News 06-12-2001
Syllabus2001 Conference to Address Strategic Issues and Standards
Track 3 of the Syllabus2001 conference, entitled "New Institutions, Organizational
Models, Strategic Issues, and Standards" will include examination of the institutional,
pedagogical, professional, and technological implications of these factors,
as well as review of program development and assessment strategies for ensuring
quality in technology-mediated learning. Standards such as IMS and the potential
for shared resources will be considered, along with the status of virtual universities
and distance learning consortia.
For more information about Syllabus2001, to be held in Santa Clara, Calif.
July 20-24, visit http://www.syllabus.com/summer2001/.
Internet2 Backbone Connects Universities in Every State
Abilene, an Internet2 backbone network, now reaches at least one university
in each of the 50 states in the US. Operating at speeds up to 2.4 gigabits per
second, or 45,000 times faster than a typical modem, Abilene provides high-performance
network services that enable advanced applications such as high-definition television,
tele-medicine, and remote access to scientific instruments. More than 180 Internet2
universities and research laboratories now have access to the Abilene network,
which, in addition to high speed, provides advanced networking services such
as multicasting and IPv6. Abilene interconnects with other high-performance
research and education networks within the United States and with over a dozen
research and education networks from countries around the world.
For more information, visit http://www.internet2.edu/abilene/.
WCET Awarded Hewlett Grant
The Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) project,
"Developing the Tools, Policies, and Models Critical to the Electronic Delivery
of Higher Education," has been awarded a $1.5 million grant by the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation. The goal of the three-year project is to develop specific
tools that will help higher education institutions in the integration of online
learning and the Web, aiding both teachers and learners.
For more information, visit http://www.wiche.edu.
Report Emphasizes Need for Academic-Corporate Study
The recently released report, "Working Together, Creating Knowledge: The University-Industry
Research Collaboration Initiative," suggests how universities can continue taking
research money from corporations while avoiding the pitfalls and conflicts that
come with such collaborations. Written by leading academic, corporate, and governmental
research officials, the report reinforces the belief that university-industry
connections have helped the United States retain world leadership in fields
such as computing, software, telecommunications, and biotechnology. Against
a backdrop of debate concerning ethical abuses of such alliances, the new report
takes the position that the benefits of academic-industrial partnerships outweigh
the dangers, provided universities avoid the abuses critics have identified.
The 117-page report sets out a variety of prescriptions that include tightening
up conflict-of-interest policies and resisting corporate efforts to limit what
scientists can publish or how quickly they can disclose experimental results.
The report is being sent to the chief executives of Fortune 100 companies,
leading academics, elected officials, and policy leaders who have university
oversight and will be freely available via the American Council on Education
Web site at http://www.acenet.edu
ADL Plugfest 4 Proves e-Learning Specifications Work
Representatives of 128 organizations from around the world gathered recently
at the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative's Plugfest 4 to test their
learning software for compatibility using the latest specifications from ADL
and the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS). Independently developed software
and learning content was combined, connected, and demonstrated in real time
at the ADL Co-Laboratory in Alexandria, Virginia. Eighteen different Learning
Management System (LMS) providers, 23 learning content providers, and 6 authoring
tool providers participated in the event, collaborating to test the interoperability
of LMSs and learning content. Plugfest 4 focused on testing the recently released
IMS Content Packaging specifications (http://www.imsproject.org)
and ADL's Version 1.1 of the SCORM (http://www.adlnet.org).
These specifications prescribe how to wrap and move learning content to provide
compatibility across competing products. All IMS specifications can be accessed
by the public at http://www.imsproject.org,
and SCORM releases are available at http://www.adlnet.org.
