The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Amazon Says It Will Make A Kindle For The Visually Impaired

Last month, Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin expressed concern that Amazon's Kindles weren't accessible for blind students. Amazon responded this week. Amazon announced plans to create a blind-accessible Kindle, the Daily Orange reports. The new gadget will have an audible menu and an extra large font for visually impaired users. The product should be ready by summer, Amazon says. Read more at:
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/12/10/amazon-to-make-kindle-blind-accessible.html

Five Higher Ed Tech Trends To Watch In 2010

There aren't too many corners of higher education that technology hasn't infiltrated. From admissions to financial aid to the classroom and everything in between, nearly all aspects of college are being handled in some way by the applications, hardware, and gadgets that help institutions work more efficiently. Don't expect much of that to change in 2010 as more technology is developed and introduced to the higher education market. Read more at:
http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/12/09/5-Higher-Ed-Tech-Trends-To-Watch-in-2010.aspx?Page=1

Google And Microsoft Battle For Future Generation

With the recession taking a bite out of university endowments and public school budgets alike, the competition between Google and Microsoft to convert the nation's colleges, universities and schools to the companies' free e-mail and other IT services that run on the Internet "cloud" — outsourcing that can save a large university hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — has only grown more fierce. With the two companies fighting to baptize a future generation of computer users with their products, the stakes for both are significant. The battle has already reshaped classroom technology. Read more at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_13921041?source=rss&nclick_check=1

Give Every Student An iPhone

How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum. That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch. The verdict? It’s working quite well. 2,100 Abilene students, or 48 percent of the population, are now equipped with a free iPhone. Fully 97 percent of the faculty population has iPhones, too. The iPhone is aiding Abilene in giving students the information they need. Read more at:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/iphone-university-abilene/

Meet The Boss Of Blackboard

From a profile of Michael Chasen, CEO of Blackboard: I had just finished my first year of law school in 1996. Greg was developing the technology consulting practice at KPMG and offered me a job. I took a year’s leave of absence and thought I would save enough money to pay for the rest of law school. At the end of the year, I decided not to return to law school. Matthew and I had also decided to leave KPMG and start an e-learning business, which we called Blackboard. Campuses nationwide were beginning to connect to the Internet but had no way to put courses online. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/jobs/15boss.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

IHEs Switching To Google E-Mail To Save Bucks

It takes manpower and money to run an e-mail system, and colleges and universities have less of both these days. So they’re turning to outside providers such as Google and Microsoft to run their e-mail for free. This  week, the University of Minnesota joins thousands of schools — including Macalester College and Hamline University, both in St. Paul — in beginning to convert to Google. Today’s college kids grew up on Gmail, so for many of them, the switch is overdue. Read more at:
http://www.startribune.com/local/68822742.html

Time For Campus IT To Start Thinking About Windows 7

Microsoft will hatch Windows 7 as a full-fledged commercial operating system this week, and IT professionals should be making plans for it.That's the main message from Forrester Research, which published its "Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook" report last week--just in time for the Oct. 22 Windows 7 launch. The report provides lots of tips on how to think about moving to Windows 7. Many IT organizations resisted upgrading to Windows Vista, Microsoft's current flagship OS. The bottom line, according to the study, is that "firms should plan to completely migrate away [from XP] by the end of 2012 due to application incompatibility concerns." Read more at:
http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/10/20/Report-IT-Should-Plan-for-Windows-7-Now.aspx?Page=1

Helping Students Learn To Deal With Data

For the most part, university students have used rather modest computing systems to support their studies. They are learning to collect and manipulate information on personal computers or what are known as clusters, where computer servers are cabled together to form a larger computer. But even these machines fail to churn through enough data to really challenge and train a young mind meant to ponder the mega-scale problems of tomorrow. Two years ago, I.B.M. and Google set out to change the mindset at universities by giving students broad access to some of the largest computers on the planet. Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/technology/12data.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Learning Technology Is Catching Up With Students

Today's college classrooms are high-tech marvels, with overhead projectors and grease pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers and interactive white boards. "A lot of this is us catching up with the students and what they're bringing to us," says Michael Reuter, 42, director of technology operations at Central Michigan. Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world. Worries about cheating and distracted students using Facebook, Twitter or instant messaging instead of listening to lessons, however, may be overblown. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-05-college-technology_N.htm?csp=34

No More Landline Phones For Students At This IHE

Take a walk through Iowa State University's residence halls right now and you'll be hard pressed to find a landline telephone. Next year, the phones will be even more elusive. That's because the Ames, Iowa-based university is in the process of pulling all such phones out of the dorms in favor of the cell phones that students have been carrying around with them for several years now. a campus survey revealed that 90 percent of resident students had cell phones and were using them in lieu of traditional telephones. Digging deeper into the situation, Englin and his team learned that the school could save $140,000 annually by reallocating the landline resources, and by providing 802.11 wireless service for students. Read more at:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/10/01/pulling-the-plug-on-landlines-at-iowa-state.aspx