Terry Calhoun, IT Trends Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

Comfortable, Pleasant, and Maintained for Learning

I feel very privileged to be heading to Boston next week to attend the NLII 2004 Fall Focus Session on Learning Space Design for the 21st Century. The purpose of the NLII fall focus session is “to explore learning space design principles as a way to enhance and transform teaching and learning with technology and make it possible for faculty and students to engage in active learning.”

I say that I feel privileged, because I am neither a classroom designer nor a classroom technologies practitioner. Yet I have a strong interest Modern Classroom Design Happens With You or Without You. What’s Your Preference?, from February of this year.) and am certain that I will find the session to be stimulating. Plus, several true experts who are members of my employer-association, the Society for College and University Planning, will also be there to carry the “expert” load.

What will the assembled 79 experts (Registration was cut off long ago at 80.) decide can be improved in the next generation of learning spaces? My hope is that the focus will be on user comfort, as opposed to ease of maintenance.
Read more

SP2 Upgrade Going Well at Indiana

SP2 is a 80MB security update from Microsoft. To help students with the Windows XP Service Pack, techies at Indiana State University are doing everything from delivering CDs door-to-door in the dorms, to staffing a “technology tent” near the student computing complex. So far, so good. (Indiana Statesman Online)
Read more

Kuali Project to Develop Community Source for ERP

Indiana University, the University of Hawaii, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and the r-smart group are pooling resources to develop a new community source financial information system to be offered under a no-fee, open-open license agreement.
Read more

Naval Postgraduate School Celebrates 50 Years of Computing

Not everyone understands that the roots of modern computing are in military defense. Over the years, the school was the “first to move from single-user machines to multi-access time-sharing, and the first to provide free computer use to faculty and students.” (Monterey Herald.com)
Read more

Techno “Tag Teams” at the University of Southern California

Twenty-eight technologically-savvy HTAs (Housing Technology Assistants) live in dorms and act like RAs, only they handle techie issues, not personal issues. The response from dorm residents has been overwheming. (Daily Trojan Online)
Read more

North Texas Colleges Make a Leap Forward in Wireless Networking

Just like “green” design is becoming innately good building design, so is a comprehensive wireless network on campus becoming a core infrastructure competency. (Star-Telegram.com)
Read more

Massachusetts Moving Fast on Requiring Students to Own Laptops

This fall, Bridgewater College, Framingham College, and Worcester College are requiring first-year students to own laptops. Next year, it’s Salem State College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and in 1006 it’s Westfield State and Fitchburg State. (telegram.com)
Read more

IUPUI Financial Aid Troubles Could Strike Bloomington System

IU-Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) has had significant issues with PeopleSoft implementation this fall and there are concerns that IU-Bloomington may experience the same problems. (idsnews.com)
Read more

Internet2 a Big Hit with Professors of Music

Like other forms of collaborative and highly personalized learning, the teaching of music across a distance of thousands of miles gets better with Internet2 functionality. (CNET News.Com)
Read more

University of British Columbia is Entrepreneur-Friendly

While most schools have vague and amorphous rules about not using the network or computers for “personal business,” UBC’s technology transfer office reflects that school’s encouragement of student, faculty, and staff innovators who want to make money. (seattletimes.com)
Read more

Next-Generation Info Tools at UT-Arlington Library

Want to examine maps with GIS-linked information? How about accessing a renowned collection of maps and other historical documents in all sorts of formats? Want to print a poster, edit a movie, or engage in oral history collection? Go to the library. (The Shorthorn Online)
Read more

“Download Microsoft Programs for Free”

Sounds like a spam e-mail’s subject line, but this time it’s real. If you are a student at Washington State University, you can download dozens of specialized software programs at no cost, but the programs do not include Microsoft Office suite standards such as Word or Excel. (seattlepi.com)
Read more

A Dozen More Universities Sign Up for Xythos

Included among the list of new Xythos customers are CUNY, Harvard Law School, Northeastern University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, University of Texas-El Paso, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Yale University. The schools will provide secure campus-wide file management and collaboration with the software.
Read more

University of Maryland MBA Students to Get Blackberries

All full-time MBA students will be connected to people and information constantly using the Nextel-manufactured devices. The cost was covered by a gift from Nextel as well as business school funds. (seattlepi.com)
Read more

Ithaca College is Outsourcing Its ResNet

Students pay for several levels of services, although the basic level is free and subsidized by the premium services, which can cost up to $139 per year. The company, Apogee Telecom, serves several other institutions as well. (The Ithacan Online)
Read more