Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, August 31, 2004

• 08/30/04

How Three Institutions Transformed Their Campuses: An Oracle White Paper
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9350

Solutions to Anywhere-Anytime Computing on Campus from Gateway
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9349

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News for Tuesday, August 31, 2004

* Blackberries Becoming De Rigueur for Business School
* Microsoft Extends Ed-Specific Support in Enterprise Tools
* James Cramer: Education Stocks Will Teach Only Pain
* Blackboard Offers Content Management System Upgrade
* Campus e-Bank Ready to Corral Incoming Credit Virgins
* GW Enhances Network at Research and Tech Campus

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LightPointe

Barry University overcomes limitations of WiFi bridge with optical
wireless solution from LightPointe. No crosstalk. No bandwidth
limitations. No combining radios. Just 155 Mbps of full-duplex,
license-free connectivity from the optical wireless leaders: LightPointe.

http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9377

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BlackBerry Becoming De Rigueur for Business School

The University of Maryland's Smith School of Business will equip
each of its incoming full-time MBA students with Nextel BlackBerry
wireless devices at the start of the fall 2004 semester. The plan
is to encourage the MBAs to explore the “potential of the ‘always
on’ technology in the educational experience,” according to the
school.

About 400 BlackBerry’s will be distributed to first and second-year
MBA students, and to some faculty and university staff. The Smith
School will incorporate the use of the devices in select MBA courses
during the fall 2004 semester. They may eventually be required in
all core MBA courses.

The program includes a research component. In one case, the school's
Center for Human Capital, Innovation, and Technology, will study
team dynamics, virtual group behavior, and the creativity of
community members who have the same technology available to them.

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How Three Institutions Transformed Their Campuses: An Oracle White Paper

Read how three schools are moving successfully into the future
of information management in an exclusive white paper from
Oracle. Meeting the Future in Higher Education looks at
challenges faced by most higher education institutions today:
shrinking budgets; growing pressure to show ROI; competition
for students; demand from students and faculty for greater
access to information, and legacy systems that no longer meet
a school's needs. In each case, you'll learn how the challenge
was met and what the solution and payoffs were after moving to
technology solutions from Oracle.

To download and read, go to http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9350

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Microsoft Extends Education Support in Enterprise Toolkit

Microsoft has several education specific features built in its
BizTalk 2004 platform, including extended Web services, IMS
Enterprise, and the IMS Learner Information Packaging, a specification
for recording information about learners. Together the tools are
grouped under the Enterprise Services Framework (ESF), which allow
systems to be integrated from standard data formats. Other standards
include Human Resources XML, and eXtensible Business Reporting
Language. “In the end, the value of a solution such as EST on
BizTalk lies mostly in its ability to take the peculiar set of
systems of a particular institution and stitching them together,”
wrote Wilbert Kraan, of the U.K.’s Centre for Educational Technology
Interoperability Standards. “Nonetheless, the concepts and the
approach are well worth a further look.

To read Kraan’s article on ESF, please visit:
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9382

Cramer on Career Ed: Education Stocks Teach Only Pain

Financial analyst James Cramer, of the Kudlow & Cramer duo, has had
it with the career education market. In his column on realmoney.com,
Kramer writes: “Analysts trying to cover these stocks would do
better to sit on a grand jury than to do traditional research.
These stocks are just momentum stocks. Whatever the cause, once
momentum is lost, buyers turn to sellers and the chart gets lost,
too.” Any faith Kramer had in commercial higher ed apparently went
south when just after the University of Ph'enix Online announced
better-than-expected earnings, the Justice Department opened an
inquiry into alleged financial irregularities at Career Ed.

To read full column, please visit: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9383

Blackboard Offers Content Management System Upgrade

Learning management system developer Blackboard Inc. released an
upgrade to its higher ed e-learning platform that claims improvements
in search, reuse, and customization. The company is touting its
Learning Objects Catalog as the key feature of the Blackboard Content
System 2.0, which would allow schools to store and describe learning
objects in an open repository. With the catalog, faculty could
locate and import content across course sections, departments, or
institutions. Another new tool would enable faculty to store and
manage links to external references such as library databases) for
to reuse in multiple courses.

Campus e-Bank Prepares to Corral Incoming Credit Virgins

The University of Delaware’s campus banking office, operated by
Delaware’s WSFS Bank, has opened an “e-zone,” an enhancement to its
on-campus facility that beefs up high-tech convenience and service
offerings for the student market. Among the upgrades are expanded
walk-in hours, dedicated customer service phones, additional ATMs,
online banking upgrades, and the addition of “bank greeters” to
help students conduct transactions. "Our primary objective is to
help introduce students to the new technology," said a spokeswoman
for WSFS, which offers ATM access to students through the UD#1
Student Identification Card. "We will be here to guide them through
the options or to answer any questions.”

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Reinventing the Campus Environment Through Wireless

Flexibility and mobility are the watchwords on today's campuses, with
faculty and students demanding cost-effective wireless solutions for
teaching and learning. A new Syllabus micro site sponsored by Gateway
takes an in-depth look at wireless technology and its implementation
on campuses across the country. Articles, case studies, and resources
keep you current on the benefits and challenges surrounding the mobile
campus. Visit Mobile Computing on Campus to learn how some institutions
are transforming their teaching and learning environments with mobile
technologies.

http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9349

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GW Enhances Network at Research and Tech Campus

George Washington University will run an OC-3 optical network for
its Virginia campus in the fast-growing Washington, D.C. suburbs.
The campus is designated as GW’s research and technology center,
equipped for the study of transportation safety and security, public
health and homeland security, and information technology and
telecommunications. The upgrade deal is a service-level agreement
(SLA) with network provider Internap Network Services Corp., which
provides Internet connectivity to GW’s main campus. Andrew Gallo, a
senior information systems engineer at GW, said Internap has the
“best SLA in the industry,” adding that the school has “never had
an outage or service degradation” in its relationship with Internap.