EDUCATION NEWS DIGEST #13
STUDY OF WORKSTATIONS FINDS THAT COMPUTING POWER IS WASTED
Computer-science researchers at University College Cork in
Ireland recently found that most of the PCs in faculty and
student computer labs were operating at far less than their
capacity. The study, which followed 37 PCs in one lab over one
month, found that the computers were performing at no more than
10 percent of their capacity. Sometimes, the combined power of
all users in the lab could have been handled by a single
workstation, the researchers said. John P. Morrison of the
college's Center for Unified Computing said the study casts doubt
on the pressure many higher-education institutions feel to
upgrade PCs on a regular basis. "If successive releases of an
application do not require extra computing power, then there is
no advantage in upgrading the machine," he said.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 1 March 2001)
ACADEMIA TAKES IT TO HEART
The recent appointment of two deans of Information Technology at
the London School of Economics signifies the paradigm shift in IT
academia. Professors Claudio Ciborra and Robert Galliers
explained that the subject has become especially appealing in
light of the activity generated in the tech industry in recent
years. However, Galliers said teaching in the IT discipline needs
to focus more on the human side of IT and in integrating it with
a wider, more multicultural business strategy. He argued,
"Companies can throw money at e-commerce, but they should look
at managing change internally." Both professors agree that the
current business environment is deceivingly complex and chaotic.
They propose that a new management approach should involve a
more savvy IT perspective that can look past the simple solutions
offered by many software and hardware vendors.
(Financial Times, 5 March 2001)
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY E-BANKS ON WEB TO LINK COMMUNITY
DePaul University has turned an alumni interest in online banking
into a full-fledged for-profit venture. This week, the university
unveiled its online bank, DePaulBank.com, which will operate as a
division of the Ohio-based Sutton Bank. DePaulBank.com is believed
to represent one of the first attempts by a university to offer a
full-service, private-label Internet bank to serve a university
community exclusively. Market research conducted two years ago
revealed that 15 percent of the 90,000 DePaul alumni had a
"propensity" for banking online. Although only DePaul alumni can
do business with DePaulBank.com currently, the university plans
to offer its online banking services to faculty, staff, and
students within six months.
(Internet.com, 27 February 2001)
LEARNING FROM A DISTANCE
Of the more than 4,000 two- and four-year colleges in the United
States, 70 percent provided online courses last year, a 22
percent rise from 1998, reported Market Retrieval Service.
American Federation of Teachers vice president Bill Scheuerman
stressed the need for institutions to approach e-learning with
care, saying "If you're going to do it right, it's going to cost
you money." Among the criteria e-learning should meet,
Scheuerman suggested training for faculty and 24-hour tech
support for both faculty and students. A recent survey by the
AFT revealed that Web-based e-learning is the most common form
of distance education, most often used for career or science
and math classes, with humanities classes next. Education and
child development classes were less likely to be online, the
AFT found. However, not all e-learning classes meet only online.
Joe Moran, who coordinates the adult education master's program
at Buffalo State College, explained that his institution's
program asks students to come to the classroom once a week.
Moran said this arrangement lets students interact and work on
cooperative assignments, two features that can be lost in a
strictly Web-based operation.
(Business First of Buffalo Online, 26 February 2001)
HIGH-TECH EXECUTIVES UNVEIL EDUCATIONAL REFORM GROUP
A group of Silicon Valley executives has unveiled EdVoice, an
advocacy group for educational reform. Observers say the group's
founding shows the growing power that high-tech leaders exert
over public policy. EdVoice, led by John Doerr and NetFlix CEO
Reed Hastings, will work to enlist regular California citizens
in the effort to improve schools, focusing particularly on three
issues: facilitating the opening of charter schools, reducing
the licensing hassle that experts in certain fields must face
before becoming teachers, and offering teachers financial
incentives to work in low-performing schools. The group recently
introduced its Web site, which features an e-mail listserv to
provide regular updates on educational issues and assists
citizens in contacting state officials concerning those issues.
"EdVoice is not about CEOs and academics. It's about parents and
teachers working with business leaders to get the job of
reforming our system of education done," Herring said.
(SiliconValley.com, 28 February 2001)
JONES INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES ONLINE M.ED.
Jones International University, a fully online accred-
ited university, launched six online master of education (M.Ed.)
programs in e-learning offered completely via the Internet.
Specifically designed to meet the needs of working professionals,
the degree programs offered are: Research and Assessment, Cor-
porate Training and Knowledge Management, Global Leadership and
Administration, Library and Resource Management, Technology
and Design, and a Generalist Master of Education in e-learning.
