News Update from Campus Technology for Tuesday, October 26, 2004

• 10/26/04

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Connect Minds with e-Learning Solutions
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=10464

Developing a Connected Campus
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=10468

Share your expertise: Speak at Syllabus2005
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9601

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News for Tuesday, October 26, 2004

* UVa. Testing Tablet PC-Hosted Digital Courseware Program
* Scholarships, Grants Awarded to Faculty, Students in GIS Field
* U. Ontario Institute of Technology Places $220M Bond Issue
* McGraw-Hill, Cisco, Form Courseware Delivery Partnership
* CMS Update: Noteworthy Deals in Course Management Systems

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Connect Minds with e-Learning Solutions

Collaboration solutions from Microsoft® and industry partners allow
student and faculty teams to share ideas and express themselves in
new ways and new places. This set of affordable tools makes
collaboration on academic papers, access to research, and even online
learning easier.

Click here to see how Johns Hopkins and others are enhancing
collaboration: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=10464

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UVa. Testing Tablet PC-Hosted Digital Courseware Program

The University of Virginia is hosting the test of a state-of-the-art
educational delivery platform this fall in a collaboration with three
companies holding a big stake in the higher education community. The
project involves Thomson Learning, which is supplying Web-based courseware
developed with UVa. faculty based on the firm’s iLrn platform. Course
packages will include Web sites with online tests, diagnostic tools for
personalized learning and planning, and links to reference materials via
Thompson Gale’s InfoTrac service.

Students will be equipped with Tablet PCs from HP running Microsoft Windows
XP Tablet PC software and Microsoft OneNote digital note-taking application.
In one application, OneNote templates are being used to record biochemistry
lectures. The university expects a professor’s ability to gauge students'
comprehension of the course material immediately via their online performance
will improve student retention.

"The academic environment has changed dramatically in the last decade as
a result of numerous social, cultural and economic factors," said Edward
L. Ayers, dean of Arts and Sciences at UVa. “The rise of technology has
affected how students learn, how instructors teach and how course materials
are developed and presented. Greater numbers of students, as well as
significant changes in the demographics of those students, necessitate new
approaches and instructional models.” The program will continue through
the spring 2005 semester.

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Developing a Connected Campus

The communication technology issues for IT professionals
on campus are myriad—from meeting the demand for wireless
services, to knowing if and when to implement Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), and the funding challenges of each decision.
Read what colleges and universities are doing to meet
these demands on a special Syllabus micro site sponsored by
SBC. A new article, “VoIP Moves into the Spotlight,” examines
the benefits, costs and challenges of VoIP through case studies
at several institutions. For more information on this as well as
other articles, case studies, white papers and more, go to

http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=10468

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Scholarships, Grants Awarded to Faculty, Students in GIS Field

Geographic Information Systems pioneer Intergraph Corp. named the winners
of six annual scholarships, awards and grants to educators it believes
made “exemplary performances in advancing the future of GIS” in the last
year. At the 2004 GeoScience conference at the University of Maryland last
week, Integraph presented three student travel scholarships with a total
value of $2,000 to Paul Robinson, University of Leicester (UK); Jeff
Howarth, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Eeva Hedefine,
University of Maine.

The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) also
presented Young Scholar Awards to Diansheng Guo, Assistant Professor,
Department of Geography, University of South Carolina; and Ola Ahlqvist,
Research Associate, Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University.
A research grant of $5,000 also went to Tarek Rashed, Assistant Professor,
Department of Geography, University of Oklahoma. The grant comes with a
$50,000 software donation, with the OU Department of Geography plans to
use to create a Web-enabled 3D GIS virtual model of Luxor City, Egypt.

U. Ontario Institute of Technology Places $220M Bond Issue

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology raised $220 million for
new facilities and infrastructure, including three academic buildings and
a campus library, with plans underway for the construction of a $25-million
engineering building in March 2005. "The new buildings and our leading-edge
technology will provide generations of students and faculty with the very
best spaces for learning and research," said Dr. Gary Polonsky, the
university's President and Vice-Chancellor.

The university concluded its first bond issue on October 15, 2004. The new
facilities will provide wired and wireless computer access throughout the
campus, and will incorporate advanced green technology, including a solar
heating system.

McGraw-Hill, Cisco, Form Courseware Delivery Partnership

McGraw-Hill Higher Education has formed a partnership with network giant
Cisco Systems, Inc., to create and deliver online courses. The publisher
will build on Cisco’s Global Learning Network (GLN), which the company
calls a scalable e-learning architecture, to offer courses with
multimedia-content on a global basis.

The Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training has been piloting
McGraw-Hill Algebra online courses, delivered via Cisco's GLN, at the
University of Hawaii since 2003. McGraw-Hill's online curriculum has about
50 courses in business, economics, math, science and the social sciences
planned for release through 2005. The firm will offer the courseware
bundled as a service, delivered via GLN. McGraw Hill said there are “some
on-premise equipment costs,” but that the “managed-service approach
eliminates the need for extensive infrastructure build-outs.”

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Share your expertise: Speak at Syllabus2005

Plan to speak at Syllabus2005, July 24-28 in Los Angeles. Call
for Papers is now open and we are accepting proposals until
November 30 in six content areas applicable to higher education
technology.

For complete details go to http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9601.

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CMS Update: Noteworthy Deals in Course Management Systems

-- Enterprise e-Learning software developer Jenzabar, Inc., is partnering
with ePortaro, a provider of electronic portfolio systems, to market ePortaro's
Folio electronic portfolio system with Jenzabar’s Total Campus Management
(TCM) solutions. Folio enables students to organize and share their school
materials across a secure browser interface.

-- PeopleSoft, Inc., announced the latest version of its Enterprise Campus
Solutions platform, version 8.9. The company said the release delivers a
more flexible and modular architecture for Campus Solutions and PeopleSoft's
Human Resources Management Solution (HRMS) suite. The new architecture
provides the ability to upgrade to PeopleSoft's latest HRMS 8.9 release,
which contains specialized features for government and education.

-- Blackboard Inc. released the Blackboard Learning System for the Microsoft
.NET Framework, which provides a .NET-based e-learning platfrom for
Blackboard Windows-based clients. The new release has been built entirely
using Microsoft .NET technologies in order to function as a native
component of an institution's Microsoft .NET infrastructure.

-- WebCT released WebCT PowerLink for MERLOT, which supports continuous
delivery of up-to-the-minute learning object links directly to WebCT
courses. The links originate in online content clearinghouse, MERLOT, the
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. The links
point to RSS feeds from MERLOT of learning objects such as animations,
simulations, case studies and tutorials in 15 subject areas from biology
to world languages.

-- eCollege said it will launch its Program Intelligence Manager, a set of
business intelligence tools that will enable institutions to identify,
capture, and analyze program metrics, in the first quarter of 2005. The
company said the tools will help “identify ways to improve program quality,
increase student retention, reduce the cost of retaining accreditation and
assist in justifying Title IV funding."