Minutes recorded by:
Remarks by Chairman Mark Lazar, Deputy Director, IIE-Budapest, Hungary
Mark talked about how e-mail and other technological developments had changed the face of educational advising activities, both as a resource for advising and as a means of networking and conducting communication between advising centers and American univ
ersities.
In some ways, this development has been uncontrolled. The purpose of this session was to examine what is happening with technology use at several centers, to see how they effectively use technology, to discuss what are the future directions for technolog
y use in advising, and to provide concrete examples of both the benefits and problems in using new technology at educational advising centers.
Remarks by Sylvia Antonescu, Educational Adviser, Fulbright Commission, Bucharest, Romania:
Her center opened in January 1991. They have had e-mail access for about 3 or 4 months and life for them has changed dramatically since that occurred.
Once they were hooked up to e-mail, they were pretty much on their own to master it. Sylvia said John Hopkins provided much assistance in helping the Bucharest staff understand and master the basics of e-mail use.
Sylvia mentioned some of the pluses and minuses of e-mail:
Useful:
1) Handouts and Articles: Having these on line saves a tremendous amount of paper that would otherwise have to be used. In addition, nearly all pre-conference documents and announcements were completed and sent by email. There were over 70 pages of docume
ntation related to the Athens Conference.
As an aside, Sylvia mentioned how, thanks to e- mail, she was successful in assisting another Romanian adviser and one from Moldova when they were having problems with their Greek visas and airline tickets. If it had not been for e-mail, she would not hav
e been able to provide any assistance at all.
2) Athens Conference: After the Athens Conference, there will be no need to haul many heavy boxes of handouts, etc. back to Bucharest thanks to e-mail. She will simply be able to log on and get most everything that was in Athens over the e-mail lines.
Not useful:
1) Greetings: Sylvia says that some advisers send holiday greetings over the net, which only causes extra work and time for all advisers who receive them.
2) Insignificant requests: There is a great temptation, due to the great ease of e-mail, to distribute information requests which are not of much significance. (I took this to mean that Sylvia felt advisers could use other means for finding the informatio
n they are looking for)
3) The nature of e-mail: One can become so reliant upon e- mail that one forgets it is not 100% reliable. Not all messages that do not go through are returned to the sender. Sylvia always wonders whether or not her messages go through.
Remarks by Olga Kniazeva, Assistant Educational adviser, ACTR EAC, Institute of Economics, Novosibirsk, Russia:
E-mail has helped Olga conduct advising-related activities in many ways.
The Novosibirsk EAC serves students over a very wide area, larger than Europe itself. Therefore, e-mail communication with regional universities and program alumni is the only choice.
In preparing for the Advising Fair held at the Novosibirsk EAC in April 1995, nearly all arrangements for invitations and organizing speakers were conducted by e-mail.
In preparing for pre-departure activities for regional students accepted to American universities and program grantees, announcements and lists were distributed on email. This was only possible because many of the students are on e-mail.
The Novosibirsk EAC uses e-mail to request information from American colleges and universities and NGOs for programmatic information and applications.
E-mail is vital in helping Olga stay in touch with regional program alumni in order to maintain the alumni database. Alumni are also used during the pre-departure orientations.
Olga discussed how her center has created an Electronic Forum Newsletter of about 16-20 pages in length which features updated program information for interested students.
E-mail was vital in preparing both Olga and Irina, a second Athens grantee in attendance in Athens, for attending the Athens Conference.
The center also uses CD-ROM technology. The center has Peterson's Guides on CD-ROM diskettes.
Some problems with using technology at the Novosibirsk EAC:
1) There is no public access computer for center visitors.
2) The Siberian region has very poor telephone lines. Therefore, access to Internet resources can be very limited if the telephone line quality is poor or it cuts off after only a few minutes.
3) The only computer in the EAC is a 286, which does not allow Olga to develop the databases she is creating for the EAC
Remarks by Dace Sinkevica, Director of Advising Services, SOROS-Foundation, Latvia EAC, Riga, Latvia
The Riga EAC provides students with a wide range of information in different areas. The EAC considers the Internet to be the most helpful and effective means for advising students. The Center had e-mail, but when they set up Internet access they also rece
ived access to gopher.
INTERNET/E-Mail Pluses:
- It is easier to communicate with different organizations ( ETS, SF/OSI etc.). It helps
them to make economical use of their time and budget.
- It is not necessary to use Fax, which is a very expensive means of communication in
ECE/NIS Regions.
- It is the most effective means of communication with universities and colleges in the
US to get very important information.
Minuses:
Ms D. Sinkevica said that it is sometimes very difficult to run the e-mailbox; it is always overloaded with useless information/messages.
The CDR system is considered to be very useful but it is not very effective for undergraduate students because there is no information about financial aid. This system helps students obtain necessary information about location, cost, accommodations, etc.<
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Mr. Mark Lazar, Deputy Director, IIE-Budapest, Hungary, Chair of the session, added some words about WWW home page. He said that it very useful in advising the process.
Remarks by John Hopkins, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland:
John said that for him it was very important that gopher has become available to everybody.
Then there was a discussion about how to improve the use of e-mail to make it more effective. What works best:
- To send long messages by e-mail -- OR
- To put them in gopher and then send a short announcement on OSEAS-Europe that
they are available for those who are interested in them.
Remarks by Ms Sylvia Antonescu, Fulbright Commission, Bucharest, Romania:
Sylvia said that, of course, it would be better to put long messages on the gopher, but it would be easier for new advisors and people just beginning in the field, especially for those who do not have access to gopher, to receive messages directly (readin
g-deleting)
Ms Marianne Ruane said that sometimes in different parts of the Russian Federation the gopher is not very effective because of the poor telephone lines
The best format for newsletters was also discussed.
What is the best way to send newsletters (because of their length)?
- 10 articles together or 10 articles separately?
At the end of the session, all presenters thanked Mr. Hopkins as one of the organizers for the possibility of participating in such a very important conference.
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