News 09-27-2002
INS to Kick Off Program to Track Foreign Students
The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has developed a program,
the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), to track information
about students and faculty from foreign countries. Institutions in the United
States are required to begin submitting data to SEVIS by the end of January
2003. The INS said the first phase of the initiative calls for providing real-time
data exchange over the Internet. Though institutions do not require a special
system to participate, they will be required to log on to the SEVIS Web site
directly and enter data manually, including source data for student visas. E-learning
company SCT said it has released a version of its SCT Banner application that
connects to SEVIS, enabling clients to track SEVIS data in their SCT Banner
student and human resources systems.
For more information, visit: https://egov.ins.usdoj.gov/sevis/
Sponsor: Featured Session on Wireless Networking at Syllabus fall2002
With the deployment of wireless networking, students and faculty alike are
beginning to enjoy the freedom of roaming unfettered through campus with their
notebook and handheld computers. Will wireless networking change teaching and
course administration? What are the security issues? A panel discussion led
by Judith Boettcher, CREN, will present first-hand observations and studies
of wireless usage on campus at Syllabus fall2002. This education technology
conference, held Nov. 3-5 at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel, includes keynote
speakers, breakout sessions, a vendor fair and an opportunity to network with
colleagues focused on technology in higher education. For information and to
register, go to www.syllabus.com/fall2002.
Programming Contest Encourages Tech Generation
The annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) got underway
last week, part of an effort to recruit the next generation of technology talent.
IBM Corp. also said it would extend its sponsorship of the contest until 2007.
The contest challenges students, working in three-person teams, to rely on their
programming skills and creativity during a five-hour battle of logic, strategy
and mental endurance. Students solve complex problems using both traditional
and new software development tools. Last year ICPC drew nearly 3,100 teams from
67 countries during the preliminary rounds, and organizers anticipate even more
participants this year. Sixty-four teams will be selected to compete at the
2003 World Finals, to be held March 22-26, in Los Angeles. The regional contests
began last week with competitions in Australia and New Zealand. North American
regional contests will begin in October.
For more information, visit: http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Regionals/UpcomingRegionals.html
Services: College Board Delivered 30K e-Tests Daily
The College Board this fall delivered more than 1.
7 million electronic tests
to place entering college students in appropriate courses for the fall semester.
The organization's Accuplacer program delivers more than 4 million tests annually
to support accurate placement of students into college courses. The program
uses the Vantage Learning Platform to deliver the tests online. More than 30,000
tests per day were delivered on average during the month of August. Entering
students completed their assessments in several subjects, including reading,
writing and mathematics and received immediate feedback on their performance
online. Many responded to essay-type questions and received immediate feedback
using Vantage's IntelliMetric AI scoring engine.
Grants: Sun Donates Office Software Suite Globally
Sun Microsystems donated more than $6 billion worth of its officed suite StarOffice
6.0 to academic institutions reaching 240 million students throughout the world.
Donations have already been made to ministries of education in the People's
Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chile, valued at more than $5.7 billion
and reaching more than 200 million students. This week, the company starts on
its next wave of donations in France, Germany and Sweden. The total will reach
an additional 18 million students with planned donations across Africa.
Wireless Reference Tool for Med Students Debuts
Skyscape, Inc., a provider mobile solutions for the healthcare community, unveiled
smARTrain, an application that would enable medical residents, students, nursing
students and physician assistant students to access medical reference information
from a wireless handheld device. The company said more than 90 schools have
taken advantage of this program, including Tulane University, University of
Chicago, Abbott Northwestern, Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts
Medical Schools. The program lets students to go online wirelessly to get enhanced
versions of leading medical reference books, which can help them check symptoms,
make diagnoses and prescribe drugs. Medical references are available that are
suited for general medicine as well as for a variety of specialties.
Ohio Library Consortium Signs Licensing Deal
OhioLINK, a consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries and the State
Library of Ohio, signed a deal with Consortialink, a service which negotiates
electronic subscriptions and access to research publications via a single Web
interface. OhioLINK, which serves more than 500,000 students, faculty and staff
at 80 institutions, has purchased electronic access to 129 journals from 12
publishers, with an option to add another 131 journals next year. Launched last
December, Consortialink connects libraries and publishers of academic and professional
research. The service is specifically geared to providing access to research
content produced by small-to-medium-sized, quality publishers who want to satisfy
consortia demand, but have limited sales resources.