EDUCATION
NEWS
================================================
EDUCATION ARCADE ZOOMS IN ON
GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM
The
Education Arcade, a new initiative involving MIT researchers, aims to transform
the way video and computer games are used in the classroom. The Education
Arcade is led by MIT's Comparative Media Studies program (CMS) and the
University of Wisconsin's School of Education. It will develop and coordinate
research by scholars, international game designers, publishers, educators and
policymakers. "We want to lead change in the way the world learns through
computer and video games. Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural
and educational potentials of games by initiating new game development
projects, and by informing public conversations about the broader and sometimes
unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education," said Professor
Henry Jenkins III, CMS director in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/educade.html
TOP 10 INNOVATIVE PROJECTS
In
past Top 10 issues, we've profiled emerging technologies and smart
technologies. This year we take a look at how these technologies are being
applied to implement new and more innovative approaches to learning. It's
"technology in action", if you will.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16000694
MAKING SENSE OF LEARNING
SPECIFICATIONS & STANDARDS: A DECISION MAKER'S GUIDE TO THEIR ADOPTION
The
area of learning standards is one of the most powerful and misunderstood
aspects of the e-Learning revolution. As organizations make significant
investments in digital learning content, they seek greater assurances of
portability and reusability. Organizations also desire the ability to more
easily store, search, index, deploy, assemble, and revise learning content. One
goal of The MASIE Center's e-Learning CONSORTIUM is to lower industry confusion
surrounding learning standards and to accelerate their adoption.
http://www.masie.com/masie/default.cfm?page=standards
THE KNOWLEDGE MEDIUM: DESIGNING
EFFECTIVE COMPUTER-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Gary
A. Berg, Ph.D., is author of Why Distance Learning? and over 20 articles on
higher education. He is currently director of Extended Education and Distance
Learning for California State University, Channel Islands. Dr. Berg has
developed many distance learning format courses and programs, been interviewed
for numerous national publications, and consulted for educational and
government organizations on the use of distance learning. The Idea Group
conducted an interview with him regarding the use of technology in education.
http://www.enterprisenetworksandservers.com/monthly/art.php/368
BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC
LAUNCHES "BERKLEE SHARES" A GROUNDBREAKING NEW PROGRAM OFFERING FREE MUSIC
EDUCATION ONLINE
Berklee
College of Music, the world's largest independent music college and the premier
institution for the study of contemporary music announce the launch of Berklee
Shares. This groundbreaking new program provides free music lessons and
encourages musicians to share and distribute these music lessons online. The
Berklee Shares lessons are available at no charge and are made up of a growing
catalog of MP3s, QuickTime movies and PDF files derived from curriculum
developed at the college by its world-renowned faculty.
http://www.berkleeshares.com/
LIVING IN PARALLEL WORLDS:
BLOGS AND COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
During
the closing plenary session at the Syllabus Conference last July in San Jose, I
made a comment about the software I was using to create and maintain my Weblog
or blog. I was struck by the questions and comments my brief remark generated.
A few years ago, mentioning blogging software would have caused a faint ripple
of recognition in the audience. However, it seems clear that blogging is coming
to the academy.
http://www.syllabus.com/news_issue.asp?id=155&IssueDate=11/12/2003
ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO WHITE
PAPER
Today’s
electronic portfolio, or ePortfolio, is much like the Course Management System
(CMS) of 1997 - there is not yet a coherent understanding of functional
requirements, design specifications, or how and to what extent an electronic
portfolio might benefit teaching and learning. CMS software did not receive
wide acceptance until its usefulness and functionality could be justified and
until it became easy-to-use and offered services unavailable from existing
systems. Until the ePortfolio software environments can similarly demonstrate
their effectiveness, ease-of-use, and transparent integration, they will not
reach the level of acceptance that the CMS has received in the past few years.
