>>>>>>>>>>> EDUCATION NEWS
================================================

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON OFFERS ONLINE TEACHING GUIDE
A Web guide to online teaching that the University of Washington created for its own instructors is now available to the public.
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/onlinelearning/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1259246

ASTD CERTIFICATION INSTITUTE LAUNCHES E-LEARNING COURSEWARE
CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
The American Society for Training & Development's Certification Institute has unveiled its E-Learning Courseware Certification (ECC) program, a new program designed to evaluate and provide certification for e-learning courseware. The ECC program was created by the ASTD Certification Institute to improve the overall quality of e-learning for the marketplace.
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=6834

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING CASE ENDS WITH PROBATION
A sys admin who installed distributed computing software on computers at an American college has been sentenced to probation. This may seem harsh but David McOwen, the former BOFH at the state run DeKalb Technical College in Georgia, can consider himself fortunate--since the authorities brought charges against him that might have sent him to jail.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23737.html

BLACKBOARD BUYS MAKER OF LEARNING SOFTWARE
Blackboard Inc. chalked up its fourth acquisition in the online learning sector today, buying software created at George Washington University that helps teachers put course material on the Web and is used by more than 65 schools across the nation.
http://www.washtech.com/news/merger/14514-1.html

OPENCOURSEWARE: SIMPLE IDEA, PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS
Since its inception, OCW has been misunderstood. The academic world has seen one or another online degree program or commercial venture stake a claim to its part of cyberspace. OCW is not about online degree programs. It isn't even about online courses for which students can audit or enroll. That's what it isn't. What, then, is it?
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?ID=5913

QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR ONLINE COURSES: IMPLEMENTING POLICY AT RMIT
RMIT's policy for the quality assurance of online courses has three primary components: educational design, peer review, and formal evaluation. Moreover, the degree to which these components apply varies according to the nature of the course. At RMIT, each faculty has a list of strategically important programs, chosen because of the importance of these programs to the nature of the faculty and also in terms of their perceived market potential.
http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=940

>>>>>>>>>>> TECHNOLOGY NEWS
================================================

WIRELESS WEB POPULATION TO SOAR
The number of wireless Internet users in the world will grow 18-fold between 2000 and 2005, according to the Intermarket Group. At the end of 2000, there were 39 million mobile Net users in the world and that is set to increase to about 729 million by 2005.
http://www.nua.com/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905357560&rel=true

ULTRA-CHEAP LINUX LAPTOP (SINGAPORE)
The handheld computer is commonly seen as a geek toy for affluent mobile professionals. However, the Simputer will change all that by bringing portable computing and the information age to developing countries. The finished product will be slightly larger than a Palm handheld but will operate as a simple portable computer.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20020111/tc/simputer_ultra-cheap_linux_laptop_1.html

GATES MEMO CALLS FOR SECURITY FOCUS
Microsoft Corp. chief software architect Bill Gates sent a company-wide memo calling on developers to do a better job of writing safe, secure software. The memo comes just weeks after an embarrassing flaw was found in the company's flagship product, Windows XP.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/689243.asp

HOW TO EVALUATE A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Selecting and implementing a content management system (CMS) will be one of the largest IT projects tackled by many organisations. With costs running into the millions of dollars, it is vital that the right CMS package be selected.
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_evaluate/index.html

MEMORY PRICES DOUBLE
Watch out: DRAM prices surge after languishing and are expected to jump higher.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,79704,00.asp

TOSHIBA PUSHES CD STORAGE TO 30GB
New rewriteable optical disc offers six times the storage capacity of similar-sized DVD media.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,78324,tk,dn010702X,00.asp

WHAT'S NEW FOR 2002?
Eight hot technologies most likely to burn a hole in your pocket in the next year.
http://www.cio.com/archive/010102/et_article.html

VENDORS ROLL OUT 2.2GHZ PENTIUM 4 PCS
Several major PC makers on Monday introduced systems packing Intel's new 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/01/07/020107hnpcvendors.xml

>>>>>>>>>>> INTERNET RELATED NEWS
================================================

SUPREME COURT SETTLES INTERNET DISPUTE, ALLOWS FCC TO CONTROL SOME INFRASTRUCTURE RATES
In a victory for the cable industry, the Supreme Court said that a federal agency can control rates that cable companies pay for high-speed Internet lines. The ruling could affect the availability and cost of online services.
http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/2002/01/16/supreme_court.html

SILICON VALLEY GROUP PUSHES U.S. FOR FASTER WEB LINKS
A lobbying group that includes Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. is urging the U.S. government to promote deployment of fast Internet connections, to boost the economy and improve education, entertainment and health care.
http://detnews.com/2002/technews/0201/16/technology-391721.htm

VIDEO-ON-WEB WILL TAKE YEARS TO GET TO FAST GROWTH
Streaming video will take another four to five years before it enjoys rapid growth of traffic and revenues for telecom operators and video production companies, a survey found on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=518166

LIGHTS OUT FOR NORTHERNLIGHT FREE SERVICE
NorthernLight.com was never one of the biggest search engines on the Internet, and when it announced last week that it was closing its free consumer search service, nobody seemed too concerned. But as the once-promising search engine turns off the lights on its free site, it provides another reminder of the challenges of delivering quality research material over the Internet.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020116/wr/column_nettrends_dc_18.html

FBI WARNS LAW ENFORCEMENT, INTERNET COMPANIES OF POSSIBLE TERRORIST ACTIVITY
The FBI warned law enforcement and high-tech companies to be on guard for possible terrorist activity that could use or affect the Internet, government officials said. The alert warned of possible attacks on or through utility, municipal and state information systems, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House office of homeland security.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/004689.htm

CHINA TIGHTENS WEB CONTROLS
China has issued its most intrusive Internet controls to date, ordering service providers to screen private e-mail for political content and holding them responsible for subversive postings on their websites.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49855,00.html

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF WEB SERVICE
People who get Internet access delivered through the air instead of through a cable or telephone line know the problem well: They lose the service if their rooftop's antenna isn't in the line of sight of a main antenna miles away. But a new generation of equipment is taking the "line of sight" requirement out of the equation. This news is piquing interest in what is known as fixed wireless, a little-used method to deliver high-speed Internet access to homes.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-816772.html

REPORT: U.S. BUSINESSES ARE UNPREPARED FOR CYBERATTACKS
U.S. companies aren't doing enough to protect their IT systems from cyberattacks, according to a report released by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB), part of the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO67238,00.html

SHOCKWAVE FLASH FOUND VULNERABLE TO VIRUS
Antivirus software vendors say they have spotted the first computer virus that uses Macromedia's Shockwave Flash files to transmit itself once a victim clicks to run the Flash movie.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,78684,tk,dn010802X,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 is using these selections with permission. The selections from the weekly summaries were selected and edited by David Stuart of collegebuys.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 jbrown@uwsa.edu.]