EDUCATION NEWS
================================================


UN UNIVERSITY, WORLDWIDE PARTNERS LAUNCH ONLINE UNIVERSITY
As the United Nations and its partners today opened the virtual "doors" of a pioneering, online global university, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged educators to use the landmark initiative to help ensure that developing countries could finally be "full partners" in the new information and communications technology explosion.
http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9263&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
 
UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX ONLINE: SWIFT RISE
The Net-based college is parlaying its head start in the nascent field into rapid growth and premium prices. Can it keep soaring? Over the past three years, the University of Phoenix Online has pulled off the rarest of feats: Its has stock skyrocketed, hitting an all- time high of $47.17 on May 12, despite the worst tech-stock bear market in history. Apollo Group, which also owns the University of Phoenix, the nation's largest private university, first floated UOPX as a tracking stock in September, 2000--just months before the broader tech market cratered.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_25/b3838628.htm
 
FORUM: TECHNOLOGY KEY TO REDESIGNING HIGHER EDUCATION
A call to action issued June 12 by the Business- Higher Education Forum (BHEF) urges educators and policy makers to create a presidential commission to redesign post-secondary education in efforts to better prepare students for 21st-century careers—and technology must be a key component of this new design, the forum said.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/ssunreg.cfm?ArticleID=4468&ul=%2Fnews%2FshowStory%2Ecfm%3FArticleID%3D4468#below
 
UC TO LAUNCH OPEN-ACCESS JOURNALS
In a trend that could permanently alter the nature of scholarly publishing, several top research universities are setting up electronic superarchives to store and share their researchers' data. Some universities see these "institutional repositories" simply as a way to capture their intellectual output, but others aim to use their repositories as a means of launching open-access alternatives to conventional academic journals.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030616/03
 
DISTANCE EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING ACT OF 2003
Introduced In U.S. Senate to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 regarding distance education, and for other purposes.
http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9236&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
 
UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF E-LEARNING
Computing is right to encourage a debate on e-learning. While it is no panacea for all unsatisfied educational needs, if implemented properly, e-learning can address many of them. To date, e-learning has a poor reputation. What's really disappointing is that it deserves that reputation. Technology usually gets the blame, but the real reasons are poor instructional design and content production and/or insufficient service support.
http://www.vnunet.com/Analysis/1141558
 
IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF CMS: FINDINGS FROM EDUTOOLS
Since they first emerged in the mid-1990s, Course Management Systems have evolved from somewhat basic collections of disparate applications into intricate, integrated enterprise systems. Through the work of the Edutools project, this paper looks at the features that most commonly define course management systems, and using site usage data collected from the decision making tool, whether these features are in fact what the users of course management tools are seeking.
http://www.island.net/~leslies/blog/stories/2003/06/13/importantCharacteristicsOfCmsFindingsFromEdutools.html
 
THE SLOAN SURVEY OF ONLINE LEARNING
The Sloan Consortium is just completing a comprehensive national study of online learning in Higher Education. Working from a representative sample of all United States institutions of higher education, this study has collected data on attitudes and practices from over 990 institutions.
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/view/v2n4/datav2n4.htm
 
ENDGAME - ENCOURAGING COMPLETION IN E-LEARNING
E-learning–at least to the extent that it is delivered in self-study format–suffers in the same way as all of its distance learning predecessors: from high drop-out rates. Although most learners start with good intentions of completing, far too high a proportion never achieve the benefits they were seeking when they were enrolled. In this article, Clive Shepherd explores whether drop-out rates are any real indicator of the success of e- learning and, to the extent that they are, what can be done to reduce them to manageable levels.
http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/Features/endgame.htm
 
 
 
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
================================================


PEOPLESOFT REJECTS SWEETENED ORACLE BID
Business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. said its board unanimously rejected a sweetened $6.3 billion takeover bid from Oracle Corp., saying the offer was inadequate and a merger would violate antitrust laws.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=2&u=/nm/20030620/tc_nm/tech_peoplesoft_dc
 
APPLE POISED TO RELEASE SPEEDY G5
The G5 is expected to be built with IBM's 970 processor. Upon its release last fall, IBM said it would run at 1.8 GHz with a system bus running at 900 MHz. G5's reported specifications run faster than those figures, suggesting the IBM chip has been upgraded.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21768.html
 
GATEWAY ENTERS PDA ARENA
Computer maker and consumer device retailer Gateway (Quote, Company Info) confirmed it will begin offering its own brand of PDA devices--the 100X--starting in mid- to late July. The Poway, Calif.-based company follows in the footsteps of Dell Computer (Quote, Company Info) and Hewlett-Packard (Quote, Company Info) as PC vendors who have expanded their portfolios to include mobile devices. Gateway's said its version will be based on an Intel 400MHz XScale processor running Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 2003 Software for Pocket PCs. The thin design supports a 3.5-inch screen, dual Compact Flash and Secure Digital slots for adding modules for wireless networking or storing extra data. The price will be between $300 and $350.
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/2224891
 
BIG BUSINESS BEWARE, THE BULL!@*! DETECTOR IS HERE
The days of corporate waffle are numbered. The more management-speak in a company report, the worse a firm is doing, say the developers of a "bullshit" detector. The computer program--called Bullfighter--sifts through companies' reports and accounts picking out management jargon and obscure corporate language. Expressions such as "lifecycle management", "synergies" and "benchmarking" are to Bullfighter like a red rag to, well, a bull.
http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2010
 