To complement the degree programs, JIU is also introducing
eight e-learning professional education programs.
For more information, visit www.jonesinternational.edu.
GRANT HELP FOR UNDERGRADUATE SCIENCE PROGRAMS
GrantsNet, the free Web site (www.grantsnet.org) that provides
information on grants and fellowships for young biomedical re-
searchers, has introduced a new database on undergraduate-level
programs. Professors and administrators who seek to provide
undergraduates with research experience and other opportunities
will find hundreds of programs that offer support. GrantsNet
also unveiled several new features, such as a My GrantsNet op-
tion that allows users to keep informed of new funding oppor-
tunities through e-mail alerts, and to save searches or update
registration information quickly. The Howard Hughes Medical
Institute (HHMI) and the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science (AAAS), which sponsor GrantsNet,announced the
changes during a career fair at the AAAS annual meeting.
INTERNET AS TOOL IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS RECRUITING
The study, "The Internet as an Admissions Tool - 2000," shows
an increase in the use of the Internet as a marketing and
applications tool by colleges and universities. Findings of the
study include: 86 percent of institutions permit students to
download, complete, and mail applications; 75 percent of insti-
tutions permit students to complete an application and transmit
electronically; 73 percent of Internet inquiries came from
geographical areas beyond those traditionally served by insti-
tutions; and 57 percent of institutions use the Internet for
cross-functional operations. The full study, conducted by
Education Now and commissioned by ApplyYourself Inc., was
released yesterday.
NOT OUT OF BUSINESS -- BUT NOT IN CONTROL
E-learning doesn't put trainers out of business
-- but trainers have lost the battle for control
of who learns what when. That's the assessment that emerged in remarks from
panelists at the opening session of Training 2001
in Atlanta Monday.
Business still needs trainers in the classroom,
said Tom Kelly, director of worldwide training with
Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. "It's still a good way to learn," Kelly told
a plenary session of the conference. "It's just not the only way."
Another panelist had a different spin: Trainers have lost control of training. Learners no
longer must come to trainers to learn, said John Cone,
vice president of Dell Computer Corp.'s Dell Learning
unit in Round Rock, Texas. "The war to determine who will control learning is over,"
said Cone, "and we have lost." Trainers, he added, "do not control how people
learn anymore."
The panel also featured a prerecorded video from
John Chambers, CEO with Cisco. Chambers called e-learning a business necessity.
Delivering training via classroom at the pace that
Cisco adds products is impractical and too costly.
E-learning, said Chambers, is "the only way I can figure
out how to train all our employees with the speed that
we need to."
INTERNET2 WILL EXPAND TO K-12
The Internet2 network, which provides high-speed access to nearly
200 research universities, may soon expand to include other
colleges as well as K-12 schools. However, Greg Wood,
spokesperson for the University Corporation for Advanced Internet
Development, said the initiative is currently "just a series of
discussions going on among a number of organizations in education
and networking." He added, "A lot of other steps need to take
place before teachers and students can use advanced
applications." Those advanced applications could include digital
video of teacher training practices, virtual tours of museums,
and interactive musical exercises. Several states have also shown
interest in connecting their networks to Internet2. Details of
the new initiative will be available in the coming months,
although the organizations involved have set no official date
for its launch. Among the groups involved are EDUCAUSE, the
Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society
for Technology in Education.
(Wired News, 5 March 2001)
GROUPS ISSUE NEW TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
An early draft of the Technology Standards for School
Administrators (TSSA), which is designed to give administrators
of K-12 schools a better understanding of what they should know
about technology and how to use it, was recently made available.
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
brought together a number of groups that comprise national school
leaders, including the Principals' Executive Program at the
University of North Carolina and the Western Michigan University
College of Education, to come up with the technology standards.
A year ago, the ISTE put together a team of educators to help
create the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS),
which are guidelines for integrating technology in classrooms.
This year, the ISTE focused on schools as a whole. The six
categories of the standards are leadership and vision; learning
and teaching; productivity and professional practice; support,
management, and operations; assessment and evaluation; and
social, legal, and ethical issues. A public comment period will
extend through June 30. ISTE will use this feedback to refine
its standards before formally issuing them in October.
(eSchool News Online, 5 March 2001)
JUDGES, STUDENTS PUT CYBERCOURT ON TRIAL
New technology is making its way into the courtroom, as a recent
demonstration at the College of William and Mary showed.