[PDF - November 3, 2003]
http://with.iupui.edu/WhitePaper/whitepaperV1_0.pdf
WHERE TECHNOLOGY AND COURSE
DEVELOPMENT MEET
Higher
education institutions are searching for models of successful training programs
that help faculty members develop Web-based courses. Ideally, such programs
will result in online courses that are well-designed, responsive to the
learner, interactive, and consistent with stated instructional goals. Through
its Office of Instructional Technology, Stephen F. Austin State University
(SFA) implemented a training program to address these desired outcomes. The
program, known formally as the Web Course Development (WCD) Workshop Series,
was created to meet the needs of the increasing number of faculty members
moving into the online teaching environment.
http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=951
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
================================================
FROGPAD AIMS TO CUT KEYBOARD SIZE
FrogPad is out to
make the keyboard the size of your palm. The five-employee, Houston-based
start-up is actively marketing a fully functional, 20-key keyboard at Comdex
this week, which measures 3 inches by 5 inches--about the same size as a
personal digital assistant. The typical keyboard contains 128 keys and is more
than a foot long. The size reduction is possible through a close analysis of
human anthropology and typing styles, according to Linda Marroquin, FrogPad's
CEO. The 15 letters featured at the center of FrogPad's keyboard--a selection
which includes the letters "T," "A," "E" and
"H"--represent approximately 86 percent of average keyboard activity
of English-language typists. Hitting a Shift key at the bottom of the green
keyboard in conjunction with one of the 15 central keys leads to the rest of
the alphabet.
http://news.com.com/2100-1121-5108001.html
THE MUSCLES, ACHES, AND PAINS OF OPEN
SOURCE
In July the
University of Wisconsin–Madison had another opportunity to participate in a
standards-based, open-source software initiative. To opt in, I had to put up a
little of the university's money. To opt out, I had to tell twenty-five of my
friends and colleagues around the nation that I did not think this was a wise
investment. If enough of us opted out, the project might fizzle. Or it might
proceed without input and influence from the higher education community, and
those of us in the community might miss the chance to get a product that meets our
collective requirements. UW-Madison opted in. So did twenty-four other
institutions. But I worry: are we committed enough?
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm03/erm036_articles.asp?id=11
NO EASY SOLUTION TO SPYWARE
Lawmakers have yet
to get a handle on the best way to combat computer spyware' that tracks
Internet users' online activity, a nonprofit policy group said. Rather than
drafting narrowly targeted legislation to outlaw specific snooping tactics,
Congress should establish broad online privacy rights to protect against secret
online surveillance, the Center for Democracy and Technology said. Concern
about spyware has grown over the past several years as online advertisers and
song-swapping networks like Kazaa have placed programs on users' computers to
monitor their activity or use their computers' processors for other activities.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61283,00.html
NEW MACHINE CAN DETECT DRUGS LIKE DOGS
A new invention can
sniff like a dog, find drugs like a dog and help police catch criminals like a
dog. But can the so-called "Dog on a Chip" replace the police
officer's best friend? Georgia Tech researchers have developed a machine that
can instantly sniff out cocaine and other illegal drugs without the hassle of
feeding, training and interpreting a police dog. "This works the same way
as the dogs," said Bill Hunt, the electrical engineering professor heading
the project. "They're picking up on the vapors coming off the
cocaine." From a few feet away, the device can "smell"
microscopic amounts of a particular substance - as little as one-trillionth of
a gram. So far it's only programmed to detect cocaine. But Hunt says it could
be developed to sniff out other drugs, anthrax, bombs, chemical agents and even
cancerous cells.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031120/D7UUEHBG0.html
IS TECH INDUSTRY A SAVIOR OR DANGER TO
EDUCATION?
Technology
companies and educational institutions are increasingly developing partnerships
that involve everything from company-sponsored labs to multimillion-dollar
equipment donations. Rather than provoking immediate protests over academic
independence as they have in previous years, the arrangements are now accepted
openly by many teachers and administrators desperate for resources.
http://news.com.com/2009-1023_3-5103223.html
MICROSOFT, PARTNERS DELAY SPOT WATCHES
Originally slated
to launch at Comdex, the SPOT watch designed by Microsoft Corp. and its
partners has been delayed until the first quarter of 2004 to accommodate
further testing. Executives at Citizen Watch Co., one of the companies slated
to manufacture SPOT watches, also said that they may pull out of the
partnership and not ship a SPOT watch at all. The watches were originally
supposed to ship this fall, according to a speech made by Microsoft's chief
software architect, Bill Gates, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
this past January.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1384267,00.asp
DIGITALWAY PULLS AHEAD OF OTHER
KEYCHAIN DRIVES
The once-ubiquitous
floppy disk, for decades the standard medium for transferring files from one
personal computer to another, has been disappearing. Rarely do new computers
even come with floppy drives. PC makers instead urge people to email files or
"burn" files to blank CDs. But there's a better way. In the past 18
months small companies in Asia have been producing gadgets called keychain
drives--also known as thumb drives. These are small plastic fobs, about the
size of a key, stuffed with memory chips that retain their contents without
electrical power. They hold between 16 megabytes and two gigabytes of data. On
the end is a standard USB connector that fits into the USB ports built into
every Windows and Macintosh PC for the past four or five years.
