EDUCATION NEWS
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AN INITIAL EXPERIMENT FOR ATTAINING EDUCATION FOR ALL
Our present strategies, even with improvements now being implemented and contemplated, will not suffice. This proposal explores a strategy that may lead to an order of magnitude improvement in learning. The model for this new approach is tutorial learning, such as that seen with Socrates. But in the new materials the computer will be the tutor. No new technology, hardware or software, is required.
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_september2003.html
 
OFF TO COLLEGE TO MAJOR IN ... VIDEO GAMES?
'Video game studies' may sound oxymoronic, but academia is beginning to take it seriously. Always pressing forward to new intellectual frontiers, American higher education is now probing an academic realm sure to produce the words that will thrill parents: "Mom, Dad, I've decided to major in video games!"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0829/p01s04-ussc.html
 
WHY JOHNNY WON'T POST
"Students are accustomed to sharing space and time, not ideas, whereas online learning is exactly the opposite." Why do some students resist participating in course discussion boards when they know their grade will suffer? How can students with polished social skills come across in online courses as uncooperative and unengaged, with short postings of little substance? What causes this? Can it be fixed?
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/converge/?pg=magstory&id=65480
 
MIT EVERYWARE
Every lecture, every handout, every quiz. All online. For free. Meet the global geeks getting an MIT education, open source-style.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit.html
 
MIT'S OPENCOURSEWARE INITIATIVE - I JUST DON'T GET IT
Hey, maybe it's just me, but I just don't see what's so great about MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative. I mean, I really want to like it. I have a lot of mission around the idea of spreading free education and training to those less fortunate around the world. By way of background: MIT raised $11 million to fund the initiative to put the entire curriculum online (almost 2000 courses). Items include course outlines, lecture notes, reading lists, lab assignments and quizzes.
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art_misc_3.htm
 
CUT-AND-PASTE, TURN IT IN -- YOU CALL THAT CHEATING?
Nearly 40 percent of college students have plagiarized papers by using the cut-and-paste function on their computers to lift text from the Internet, according to a new nationwide cheating study. The survey, conducted by a Rutgers University professor, is believed to be the largest ever undertaken to measure the growing problem of Internet cheating. Researchers interviewed 18,000 students on 23 college campuses and found nearly half do not consider plagiarizing off the Internet to be cheating at all.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1062047712138030.xml
 
MICROSOFT'S BIG ROLE ON CAMPUS
Bearing gifts of cash, software and computers worth $25 million, Microsoft Corp. came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, saying it wanted to jointly develop educational technologies. Some scholars expressed more suspicion than gratitude. Today, four years into the five-year partnership, the protests are over and Microsoft technology is firmly entrenched at MIT.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40000-2003Aug24.html
 
PC DELAYS - AND IMPROVES - HANDWRITING
Norwegian schools are beginning to postpone teaching children to learn to write by hand, instead letting them use computers from their first day in class. The experiment has been slowly gathering steam since a careful start with 14 classes in Bergen four years ago. Now half of Bergen's elementary schools start their writing education by getting kids to put their hands on a keyboard. The trend is spreading in more and more schools across the country.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=608158
 
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL LEARN
A simulated home building computer game that teaches kids planning, zoning, environmental issues and the financial nuts and bolts of building and selling a dream home was long over due. Melding the attraction kids have for video games and the need to learn home owning responsibilities early should have been a no-brainer long ago. It's not State of Emergency or Laura Croft, Tomb Raider, but the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) "Building Homes of Our Own" is sweet.
http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20030820_learn.htm
 

TECHNOLOGY NEWS
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NEXT BIG THING IS A REALLY SMALL BATTERY
A revolution in science that could surpass the impact of the transistor or the automobile has evolved at lightning speed since its inception just a little over a decade ago, with institutions around the world scrambling for position in a world where it pays to think small. Very small. Scientists at International Business Machines set off a technological explosion in 1990 when they used an atomic force microscope to nudge individual atoms into the right position to spell out those well-known initials, IBM. It was a remarkable achievement because something had been assembled--although it was just a sign--one atom at a time.
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22187.html
 
COMPUTER GAME 'BOOSTS HEARING'
A simple computer game can dramatically improve children's listening skills by teaching them to distinguish between sounds, new research suggests. The game is said to boost children's hearing by the equivalent of two years in just a few weeks. Phonomena was devised by Professor David Moore at Oxford University as an aid for children with language problems.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/oxfordshire/3186243.stm
 
HI-TECH TOME TAKES ON PAPERBACKS
A new gadget could spell an end to books as we know them.  Researchers at Hewlett Packard have developed a prototype electronic book which can hold a whole library on a device no bigger than a paperback. The brushed metal device is about one centimetre thick and looks like an oversized handheld computer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3173835.stm
 
MACHINE THINKS, THEREFORE IT IS
A new type of thinking machine that could completely change how people interact with computers is being developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. Over the past five years, a team led by Sandia cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe has been working on creating intelligent machines: computers that can accurately infer intent, remember prior experiences with users, and allow users to call upon simulated experts to help them analyze problems and make decisions.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60153,00.html
 
POWERPOINT IS EVIL
Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall. Yet slideware--computer programs for presentations--is everywhere: in corporate America, in government bureaucracies, even in our schools.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
 
MACROMEDIA COURTS MAINSTREAM DEVELOPERS
Software maker Macromedia announced Monday the first major update of its MX line of Web design and development tools. The San Francisco company introduced versions of its Flash animation tools, Dreamweaver Web design package and Fireworks graphics tools, all of which were overhauled last year to reflect a new emphasis on Web applications. Macromedia CEO Rob Burgess said the company's software lineup reflects the evolving role of Web professionals who have moved from working strictly as designers or developers to a combination of roles.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5067388.html
 
