The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Infographic Provides Data On College Students' Technology Habits

College students today are more tech savvy than ever before. Just how important is technology to their academic lives? More than 90% use email to communicate with professors and 73% say they cannot study without technology. Seven in 10 take notes on keyboards instead of paper, virtually all students who own an ereader and most use digital tools when preparing a presentation. This is all according to research compiled by Presta Electronics. Presta used material from the Pew Research Center, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mashable and other sources to put together the infographic below. Check it out for the full picture of how technology is changing college students’ lives. See the infographic at:
http://mashable.com/2012/05/06/tech-college-infographic/

At Sloane School Faculty Decide To Ditch PCs And Move To The Cloud

There is an effort afoot at the university’s Sloan School of Management to move faculty and staff away from full-fledged desktop computers and onto dumber, network-based devices known as thin clients. It’s part of a larger movement toward “cloud computing’’. A cloud-based system with thin clients is easier to maintain and protect from viruses and other malware that can ravage personal computers. And the entire computing environment can be centrally managed for maximum security and efficiency. Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-23/business/31382571_1_computers-clients-desktop 

 

Every College Student Needs Computational Literacy

Many professors of computer science say college graduates in every major should understand software fundamentals. They don’t argue that everyone needs to be a skilled programmer. Rather, they seek to teach “computational thinking” — the general concepts programming languages employ. There is little agreement within the field, however, about what exactly are the core elements of computational thinking. Nor is there agreement about how much programming students must do, if any, in order to understand it. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/business/computer-science-for-non-majors-takes-many-forms.html?_r=1&ref=business#

Latest Issue Of University Business Is Now Available

The March 2012 issue of Univeristy Business is now available online. The issue's cover story is about enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Other items cover monetizing digital assets, football teams, student debt and net price calculators. Read more at:
http://www.universitybusiness.com/toc

At This Institution The Print Textbooks Are Outselling Their Digital Counterparts

On Jan. 19, Apple, Inc. released a new version of its iBooks digital bookstore, the latest in a recent surge of new technologies. The increasing popularity of digital reading, however, has not yet reached UR. e-Textbooks have been available at the bookstore since 2004 and students can rent or purchase them at prices similar to those of standard textbooks.  They can also be purchased online at the University bookstore website. Nevertheless, there are many practical problems surrounding the use of e-Textbooks on campus. UR Bookstore manager Maria Ferrante noted that, despite the widespread availability of e-Textbooks, the digital forms of many textbooks are much less popular than the hardcover versions. In practice, students who purchase e-Textbooks generally only do so when the bookstore has run out of hard copies and the student is desperate for the material. Read more at:
http://www.campustimes.org/2012/02/02/e-books%E2%80%99-popularity-rising-but-ur-students-choose-paper/

Publishers Were Already Working To Prepare Textbooks To The iPad

For most of the past six months, Vicky Shen, an editor at textbook publisher Pearson Education in Boston, has been living with a secret. Just a few blocks away in the Back Bay, Bethlam Forsa, executive vice president of global product development at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Inc. was working on the same undercover project. Both were preparing electronic editions for last week’s launch of an initiative from Apple Inc. to put textbooks on its iPad tablets. Read more at: http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-26/business/30663246_1_digital-textbooks-ipad-sarah-rotman-epps

MTV App Designed To Help College Students With Financial Aid

MTV, home to television shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom,” might be the last place many students would think to turn for guidance about financial aid. But on Wednesday the network is launching a Facebook application to help students efficiently navigate the financial aid morass. The application, called “My College Dollars,” is a joint project of MTV, theCollege Board, the Get Schooled campaign and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more at:

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/m-t-v-tackles-financial-aid/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

 

College's Computers Were Being Hacked For Over A Decade

As thousands of students and employees return today to City College of San Francisco - where criminal hackers, it turns out, have been scanning computer data for years - campus officials are warning everyone to change computer passwords, avoid using school computers for banking or purchases, and to check home computers for viruses. data - including personal banking information from people who had used college computers to bank online - had been stolen over a decade. College officials don't yet know the extent of the problem. Read more at: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/16/BA8T1MQ4E5.DTL#ixzz1jp67c6mI

EdTech Trends For 2012

Looking ahead at some of the education technology trends we’ll likely see in 2012, many are already underway. But here are 12 areas where we believe we’ll see significant adoption and innovation in the coming months. Read more at:
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/01/12-education-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2012/

The Secret Deal Behind The New York City Technology Campus

The two universities waited until Oct. 18 — 10 days before the city’s deadline for proposals — to announce the union publicly. Last Monday, when their joint bid was crowned the winner of the city’s year-long, international competition, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made it clear that the synergy between the two institutions was a critical factor.The unsuspected marriage, according to interviews with university and city officials, was one of many juicy pieces of the proposal that its architects unveiled strategically, to keep competitors in the dark and make the maximum impression on city officials. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/education/in-cornell-deal-for-roosevelt-island-campus-an-unlikely-partnership.html?src=me&ref=general