http://afr.com/articles/2003/11/13/1068674314947.html
PDA MARKET SUFFERS AT HAND OF
FEATURE-PACKED PHONES
Worldwide shipments
of personal digital assistants (PDAs) continued to decline in the third quarter
of this year as mobile phones with similar functions claimed a portion of their
market, Gartner Inc. said. Global PDA shipments slipped 0.2 percent in the
third quarter to 2.52 million units, resulting in the eighth consecutive
quarter of year-over-year declines.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/11/HNpdasuffers_1.html
IBM BUILDS TV-SIZED SUPERCOMPUTER
IBM Corp. said on
Friday that it has built a supercomputer the size of a television based on
microchip technology to be used in gaming consoles due out next year. IBM said
the supercomputer, which can perform two trillion calculations per second, is a
small-scale prototype of the Blue Gene/L supercomputer that it is building for
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/993589.asp
MACROMEDIA UPDATES FLASH MX TO SILENCE
CRITICS
Macromedia is
offering a second chance with its Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004
products. In a prepared statement, the San Francisco-based company announced
the availability of product updates that address a number of glitches and bugs
inherent in the original product releases.
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3107631
INTERNET/WIRELESS RELATED
================================================
HOUSE PASSES ANTISPAM BILL
The U.S.
House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve antispam legislation
that could end more than six years of failed attempts to create a federal law
restricting unsolicited commercial e-mail. The measure aims to curb unwanted
e-mail advertisements for Viagra-like products and get-rich pitches by imposing
fines and jail time for offenders. It passed by a vote of 392-5, following an
all-night session of the House. The Senate is expected to follow.
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5110622.html
FAST TRACK FOR SCIENCE DATA
The first
leg of an ultra-high-performance network will go live this week in what its
backers call the most important networking experiment since Arpanet, the
military network that laid the foundation for the Internet. The National
LambdaRail is the biggest, fastest network ever undertaken for scientific
research. Created by a private consortium of universities and tech companies,
the NLR will link hundreds of research institutions around the United States
with a dedicated, high-speed optical network. The first leg will go live,
linking Chicago's TeraGrid facility and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
The remainder of the network will be up and running by the end of 2004.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,61102,00.html
MACROMEDIA, AOL BRING IM
CAPABILITIES TO CENTRAL
Macromedia
Inc. released the developer version of Macromedia Central, a software
environment that lets users access distributed information from desktop PCs and
handheld devices using XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Web services. In
addition, Macromedia announced the addition of instant-messaging (IM)
capabilities to Central through a partnership with America Online Inc. (AOL)
Based on Macromedia Flash, Central gives users continual access to information
distributed over a network or the Internet, whether or not a user is connected.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/18/HNmacroaol_1.html
DESKBAR SEEKS IN SMALL SPACE
Google
can now do Internet searches without launching an Internet browser, a
breakthrough that could revolutionize search. The No. 1 search company recently
introduced Google Deskbar, free software that embeds a small search box on the
task bar at the bottom of Windows PCs. Because the box is always visible, a
Web-connected PC user can enter a query at any time. A split-second later,
Google search results appear in a window on the lower right corner of the
screen.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-17-search_x.htm
STUDENTS AREN'T USING INFO
TECHNOLOGY RESPONSIBLY
Colleges
and universities that invest a lot of money in technology may want to focus
more on teaching students to use it responsibly, a survey suggests. More than
eight of 10 undergraduates (83%) regularly use information technology in their
academic work, but an even larger share (87%) say their peers at least
"sometimes" copy and paste information from the Web without citing
the source, according to the 2003 report from the National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2003-11-09-students-it_x.htm
CISCO LINES UP LATITUDE
Cisco
Systems Inc. snapped up Web conferencing software maker Latitude Communications
Inc. for about $80 million, beefing up its enterprise VOIP portfolio (see Cisco
Gains Latitude). Latitude's desktop conferencing software enables office
workers scattered in different locations to share and collaborate on documents
over the Web in real time. Companies have increasingly turned to Web
conferencing tools to cut costs and allay fears about traveling. Latitude’s
MeetingPlace software has clocked 40 million minutes per month and is used by
many of the top Fortune 50 companies, the company says.
