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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1999)
SPORTS ’ Quiet moment The Nebraska wrestling team got one individual winner and finished fourth as a team at the Big 12 Championships. PAGE 12 A & E Street fighter J Robert Manthey spends his afternoons by the fed I eral building wearing T-shirts bearing subliminal I messages about the government. PAGE 8 MON »AY March 8, 1999 Late Lion Snow, high 30. Flurries tonight, low' 20. VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 116 High school curriculum available online ■ Web courses make classes more accessible for rural and urban schools. By Josh Knaub Staff writer Sen. Bob Kerrey on Saturday invit ed Nebraska high school educators to try out an Internet-based curriculum that has already changed the way UNL distance education courses are taught. Communications Learning and Assessment in a Student-centered System curriculum for high school will replace the University of Nebraska Lincoln's paper-based correspondence courses. Twenty CLASS courses, enough to complete a high-school diploma, are available. Fifty-five courses will be offered by October 2001. James Sherwood, director of UNLs Department of Distance Education, gave a demonstration of course options Saturday morning at the East Campus Center for Continuing Education. Representatives from school dis tricts across Nebraska attended the event, which was also broadcast to remote locations in Scottsbluff, North Platte and Norfolk. Sherwood said the lessons learned in developing the high school curriculum have been used to improve Web offerings in UNL classes. One of the most important lessons, he said, was that the system used must be consistent throughout the course. “We call this the Nintendo effect,” he said. “We want students to move through the design of these courses as instinctively as they move through a video game.” Another lesson, Sherwood said, was a unique way to minimize download times while keeping multimedia aspects of courses. Pictures, videos and interac tive graphics are gathered on a CD, min imizing internet space used. Kerrey said that CLASS courses, which count for high school credit, are meant to add learning options for high school students. “This is not something that will replace traditional education,” Kerrey said. He said the courses are a good way for schools to add curriculum for a few students without the prohibitive cost of hiring additional instructors. Courses cover a variety of subjects, including math and English as a second language. Certified teachers at the department of distance education teach the courses. “This is not a passive machine,” Kerrey said. “This is a tool.” Sherwood said students are able to communicate with teachers and class mates through e-mail and Internet newsgroups. Please see CLASS on 3 Sounds of silence Matt Miller/DN DOREA CLAASSEN, a sophomore math and music major, plays her trumpet Sunday afternoon in a practice room in the Westbrook Music Building. Ciaassen was working on a small part of Halsey Stevens’ Sonata. She said she would be performing the piece in a recital this summer. Programs bring taste of Asian culture to campus By Bernard Vogelsang Staff writer Guests at Asian Night on Saturday experienced the many features of Asia without having to spend money on expensive airline tickets. The Asian Student Alliance and the Malaysian Student Association co-sponsored the event, which consisted of two parts: Shangri La and Malaysian Festival 1999 - A Journey to Malaysia. About 200 people enjoyed Asian music, food dance and martial arts demonstrations during Shangri La in the Nebraska Union. Guests dined on dishes from Japan, India, Vietnam, Philippines and other Asian countries. In the palm tree-decorated Centennial Room, Malaysian students served refreshments, sold food and Malaysian handicrafts and explained the histo ry, geography and culture of the country. Students also raised $63 for Cedars Youth Services, a shelter for battered children in Lincoln, by writing guests' names in Chinese calligraphy. Kay Saythongphet, Asian Student Alliance president, said her association organized Shangri La to educate American students about Asian cul ture. “(Shangri La) can create more understanding between American and Asian students,” she said. Saythongphet said her organization wanted to shape a Shangri La - a mythical city without hate in which everybody is considered equal - on the UNL campus. Shangri La stems from a myth that a paradise Please see ASIA on 7 Scams may put damper on spring break plans By Sarah Fox Staff writer For students, spring break is a time to party, stay at home or work. For Shelley Stall, spring break could be called the calm before the storm. Stall, director of the ASUN Student Legal Services Center, often spends the week after vaca tion answering frantic phone calls from students angry after being ripped off by spring break travel companies. She added that most students come in too late - after they have lost their money. Spring break packages to Cancun and Jamaica may seem easy to purchase from 800 numbers or Web sites, but stu dents should investi gate travel compa nies before they spend their money. Stall said. Local travel companies are safer, she said, because scams are more like ly to be operated out of other states. Aaron Lee, a junior biology major, became a ti lts not always a scam. Its just that students ^ fail to read the contract carefully. Marilyn Bath consumer specialist scam victim when he bought a travel package to Cancun last year. He and about 12 other friends paid $800 each to a UNL student representing an Arizona travel company. “They called me two weeks before the trip and said my seat on the plane was lost,” Lee said. Lee canceled his deposit because he didn’t want to pay $300 more for a seat. The company made his friends pay the $800 for Lee’s trip since he had canceled late. His friends had to pay $215 for a hotel room in Kansas City, Mo., because their flight to Mexico was delayed 1 Vi days. The travel company also moved the group to a different hotel when it reached Cancun. Please see SCAMS on 7 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at dailyneb.com