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

Uneven Progress—We Need to Catch Up

“Money is being spent. Smart classrooms are being built on both campuses and businesses. Collegiate faculty and corporate trainers are successfully integrating electronically delivered learning materials into literally thousands of courses focusing on traditional and non-traditional subjects.... [E]-learning is evolving in ways that few had predicted.” (Zemsky & Massy, 2004, p. 60)

That’s from the concluding section of Robert Zemsky and William F. Massy’s recent report, Thwarted Innovation: What Happened to eLearning and Why [http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/WeatherStation.html] If this portion of their concluding remarks sounds less than enthusiastic, then you’re getting their main point. The authors, as do I, believe that major positive accomplishments are yet to come in eLearning, but their report is a pragmatic look at what’s really happened in the past ten years.
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U. Texas at Arlington: Protecting Student Computers

Student computer support is not the primary concern at UT Arlington. Even so, the university spends a great deal of resources trying to protect those computers from intrusion.
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University Geeks a Business at ASU

University students at Arizona State University have created their own business purchasing, setting up, and maintaining computers for fellow students—including 24x7 service in the dorms.
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Boise State Professor is Creating a Casual Supercomputer

So far, Elisa Barney has more than 100 classroom computer linked in a network that makes each one available as part of a supercomputer when it's not in use by students. It's easier to access and to write code for than the university's real supercomputer.
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Big Mistake, Or Big To-Do About a Minor Error—You Decide

The unauthorized use of software leads to dismissals and controversy at Oklahoma State University.
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U. Alabama Students Reminded E-Mail Might Not Be Secure

Students should be careful about what they do with e-mail, because university policies could result in student, faculty, or staff e-mails being read by others at the University of Alabama. But administrators there say that this had not yet ever been done…
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Wireless Over Santa Barabara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is engaged in expanding its wireless network reach around campus, would wire the entire campus if the "standards" would settle down.
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Stop Using MSIE

That's the message from US-CERT, a nonprofit connected to the Department of Homeland Security, which says that alternate Web browsers are currently the best way to view the Web.
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Private Mail? Think Again…

Can this program simplify the routine colleges and universities go through to handle diversity admissions issues by clustering applications into groups based on weighted factors?
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Log-In Names: Sense or Nonsense?

How do you and others know who you are—log-ins and user names proliferate and confuse the heck out of even savvy users.
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E-Mail Stamps

GoodmailSystems is a patented e-mail stamping process. Their site offers an overview of the system and makes a case for a fee-based system that can cut down spam using an economic strategy.
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American International School in Egypt Chooses HP, HP, HP

Wireless services are soon to be installed in more than 55 student unions in Britain will be accessed by 1.2 million students. The strategy is to put the service where it can reach the most students and provide access to those that might not have it otherwise. “Students tend to live in rented accommodation and not that many are connected to the Web,” commented Ken Stratford, a general manager at the Leeds Metropolitan University Student Union.
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55 Student Unions in the UK to Get Wireless

Wireless services are soon to be installed in more than 55 student unions in Britain will be accessed by 1.2 million students. The strategy is to put the service where it can reach the most students and provide access to those that might not have it otherwise. “Students tend to live in rented accommodation and not that many are connected to the Web,” commented Ken Stratford, a general manager at the Leeds Metropolitan University Student Union.
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San Diego CC District Signs Datatel

San Diego Community College District will use Datatel’s Colleague as the ERP system for all its campuses and offices serving over 100,000 students. More than 30 community colleges in California already use the system.
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Western Michigan University Drops Its Long Distance Carrier

Starting now, faculty and staff at WMU is saving a bundle on its long distance charges - not because the per-minute fee with the now-required calling cards is cheaper, but by savings on the internal processes required to account for long distance charges.
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