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Hardware Review
Educause Floor Shopper: CT Exclusive: Our Product Picks
9/30/2006
Want a Study Partner? IM Me
At Campus Technology, we use instant
messaging on a daily basis to communicate
with colleagues
in the office or at home,
discuss grammatical questions
with fellow editors,
and update co-workers on meeting times, the
status of an article or project, or the day’s
lunch plans. Making 
connections via IM is
nothing new to the Millennial generation,
either. So we were excited to hear that Pronto,
an IM and voice chat solution from Horizon Wimba, is bringing the sense of IM as a collaboration tool into the university environment.
Pronto connects to a school’s existing course
management system (CMS), allowing students
to add contacts to their buddy list automatically,
based on who is enrolled in their courses. They
can then discuss coursework with study partners
via instant message or audio chat, and IM
questions to professors or TAs. Sure, there are
caveats to IM in the classroom; the risk, for
example, of a professor losing the attention of
students who are busy chatting away with their
buddies. But since IM has already become a
way of life for today’s students, why not harness
that tool for academic benefit? Booth 1235.
Xythos Software Targets Compliance and Cost
Two words we hear repeatedly in discussions of higher ed IT are compliance and cost. If these issues are high on the list of your institution’s enterprise document management concerns, check out the Xythos Software booth, where the company is featuring its new Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 6.0 and customer implementations of its Digital Locker Suite. EDMS 6.0 (pictured) is a web-based application developed in accordance with the US Department of Defense 5015.2 standard. New enterprise records management features— including enhanced auditing and configurable retention schedules—help institutions manage risk, and squarely address compliance. With more than one million licensed academic and research users, Xythos boasts an abundance of customer success stories, and cost efficiency is a recurring theme: Brigham Young University-Hawaii, for one, expects to save an estimated 25 percent in server resources for e-mail alone after deploying the Digital Locker Suite. Booth 1109.
Cisco’s Virtual Classroom Package Closes the Production Gap
There’s a lot of buzz about virtual classrooms, and conference sessions offer plenty of technical advice about how to stream lectures, or how to design courses for synchronous or asynchronous learning. But education leaders at Cisco Systems think there’s an important issue that just hasn’t been addressed until now: There’s a big leap between full-blown, sophisticated—and expensive—distance learning programs and more modest entries into that virtual world. How can you bridge the “production gap” and offer high-quality audio, video, and web conferencing, no matter what your program’s size or maturity? Cisco hopes to answer that question with its introduction of the Virtual Classroom package. Five Cisco technologies—IP videoconferencing, IP telephony, web conferencing, a digital management system, and a content engine—allow educators to ramp up production values while staying within budget. Head to Cisco’s booth to see Virtual Classroom for yourself and ask questions face-to-face. Booth 711.
Student Response G'es Virtual
Schools like the University of Akron (OH), which implemented
an extensive “clicker” instruction pilot program in
2004, have been using student response systems (SRS)
long enough to know that teaching
with an SRS engages students,
enhances learning, and improves performance.
And that instant student
feedback can help educators modify
their lectures or presentations as they
go, to maximize student interest and understanding. So,
what’s on the horizon for SRS technology? We think
GTCO CalComp’s Virtual PRS is an exciting new twist on
SRS. Virtual PRS is a software-based solution—a virtual
clicker—that allows students to respond from their computers
via the network, rather than via a radio-frequencybased
clicker. That means the SRS can be used both in
and out of the classroom; schools can configure their networks
to allow distance learners with remote access to
use Virtual PRS to respond to instructor questions, participate
in classroom discussions, take tests, and register
their attendance. Booth 1315.
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