SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, May 2, 2007

• 05/02/07

Case Study

Portal System Keeps Students, Alumni in Touch at Plymouth State U

By Linda L. Briggs

By giving current students and all alumni a lifetime e-mail account accessed through a portal, Plymouth State University has enhanced its ability to stay in touch with graduates long after they leave the university.

Beginning in 1999, the New Hampshire university began giving graduating seniors lifetime e-mail accounts; in 2005, with the creation of a portal called MyPlymouth.com, every alum--some 25,000 people--received a lifetime e-mail address hosted by the university, along with use of other services offered free of charge through the portal site....

News & Product Updates

Reminder: Submit Your 2007 Innovators Nominations! Deadline May 15!

You're doing great things with technology on campus—we want to know about them. We seek exemplary colleges and universities, their visionary technology project leadership, and their innovative vendor partners who have deployed extraordinary campus technology solutions to campus challenges.

Could you be one of this year's recognized technology leaders? CT's 2007 Innovators will be featured in the August issue and recognized at the Campus Technology 2007 conference in Washington, DC, July 30-Aug. 2, 2007....

Joint Venture To Link 6 Universities Via HD Video

Three firms involved in high-definition video networks have christened a project to link six universities with HD video channels to support interactive collaboration and research. The three companies are LifeSize, which makes HD equipment; kynamatrix Research Network, a non-profit focused on science education; and GBH Communications, which does Internet-based teleconferencing....

Universities Seek 'Clean Slate' for Internet Security Woes

A group of university and government researchers has proposed a "clean slate" approach to solving the Internet's myriad security problems. The group, which includes researchers Rutgers, Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and various Department of Defense research offices, said it thinks it might be time to scrap key components of the Internet that can no longer support today's complex computing and security requirements, according to a report by the Associated Press....

University of Pennsylvania Launches Communications Suite

The University of Pennsylvania is launching a service for its students called "Penn Live." The aim of the program is to provide communications tools for students, such as e-mail, blogging, and photo sharing.

Penn Live is designed for students in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School--about 13,000 out of Penn's total of 20,000 students. The university is partnering with Microsoft to develop Penn Live, which is based on a custom version of Windows Live....

University of California Picks LMS for System-Wide Staff Training

The University of California signed a contract to purchase a learning management system to host the delivery of compliance training materials and services throughout the UC systems. The university purchased the LMS from SumTotal Systems Inc., along with software for creating training content called TotalLCMS. The system will track and deliver compliance training for the system's 170,000 faculty and staff across 10 campuses....

Tech Notes

Gaming & Virtual World Technologies: Just Ask the Avatar in the Front Row

By Neal Starkman

Mitch Gitelman's pretty excited about Microsoft's Shadowrun. It's a "first-person shooter" game that's team-based, he says: It's played online with friends, using either Windows Vista or Xbox 360, and transports the players into a virtual future. In fact, Shadowrun takes place in 2030—when magic returns to the world—and includes elves, dwarves, orks, trolls, and humans, all sporting a variety of weapons and ammunition. The game is due out in spring 2007, and Gitelman can't wait; he is, after all, its lead designer....(Campus Technology)

Upcoming Events

Campus Technology 2007

Washington, DC, July 30-August 2, 2007