Through the "Courtroom 21" program experiment, a Portland, Ore.,
judge presided over videoconference testimony given by a witness
in Orlando, Fla. Fred Lederer, director of "Courtroom 21," says
new holographic technology, such as that displayed at NASA's
Langley Research Center, is one example of the possible avenues
that cybercourt initiatives could take. Lederer is also working
on Michigan governor John Engler's proposal to use Web solutions
to expedite disputes over intellectual property rights in the tech
industry. Already, technology is playing an increasing role in
courtroom operations. For example, the appellate judges in the
Microsoft antitrust case used laptops to send instant messages to
their clerks and research legal indexes during recent hearings.
The District of Columbia Appeals Court required both sides to
submit court filings in CD-ROM form, allowing the judges to access
15,000 links to case law, exhibits, and even videotaped testimony.
(Associated Press, 1 March 2001)
THIS 'VIRTUAL U' HAS REAL BENEFITS
Compared to the cost of attending one of the nation's elite
four-year universities, the cost of attending the University of
Phoenix Online is a real bargain, argues columnist Christopher
Byron. Byron says four years of tuition, room and board, and
other expenses at a top institution would easily be more than
$100,000, whereas four years at the University of Phoenix Online
would be no more than $48,000. Although the University of Phoenix
Online was developed for those 23 and older--in other words,
returning students--Byron sees no reason why those who are
considered traditional undergraduates cannot receive their
degrees from the online institution. He notes that University of
Phoenix Online has 18,500 students and a faculty of 11,500 but
managed to operate at a profit margin of 26 percent for the
quarter ending last November. In that same quarter, its revenue
totaled over $34 million, a 64 percent increase over the same
period last year. Meanwhile, because it is an online operation,
its overhead expenses were far less than those at an institution
with a comparably sized student body.
(Bloomberg, 28 February 2001)
BLUETOOTH AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY WORTH CHEWING ON
The emerging mobile-connectivity technology Bluetooth is set to
see its first real entrance to the consumer market this year with
several different products from leading companies such as IBM,
Toshiba, Motorola, and Ericsson. Analysts have long predicted an
explosion of Bluetooth-enabled devices for the market, but
technical hurdles have slowed manufacturers' enthusiasm over the
technology, which is widely regarded as revolutionary and
inevitable. Bluetooth connects electronic devices using radio
waves and is seen as the key to the universal integration of
electronic devices. This year, Motorola plans to release
a phone that will use Bluetooth to connect users' computers
to their phones so that PC-generated address books and other
information can be downloaded to the phone. Some experts hope
for a multitude of Bluetooth-enabled devices that would, for
example, allow churches and theaters to automatically switch
mobile phones to vibrate mode. Other devices would let
individuals download their e-mail to their laptops from a
Bluetooth cell phone or get an updated grocery list from their
refrigerators while in the supermarket.
(Investor's Business Daily, 9 March 2001)
TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS TRY ONLINE EDUCATION
Textbook publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson are taking different
paths to a successful business strategy for the online education
market. The McGraw-Hill Learning Network focuses on interactive
versions of its textbooks. Buzz Ellis, president of McGraw-Hill's
School Education Group, says online versions for the entire
curriculum are under development in pilot programs, including one
at Celebration School in Celebration, Fla. Eventually, the
publisher will offer electronic versions of the curriculum for
sale along with the print version both to schools and parents.
Pearson, based in England, focuses on free Web-based education
tools for teachers, students, and parents through the Pearson
Learning Network. Pearson bought the site from the Family
Education Network last year. Phil Hoffman, the director of the
site, says the Learning Network has been enormously popular,
tallying more than 100 million page views each month when school
is in session, and has over 10,000 schools registered with its
home page and online grading services. Hoffman aims to extend
the site's reach from the current K-12, adult learning, and
professional training markets to higher education by the end
of summer. (New York Times Online, 7 March 2001)
WEB SCHOOL ABANDONS STUDENTS
San Jose, Calif.-based Masters Institute, a trade school that
offered online and classroom courses in several computer-related
subjects, shut down at midnight, Tuesday. A message on the
school's Web site said it was closing down due to "unforeseen
operational circumstances." The site also told teachers and
staffers that a specific time would be arranged for them to
retrieve their items from school facilities. Officials at the
Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, part
of the state's Department of Consumer Affairs, said they had not
been able to contact anyone at Masters Institute about its
closing. Recent records from the department show that the school
had its license renewed in January 2000. It currently has roughly
1,800 students. The school's students, many of whom took courses
online and are spread across the county, are distraught. "I'm
devastated," said Isabella Sevilla, an Illinois homemaker who
would have graduated with a degree in systems administration this
October. Bureau officials say students may be able to have their
loans forgiven through a state Department of Education plan.
