ecoghlan's blog

Tune in November 5 for a talk with Erv Blythe, vice president for information technology at Virginia Tech. During this hour-long, free EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar, Blythe will discuss the IT-related lessons the university has learned from the tragic shootings that took place on campus this past spring, including:

• The impact on the university's communication system
• The notification issue
• Radio communications interoperability
• The complex logistics of accommodating the communications infrastructure and control center needs for a variety of emergency responders and law enforcement
• Identity management and privacy
• Data preservation and computer forensics

He will also consider overarching federal, state, and local policy issues and ways in which the university has managed them.

Tune in October 17 for a refresher on FERPA, the federal statute that governs the privacy of student records and information. In light of recent incidents, and with another school year now under way, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of our obligations—and rights—under this law. Steven J. McDonald, Rhode Island School of Design general counsel, and Nancy E. Tribbensee, Arizona University System general counsel will be the presenters for this this hour-long, free EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar.

If you are unable to attend, you may wish to visit the EDUCAUSE Live! archives, where a recording of this seminar will be posted shortly afterward. You can also browse FERPA resources in EDUCAUSE Connect.

The EDUCAUSE Core Data Service Fiscal Year 2006 Summary Report has just been released. This report summarizes data for the past fiscal year collected from more than 950 colleges and universities about their campus IT environments, practices, and policies. Respondents represent all enrollment sizes, Carnegie classes, and types of governance, as well as international institutions, providing a broad and deep view of the current IT environment in higher education. The full report can be viewed online free of charge.

Among the notable findings from the report are the following.

EDUCAUSE has strongly endorsed the Open Internet Coalition's call for Congressional efforts to eliminate recent telecommunications industry practices that constrain the openness of the Internet and impede continued U.S. innovation and leadership in the global information environment. Read the full EDUCAUSE press release.

A quick snapshot of Twitter, a microblogging and social networking site, is presented in 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter, a new EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) brief. It also highlights Twitter's potential value for teaching and learning.

The pedagogical applications of online games, simulations, virtual worlds, and other immersive environments are discussed in the new full-length video from ELI, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement. The video draws on the ELI 2007 Spring Focus Session on this topic and includes discussions by Gary R. Bertoline, Phillip D. Long, Constance Steinkeuhler, Richard Van Eck, and others.

How can you prepare your students to be responsible, self-directed, lifelong learners, who understand the implications of how they use information and technology?  Explore answers to this question at the ELI 2007 Fall Focus Session, Being Net Savvy: Developing Skills for a Rapidly Changing World, August 15–16 in Boulder, Colorado. The event will be held at the new ATLAS building at the University of Colorado at Boulder. You can view the program, speakers, and session readings online.

The Internet and a variety of emerging communication, visualization, and simulation technologies now make it possible to offer students authentic learning experiences ranging from experimentation to real-world problem solving. Explore authentic learning, what it is, how technology can support it, what makes it effective, and why it is important in Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview, by Marilyn M. Lombardi, ELI scholar-in-residence and director of the RENCI Center and senior IT strategist at Duke University. This piece is part of the ELI white paper series.

Wikipedia—a free, online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to and edit—is one of the most visited Web sites in the United States, with millions of articles in multiple languages. For a quick overview and the challenges and benefits it presents for teaching and learning, read 7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia, the latest brief from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.