UT System Ranked Among Top 5
The University of Texas system is ranked among the top 5 institutions worldwide
in scientific research impact and influence in seven of the 22 science and social
sciences fields as measured by ISI Essential Science Indicators. The seven fields
include Biology & Biochemistry (2nd); Pharmacology and Toxicology (2nd); Clinical
Medicine (2nd); Molecular Biology and Genetics (3rd); Chemistry (4th); Microbiology
(4th); and Immunology (4th). The UT system also is represented in the top 1%
of all academic institutions worldwide by total citations in all 22 science
and social science fields compiled in ISI Essential Science Indicators.
For more information, visit http://www.thomson.com.
Fall 2001 Internet2 Member Meeting
The Fall 2001 Internet2 Member Meeting will be held October 1-4, 2001 at the
Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas, and on the campus of the University
of Texas at Austin. The Fall Member Meeting will include sessions that cover
advanced projects under way at member institutions and through collaborations
of members, and sessions that provide updates on work in progress and plans
for the future. The program will be targeted to the broadest cross-section of
the Internet2 membership, including applications developers, CIOs, network engineers,
campus IT architects, and leadership from corporate and affiliate members. Breakout
sessions will be grouped into four tracks: Advanced Applications, Middleware,
Network Engineering, and Relationships and Partnerships.
For more information, visit http://www.internet2.edu/.
Jellyplants on Mars
As part of a proposed mission that could put plants on Mars as soon as 2007,
University of Florida professor Rob Ferl is bio-engineering tiny mustard plants
by adding reporter genes. These genes--part plant, part glowing jellyfish--will
enable the plants to send messages back to Earth about how they are faring on
another planet. The plants can be genetically wired to glow with a soft green
aura when they encounter problems. Within a garden grouping, some plants could
report (by glowing) low oxygen levels, while others might signal low water or
the wrong mix of nutrients in the soil. Thriving plants won't glow at all, but
will look like normal mustard. Plants struggling to survive will emit a soft
green light, a signal to researchers that something is amiss. A camera onboard
the lander would record the telltale glows and then relay the signal back to
Earth.
For more information, visit http://science.nasa.gov.
McGraw-Hill Launches E-Learning Virtual Workshops
"Building a Successful E-Learning Strategy" will be the first in a series of
six free virtual workshops provided by McGraw-Hill Lifetime Learning (MHLL),
a provider of comprehensive e-learning solutions. Starting Friday, June 22,
this series of virtual workshops will be offered to e-learning, HR, and training
professionals to provide strategies for developing successful e-learning programs.
Each one-hour workshop will take place live at http://www.mhlifetimelearning.com
from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT. The sessions will address developing an e-learning
strategy, integrating instructor-led training with e-learning, and evaluating
an e-learning program from the user's perspective, along with several topics
focused on overcoming the challenges of building an effective training strategy
for Global 2000 companies.
To register for the free workshops, complete the registration form available
on the MHLL Web site at http://www.mhlifetimelearning.com.
OpenMind Content to be Delivered to Blackboard Customers
OpenMind, a collaborative publishing service, and Blackboard, an Internet infrastructure
software company for e-education, recently announced an agreement that will
provide Blackboards's customer base of 1,800 schools access to OpenMind's customizable
content for the fall semester. Blackboard provides the "operating system''
for online education, offering gradebooks, assessment systems, and "virtual
classroom lecture notes,'' while OpenMind's OpenText Project provides online
collaboration, allowing educators to share and review content. Through OpenMind's
content marketplace, a collection of academic content protected by intellectual
property laws, the company has developed a dynamic content base. For more information,
visit http://www.blackboard.com.
SBC Calls For Equal Treatment Of Broadband Access Providers
In the opening keynote address at SUPERCOMM 2001, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman
and CEO of SBC Communications, argued that industry regulations of the broadband
market require telephone companies offering broadband DSL access to assume too
much risk, ultimately doing a disservice to consumers. He called on Congress
to pass the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act to bring regulation
in step with the current state of the industry and to level the playing field
by lifting the red tape that is binding telephone companies and choking the
deployment of DSL.
For more information, visit http://www.sbc.com.
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