Campus Briefs

• 12/27/06

:: NEWS

BUILDING FOR SUCCESS. A new Academic Success Center opened its doors this past fall at San Jose State University (CA), offering student collaboration hubs, multimedia editing stations, and technology-enabled classrooms—all designed for flexibility, with the success of SJSU’s busy commuter students in mind. The center also boasts a high-tech incubator classroom to allow experimentation with a wide variety of learning technologies, including dual rearprojection Smart Boards from Smart Technologies, high-resolution projection systems and document camera, videoconferencing and student response systems, tablet PCs and Apple MacBook Pros for student use, wired and wireless access, and a range of applications for collaboration.

DUKE ON ZUNE. With its Duke Digital Initiative supporting the use of student iPods, Duke University (NC) has significant representation of that Apple technology on campus. Zune, Microsoft’s entry into the portable media player market, is not likely to upset the balance any time soon. “It’s competition,” asserts Debu Purohit, a marketing professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. “If this forces Apple to innovate further and come down on its prices, that’s good for us,” he says.

24/7 HELPS. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is pushing to improve teaching and learning for its collective student body by using Tegrity Campus 2.0 to automatically record lectures and presentations across campus. Students access the recordings 24/7, whenever they need help filling in the blanks for missed, forgotten, or unclear lecture material. In just two months this past fall semester, the university reported 500 viewing hours with the new system and more than 3,200 hits by students searching for selective instant replay.

BRONZE AGE BI. At Hofstra University (NY), researchers are using WebFocus business intelligence software from Information Builders to give their research into prehistoric pottery the level of inventory, tracking, and reporting capabilities you’d see at major corporations.

SEEING THE SITES. Researchers and the general public now have a rich resource that captures the architecture and landscape of US higher ed institutions. A Historic Campus Architecture Project website, recently launched by the Council of Independent Colleges with the support of the Getty Foundation, features extensive information, photos, and sources for further study of significant buildings, landscapes, campus plans, and heritage sites.

:: PEOPLE

IT PERCOLATES IN SEATTLE. City University (WA) has hired 14-year Starbucks veteran Director of IT Strategy and Innovation Kevin Brown. More recently of OTB Solutions Group, Brown will now brew up new technology advancements as the school’s director of IT.

Share your success! We want to know about recent promotions, changes, and hires in your campus technology community. Forward the individual’s name; title; institution and location information; and any relevant educational and occupational background to [email protected], with the subject line “Campus Briefs.”