. Internet Mailing Lists

Hgure 2: Guide to AECT Gopher, October 1994.

technology, within three months after establishment of the Gopher and with a minimum of publicity.

Total Contacts

During this two-week period, the AECT Gopher was accessed 735 times, an average of 53 per day. This mean is misleading, however, because the average number of weekday contacts actually grew from 38 during the preceding week of September 12-16 to 52 during September 19-23 and to 69 during September 26-30. Although length of contact time was not calculated, it was evident that many persons main- tained connections longer than five minutes and explored a variety of the Gopher's features.

International Contacts

In addition to contacts coming in from literally all over the United States, connections came from 24 other countries, including 32 from Canada, nine from Australia, seven from Mexico, six from the United Kingdom, and five from Japan. On Septem- ber 27 alone, contacts came from Japan, the Nether- lands, Australia, Germany, Canada, Spain, Mexico, and Costa Rica. On the 28th, persons in Argentina, Denmark, the U.K., and Thailand connected and, on the 29th, contacts came from Italy, Sweden, Chile, Finland, and Slovakia.

Directories/files Accessed

By far, the most popular directory in the Gopher is the Placement Center (Job Announcements). During these two weeks, this directory was accessed 209 times, or an average of 15 times per day. One particu- lar announcement was tracked and found to have been read by 26 individuals during the first five days after its installation on the Gopher.

The "Other Resources Related to Instructional Technology" directory was accessed 112 times, mostly by persons using the AECT Gopher to connect with other Gophers linked through this directory.

This two-week window occurred shortly before the deadlines for many of AECT's major awards, and 74 persons used the Gopher to obtain information about one or more awards.

In addition, 67 persons called up at least one of the sections of the Vision 2000 strategic plan, 51 read one or more of the "About AECT" files, 50 accessed the file describing ETR&D, 41 read at least one of the Announcements, and 35 accessed the online version of the DEMM Newsletter.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 TECHTRENDS 17

Future Plans Undoubtedly, many of the persons connecting with the Gopher are Internet "surfers" without any specific interest in instructional technology. However, the number of persons who moved directly to specific files suggests that the Gopher can have a significant impact in providing information to AECT members. The number of qualitative connections, those in which significant time was spent exploring a variety of files across the root menu, also underlines the benefits of such an online database to those who are seeking general information about the Association.

We have barely scratched the proverbial surface of the Gopher's potential. By the time this article is published, extensive information regarding the 1995 AECT National Convention will have been placed on the Gopher. A comprehensive resource guide to Internet mailing lists related to instructional technol- ogy is in preparation for the Other Resources direc- tory, and a WWW guide is planned. AECT's publica- tions program is another area with rich potential for the Gopher, with extensive listings for each of the Association's periodical and nonperiodical publica- tions planned, along with online order forms. The

Gopher also has room for a full text of numerous position papers, reports, and other documents that may be made available without charge. We also hope to place the entire AECT membership listing on the Gopher in a searchable form in the fairly near future. Several recommendations in Vision 2000 have direct implications for the Gopher.

AECT's various governance bodies are strongly encouraged to think creatively about ways in which the Gopher can be used to disseminate information. Individual members are also welcome to send appro- priate announcements, particularly those related to position openings, to the author for installation on the Gopher.

Ultimate plans include converting the database to World Wide Web format with hypertext links and a selection of non-text, multimedia materials available.

As of publication, adequate support for WWW was not available at the Gopher site, but we are optimistic this will be resolved in 1995. �9

A School Changes Jerrold E. Kemp

A publication of the AECT Presidents" Library

M ost publications on restructuring public education provide either a set of general

recommendations (or even demands!), or just a brief description of a newly funded program. This book is different.

A School Changes contains a detailed de- scription of a moderate approach to systemic change within a school. It serves as a model incorporating the principles, practices, and outcomes necessary for education in the Informa- tion Age. There is a balance between modified conventional instruction and innovative practices. This practical school-based project takes place in a middle school. The comprehensive and systematic process can be applied from elementary through high school.

Instructional technology provides two key ingredients for the successful changes elaborated in this book. First, the instructional development and design function is essential as the operational

framework for changing and restructuring any educational program. The service of an instruc- tional design facilitator working with the school principal and a team of four "ready-for-change" teachers is examined in detail. Second, the re- sources of technology that serve the program objectives are necessary for making presentations, engaging students in group activities, and carrying out self-paced learning. They range from print materials through still pictures and video forms, to computer-based interactive multimedia.

If you are interested or involved in the school change process, you will derive much value from this 80-page book. You will also want to provide copies of it to administrators and teachers who can derive many benefits from the concise descriptions of the planning process and the new program components as they are described and take shape.

Order through AECT n use the order form on the facing page.

18 TECHTRENDS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995