News Update 05-30-2003
L.A. Bond to Fund Community College Tech Overhaul
Los Angeles voters last week approved a facilities bond measure to create "21st
Century Gateways of Opportunity" at L.A.-area community colleges. Among the
projects that will receive funding are: a new math-science technology building;
multimedia classroom conversions and a campuswide IP network at L.A. City College;
a new advanced technology center at L.A. Southwest College; a vocational/technology
complex at L.A. Trade-Technical College; and a computer-business-technology
center at L.A. Valley College. L.A. Community Colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond
said, "Through this facilities bond, we can address the classroom overcrowding
as Tidal Wave II, the children of the baby boom generation, reaches college
age and enters our system."
Casey Green, Founding Director of Campus Computing, to Speak at Syllabus2003
Kenneth C. "Casey" Green has spent more than two decades researching
the computer revolution in higher education. Hear his insights on innovation
and information technology and its role on campus in his keynote address at
Syllabus2003, July 27-31 in San Jose, Calif. Celebrating its 10th anniversary,
Syllabus2003 offers five days of outstanding keynotes, panels, breakout sessions,
networking, and more! Don't miss the opportunity to participate in this summer's
10th annual conference at the new San Jose Marriott, with a special day of programming
at Stanford University. For complete conference details and to register, go
to www.syllabus.com/summer2003.
Register before June 27 and save up to $200 with the Early Bird discount.
www.syllabus.com/summer2003
Site Said to Help Reduce Drinking Among College Students
A company offering a Web-based approach to increasing alcohol-abuse education on campus is reporting its method is more effective than traditional text-based alcohol awareness campaigns. Inflexixion Inc. said the alcohol component of its college health Web site, MyStudentBody.com, is currently being used successfully at the University of Florida, Harvard University, Trinity College, and Wake Forest University. "Personalizing information and tactics is key to alcohol abuse prevention," said Tavis Glassman, coordinator, Campus Alcohol and Drug Resource Center at the University of Florida, who called MSB-Alcohol an "important resource that we feel will help strengthen our existing efforts, and one we hope University of Florida undergraduates will return to again and again."
Discussion on Case Western University Portal to be Webcast
The companies involved in constructing Case Western Reserve University’s new campus portal, myCWRU, are hosting a Web seminar to discuss the development and construction of the portal. Speakers include: Dr. Lev Gonick, CIO and Vice President for Information Technology Services, CWRU; Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman, Blackboard Inc.; Rich Pickett, Executive Director, Healthcare and Higher Education, Oracle Corp.; Chas Gannon, Director of Business Development, infiNet Solutions, and James Simon, Chief Technologist, Global Education and Research, Sun Microsystems Inc. Attendees are being promised a discussion on how CampusEAI (Enterprise Application Integration) technology enabled CWRU to integrate a host of disparate systems into one, interoperable, single sign-on portal system for students, staff, and faculty. The Web cast is Tues., June 10, at 4:00 p.m (Eastern).
Fore more information, visit: cyber.oracle.com/iccdocs/seminarDesc.shtml?id=200413&mode=cal&tz
New Products, Services, Technology for Higher Ed
COLLABORATION TOOLS—Elluminate Inc., a provider of online
learning tools and services, released version 4 of its vClass "real-time
education, demonstration, and collaboration environment." The company said.
vClass enables the delivery of live, online learning, training, and meeting
over the Internet for both business and academia. The platform delivers two-way
audio, interactive whiteboards, direct text messaging, and application sharing
over the Internet via one graphical interface.
Deals, Contracts, Awards in Higher Education Market
TAXONOMIES—The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey,
Calif., is using a vocabulary management application developed by Albuquerque-based
Access Innovations Inc. to help develop data taxonomies for the unique digital
library it needs for its new homeland security curriculum. Lillian Gassie, head
of technical services at NPS’s Dudley Knox Library, said the library will focus
on policy and planning issues. The library chose Access Innovations’ MAIstro
software, to build digital resources for researching such topics as asymmetric
warfare, intelligence analysis, and border security. This is the first application
of the software exclusively in the domain of homeland security.
COURSE MANAGEMENT—Corning Community College, part of
the State University of New York (SUNY) system, picked WebCT Campus Edition
course management to bolster its eLearning program. The platform will help it
provide a "single sign-on" feature to its campus computing infrastructure.
The college has 40 distance learning courses serving 1,000 distance learning
students, many of whom are juggling their education with full-time work and
family responsibilities.