UNITED TO OFFER E-MAIL ON U.S. FLIGHTS
United Airlines is set to announce Tuesday that it will begin offering in-flight e-mail services on all its U.S. domestic flights by the end of the year, according to a U.K. representative for the company. The announcement will represent a first by a U.S. airline, and marks a strong move by United to woo business fliers and drum up added revenue in the face of strong competition by low-cost competitors.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/06/17/HNunitedemail_1.html
 
MICROOPTICAL INTROS EYEWEAR DISPLAY, WIRELESS KIT FOR MOBILE DEVICES
MicroOptical on Monday unveiled a tiny display that clips onto a pair of eyeglasses for hands-free viewing of information from mobile devices such as Tablet PCs and laptops. The SV-6 PC Viewer attaches to the VGA port of a computer via a 4-foot cable and uses the Microsoft Multiple Monitors feature of the Windows operating system to project the equivalent of a full-size screen in front of the user's eyes. The viewer offers 18-bit color resolution, as is usable both indoors and outdoors, the company said.
http://www.thinkmobile.com/News/00/68/29/
 
APPLE IN 2008
"Macs will no longer be a crazy niche market full of zealots and rebels, but will instead be a healthy alternative platform, one among several," Chaffin said. "The more successful Linux becomes, the more the Mac becomes another alternative to Windows (and vice versa), which is a huge mind-shift. That will pay enormous dividends to consumers, no matter what platform they are using."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21713.html
 
TWO PC MAKERS AND SUN CUT DEAL FOR JAVA
Sun Microsystems moved a step closer today to making its Java programming language a force in personal computing when Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer agreed to include Java software with their desktop and laptop computers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/technology/12JAVA.html
 
MICROSOFT TO BUY ANTIVIRUS EXPERTISE
Microsoft has announced its intention to acquire GeCad Software, a Romanian antivirus technology developer, in order to improve the security in its Windows platform. The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, would add a team of antivirus experts to Microsoft's stable of developers and give the company the ability to offer antivirus systems across all its products, a representative said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1015096.html
 
THE .ZIP STANDARD SPLINTERS
The .zip compression format has known remarkable stability and compatibility for many years, but that may soon change. PKWare and WinZip Computing, makers of competing compression and encryption products, are fighting over the .zip standard--which means that .zip archive files created by one program may not be accessible by the other.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/06/10/HNzipsplinters_1.html
 
 
 
INTERNET & WIRELESS RELATED NEWS
================================================


MSN BUILDING WEB SEARCH TO RIVAL GOOGLE
Microsoft Corp., whose MSN is the No. 2 U.S. Internet service, is building its own programs for searching the Web to rival Google Inc., which runs the most popular Internet search service.  Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft in the last week began using a prototype program that indexes Web pages on the Internet to help develop a future search program, MSN Group Product Manager Lisa Gurry said in an interview. Google spokesman David Krane declined to comment.
http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0306/19/technology-196941.htm
 
SCHOOL LAUNCHES HERCULEAN HOT SPOT
The University of Twente in the Netherlands has launched a unique, campuswide wireless hot spot, claimed to be the biggest in Europe. Covering 346 acres with 650 Cisco Aironet 1200 series access points, it supports more than 6,000 students and a staff of 2,500. Built in conjunction with IBM and Cisco Systems, it uses 802.1x-based security.
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-1017988.html
 
BLUETOOTH TO OUTSHIP WI-FI FIVE TO ONE – REPORT
Bluetooth will become the dominant wireless technology, building market share by stealth as the Wi-Fi hotspot bubble bursts, market watcher Forrester Research has forecast. It's undoubtedly a contentious claim. Wi-Fi is being backed by some of the IT industry's biggest names--Intel, Apple, Cisco et al--not to mention a host of new and established service providers--BT, T-Mobile, The Cloud etc.--keen to tap into a perceived demand for high speed data access on the move.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/31262.html
 
IBM PUTS WI-FI IN BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS
IBM Wednesday said it is installing wireless LANs in more than 600 Boys and Girls Clubs of America facilities across the U.S., one of its largest deployments of the 802.11b wireless networking technology so far. Instead of stringing wires in the clubhouses, many of which only had one computer for Internet access or none at all, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America decided to go wireless, said Pal Normark, client manager at IBM.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0619ibmputs.html
 
SCHUMER INTRODUCES NO SPAM REGISTRY BILL
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) finally introduced his long promised anti-spam legislation, joining the growing list of lawmakers demanding federal action to slow the growth of unsolicited e-mail. Schumer's legislation would establish fines for spamming activity, mandate jail time for repeat offenders, and create a "Do-Not-Spam" list of e-mail addresses similar to the Federal Communications Commission's (FTC) new "Do-Not-Call" registry designed to stop telemarkers from making unwanted telephone solicitations.
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2221571
 
MICROSOFT: NO NEW VERSIONS OF IE FOR MAC
Microsoft said that it is halting development of future Macintosh versions of its Internet Explorer browser, citing competition from Apple Computer's Safari browser.
http://news.com.com/2100-1045_3-1017126.html
 
STANDARDS GROUP GIVES GO-AHEAD TO FASTER WI-FI
An international technical group gave its stamp of approval to wireless technology that can transmit data two to five times faster than existing short-range network gear known as "Wi-Fi." Approval from The Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers, a technology industry standards-setting body, could encourage business to use gear based on the new standard called 802.11g, analysts said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=2922237
 
 
 
================================================
[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