Terry Calhoun, IT Trends Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

LTAs (Low Threshold Applications): Replacements for the Missing “Professional Development” on Campus, Technology Trust-builders, or Both?

Remember back in the early days of IT’s transformation of higher education? Every IT department was offering classes in “how to” this and that—how to use word processing software, how to use database or spreadsheet software, how to use a Web browser, how to use e-mail, and so forth. But we couldn’t get the faculty (or the higher level administrators and managers) into those classes. Some combination of innate stubbornness and a fear of being seen as inadequate kept those classes full of secretaries and administrative assistants. Some universities and colleges hit upon the technique of sending trainers into faculty and managers’ offices for not-as-visible, one-on-one sessions, which worked a little better.

Probably most IT managers feel they still lack adequate resources and cooperation with regard to IT training, or what in more general terms could be called professional development with regard to IT tools. But guess what: “professional development” relating to IT, as poor as it often is, is light years ahead of professional development with regard to the other parts of the work life and responsibilities of institutional staff. One initiative to substitute for some of the missing professional development on campus (and of course it d'es more than that) is the collection and sharing of Low Threshold Applications (LTAs).
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PeopleSoft to Extend Enterprise CRM to Higher Education

PeopleSoft is offering a CRM solution tailored to the higher education market. Co-developed with CIBER Enterprise Solutions, the software allows universities to manage relationships throughout all phases of the student lifecycle, from recruitment, to registration and retention, to alumni communications and continuing education. PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM for Higher Education will launch this month.
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University of Houston Moves to WebCT Vista

The University of Houston will use WebCT Vista to manage an expected leap in online enrollments.
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Creighton University to Deploy LiquidMatrix ActiveCampus

LiquidMatrix Corp., a subsidiary of Datatel Inc. announced that Creighton University will deploy LiquidMatrix1s ActiveCampus Web site e-recruiting solution.
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Content Delivery in the "Blogosphere"

Blogs are now being used as effective classroom tools for pedagogy. This article describes some of that, including some specific application strategies.
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Are Encyclopedias Dead?

It's hard for many to see their relevance, except as coasters or bookshelf decoration. The printed words may not be disappearing as fast as anticipated in general, but these kinds of nearly extinct works are either a special case or a harbinger of the future.
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What Happens if You Held a Class and Nobody Came?

Without being negative, this interesting article addresses a number of "flops" and issues with online education initiatives thus far.
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If our Bodies Functioned Like Computers, We'd be Extinct

The "good news" about viruses and worms, according to this author, is that over time they are making us into healthier users.
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File Traders Get Aggressive When Snitched On

Underground file sharing hubs are becoming more prevalent and students, who think they are undetectable using and running them, are aggressively harassing those who "get in the way."
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RIAA Chief Claims Piracy Cuts Music Sales a Third

Cary Sherman claims that more music than ever before in history is being listened to, but that decreasing percentages of it are being paid for.
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United Nations Says Computers Must be "Greener"

A United Nations research group says that consumers and governments need to pay more attention to "where computers come from" and "where they go to" as the environmental impact of IT gets a little less fuzzy.
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Student Governments Demand more Sophisticated Web Services

In the latest in quite a string, the Ohio University Student Senate is urging that the administration move at once to a fully online Degree Audit Reporting system (DARS).
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Report: Client-side Tech Inadequate For Web Services

The Internet and Web have provided immense scalability and manageability to computer users for a decade now, but at a price -poor support for rich interactivity. Now, users are demanding capabilities that include visual interactivity and instant access to information, interaction with distributed and remote applications, and integration with local desktop applications.

ZapThink concludes in its report entitled "Rich and Smart Clients for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs)” that today's Web technologies are wholly inadequate to meet the needs of emerging standards-based, loosely coupled, distributed applications. "Simply put, today's [portals] must move beyond Web-based thin client technologies," said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink.

Key findings of the report include:
-- Rich clients will supplant portals as the primary interface to Web Services and Service-oriented functionality in the enterprise by the end of 2007.
-- The window of opportunity for new entrants in the rich client market will start to wane with the release of the Microsoft Longhorn update of Windows in the 2006-2007 timeframe.
-- The increasing adoption of sometimes-connected devices, mobile computing, asynchronous computing, and e-Forms will mandate widespread and rapid adoption of rich clients.
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Sungard Acquires Collegis

In a merger that is probably less threatening to many than the proposed Oracle/PeopleSoft buy out, two companies with a strong higher education presence are becoming one.
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