News 06-28-2002
Sponsor: Convergence Seminar
Dynamics of Convergence - Interactive half-day seminar in 8 cities. (4 BICSI
credits) Experts from Hubbell Premise Wiring, General Cable and a tester partner
will present: the impact of network convergence, VoIP, field test verification,
ROI, and standards, including the recent category 6 ratification. Space is limited
in the complimentary program.
For dates and to register now, go to http://101offer.com/goto/?SYL62802
Apple Unveils Education Technology Offerings
Apple unveiled an update of its web-based student information system, PowerSchool
SIS 3.0, as well as new courseware and Web tools. The PowerSchool SIS 3.0 helps
educators manage student records. It includes a new master schedule builder,
an enhanced user interface, and updates to a gradebook allowing teachers to
drag and drop student photos into online seating charts. The Apple Digital Campus
Curriculum includes two courses: Web Communication and Design, and Video Journalism.
The Apple Learning Interchange is an online resource that provides for digital
videos of presentations, online lesson plans, assessment tools and research
resources. "While other companies are happy to just sell technology to
schools, Apple designs products like the eMac and iBook specifically for education,"
said John Couch, Apple's vice president of Education.
NEC Signs On as Platinum Sponsor for Syllabus2002
Putting educators needs for dynamic technology first, NEC offers visual display
solutions designed for every classroom, lecture hall or stadium. As platinum
sponsor of Syllabus2002, NEC joins other education technology companies supporting
the higher education market July 27-31 at the Santa Clara, Calif., Convention
Center. Enjoy five days packed with workshops, seminars, breakout sessions and
keynote speakers Diana Laurillard, Lawrence Lessig and Jack Wilson.
Tiny Monr'e Wins National Design Competition
Students from Monr'e County Community College near Detroit won a $10,000 prize
for Best Overall Design in the "Flip for Design" national engineering
competition sponsored by Motorola Inc. and PTC Inc., a design software firm.
The winning entry was a flip-style personal digital assistant with a built-in
cell phone and wireless short-range networking. The competition aimed to give
students real-world engineering experience in building ideas around Motorola's
MicroTAC "flip phone" using PTC software. The University of Massachusetts
at Amherst won first place for Technical Merit; the Carnegie Mellon University
team won first place in the Creativity category; Georgia Institute of Technology
placed first in creating a design with Benefits for Motorola; and the Monr'e
team won for Comprehensive Use of PTC's Products.
For more information, visit: http://www.ptc.com/go/competition
Sun Broadens Tools For Education and Research
Sun Microsystems broadened the availability of its Sun ONE Studio development
tools for educators, students and researchers.
The products, currently available
with no license fees to qualified educators and students, can now be replicated
so it can easily be distributed to students or other staffers. The move coincided
with the announcement of the availability of Sun ONE Studio 4 products. Sun
ONE Studio tools are a core component of the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE),
an open architecture product portfolio to deliver services on demand. The products
are based on the NetBeans open source platform. "Sun is expanding its commitment
to schools and research organizations by making it significantly easier for
an instructor to distribute our Sun ONE Studio tools for use with ongoing classwork,
lab work or research projects," said Peter Young, vice president, Sun ONE
Studio Tools.
PeopleSoft Software Bonanza to Cal Poly
PeopleSoft Inc. gave a gift of $5.3 million worth of PeopleSoft 8 software
to Cal Poly Pomona's College of Business Administration. The enterprise software
creates a financial environment for an organization's data by connecting business
systems and sharing information. "This will greatly help students because
they will graduate with improved knowledge of how information systems can be
used to optimize an organization's performance," said Lynn Turner, associate
dean of the businesss school. She said pilot tests of the software will begin
this fall, and integration into coursework will begin winter quarter 2003. About
200 students will use PeopleSoft each quarter. That number should increase to
800 as more classes add PeopleSoft 8 to their curriculum.
Mathematica Readied as Enterprisewide System
Wolfram Research, Inc. last week released Mathematica 4.2, a new version of
the technical computing system that the company says renders it useful across
an entire organization. The new version includes full XML support and seamless
Java integration. With it, users can access any Java program from within Mathematica
and work directly with XML data and documents. The integration of Java and XML
within Mathematica are key to computational and document-oriented processing
across an organization, the company said "An increasing number of our customers
are using Mathematica in nontraditional ways -- for example, as a metaprogramming
tool, for document processing, or as a deployment mechanism -- but we are also
still committed to our core competency in technical computing," said Roger
Germundsson, R&D director at Wolfram.
ThunderDorm Tech Tour Roars Again in 2002
The organizers of the ThunderDorm Campus Technology Tour said the itinerant
student tech showcase would roll again this September, with stops at 20 universities,
including the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, Penn State University,
Florida State University, University of Arizona, and University of Southern
California. A Plexiglas-encased, custom-made trailer will house the "Ultimate
Dorm Room," which will showcase the "latest in consumer electronics
and digital technology for the college lifestyle." YouthStream Media Networks,
the organizer of the event, said the tour will include the latest in audio,
video, and wireless technology. Sponsors have included woofer powerhouses such
as Sony, Harman Kardon, Yamaha, Denon, Audiovox, Sima, Kenwood, and Pioneer.
For more information, visit: http://www.youthstream.com