CT Industry

:: NEWS

NACS JOINS IMS. The National Association of College Stores has joined the IMS Global Learning Consortium as a contributing member, to support the development of interoperability standards for digital learning materials. NACS will provide co-leadership of the consortium's new Dynamic Instructional Content Exchange workgroup (DICE). "DICE will develop use cases and end-user requirements for a digital substitute for the traditional printed student textbook and apply the IMS Common Cartridge for developing and distributing the resulting dynamic, interactive instructional content," says Rob Abel, CEO of IMS GLC.

SECURING LOUISIANA. The e2Campus emergency notification system from Omnilert has been awarded a Louisiana state contract for emergency notification services. The contract, established by the Louisiana Office of State Purchasing, will enable Louisiana government organizations (including state colleges and universities, fire and police departments, and other government offices) to order pre-competed emergency notification services without the need for an additional request for proposals process. Read more here.

CREATE, SHARE, AND TEACH. Content-sharing website Neulio has launched a public beta of its new hosted platform for user-generated training, instructional, and how-to content. The site enables users to create multi-lesson courses comprised of video and/or audio files, provides an integrated quiz builder that supports multiple question types, and incorporates Web 2.0 tools such as rating, sharing, and commenting.

FREE LECTURE CAPTURE. Panopto, a provider of rich-media knowledge-casting and -management solutions, has announced that its CourseCast lecture capture technology is being made available to qualified academic institutions free of charge. The CourseCast system, developed and first implemented at Carnegie Mellon University (PA), enables educators to capture, edit, index, archive, and stream video and audio over the internet. In exchange for free access to the platform, participating institutions will engage in ongoing beta and developer programs aimed at continually enhancing the technology for all users.

CT Industry

A DELL HPC cluster built on
PowerEdge 1950 dual-core
servers is aiding research at UAB.

POWERING UP FOR A CURE. At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dell is supplying the computing power for the study of neurological disorders. UAB recently purchased a 70-node, 280-core Dell high-performance computing cluster, built on PowerEdge 1950 dual-core servers with 4.5 terabytes of storage on a Dell MD3000 storage area network. The supercomputer will perform molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics calculations, to aid research toward a cure for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as for drug design using bioinformatics and cheminformatics.

:: M & A, Etc.

LEARNING TOOLS MERGER. Student response system and assessment vendor eInstruction has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Interwrite Learning. The acquisition doubles the size of eInstruction, and significantly expands its product portfolio, adding interactive whiteboards, mobile teacher slates, the Interwrite Workspace instructional software, and more.

BEEFING UP SECURITY. Security and communication solutions provider Bosch Security Systems has announced its plan to acquire Extreme CCTV, a Canadian manufacturer of infrared technology and other surveillance products. According to company spokespeople, Bosch hopes the merger will extend its reach in the video surveillance market.

:: PEOPLE

Daniel HesseWIRELESS VET TO SPRINT. Sprint Nextel has named wireless industry veteran Daniel Hesse as president and CEO. Hesse previously served as chairman, president, and CEO of Embarq (a spin-off of Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division), and as president and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services and executive VP of AT&T.

Featured

  • AI robot with cybersecurity symbol on its chest

    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

  • college building with a central domed rotunda, arched windows, and columns, overlaid with glowing blue circuit patterns

    Kishwaukee College Moves to Ellucian Colleague SaaS

    Illinois's Kishwaukee College is modernizing its administrative systems with an Ellucian Colleague SaaS rollout that will bring AI-powered tools to human resources, finance, and student management.

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • SXSW EDU

    SXSW EDU 2025 on Higher Education and Ever-changing Technology

    Join education's most passionate community this March 3-6, 2025 at a special 15th-annual SXSW EDU Conference & Festival in Austin, Texas.