(SiliconValley.com, 7 March 2001)
LOGGING IN WITH...MARK MILLIRON
Mark Milliron, president and CEO of the League for Innovation in
the Community College and lead author of "Taking a Big Picture
Look at Technology, Learning, and the Community College," argued
that technology can allow community colleges to offer what he
calls the "learner-relationship model," much like the
customer-relationship model so prevalent in e-business strategy.
This new model lets a university, through technology, bring back
the customization that has been lost as community-college systems
grew more complex and thus more "industrial." He said community
colleges, while generally not as well supported as liberal-arts
colleges, are able to keep pace with the latest developments in
technology and to provide students and faculty at least with
e-mail and basic Web support. He said community colleges are
unlikely to match the level of fundraising that the university
community has, but he argued that there are numerous ways in
which a community college can improve its fundraising efforts.
His organization is launching League FundNet, an initiative to
help community colleges improve their fundraising efforts.
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 March 2001)
E-LEARNING MADE EASY AT THE VIRTUAL COLLEGE
England has a state-of-the-art e-learning center that is meeting
the needs of big and small companies. In 1999, Reading College
and School of Arts and Design launched Digital Academy, which is
designed to give IT workers the skills they need to remain at the
cutting edge of their industry. Both the government and the
European Union provided funding for Digital Academy, which is
located on an industrial estate in Wokingham in the heart of
Berkshire's high-tech companies. Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard,
Cisco, and other major players in the industry have thrown their
support behind the project. Observers say Digital Academy
presents an excellent opportunity for busy IT workers and
founders of small companies to continue to refresh their skills
and knowledge in a time and place that are convenient. Digital
Academy makes use of online assignments, tutorials, and
discussion groups through e-mail. Partnerships with other
universities make it possible for IT workers to pursue degrees.
(Times [London] Online, 1 March 2001)
SUPPORT FOR TECH DOCUMENTATION, JOURNALS, AND NEWSLETTERS
Texterity, a provider of e-book and e-publishing services,
recently announced TextCafe version 1.2. The new version adds
significant features to the service that accepts PDF, Quark,
and Word files and converts them to structured XML, HTML, and
open e-book formats. TextCafe already provides automated
volume conversion for trade books that need to be moved into
structured XML format. The updated version now allows cus-
tomers to convert more complex materials, including journal
articles, technical documentation, and newsletters. TextCafe
1.2 key features include detection of multi-column material,
which can be reflowed in reading order; tagging and automatic
linking of footnotes and endnotes; support for extraction
and reinsertion of PDF annotated tables, graphs, and line
drawing as images; creation of two Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS); and tracking of original page numbering with anchors.
Available later this month, TextCafe version 1.2 pricing is
based on document type and conversion volume. For more in-
formation, visit http://www.texterity.com.
GENEMATCHER FOR EDUCATION
Paracel, a business unit of Celera Genomics, has launched its
new GeneMatcher for Education (GME) program, a cost-effective
supercomputing opportunity for academic researchers. Using the
GeneMatcher, scientists can apply computationally intensive
algorithms to the recently completed human genome to signi-
ficantly accelerate their large-scale research projects. The
GME program offers a pre-owned GeneMatcher-Plus--a fully
configured nine-board unit comprising a total of 6,912 pro-
cessors, a suite of sensitive search algorithms, and the
Paracel user interfaces, BioView Toolkit and BioView Workbench.
GME provides academic researchers with a suite of advanced
algorithms for analysis along with the computing power of the
GeneMatcher. Researchers can apply GeneMatcher's nearly
7,000 processors to computationally intensive algorithms
that typically cannot be run on conventional hardware.
Customers also have the option of loading their own data
sets onto the GME system. For more information, visit
http://www.paracel.com.
MATHXPERT ONLINE
Recognix recently made available on its Web site
(http://www.MathXpert.com) a free service to help high school
and college students master the intricacies of mathematics.
MathXpert is a learning tool which shows students how to
solve an algebra, trigonometry, or calculus mathematics
problem. Students may practice with MathXpert problems,
which are included with the program, or they may enter
their own problems. The program was developed by Professor
Michael Beeson of San Jose State University (a graduate of
Cal Tech and Stanford Universities) after fifteen
years of research. From a set of approximately 800 operations,
the logic engine of the MathXpert programs is able to select
the sequence of mathematical operations that need to be
applied to arrive at a solution. MathXpert is available as a
free online service to students, as a single user application
program to be installed on the user's computer, and as a net-
work application to be installed on a school network. For
more information, visit http://www.mathXpert.com.
