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Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History

7/2/2008

In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.

eProcurement Success!

7/1/2008

Today, it's clear to almost every campus executive that moving an institution from the traditional purchasing model to a strategic eProcurement program can greatly increase staff efficiency and save the institution money. Because eProcurement automates so many purchasing processes, it eliminates reams of paperwork and allows procurement staff to refocus their efforts on cutting costs and improving strategic partnerships.

How to Be a Super Tech Leader

7/1/2008

Mary Jo Gorney-Moreno didn't start out in IT. She joined San Jose State University (CA) in 1981 as an assistant professor in the school of nursing. But somewhere along the way, she realized her energy was focused on academic technology, and how it could help a variety of learners gain knowledge.

'Socializing' the CMS

7/1/2008

Looking for ways to bring some of the power of social networking into Ye Olde Course Management System? Start here.

Taking the 'A' out of Asynchronous

7/1/2008

Wikis and blogs may be today's Web 2.0 darlings, but forward-looking institutions are going after the next big thing: collaboration in real time.

SharePoint Takes Center Stage at Catalyst Event

6/30/2008

The Burton Group put the spotlight on Microsoft's SharePoint Server 2007 product on Thursday at its Catalyst Conference 2008 event. The analyst and consulting group allocated no less than five panels at the San Diego-based event to discuss SharePoint for the enterprise. The panels focused on the solution's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the importance of partner support in implementing SharePoint.

Delivering Slices of Network Securely at USC

6/27/2008

When Richard Nelson's IT team at the University of Southern California's Information Science's Institute (ISI) decided to make an internally developed research administration application available to other groups on campus, it faced a unique security challenge: how to provide access to the program itself without also handing over broader access to other resources on its network.

Lyon's 1:1 Laptop Program Aims To 'Level the Playing Field' for Students

6/26/2008

This fall Lyon College, a four-year liberal arts school in Arkansas, will join the elite ranks of post-secondary institutions offering laptops to all incoming freshmen. The program is part of a larger initiative, called "The Lyon Experience," which aims to bring "additional value to the education" the school provides. How can a small college roll out such an ambitious technology program? It's all a question of priorities, according to Lyon College President Walter Roettger.

Sao Paulo University Taps Sun Technology for Computing Cluster

6/23/2008

Sao Paulo University (UNESP) has chosen Sun Microsystems technology to power the largest computing cluster in Latin America, which will span across seven different sites in São Paulo State. The UNESP Computer Capacity Integration (GridUNESP) compute cluster will provide processing and data storage capacity for research in particle physics, genetics, meteorology, medicine, and other areas of scientific investigation.

Job Scheduling Software Smooths Data Transfers at IUF

6/19/2008

Scheduling when various software applications on your campus should exchange data among themselves might not seem like the most glamorous of needs, but it's essential--and can waste large amounts of IT time and resources when it has to be done by hand.

Loyola, NOBTS Use Tech To Return to Pre-Katrina Numbers

6/18/2008

A huge increase in freshman enrollment numbers for the fall semester has Loyola University in New Orleans pleased with its efforts to rebuild its student body after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is also looking at strong enrollment numbers, three years after the hurricane and its aftermath of flooding devastated New Orleans.

Dartmouth Research Program To Test Security on Campus Wireless Networks

6/12/2008

A team of Dartmouth researchers is preparing to launch a project that examines the campus wireless computer traffic in an effort to learn how the network is used and how to best maintain its security. The project is called the Dartmouth Internet Security Testbed, or DIST.

University Distance Learning Brings Flexibility to State-wide Training

6/11/2008

Conducting disaster preparedness meetings among 14 Pennsylvania universities no longer requires hours or even days of travel time for university administrators. Instead, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is using interactive collaboration software from Wimba to conduct some of its state-wide staff meetings and training sessions.

Technology Helps New Orleans University Rebuild Enrollment

6/5/2008

What do you do when the mainstream media's portrayal of your city is relentlessly negative? When news services persist in showing flooded streets and stranded people and cars? When enrollments drop drastically and your technology staff is slashed because students and staff have left the city?

Gartner: E-learning Market Pushing Toward Open Source

6/4/2008

With open source products maturing, Blackboard's ongoing lawsuit with Desire2Learn, and more and more functions linked to learning management systems, it can be a tough time for institutions to standardize on an e-learning platform.

Incubating Next-Gen.Edu

6/1/2008

The latest "incubator classroom" initiatives allow faculty members and IT staff to try out new technologies and new ways of teaching and learning, before rolling out tech tools across campus.

Unleashing the Power of Web 2.0

6/1/2008

As Web 2.0 technologies impact the evolution of learning, they are certain to blur the definitional lines between electronic portfolios and PLEs. Find out what's next on the ePortfolio horizon.

Live@edu Integrates Exchange Labs

5/27/2008

Microsoft's Live@edu, a suite of online tools focused specifically toward education, has now been expanded to include Exchange Labs, which is similar to a hosted Exchange service but with prototype features that are not yet available to the general public. The move brings expanded e-mail options to campus IT departments, including 10 GB of space per account, as free added features.

American and Brazilian Students Collaborate via Virtual Classrooms

5/21/2008

Four universities--two in the United States and two in Brazil--are testing inter-continental distance learning in a program facilitated by technology from Wimba. The U.S.-Brazil Consortium enables global collaboration among teachers and learners at The University of Georgia in Athens, Utah State University in Logan, Universidade Federal do Ceará and Universidade Estadual Paulista, Bauru.

Alliance Weighs In on Microsoft Interoperability in Education

5/19/2008

Last week, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency referred a complaint to the EC about the impact of Microsoft's interoperability issues in education. Now the ODF Alliance is stepping in with support for Becta's move.

Scripting Gurus Debate Dynamic Languages

5/16/2008

Tim Bray, co-inventor of XML and Sun Microsystems' director of Web technologies, hosted a lively post-Script Bowl panel discussion on the future of dynamic scripting languages at this year's JavaOne Conference.

IT Struggling Over Security, Compliance

5/15/2008

IT pros are having a hard time balancing security, software patch management and IT auditing with a host of other duties, according to a survey released Monday by Shavlik Technologies.

Wikis Get Users Talking at MIT, Johns Hopkins

5/14/2008

In many ways, college campuses are an obvious implementation for a wiki tool. The decentralized nature of the technology and its ability to allow a wide range of individuals or groups to contribute ideas into a single area through Web browsers make wikis simple and compelling for higher education uses.

Student Retention: Are Schools Taking Advantage of Technology?

5/13/2008

College and university administrators consider personal attention to be the most critical factor in retaining at risk students. But what role should technology play in the effort?

Business Intelligence Tool Means Healthy Data at UVA

5/8/2008

University IT groups will recognize the challenge of combining disparate data from more than one department in order to create meaningful reports for various users. At the University of Virginia Department of Medicine, which is overseen by UVA's School of Medicine, data was coming from two very different accounting systems, which meant problems for faculty members whenever they needed to run reports.