Home > Features

Features

Texas State Tech To Deliver Digital Media Program via Second Life

7/30/2008

This fall Texas State Technical College (TSTC) will be offering a Digital Media certificate focused on virtual world technology using Second Life as the primary delivery method. An associate degree Digital Media will be offered in spring 2009.

Survey: Vista Adoption Weakens as IT Pros Eye Apple

7/29/2008

A KACE-sponsored survey on Windows Vista adoption represents more bad news for Microsoft's flagship operating system, even as Microsoft prepares to pour an estimated $300 million into a new Vista marketing campaign -- news that was announced at Microsoft's 2008 Worldwide Partner Conference.

IT Cost Cuts in 2008 May Be a Trend, Study Says

7/24/2008

A first-quarter 2008 survey conducted by Computer Economics suggests a possible slowdown in IT spending and staffing lies ahead.

Is Desire2Learn in the Clear? Blackboard Says 'No'

7/21/2008

Desire2Learn is reporting the first bit of (tentatively) good news to come out of Texas since Blackboard initiated its patent-infringement suit against it almost two years ago to the day. According to Desire2Learn, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Lufkin Division, has denied issuing sanctions in Blackboard's motion for contempt. But Blackboard told us Desire2Learn definitely is not in the clear.

Web Conferencing Cuts Costs for California Community College System

7/16/2008

With 2.5 million students and 75,000 faculty, the California Community College system has considerable shopping clout with vendors. Using those numbers to its advantage, the CCC has created an immense and cost-effective state-wide Web conferencing system for its 109 member colleges.

Syracuse U To Develop Blackboard-Sakai Integration; Moodle on Deck

7/15/2008

Syracuse University and Blackboard have partnered to develop technologies that will allow Blackboard's learning management systems to integrate with the Sakai Foundation's open-source learning management platform.

Going Green or Hoarding Green?

7/10/2008

Organizations have the desire to reduce their impact on the environment but lack the will to pay a premium for cleaner operations, according to a cross-sector survey released recently by IT hosting solutions provider Rackspace.

Preserving History in Multimedia: An Interview with Stanford's Michael Keller

7/9/2008

Michael Keller is well known as the innovative university librarian and director of academic information resources at Stanford University, as well as publisher of the Stanford University Press and HighWire Press. In this interview, he discusses a worldwide effort to digitally preserve vast amounts of material from history, both aging paper documents and very recent digital content.

Indiana U, Wayne State Teams Capture Wins in Imagine Cup 2008

7/8/2008

Winners of the 2008 Imagine Cup technology competition were announced Tuesday in Paris. Student teams from American universities took top honors in two categories and earned achievement awards in other areas. Microsoft, which hosted the event, said it was the most successful run for American teams in the Cup's six-year history.

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 Smoothes 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.