IT Trends :: Thursday, August 10, 2006

  • 08/09/06

New Technology

System Allows Blind to 'See' to Shop

Some say brail just d'esn’t cut it in today’s technological world. Carnegie Mellon University engineers are developing a scanning system called Trinetra. For example, this is how the product would help someone independently shop for groceries: “The blind person uses a bar-code-reading pencil to scan a grocery item. The information is sent via the wireless headset to an Internet-enabled cell phone. The phone communicates with a public database, which translates the bar code into a recognizable product name. This name is relayed to the cell phone, where text-to-speech software articulates it into the headset.”…

Click here for details

Electronic Daydreaming

These days, students aren’t passing folded notes or doodling in notebooks to kill time in class – they’re going online with laptops to surf the Web or send e-mail. Thanks to wireless networks, students can appear to be typing notes when they’re really instant messaging friends or blogging. Some schools are combating this by blocking wireless access from the classroom, like at the University of Michigan. Other schools, like Harvard, are banning laptops altogether…

Click here for details

Mayville State University Majors Cross Campus Boundaries

Another success story for long distance learning. Here, students who were previously unable to earn four-year degrees now can at Mayville State University, thanks to phones, e-mail, and Interactive Video Network…

Click here for details

Education Falls into the Laps of MSU Students

More news from Mayville State University. For a $475 technology fee, each student is loaned a laptop. Freshman and seniors get brand new machines while sophomores and juniors get computers upgraded from the previous year. Upon graduation, students can choose to purchase their tablets from the school. Students can access the Internet from almost anywhere on campus, many instructors use a stylus to correct papers digitally (so both teacher and student get a graded copy), and no one has to wait around for an open PC in the computer lab…

Click here for details

Featured

  • geometric pattern features abstract icons of a dollar sign, graduation cap, and document

    Maricopa Community Colleges Adopts Platform to Combat Student Application Fraud

    In an effort to secure its admissions and financial processes, Maricopa Community Colleges has partnered with A.M. Simpkins and Associates (AMSA) to implement the company's S.A.F.E (Student Application Fraudulent Examination) across the district's 10 institutions.

  • stylized figures, resumes, a graduation cap, and a laptop interconnected with geometric shapes

    OpenAI to Launch AI-Powered Jobs Platform

    OpenAI announced it will launch an AI-powered hiring platform by mid-2026, directly competing with LinkedIn and Indeed in the professional networking and recruitment space. The company announced the initiative alongside an expanded certification program designed to verify AI skills for job seekers.

  • Abstract AI circuit board pattern

    New Nonprofit to Work Toward Safer, Truthful AI

    Turing Award-winning AI researcher Yoshua Bengio has launched LawZero, a new nonprofit aimed at developing AI systems that prioritize safety and truthfulness over autonomy.

  • hooded figure types on a laptop, with abstract manifesto-like posters taped to the wall behind them

    Hacktivism Is a Growing Threat to Higher Education

    In recent years, colleges and universities have faced an evolving array of cybersecurity challenges. But one threat is showing signs of becoming both more frequent and more politically charged: hacktivism.