Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2003

Syllabus News Update:
An Online Newsletter from Syllabus Press
******************************************************
Sponsored by:
* Introducing a New E-Newsletter from Syllabus
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2928

*Syllabus fall2003
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2746
******************************************************
News for Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2003
* Stevens Tech Tops List of 25 Most Connected Campuses
* U. Texas El Paso, IBM Introduce School's Largest Computer
* Blackboard First Edu Firm in Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fastest
* WebCT Demonstrates Support for Open Knowledge Standards
* Stanford’s HighWire Press to Enable Print Ordering, Delivery
******************************************************
CMS Review: A Resource on E-Learning and Course Management Systems

Starting Wednesday, October 15, look for a new offering from
Syllabus--CMS Review. This bi-monthly newsletter will provide
information, analysis, case studies and technical tips
on course management systems in higher education. Stay on top
of what's happening in this demanding and increasingly
universal technology--subscribe today to receive the first
issue.
To subscribe, go to:
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2978
******************************************************
Stevens Tech Tops List of 25 Most Connected Campuses

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J, was
named the “Most Connected Campus,” by the Princeton
Review in its annual survey of information technology
services and infrastructure in higher education.
At Stevens, undergrads are given Hewlett-Packard
Compaq Armada EV0 N800C notebooks, which they can
use to access a wireless network. In a program
called Technogenesis, students, faculty and companies
collaborate on technology product development.
They are currently working with Lucent Technologies
on a laser designed to improve the transmission of
wireless information.

To identify the colleges on the list, The Princeton
Review collated responses from 106,000 college students,
as well as data from campus administrators. Criteria
included the student/computer ratio, wireless access
on campus, the breadth of the computer science curriculum
and comments from campus students.

The top 10 colleges were:
1. Stevens Institute of Technology
2. Wake Forest University
3. Georgia Institute of Technology
4. Bentley College
5. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
6. Bryant College
7. Illinois Institute of Technology
8. Villanova University
9. Hampton University
10. University of South Dakota

Read more: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=3075
******************************************************
Syllabus Fall Conference Returns to Boston Area December 8

Join your peers December 8-10 in Cambridge, Mass. for the
Syllabus fall2003 Education Technology Conference at the
Hyatt Regency Cambridge. The three-day conference features
keynote speakers William Mitchell, Professor of Architecture
and Media Arts and Sciences, MIT; Graham Spanier, Ph.D.,
President, Penn State University, and Howard Strauss, Manager,
Technology Srategy and Outreach, Princeton. Explore five tracks
of strategic importance applicable to your needs,
and network with peers in Syllabus' traditional collegial
environment. Register by November 7 and save up to $100 on
Early Bird Discounts. For more information and to register,
go to http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2746.
******************************************************
U. Texas El Paso, IBM Introduce School's Largest Computer

University of Texas at El Paso has taken delivery of
an IBM eServer p690, the school’s largest single computer,
capable of more than 40 billion calculations per second.
The system, dubbed "Top Gun," will be used primarily for
life sciences research but also will be tapped by
departments in engineering, chemistry and computer
science. The p690 is being donated as part of IBM's
Shared University Research program, which awards computing
equipment to schools around the world for research projects
in areas of mutual interest. At UTEP, the deal launches
a set of collaborative research efforts with IBM in High
Performance Computing (HPC), Linux technology, and
bioinformatics. IBM awards approximately 50 SUR grants
per year worldwide.

Cal State Signs Blackboard: Company Gets Growth

California State University has adopted Blackboard’s
course management platform and portal for its
414,000 students and 46,000 faculty and staff.
Under the terms of the deal, Cal State will make
the systems available to all of its 23 campuses.
Blackboard is also providing ASP (application service
provider) hosting and instructional training. Currently,
14 of the school’s campuses and their 250,000
students and 30,000 faculty and staff have chosen
to standardize on Blackboard's e-Education software
systems. California State University System is the
largest university system in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Blackboard was named the nation’s
fastest-growing privately held education company
by Inc. magazine in its 23rd annual 500 rankings.
In addition to leading its industry category, Blackboard’s
11,047 percent revenue growth from 1998 through
2002 put it sixth overall in the list of the Inc. 500.
Blackboard's yearly revenue was $620,000 in 1998
and $69.2 million in 2002. The Washington, D.C.,
area led the nation with 41 local companies appearing
on the list.

WebCT Demonstrates Support for Open Knowledge Standards

Course management system firm WebCT said last week
it had successfully prototyped an application using
the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) Open Service
Interface Definitions (OSIDs) to support interoperability
among higher education applications. In the demo,
the WebCT Vista academic enterprise system automatically
synchronized calendars with Microsoft Outlook using
the OKI authentication and scheduling OSIDs, or APIs,
to exchange data. This would enable both calendars to
be simultaneously updated by updating one.
The OKI aims to encourage local innovations that
can be shared across campuses and facilitate the
use of new technologies without destabilizing the
overall environment.

Stanford’s HighWire Press to Enable Print Ordering, Delivery

Stanford University's HighWire Press, which publishes
online editions of academic journals, said it would
work with information services firm Infotrieve to enable
non-digitized HighWire titles and article references to
be ordered seamlessly through the Infotrieve gateway.
Under the arrangement, HighWire customers can order and
receive non-digitized articles quickly and easily by
selecting the title or abstract and following order
instructions. Most article requests are fulfilled within
24 hours. Infotrieve specializes in scientific, technology
and medical (STM) content acquisition, distribution and management.

******************************************************
TDWI World Conference in Sunny San Diego, November 2-7
http://www.dw-institute.com/education/conferences/sandiego2003/index.asp

Syllabus fall2003 December 8-10, Cambridge, Mass.
http://www.syllabus.com/fall2003
******************************************************

Featured