SILENT PUMP FOR WATER-COOLED PCS DEVELOPED
A new water-cooling system for computer chips has been developed that incorporates a clever pump with no moving parts. The system, developed by Californian start-up company Cooligy, aims to silently solve the problem that the faster chips get, the hotter they become. In the near future, the chips in high-speed laptops and desktop PCs will generate so much heat that traditional air cooling systems will struggle to cope. Simply increasing the speed of the fans used will increase the noise they make and the risk of mechanical failure. So a number of companies are now working on systems that use water to draw heat away.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994086
 
FOR THOSE NEEDING 32 MORE BITS
The arrival of 64-bit desktop processors signifies a new era of computing — initially for professionals who are bumping up against the memory limits of existing PC's. Soon afterward the new chips will affect everyday computer users, for whom a new generation of media machines should offer remarkable improvements in audio and visual effects.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/technology/18NECO.html
 
DNA MAY BE BASIS FOR POWER COMPUTING
It almost sounds too fantastic to be true, but a growing amount of research supports the idea that DNA, the basic building block of life, could also be the basis of a staggeringly powerful new generation of computers.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-08-17-dna-computing_x.htm
 
MICROSOFT PREPS PLACEWARE CONFERENCING STRATEGY
Microsoft had already been active in the web conferencing space. Its software includes Windows Instant Messenger, NetMeeting and the planned introduction, later this year, of the Real Time Communications Server to be known as the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server. The missing piece was a public access service. PlaceWare caught Microsoft's eye and now its PlaceWare Conference Centre is to be brought into the mainstream as Microsoft Office for Live Meetings.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32377.html
 
 
INTERNET/WIRELESS RELATED
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THE DISUNITED STATES OF THE INTERNET
When it comes to Internet use, at least, the East Coast and West Coast rule. By contrast, fewer than half of all Southerners go online. So says the latest study of our online habits from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which examined how different regions of the country use the Net. The findings offer more proof that Internet usage is increasingly diverse.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/957732.asp
 
BLASTER WORM STILL MAKING MAYHEM
The arrest of a Minnesota teenager who reportedly confessed to coding a variant of the Blaster worm provided little comfort to those who are still struggling to clear its contamination from their computers. One virus writer may be off the Internet, but his creation still lives on inside the many infected machines that continue to spontaneously shut down and re-start, due to the effects of the worm.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,60237,00.html
 
IF THE WEBMASTER'S BUSY, EVERYONE ELSE CAN PITCH IN
The latest version of Contribute, software from Macromedia that can help nonexperts update Web page content, allows Macintosh users to contribute shoulder to shoulder with their Windows co-workers. In addition to being compatible with Mac OS X, Contribute 2 has several new features for the Windows side, including the Macromedia FlashPaper function, which can be used to convert any printable type of document into an embedded Web page element.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/technology/circuits/28webb.html
 
MICROSOFT MAY ALTER BROWSER
Microsoft, which this month was found to have infringed on a patented method for viewing Internet pages, is expected to make changes to its Web-browser software, according to the World Wide Web Consortium trade group. The consortium, which counts Microsoft as a member, said the company will make changes "very soon" to its Internet Explorer program that "may affect a large number of existing Web pages."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001658084_microsoft29.html
 
SIZING UP THE SEARCH COMPETITION
In the search engine duel between Google and Overture Services, it equals bragging rights. Search kingpin Overture last week touted the newly extended index of its subsidiary AlltheWeb as larger than that of Google, the Web's undisputed search leader. To answer visitor queries, AlltheWeb mines nearly 3.2 billion unique pages, it said--roughly 68 million more pages than Google listed in its index at that time.
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5069571.html
 
COLLEGE STUDENTS BUYING ONLINE
According to the latest Student Watch report from the National Association of College Stores (NACS), 72.2% of US college students have made purchases online, up from 59% in 2000.
http://www.emarketer.com/news/article.php?1002417
 
OPERA, MOZILLA RELEASE NEW BROWSER BETAS
Two of the last remaining serious Web browser rivals to Microsoft's Internet Explorer each released new versions, promising faster and more stable surfing. The Mozilla project, which is creating an open-source version of the Netscape browser, released the beta, or public test of its version 1.5 software on Wednesday. Opera Software, the Norway-based commercial Web software developer, released an updated version of its latest browser.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5069448.html
 
DYKE TO OPEN UP BBC ARCHIVE
The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added. "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world," said Mr Dyke, who was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival. "Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3177479.stm
 
FREE ONLINE JOURNAL GIVES SNEAK PREVIEW
The non-profit, on-line publisher, the Public Library of Science, has released a sneak preview of the research papers it will be giving away for free from October. Its first journal, PLoS Biology, is a monthly, peer-reviewed journal intended to compete head-to-head with the most prestigious paid-for journals.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994071
 
MICROSOFT TO LOCK DOWN MSN MESSENGER NETWORK
Microsoft Corp. is making changes to its MSN instant messaging (IM) service that will lock out users of third-party software that uses the service as well as users of older versions of Microsoft's own Messenger client, the company said. Users have to upgrade to the latest versions of MSN or Windows Messenger by Oct. 15 or they will no longer be able to log on, Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said. The upgrade is required because of "security issues" with the older versions of the Messenger clients, he said, declining to specify those issues.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/19/HNmsnlockdown_1.html
 
 
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[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