IT Trends :: Thursday, May 11, 2006

Opinion

When I Was In Law School

By Terry Calhoun

My own alma mater – Gasp! – the University of Michigan Law School (UMLS), has banned the Internet from its classrooms. Frankly, I cannot imagine a more short-sighted, action. (Well, I can, but I am keeping it to myself, just in case they decide to do that, too.)

If I were still in law school, I would be outraged. Instead, I am mildly amused. The U-M isn’t exactly a case study for ubiquitous wireless anyway. Until recently, in some areas of campus you could only get online if you were an affiliate of the particular program in the building, even if you were U-M staff, faculty, or student from elsewhere on campus. (Maybe that’s fixed now?)

The whole thing started at UMLS because a professor was questioning the slow reaction time and blank faces of students when he asked them questions. He investigated and was “stunned” (“stunned,” I tell you) that students were doing things like sending IMs, playing solitaire, and making online purchases while in class...

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IT News

2006 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Survey Report

In this year's results, security and identity management has become, for the first time, the pre-eminent issue of concern…

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U.S. Eases Wiretap Order on College Computer Systems

Yippee! Colleges and universities are no longer required to have monitoring switches installed throughout their networks to facilitate federal eavesdropping...

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Hate Groups Use U.S. Net Servers

Because of the plethora of storage space and broadband, and due to free speech and privacy rights...

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High Education Tackles the Problem of Wi-Fi Capacity

On campus, we worry about “capacity” while in the corporate offices they are more worried about “coverage.”...

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Deals, Contracts, Awards

Stanford Joins Internet Venture in China

Stanford University is investing in an Internet venture to provide U.S. medical information to consumers and practitioners in China...

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Microsoft Gives $1M to Women's Technology Group

The National Center for Women and Information Technology at U Colorado has received a $1M donation from Microsoft…

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New Technology

University Technology That Could Cut Flooding Dangers

The Institute of Integrated Communication Centre at Bradford University in the UK is working on a project that will deploy sunglass-sized wireless sensors to produce...

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5G Brings Campus-Wide WiFi for All to Denison University

It is amazing how many campuses still do not provide Internet access for visitors...

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Penn State Research Zer'es in on Database Access, Security

How can databases talk directly to each other and share appropriate information without giving away the store?…

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Rhode Island Wants Statewide Wi-Fi

It should take about a dozen transmitters…

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