OPINION

Virtual Tattoos in Learning Spaces

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

--“Yeah, that’s my virtual tattoo up there on the wall. Cool, huh?”

I’ve never been one for memorizing things. I need to see entire patterns and understand how things fit together and interact before they enter my long-term memory. I’m as good, or better, than anyone else at quick, party-game memorization of lists. But 20 minutes later it’s all gone from my head. At a professional meeting, like the recent NLII Focus Workshop on the Design Principles of Learning Space, I collect cards or make notes and spend time in my hotel room that night frantically recollecting as much as I can about each person I met. If I reach a sufficient threshold of knowledge about where the person is from, what they had to say, and maybe something about their personal life--then they’re in my long-term memory. If not, they’re gone. Sorry, I really did like you!

When I was teaching--mostly anthropology courses at several universities in the mid-1970s--I would at my own expense take Polaroid photographs of each student and keep a sheet of those shots in front of me during class. Some of the many stimulating ideas that cropped up at that NLII workshop have me thinking about identity and identification in a learning space of the future.

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IT NEWS

Is PeopleSoft "Clearing the Decks" for an Oracle Takeover?

CEO Craig Conway, who has been leading PeopleSoft's intense resistance to a takeover by Oracle was fired last week in what many people see as an acceptance that the takeover is now inevitable. (SFGate.com)
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Landlines Disappearing on Campus?

As fewer students sign up for landline phones, the inherent costs of running the systems get passed on through student fees even to those who are now entirely mobile. (The Stanford Daily)
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No Official Snooping at UCLA

UCLA has decided not to look into the content of student downloads and communications. It's using education to work to keep students' behavior legal, and has a new, automated system of notification to students when the RIAA comes after them, but no snooping. (CNET News.com)

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Will Blackboards Bite the Dust?

While some University of Minnesota faculty like the dust, classroom managers do not. Some say the battle between whiteboards and blackboards will be eclipsed by even newer technologies. (DuluthNewsTribune.com)
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UC-Santa Cruz Presence in Silicon Valley

Building on NASA funding, the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) at Moffet Field has 100 employees and an annual budget of $18M with research projects in aerospace systems, information technology and computer science, and nanotechnology. (UC-Santa Cruz Currents Online)
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Grand Valley State: Keeping Networks Clean

New routers and switches, stricter firewalls (one specifically for student housing), an intrusion detection system, and student education--"The Great Grand Valley Computer Cleanup"--have given GVSU IT staff a handle on things this fall. (Grand Valley Landthorn)
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University of the South Pacific's Video Surveillance

Catching Students in the act of trying to use other students' identities to access unauthorized information is the purpose. USP has 13 surveillance cameras in computer labs around campus. (Fiji Times Online)
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Video Streaming for the Deaf

Educators are increasing the use of video streaming for the deaf. Until recently, libraries of archived video instruction using sign language for deaf people have been geographically isolated from many potential users. But the advent of high-speed Internet (Internet2) is causing a boom in the use of those videos. (Ohio News Network)
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RESOURCES

ECAR Study of Student Use of IT in Higher Education

The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has released their report of a comprehensive survey of freshman and senior undergraduates aimed to capture the role of IT in student life. The “ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2004: Convenience, Connection, and Control” includes summaries from a survey of close to 4,500 respondents as well as information from focus groups and individual interviews. A summary PDF with key findings is available to anyone (URL below); the full report may be obtained through ECAR.
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Saved for Posterity: Records Of Dot.Com Boom

The University of Maryland and the Library of Congress are teaming up to preserve digital archives pertaining to the dot.com boom of the 1990s. They will archive technical plans, venture presentations, and marketing efforts aimed at providing lessons-learned for business students. (InternetWeek.com)
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

LC Funds Stanford and UC-Santa Barbara Project

Stanford and UC-Santa Barbara will receive funding from the Library of Congress for a project that will archive and serve up digital documents and other information as part of a larger distributed cooperative model for preservation. (Stanford Report)
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