Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Syllabus News Update:
An Online Newsletter from SyllabusMedia
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SMART Technologies Inc.
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9639
How Three Institutions Transformed Their Campuses: An Oracle White Paper
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9620
Share your expertise: Speak at Syllabus2005
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9601
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News for Tuesday, September 14, 2004
* Higher Ed Laureates Named by Tech Museum of Innovation
* Two-thirds Turn to the Internet for Back-to-School Needs
* Michigan Higher Ed-Industry Bio Consortium Fields Locator
* Online University Consortium Announces Peer Info Network
* Deals: IBM Warranty Program Trains In-House Service Staff
* Johns Hopkins Reengineers Nursing Curriculum with Clinical IT
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See the Sympodium(tm) interactive pen display in action.
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Present confidently using familiar, intuitive tools. Write notes,
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Working with your computer and projector, the ID250 displays your
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To receive an information package that includes grant information, the
video CD-ROM and your COMPLIMENTARY glow pen, visit
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=9639
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Laureates Announced by Tech Museum of Innovation
Twenty-five laureates are to be honored by this year’s Tech Museum
awards for pioneering work in developing technology for the benefit
of humanity. A panel of judges considered more than 580 nominees
from 80 countries representing virtually every continent.
Laureates identified at U.S. colleges and universities include
Kenneth Owens, Jr. and Paul Burgess at Humboldt State University,
for an Intel Environment Award; Baruch College Computer Center for
Visually Impaired People with Touch Graphics Inc., for a Microsoft
Education Award; and Whirlwind Wheelchair International at San
Francisco State University, for an Agilent Technologies Equality
Award.
Judging for The Tech Museum Awards is independently conducted by
Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society,
a global network of academic and industry experts dedicated to
understanding and influencing how science and technology impact
society.
Read more: http://www.thetech.org
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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=9620
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Two-thirds Turn to the Internet for Back-to-School Textbooks
Most scholarly consumers are choosing to make their back-to-school
book and textbook purchases online, according to market research
firm, Feedback Research. The firm analyzed online traffic and
conducted a survey to study buying behavior from May 1 - August 25,
2004. The study looked at consumers who viewed back-to-school
retailing sites, including Amazon.com, Gap.com, JCPenney.com,
Officedepot.com, OldNavy.com, and Staples.com.
Highlights of the study included –
-- Sixty-two percent of respondents are buying or planning to buy
books or textbooks online, a 5 percent increase from last year, and
25 percent are buying or planning to buy supplies online, a 2
percent increase from last year.
-- The textbook-shopping category experienced the greatest leap
from viewers during June through August with an 89 percent increase.
-- Amazon.com remained the most popular Web site for books and
textbook purchases during this year's back-to-school season, with
35 percent of total category traffic for the research period,
followed by Bartleby.com with 14.5 percent and Barnesandnoble.com
wit 10.8 percent
-- 73 percent of respondents who bought or planned to buy books/textbooks
this year researched online before purchasing them.
Michigan Higher Ed-Industry Bio Consortium Fields Web Locator
The Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative (MUCI) has
launched a Web-based information and Resource Locator to provide
better access to commercialized resources for life science companies.
The directory is a marriage of the Resource Locator, and the Michigan
Life Science Directory, created by MichBio, a commercial consortium
of biosciences companies, research institutions, and bioscience
service providers dedicated to driving life sciences industry growth
within the State of Michigan.
The Resource Locator allows companies as well as economic development
technology transfer organizations to define themselves. Registered
users can manage and update their own information in the directory,
a comprehensive information source with an intelligent search
interface so users can efficiently identify a concise list of
available resources.
Resource Locator at http://www.MichBio.org
Online University Consortium Announces Peer Info Network
The Online University Consortium, formed to promote the use of
online learning as a corporate human resources tool, has organized
a peer-to-peer consulting program to foster an exchange of information
about corporate online learning programs. The initiative, called
U Share U Learn, would facilitate information sharing among human
resource and learning program officers. Peer companies would be
benchmarked, and benchmarks would be used to create online education
standards. University-to-business alliance programs would also be
created to benefit program participants.
Consortium members said the program would help their organizations
retain employees through quality online education and development
programs. "Organizations face a myriad of employment and education
challenges in isolation, without the benefit of peer exchange,"
said Greg Eisenbarth, executive director of the Consortium. "U Share--U
Learn enables companies to participate in a resource network for
sharing internal know-how and learning from outside perspective and
expertise."
Deals: IBM Warranty Program Trains In-House Service Staff
New York’s Houghton College signed an agreement with IBM to provide
ThinkPad R40 notebooks to all first-year students. As part of the
agreement, Houghton is participating in the IBM warranty self-maintainer
program, which designed to reduce downtime and support costs. Under
the program Houghton IT professionals are trained by IBM to use
existing resources to provide technical support and hardware repair
for student machines. IBM says the program significantly reduces
downtime and improves productivity. Further, each incoming freshman
will receive an IBM ThinkPad notebook and printer.
IBM said a 2003 Campus Computing Survey found that the average ratio
of help desk personnel to enrolled students for private 4-year
colleges is one IT support person for every 227 students. In contrast,
many observers of technology intensive organizations, such as
colleges and universities, recommend one IT support person for every
50-75 users. IBA maintains this eases this IT burden for schools,
enabling students to handle common support inquiries without the
need for help from IT staff. This means the IT department can focus
on creative educational solutions rather than daily maintenance.
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Share your expertise: Speak at Syllabus2005
Plan to speak at Syllabus2005, July 24-28 in Los Angeles. Call
for Papers is now open and we are accepting proposals until
November 30 in six content areas applicable to higher education
technology. For complete details go to
http://www.syllabus.com/conferences/summer2005/.
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Johns Hopkins Re-engineers Nursing Curriculum with Clinical IT
The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and healthcare IT
provider Eclipsys Corp. have formed an academic partnership to
improve the healthcare IT competence of nursing graduates and to
design new ways of delivering healthcare services using healthcare
information technology.
Johns Hopkins nursing dean Martha Hill, aid the “impetus for this
partnership is the growing national nursing shortage and the resulting
concerns over patient safety, all of which are driving the redesign
nationwide of how patients will be cared for and how nursing students
and nurses will be taught." Hill added that she sees the partnership
as "a cutting-edge response by Hopkins nursing to the nationwide
patient safety and quality-of-care crises. Via the use of enabling
information technologies, we can superbly prepare our students and
study and re-engineer processes to improve the efficiency, appropriateness
and safety of healthcare."