INTEGRATED TELEPATHOLOGY-NETWORK MEDICINE SUITE
MedSoft.com, an application service provider (ASP) of compre-
hensive health care portal solutions, recently announced the
debut of its integrated MedMicroscopy/MedReach network medi-
cine solution. The application combines the functionality of
distance-enabled pathology with full, electronic, multimedia
medical record capability. The MultiMedia technology suite
enables pathologists to consult and collaborate over distance
with multiple colleagues, utilizing live remote microscopy and
interactive, live video teleconferencing, while maintaining
a permanent, secure digital record of the consultation. For
more information, visit http://www.e-medsoft.com and
http://www.enetgroup.co.uk.
A SMALL COLLEGE'S MIXED RESULTS WITH TECHNOLOGY
Although small, West Virginia's Wesleyan College has made some
large strides in the field of education technology. In 1996,
it became one of the first members of IBM's Thinkpad
University program, requiring all students to own or lease a
laptop computer. Recently, the school announced that it would
accept only online applications, making it the first school in
the nation to do so. The school's library, unable to compete
with the holdings of much larger institutions, now provides
electronic access to reference materials, journals, and other
resources. Teachers use e-mail, PowerPoint displays, and
digital projectors to enhance their courses, while students
are able to access course assignments through online "folders."
"They've kept technology in the right perspective--that it's a
tool, but that the real focus is on how you use that in the
learning process," said EDUCAUSE senior fellow Diana G. Oblinger.
However, the school's plan has not come without a price--the
Thinkpad program alone has cost nearly $5 million, and its
Ethernet network was a $1.5 million expense. Furthermore,
lacking the large endowment of other institutions, the school
has had to subsidize the Thinkpad program, running a deficit
of $400,000 each year since that program began.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 9 March 2001)
IT ON THE CAMPUS
Smaller, less-well-known colleges in the Washington, D.C., and
Baltimore, Md., regions are not letting big schools, such as the
University of Maryland, George Mason University, and Virginia
Tech, become the only sources for new IT talent. Many of the
smaller schools in the region now offer an IT education and even
consider their size to be an advantage, because their students can
receive the attention they need to succeed. For example, Roberta
Evans Sabin, professor and chair of the Computer Science
Department at Loyola College in Baltimore, said students are
likely to have greater access to computer equipment at a small
school and added that none of the computer classes is taught by
a teaching assistant. Hood College in Frederick, Md., and
Marymount University in Arlington, Va., target workers by
offering tech classes in the evening. Marymount will be
bolstered by a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of
Labor, a grant that the school intends to use to offer an IT
certification program.
(Potomac Tech Journal, 5 March 2001)
WHY WI-FI IS THE NEXT BIG THING
The capabilities of current Wi-Fi wireless technologies, also
know as 802.11b, have soared past earlier versions, writes
William Gurley. New Wi-Fi systems can transmit seven times
faster than a regular T1 connection. Gurley notes that many
universities, such as Stanford and Carnegie Mellon, have
employed Wi-Fi to give Web access to their students without the
lengthy installation of CAT5 wires. He now sees Wi-Fi expanding
to home networking use. Having a Wi-Fi system installed at home
allows users to access the Web from any room in the house,
without running cables. In addition, many public places such as
airports, hotels, and restaurants are teaming with such companies
as Wayport, MobileStar, and Airwave to deploy Wi-Fi technologies.
And some startups are focusing on implementing Wi-Fi systems in
major cities. But these systems would require access points
placed on rooftops. Gurley argues that this strategy is likely
to tax the limits of today's technology. He also notes that
Wi-Fi may pose a threat to 3G services if installation becomes
easier. (Fortune, 5 March 2001)
THE OLD COLLEGE TRY
Traditional universities are looking to protect themselves from
higher-education Internet startups by launching their own online
programs. Columbia University has joined the fray with a Web
education portal named Fathom. On the site, more than 75,000
registered users browse through about 600 online courses and
degree offerings, including programs from the University of
Washington and Michigan State University. However, the online
spin-off has yet to generate revenue. The site makes money from
fees collected from other online schools according to the number
of students it directs to them. NYUOnline, New York University's
Internet effort, is aiming for the corporate education market and
has signed at least one very large contract with an unnamed
financial firm. Although the online school does not offer any
degrees since it is not accredited, it does provide 55 courses to
500 students, as well as coursework in collaboration with NYU's
traditional classes. Traditional schools going online face a
number of other hindrances besides finding a successful business
model, including reconciling issues of intellectual property
rights. Cornell University has resolved this problem by
maintaining a purely contractual three-way relationship between
the school, the online spin-off, and the professor.
(Wall Street Journal, 12 March 2001)