http://www.boardwatch.com/document.asp?doc_id=43427
SCHOOL WEB ACCESS SOARS, DIGITAL
DIVIDE STILL REMAINS
Internet
access in U.S. public schools has grown from 3 percent in 1994 to 99 percent in
2002, but the digital divide still exists in homes with 41 percent of blacks
and Hispanics using a computer at home compared to 77 percent of whites,
according to two reports released by the U.S. Department of Education. One of
the reports concludes that only 31 percent of students from families earning
less than $20,000 use computers at home, compared to 80 percent of those from
families earning more than $75,000.
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/education/article/0,,5951_3101281,00.html
A PEEK BEHIND MICROSOFT'S FIREWALL
AT 'WALLOP'
Microsoft
Research is looking at how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and other
social-networking tools. When Microsoft showed a prototype of software
code-named "Wallop" at last month's Professional Developers
Conference, few attendees understood exactly what they were seeing. And the
fact that Microsoft is sequestering Wallop behind a corporate firewall,
allowing only a small number of researchers and their contacts to test the
software, isn't helping to clarify matters. But Microsoft social computing
group researcher Lili Cheng is starting to talk publicly in general terms, at
least, about the company's foray into social-networking software. And Microsoft
Research (MSR) is making screen shots available, showing Wallop and some of the
other MSR social-computing technologies that are feeding into it.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1379283,00.asp
MICROSOFT BUILDS SPAM FILTERS INTO
EXCHANGE
Microsoft
Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will use his keynote address
at the annual Comdex 2003 trade show in Las Vegas to announce plans to make the
company's Exchange e-mail server better at stopping unsolicited commercial
("spam") e-mail, according to information obtained by IDG News
Service. Among other things, Gates will announce that Microsoft is adding
heuristics-based anti-spam capabilities to future releases of Exchange Server
2003, which will enable Exchange Server to stop spam e-mail messages before
they reach users' e-mail inboxes.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/14/HNmsspamfilter_1.html
NEW MIMAIL VIRUS POSES AS PAYPAL
E-MAIL
Yet
another version of the Mimail virus is on the loose, but this one has a twist:
it poses as an e-mail from PayPal and attempts to trick recipients into
surrendering their credit card data. Mimail.I has not spread very widely yet,
but the nature of its ruse is worrying to anti-virus and identity theft
experts. This year has seen an explosion in both virus activity and in
electronic scams aimed at relieving consumers of sensitive personal and
financial data. And now the two trends have merged. The e-mail message
containing the virus has a subject line of "Your PayPal account
expires," and contain a spoofed sending address of donotreply@paypal.com.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1383308,00.asp
================================================
[NOTE:
The selections above are from the Academic ADL Co-Lab News Report, a
limited-distribution, weekly executive summary of trends, strategies, and
innovations influencing the future of learning and technology in higher
education. It is prepared by the University of Wisconsin System Office of
Learning and Information Technology (OLIT) in coordination with the Co-Lab.
Collegebuys.org/schoolbuys.org is using these selections with permission. The
selections from the weekly summaries were selected and edited by David Stuart
of collegebuys.org/schoolbuys.org.]
[NOTE:
This information is provided for information purposes only. Mention or
discussion of a product, company, or person does not represent any official
endorsement or criticism of the same. All authors and organizations retain
complete copyright.]
[SOURCE
MATERIAL: The reference as specific as possible is provided to a source for
each summary. When using an online link, ensure the URL has not been broken
with a carriage return.]
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Judy
Brown is the Emerging Technology Analyst for the University of Wisconsin
System, OLIT. Brown conducts research and consults for the 15-institution UW
System. She is Director of the Academic ADL Co-Laboratory at The Pyle Center in
Madison, WI. Until recently she coordinated the WTCS Hardware and Software
Purchasing Consortium and other statewide technology initiatives for 16
technical college districts comprised of 47 campuses. Brown was named one of
the Top 100 women in computing by McGraw Hill's Open Computing magazine
(December 1994). She writes a business technology column for the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel and is the coordinator of eWEEK's Corporate Partner Program.]
[COMMENTS &
CONTRIBUTIONS: If you want to offer material, or if you want to comment on the
contents, contact Judy Brown at
judy@academiccolab.org
