SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

News & Product Updates

Commerce Department Names Academics to Panel on Dual-Use Technology

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez announced the appointment of 12 business and academic leaders to the newly formed Deemed Export Advisory Committee. The committee will deal with issues surrounding the transfer of dual-use technology to foreign nationals in the United States. The concern is that the unauthorized release of sensitive technology could contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction.

Named as co-chairmen of the committee were Norman Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Robert M. Gates, president of Texas A&M University at College Station. Other academics on the panel are Albert Carnesale, a former UCLA chancellor; Anthony A. Frank, provost and senior vice president of Colorado State University at Fort Collins; and Sean C. O’Keefe, chancellor of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge...

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Harvard Drops Early Admissions

Harvard announced plans to drop its "early action" admissions round. Under early action, applicants get word by late fall if they've been accepted to a college, but can still apply elsewhere in the spring. Some other schools have "early decision," meaning accepted applicants cannot apply elsewhere. Harvard said such early admissions programs may hurt schools' diversity because poor and minority students are less likely to use them.

Nearly 23,000 people applied to Harvard last year (including about 4,000 in the early round) but the move's broader significance is that it could persuade other elite universities to change their admissions policies. Many other prestigious colleges have acknowledged that early admissions has become a strategy tool for the well-connected, and have tweaked their programs. Harvard, however, is the first to drop their program...

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Microsoft High School Opens

The Microsoft-designed "School of the Future" opened recently in a working-class West Philadelphia neighborhood. The school has a high-tech building (students have digital lockers and teachers use interactive smartboards) and also has a learning process modeled on Microsoft's management techniques.

The city of Philadelphia paid the $63 million cost of the school and approached Microsoft for its help in the development and planning. About 170 teens, nearly all black and mainly low-income, were chosen by lottery to make up the freshman class. The school eventually plans to enroll up to 750 students. Students use smart cards to register attendance and open their digital lockers. They carry laptops rather than books, and the entire campus has wireless Internet access...

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Featured

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • AI microchip, a cybersecurity shield with a lock, a dollar coin, and a laptop with financial graphs connected by dotted lines

    Survey: Generative AI Surpasses Cybersecurity in 2025 Tech Budgets

    Global IT leaders are placing bigger bets on generative artificial intelligence than cybersecurity in 2025, according to new research by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

  • university building surrounded by icons for AI, checklists, and data governance

    Improving AI Governance for Stronger University Compliance and Innovation

    AI can generate valuable insights for higher education institutions and it can be used to enhance the teaching process itself. The caveat is that this can only be achieved when universities adopt a strategic and proactive set of data and process management policies for their use of AI.