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

Unsettling Thoughts about Reality, Virtual Reality, and “the Digital Force”

Remember the original Star Wars scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, CP3O and R2D2 are entering the town of Mos Eisley, on the planet Tatooine. They’re stopped by a suspicious stormtrooper but Obiwan uses his Jedi powers to cloud the man’s mind: Obi-Wan: “These are not the droids you’re looking for.” Trooper: “These are not the droids we’re looking for.”

Now, imagine that, instead of “the force” permeating the universe of Star Wars, instead we use, to the same end, the digital and automated reality our culture is currently constructing for itself. At the Black Hat Security Briefings conference in Las Vegas recently, Lukas Grunwald, a German information security consultant recently reported on one way he thinks he can use this “digital force” to cloud retailers’ minds.
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Higher Education Researchers Meet at Microsoft Summit

Bill Gates gave the opening keynote Monday at Microsoft Research1s 6th annual Faculty Summit, and participated in an exclusive Q&A along with Microsoft executives Rick Rashid and Sailesh Chutani. Nearly 400 faculty invited from 135 higher education institutions in 20 countries met on Microsoft1s Redmond campus for the full event August 2-5.
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Communication Technologies Pose Potential Problems to College Students' Adjustment

Students used to go off to school and hear from their parents by snail mail, if at all, until the semester break. Now they're e-mailing, IMing, and using ubiquitous cell phones. How is that affecting student services on campus?
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Southeast Missouri State Ahead of Cyber-Cheaters

It's one of more than 2,000 institutions, which subscribe to turnitin.com and also uses other means to ensure fair play.
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Prof's Free Networking Manual Marks a Switch

St. Petersburg College instructor Matt Basham saw some hurdles ahead of him in his quest to push his 800-page book, Learning by Doing: Cisco Certified Network Administrator 3.0, so he put it online for anyone - so far there are 750,000 downloads.
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Outsourcing IT Education

It's not just manufacturing jobs that are moving overseas. A growing trend is for US institutions to team up with institutions in other countries to offer degrees and one of the latest is Virginia Tech teaming up with the Jain Institute of Management and Research in India to offer a master's degree in IT.
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University of Engineering and Technology-Lahore Campus Grows

"The University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, will set up a sub campus in Kala Shah Kakoo, near the Motorway bypass, and two constituent colleges in Faislabad and Sialkot by the end of fiscal year 2004-05."
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Three Community Colleges Choose Datatel's ERP

Datatel wins the competitive marketing struggle at Lassen College, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, and Mid-South Community College. Two will replace current ERPs and one is a new installation.
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Student Push for Mandated Laptops at UT-Arlington

Labs or laptops? One student pushes the university to find ways to ensure that every student has the mobility of a laptop.
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UC Berkeley Tightens Security of Data

Berkeley's new Data Management, Use, and Protection Policy is the result of two years of work by its eBerkeley Steering Committee, standardizing and limiting the ways in which UC faculty and staff access and use restricted personal data.
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Hackers Hit Dartmouth College

Dartmouth's CIO believes the hackers were after access to games and music, not sensitive personal information, but their hacking gained them access to such data on as many as 10,000 Dartmouth employees and retirees.
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UNC Network Closed for Most of the Weekend

UNC IT staff appears to have planned well for a simultaneous shutdown and phased-in restart for the UNC network in about two-thirds of the buildings on campus. The purpose is to upgrade 4,000 network switches.
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Mississippi A Haven for Diploma Mills

Louisiana cracked down, so everyone moved across the border to Mississippi. Many are doing their thing on line, but they still have a physical presence somewhere.
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Utopia at the University of Texas

Utopia is the University of Texas Austin's initiative to "to open the University's doors of knowledge, research, and information to the public." Think MIT's Open Knowledge Initiative with twists.
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University of Denver: New Library and Information Science Program

The American Library Association (ALA) has accredited a new library program for the first time at a U.S. university in 28 years. The University of Denver College of Education's Library and Information Science (LIS) program will offer a master's degree with a choice of four areas of concentration: library and information resources and technology, school library media, archives and records management, and knowledge management.
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New University of Maryland E-Mail Tool Flags Spam

The university's new Junk Mail Analyzer and the Domain Name Service Blacklist is both in use now on campus, guaranteed to please students when they return shortly.
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IBM Donating $85M Worth of Code to Open Source Group

The move is one of the largest-ever transfers of proprietary software to open source and is part of an IBM effort to get more developers to use Java. The Apache Software Foundation is getting Cloudscape, a database, which will be renamed Derby in open source.
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PCC Gets Grant to Improve Distance Learning

Portland Community College's distance learning program has received $187,906 to improve and expand distance learning services to residents throughout Multnomah County. The Community Access Capital Grant, administered by the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, will expand the number and types of programs that residents can access via the PCC Educational Access Channel on cable television.
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