News 01-31-2003
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Research Lab Tech Would Track Global Supply Chain
The Auto-ID Center, located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said
it would open its first research lab in Asia. The lab will be located on the
campus of Keio University, and led by Jun Murai, professor at Keio University
who is credited for the adoption of the Internet in Japan. Founded in 1999,
the Auto-ID Center is designing critical elements and creating global standards
for an international bar coding scheme. When fully deployed, the system could
automatically identify any single product in a global supply chain from manufacturing
to point of sale and provide companies for the first time the ability to actually
"see" their supply chain in real time—anytime—anywhere in the world.
For more information visit: www.autoidcenter.org
Sponsor: Nish Sonwalkar of MIT Evaluates Online Learning
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Deals, Awards, Contracts in Higher Ed
Canada’s College of New Caledonia upgraded its campus network with new switching
and network management systems that will increase bandwidth on campus desktops
from 10 to 100 megabytes. This will also accommodate software such as Auto CAD
and ArcInfo that is required for advanced degree programs in Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) technology and engineering design. The college is using network
management software from Avaya, as well as its P580 MultiService Switch as the
campus backbone.
The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) has formed an alliance
with SCT to offer a variety of the company’s administrative, e-learning and
course management packages at special prices to its 150 member institutions.
Gerry Brown, president of ACCC said the deal "illustrates the value of strategic
alliances with the college system as a whole." He added the arrangement with
SCT "allows our members to more easily standardize on a common technology."
New Products, Technology, Services for Higher Ed
E-TEXTBOOKS—Atomic Dog Publishing, which develops electronic college
textbooks, released version 3.0 of its online learning software, MyBackpack.
The latest version is targeted at assisting instructors with features that allow
them to edit, delete, and renew their courses; annotate and create custom content
to be inserted directly into their textbooks; and track student performance
in real-time. New features would also enable students to customize their textbook
learning environment. Enhanced navigation features include an intuitive Flash-based
toolbar which allows searches by figure, word, or phrase and a button to access
study guides from any point in the text.
RESEARCH TOOLS—Thomson ISI ResearchSoft, a producer of bibliographic
management software, unveiled WriteNote, a Web-based research and writing tool
for the undergraduate market. WriteNote, sold as an annual, site-wide subscription
to institutions, is designed to help students conduct their research and write
papers. The system provides students access to library resources (e.g., Gale,
WilsonWeb) where they search for content, and capture references into their
folders. Students can also annotate and save Web pages. WriteNote also offers
the same Cite While You Write feature that creates a paper with properly formatted
citations as the desktop products-EndNote, ProCite, and Reference Manager.