Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, June 1, 2004

• 06/01/04

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Hands-on Testing of Motion Computing's Tablet PC at Syllabus2004
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7236

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News for Tuesday, May 25, 2004

* Workforce Project Ties Graduates to Regional Economies
* Berklee College of Music Sees Recruitment Benefit in P2P
* U. Va., Microsoft, Thomson to Design New Instructional Tools
* New Tech: IBM Debuts 2.4-pound “Featherwieight” Projecto
* Deals: Cornell Library Chooses Media Transcoding Solution

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Workforce Project Ties Graduates to Regional Economies

The Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE) has begun work
on a multi-year workforce development project to enroll more students
in Northeast Ohio colleges and universities, engage them in the life of
the community while they are living in the area, and graduate them into
the regional workforce.

A recent study by CEOs for Cities, a national organization dedicated to
advancing cities' economic competitiveness, identified higher education
as the leading predictor of economic growth in American cities in the
1990s. The study found that for each two percent growth in the proportion
of college graduates a region has, and keeps, that region enjoys one
percent in income growth.

"There is no reason why we should be training the workforce of other
states," said Charles Hickman, NOCHE executive director. "We need to do
a better job of explaining that Northeast Ohio is an education hub of
significant proportion -- making it a center of innovation, creativity,
energy, vibrancy and youth." He said Northeast Ohio's 23 colleges and
universities collectively enroll 160,000 degree-seeking students, employ
27,000 faculty and staff, and have an annual budget of about $2.3 billion.

Planning will begin shortly to determine how to leverage strengths,
address weaknesses and engage academia, the business community and civic
leadership in promoting OneCampus NEO across the 13-county region.

"Higher education is where the knowledge economy -- talent, technology
and capital -- comes together," said Jim Rooney, director of policy for
CEOs for Cities. "Between 1990 and 2000, the largest city in Northeast
Ohio -- Cleveland -- experienced 28 percent growth in its college-educated
population. It's not coincidental that per capita income grew 14 percent
during this period. The region can continue to grow its economy by
leveraging its higher education assets even more aggressively."

Berklee College of Music Sees Recruitment Benefit in P2P

Berklee College of Music claims its file-sharing initiative,
Berkleeshares.com, which provides free online music lessons, is helping
the college increase awareness of its programs and its faculty. Both the
Berkleemusic.com online school and Berklee Press, Berklee's publishing
division, have experienced a 40 percent increase in visitors as a result
of the launch of Berklee Shares and increased revenues of 32 percent,
the school said. Berkleeshares.com was launched on November 10, 2003.

Commenting on the announcement, Dave Kusek, Vice President of Berklee
Media said, "The success of Berkleeshares.com is a testament to the need
for music education on a global level. It is also proof that file sharing
can be embraced by musicians as a meaningful way to share information
and knowledge with each other. Berkleeshares.com was launched to initiate
a dialogue about the benefits of file sharing in the music community. We
have succeeded and we intend to keep the dialog going."

The Berklee Shares online lessons are comprised of a growing catalog of
music lessons covering instrument performance, music production and
technology, songwriting and arranging, music business and careers, music
education and improvisation. The lessons are derived from curriculum
developed at Berklee by its world-renowned faculty and are available in
the form of MP3s, QuickTime movies and PDF files.

U. Va., Microsoft, Thomson to Design New Instructional Tools

The University of Virginia, Thomson Learning, and Microsoft Corp. will
collaborate to develop digital course material and tools to help instructors
better serve students and help students learn and retain more. The pilot
project, involving the university's College and Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences, will bring rich digital content and learning applications
to Tablet PCs. It will run for at least two semesters beginning in fall
2004 and will reach more than 400 students each semester. The courses in
the project are biochemistry, psychology and statistics.

The project will draw on Thomson's library of digital content and will
be brought to students through Microsoft software and Tablet PC hardware.
The collaboration after began after the partners noticed a convergence
of technical and pedagogical trends on college campuses. Wireless
expansion on campus has been driven by the decreasing cost of wireless
networks and the rising expectations of students and faculty for such
access. All U.Va. classrooms have access to both wired and wireless
Internet.

A digital instructional solution for some or all of a course will be
developed by Thomson Learning, in consultation with university faculty
and Microsoft, and delivered to students using Tablet PCs running
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition software and OneNote(TM), which
will allow students to take digital notes anywhere on the page.

Students will be able to collaborate with each other and communicate
digitally with their instructor in real time on campus and in wireless
classrooms. Expected outcomes of the project are three-fold: improved
student learning, enhanced faculty productivity based on easier
integration of technology into instruction, and a better understanding
of how digital materials can be designed effectively.

New Tech: IBM Debuts 2.4-pound “Featherwieight” Projector

IBM today introduced the M400, a 2.4-pound “featherweight” class,
microportable projector. IBM said the project is 30 percent smaller
than its predecessor, and delivers 60 percent better contrast.

"Projectors were once a luxury, but are now becoming a necessity for
business communication of all types," said Bob Galush, vice president,
Product Marketing, Personal Computing Division. The M400 features Digital
Light Processing (DLP) display technology--tiny mirrors that reflect
light through a spinning color wheel that generates images in 16 million
colors.

Also announcing today is the 4.6 pound IBM E400 Projector, a low-cost,
high performing system featuring DLP technology with an output of 1300
lumens, a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and ceiling mounting capabilities.
The E400 is more than 35 percent smaller and weighs 30 percent less than
its predecessor.

Prices for the IBM M400 Projector and E400 Projector are $1,849 and
$1,049.

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Hands-on Testing of Motion Computing's Tablet PC at Syllabus2004

Motion Computing, dedicated to providing ultra-mobile computing
and wireless communications, will provide hands-on access to its
Motion Tablet PC at Syllabus2004, July 18-22 in San Francisco
and on the campus of UC Berkeley. A Gold Sponsor of the conference,
Motion Computing will discuss the benefits and various applications
for tablet use on campus. Enjoy outstanding keynotes, explore tracks
of strategic importance and network with your peers.

For complete conference details go to:
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7236.

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Deals: Cornell Library Chooses Media Transcoding Solution

The Macaulay Library at Cornell University announced that they have
chosen Popwire's Compression Engine and Compression Master on the Mac
OS X platform to meet their media transcoding requirements.

The Macaulay Library contains the world's largest collection of audio
and video recordings of animal behavior, with a media database of 25
terabytes. Popwire provided the ability to transcode assets between
diverse formats. Popwire's Compression Engine and Compression Master
were chosen for their ability to fit seamlessly into several different
workflows, while providing excellent results in terms of performance and
quality, the university said. The products also allow the production
staff to create output into a wide range of formats, including the
possibility to pull media from their archives and transcode for the
editing station, without tying up technical expertise.

Popwire's Compression Engine is a server-side media coding solution for
the Apple and SUN platforms. It enables broadcasters, studios, media
libraries, and telecom operators to encode and transcode media for
distribution to all kinds of audiences -- from television, to Web
casting, to video-enabled mobile phones.

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Syllabus2004 July 18-22, San Francisco: Technologies to Connect the Campus
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=6453
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