OPINION

Be a Web Site Hero, Put Stars in Their Eyes

By Terry Calhoun

CAMPUS WEBMASTERS ARE BRIGHT, CONNECTED, STRATEGIC THINKERS TOO OFTEN UNDERUTILIZED

A recently-published white paper, titled Her'es of the Web, says an awful lot of very nice things about college and university webmasters. It says that college and university web content managers are the hardest working web content manager[s] on the planet today.

That's probably true, and for more reasons than the white paper discusses. The white paper (which is partially an ad, but worth reading anyway) purports that the average college or university website contains 250 times as many pages than the average other website. Higher education websites make up less than .01% of all websites, yet they account for over 2.5% of all web content.
Read more

IT NEWS

Computer Number 958 Where Are You?

University of Kentucky's provost has called this an "epidemic loss"--at last count 958 computers UK had purchased for employees cannot be located. That's more than $2M. Most are probably just not inventoried well, but some are likely stolen. (The Louisville Courier-Journal)
Read more

2005: HAL Gets Job Grading Essays

Grading student essays is one of the proverbial pains in teaching. A University Missouri-Columbia sociology professor is automating the task with “SAGrader,” software developed with funding from the National Science Foundation.(CNN)
Read more

The Great Gadget Give-away Continues

Despite Duke University's (NC) downscaling, it will continue some parts of its iPod experiment. Other instititutions working with students and iPods include Drexel University (PA), the University of Maryland (grad students and faculty) and San Diego State University (single classroom experiment). (SignOn San Diego)
Read more

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Classroom

"I had this dream: While walking to a classroom at Johns Hopkins (MD), I suddenly realized it was gone. Funny thing; I woke up to discover it wasn't a dream at all." (The John Hopkins University Gazette)
Read more

Colleges Must Adapt to Technological Advances

Technology demands on colleges and universities don't just mean demands for new toys and faster networks. Demands caused by the changes in technology in the workplace strains the future of higher education. (Times Union, Albany NY)
Read more

RESOURCES

Preserving Access to Digital Information

We've written about preserving access to old digital information. This web resource from the National Library of Australia covers a lot of the pertinent ground and tools. (Internet Scout Project)
Read more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

Datatel Gets Agreement from Three Institutions

Datatel Colleague will be the business ERP of choice for this diverse group of higher education institutions: Jacksonville University (FL), Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science (IL), and the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. (Business Wire)
Find out more