News 11-08-2002
Sponsor: Syllabus fall2002 Conference Proceedings Online
Access proceedings from the recent Syllabus fall2002 Education
Technology Conference on the Syllabus Web site at
www.syllabus.com/fall2002/proceedings.asp. While it's not the same
as being there, you will be able to read abstracts of presenters covering
topics such as digital portfolios, accessible Web pages, the use of
wireless, handheld computers in collaborative learning, and how to use
course management systems for faculty development.
U. Michigan Awards Grants to Student-Led Start-Ups
University of Michigan's Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies awarded $25,000 through its Dare to Dream program to support viable student-led businesses located in southeastern Michigan. Wolverine Real Estate Investments LLC and Voila Crepe Cafe topped this year's applicants. Each will receive $12,500 to establish their businesses. This is the second distribution of the grant funds. Last spring $80,000 was given to six student businesses, which included a medicine opener, smart video technology for security systems, a miniaturized CAT scanning technology, advancing soft-shell blue crab production, mixed-signal technologies and software solutions for the fitness market. In addition to funding, Dare to Dream winners are also provided free office space for one year and receive course credit.
For more information, visit www.zli.bus.umich.edu
Speech Tech Pioneers Share Visions
Two pioneers in speech technology predicted last week that speech would become a seamless part of the computer datastream in the next decade. W. S. "Ozzie" Osborne, vice president of Pervasive computing segments at IBM Corp., called the next age of computing the "pervasive era," which will pull speech deep into the network. "Speech is infiltrating everywhere as computers become transparent," said Osborne, speaking at SpeechTEK last week. "Customer interface is the future. We will create networks accommodating any device, any network and any data. People won't know they are using computers." Kai-Fu Lee, corporate vice president in Microsoft's Natural Interactive Service Division, followed suit, saying, "Users [will] articulate what they mean on any device, to any application or Web service and have their intention interpreted and
executed accurately."
"Chip Camp" Promotes High-Tech Career Path
Lam Research Corp. and Intel Corp. said they will host 26 San Jose, Calif., high school students for "chip camp," an industry-backed program to introduce them to opportunities in the semiconductor and high-tech industries. The companies said that amid declining college enrollments in science and engineering, the camp would introduce students to real-world science and math applications and encourage interested students to pursue high-tech careers. The idea was created by the Workforce Development Institute of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, an industry association. The four-day program, which exposes students to technology that enables chip making, also provides students with hands-on experimentation, technical coursework, as well as academic and career guidance.
Newsplex Opens at the University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina's College of Mass Communications and Information Studies will be the recipient of Newsplex, a $2 million newsroom of the future. The facility, which will open Nov. 13, will help train journalists and students, as well as provide a research base in new technologies and techniques for handling news in the converged newsroom of the future. Ifra, an association of newspaper publishers, designed the news lab and is donating it to the University of South Carolina. Newsplex is a 5,700-square-foot micro newsroom. The facility, which is almost entirely wireless, will feature a wall of video monitors that will display a topographic map of the day's news, as well as sophisticated systems that will manage and retrieve information. "The journalist of the future will need to be adept at filing stories for multiple delivery platforms," said Charles Bierbauer, College dean. "With Newsplex, our college and our students will be at the forefront of this revolution in news handling and information management."
UCSD Offers eLearning Course to High School Students
Academic Connections at the University of California, San Diego Extension launched an online writing course designed to help high school students interested in preparing for college and experiencing a university environment first-hand. "The Craft of Writing" is modeled on the "Writing Workshop," which is popular in many writing programs across the country. The curriculum was designed by experienced UCSD writing instructors and course materials focus on the basics of writing and are derived from face-to-face lectures so that the curriculum maintains the same quality as a traditional educational program. "Students with scheduling conflicts, or those unable to travel to a traditional classroom, find online learning enormously convenient," said course creators, Luciano Corazza and Jon Cohen. "Online courses such as 'The Craft of Writing' allow students to work independently ... at their own pace and maintain interaction with the instructor and their classmates alike."
For more information, visit: http://writing.ucsd.edu
Awards, Deals, Contracts in Higher Education
Presentation Tech—eCollege announced the compatibility of its AU+ eLearning platform was with Impatica, a desktop tool that converts PowerPoint files for streaming over the Internet, even at modem speeds. The technology also allows faculty to incorporate dynamic presentations into their eCollege AU+ courses. Impatica converts the Microsoft PowerPoint file, including text, graphics, transitions, animations effects, and narration, into a compressed format that is optimized for streaming over the Internet. The Impatica file is typically 95 percent smaller than PowerPoint HTML files. These presentations can also be synchronized to video and scrolling text, complete with indexing, navigation, and search capabilities.
Service Integration—Edgewater Technology Inc., a consulting and systems integration firm, said it was chosen by national student loan guarantor, American Student Assistance (ASA), to aid in the customization of ASA's enterprise student loan processing system for MOSTARS, the student assistance division of the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Edgewater will manage the conversion of data to ASA from MOSTARS's current system provider, which will result in improved service to students, schools and lenders in Missouri.