News 04-17-2001
Syllabus 2001 Conference
Highlights Technology in Higher Education
The Syllabus 2001 conference will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center
in the heart of Silicon Valley, July 20-24. The conference will present a framework
for successful integration and implementation of instruction and information
technologies on campus. College-level faculty, department chairs, IT managers,
administrators, and media professionals will all find sessions relevant to their
work. A variety of keynote addresses, breakout sessions, case studies, workshops,
seminars, and technology demonstrations will provide exciting opportunities
for attendees to absorb the fundamentals of technology use and gain a practical
understanding of how to implement information technologies at the classroom,
program, and institutional levels.
Conference content areas will include new technologies and pedagogies; Web-based
learning environments and support strategies; new institutions, organizational
models, strategic issues, and standards; case studies in teaching and technology
implementation; connecting educational research to practice; and a featured
track on Teaching, Learning, and Technology provided by the TLT Group.
Visit SyllabusWeb at http://www.syllabus.com
for more information about Syllabus 2001, and look for the full conference brochure,
available in the April issue of Syllabus magazine.
Poll Shows Faculty Prefer Web-Enhanced Courses
A new e-learning poll from WebCT shows strong faculty preference for Web-enhanced
classroom instruction over either traditional classroom-only instruction or
online-only distance education. Faculty also say student learning achievement
is maximized in courses that combine online and classroom elements. The e-learning
poll also reveals the impact of distance learning programs on higher education
institutions. 73 percent of poll respondents say their institution's implementation
of a distance learning program allowed their institution to reach and serve
new student populations. 42 percent said implementation of a distance learning
program effected a change in intellectual property policies; 31 percent said
it effected changes in facilities, and 27 percent said it generated a change
in faculty compensation policies.
For more information, visit www.webct.com.
ONI Systems Contributes to Duke's Photonics Center
ONI Systems Corp., a provider of all-optical telecommunications equipment for
metro and regional networks, recently announced a multi-year sponsorship agreement
with Duke University's Fitzpatrick Center for Photonics and Communications Systems
(FCPCS). The contribution represents a commitment to Research Triangle Park
(RTP) and to advancing optical networking research and ONI's corporate involvement
includes membership on the Industry Advisory Board of the Fitzpatrick Center;
sponsorship of selected research in FCPCS Focused Research; recruitment access
to Duke's Pratt School of Engineering students; opportunities to enroll ONI
employees as students; and collaboration with Duke Engineering faculty.
For more information, visit http://www.oni.com.
Mentergy Develops Web-based Performance Support
Mentergy, Inc., an e-learning company, and provider of enterprise e-learning
solutions worldwide, recently announced that it has developed 32 lessons for
Autodesk's AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 2000I programs. The project includes the
development of e-learning lessons that will provide users with step-by-step
tutorials and hands-on experience to enhance their skill in working with AutoCAD.
As part of Autodesk's initiative to provide users with e-learning offerings,
the Allen division developed Web-based lessons to give AutoCAD users access
to concepts, tutorials, and "try-it" features that they can immediately incorporate
into their jobs. They will be delivered as individual lessons, available 24/7,
and also as part of live, Web-based training courses presented by subject matter
experts. The AutoCAD lessons are developed in HTML and will be viewed using
the Autodesk Learning Assistance (ALA) environment that the Allen team previously
developed for Autodesk. ALA is a high performance learning environment integrated
into Autodesk products and currently being used by millions of users. Allen
offers this same system to its customers as iDiscover, providing learning "chunks"
of catalogued information accessible via an Intranet, Internet, or CD-ROM.
For more information, visit http://www.autodesk.com
or http://www.mentergy.com.
Community Colleges to Gain Access to .edu Internet Domain
Community colleges around the nation took a major step toward gaining the .edu
domain designation with the recent announcement by Department of Commerce officials
that they intend to transfer administration of .edu Internet domain space to
EDUCAUSE, the national association of information technology in higher education.
As the registry for .edu, EDUCAUSE will manage the database of campus Internet
names and has announced its commitment to include all regionally accredited
U.S. institutions of higher education, including accredited community colleges.
CommonName for Simplicity
CommonName, a global Internet company, recently launched the third generation
Web addressing service for personal users. The free service replaces complicated
URLs and e-mail addresses with simple names and words chosen by users. Personal
users can establish unique, Internet identities without the need to notify friends
and colleagues of changes to their e-mail or Web site addresses. To send an
e-mail, instead of typing [email protected], users simply type the CommonName
'John Smith' into an e-mail client, such as Microsoft Outlook. Similarly, users
can type 'Yahoo' into their browser's address bar, and they will be taken to
their local Yahoo Web site. CommonName works with all major browsers and e-mail
clients, including Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora, and can be downloaded
free from the CommonName Web site at http://www.commonname.com.
Ulead Releases New Royalty-Free Media Products
Ulead Systems, Inc., a developer of image editing, video editing, and Web graphics
software, announced recently a new, royalty-free line of media products. The
line gives commercial and freelance producers or designers unlimited and unrestricted
use of hundreds of high-resolution digital photos and video clips. All Ulead
titles grant unlimited and unrestricted use to all video clips or photos used
in multimedia projects, eliminating the need to obtain authoring or producing
rights, licensing, or pay royalties. Video clips and photos may be used or altered
as often as desired without seeking permission.
For more information, visit http://www.ulead.com.
VFZoom Adds Photoshop Plug-in
VFZoom has announced the availability of the VFZ Photoshop Pro Plug-in and
the free VFZ Photoshop Basic Plug-in to allow users of Photoshop 6.0 for Macintosh
and Windows the ability to import, view, convert, and scale image files in sizes
of 5 percent to 1200 percent without loss of quality. The plug-in enables users
to incorporate VFZ content into most workflows so that graphic artists, advertising
designers, and others can accept VFZ images as easily as other popular formats.
The VFZ Photoshop Plug-in allows users to open VFZ/PFZ files, select the enlargement
desired, and save any image from a Photoshop session as a VFZ file. Users can
download a fully functional copy of the VFZ Photoshop plug-ins and any VFZoom
product for a free 14-day trial at http://www.vfzoom.com.
UK Course Finder
The Morrisby Organization, one of the UK's psychometric test publishers, has
launched a Web site to help students and advisors find higher education courses
in the UK. At http://www.ukcoursefinder.com,
students complete an online questionnaire to identify study interest areas and
personal preferences, and a search engine helps to locate a selection of appropriate
courses, universities, and colleges. Results of the search are displayed online
within seconds.
