.EDU Tech Roundup
vmn@uoregon.edu
Second Thoughts on Second Life?
Many businesses and universities are investing thousand of dollars in creating a Second Life presence. Now some people are questioning whether such investments are worthwhile. Wired editor and author of The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, doesn't think so. He closed down Wired's Second Life site and noted in his blog (http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/07/why-i-gave-up-o.html) that the decision was due in part to what he called the "there's nobody there problem." He assigned an article on Second Life to a reporter whose article, "How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life," deals with commercial ventures in Second Life but may also have implications for the academic world. Read the Wired article at http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep.
On the other hand...
University of New Orleans Offers Two Classes in Second Life
Probably no one knows better than citizens of New Orleans how swiftly a disaster can close an institution down. Although the University of New Orleans did not shut down after Hurricane Katrina, it did suffer electrical problems and wind damage and kept functioning by holding many classes online. This fall the university has an island in Second Life. It is offering two classes in the virtual reality environment and has plans for more classes in the spring of 2008. Officials hope that by having the virtual campus ready for instructors to set up classes quickly--and students and staff set up with avatars--UNO will be able to function successfully through future storms that may strike the state. Read the chronicle report at http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2234.
University of Washington Offers Google 101
Last winter Christophe Bisciglia, a 26-year-old Google engineer and a 2003 graduate of the University of Washington, began offering a Google 101 class at his alma mater. Designed during his creative time (Google gives its employees 10 percent of their time to work on innovative ideas of their own), the class offers students the chance to learn how to program the way they do it at Google, using many computers to solve a problem instead of one. Students who complete the five-week course may end up working for Google--or not. Google isn't worried about its competitors and hopes to extend Google 101 to other campuses soon. Read more at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/304299_google20.html.
University of Minnesota Treats Kids to High Tech Camp
Thirty middle schoolers created 3D films and programmed robotic dogs for a dance contest at a High Tech Camp held on the campus this summer. Designed to include minority children and girls who are sometimes shut out of quality high tech opportunites at a young age, the camp was organized and led by computing science and engineering graduate students. All children attended the camp for free with the University of Minnesota Center for Distributed Robotics and the university's Digital Technology Center picking up the $300-per-child tab for the experience that organizers hope will stimulate an interest in technology in the children. Read the story at http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/news_details.php?release=070810_3445&page=UMNN.
Oklahoma Libraries Introduce BOSS
This August the Oklahoma State University libraries unveiled an alternative library catalog called Big Orange Search System, or BOSS. Powered by AquaBrowser from Medialab Solutions BV, BOSS uses a faceted search technology and gives users the chance to refine their search by format, topic, language, date, geography and other characteristics that appear on the right of the search screen, next to standard card catalog entries. For instance, look up existentialism, and Boss offers--among other choices--the option of narrowing the term to its philosophical, literary, or psychological use. A user can click on an entry and get a "word cloud" of other terms associated with the topic on the left of the entry. Users who prefer the old online catalog to BOSS can still use it; it is now called Classic Catalog. Try Boss at http://boss.library.okstate.edu/ or read more at http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displayarticle.pl?RC=12697.
Columbia Receives Grant to Provide Google with Video Content
Google has awarded Columbia University a $50,450 grant to help prepare and submit educational video to the Google Video site. The grant is part of Google's plan to add more meaningful content to the Google Video site, in particular course content from colleges and universities. Columbia's Digital Knowledge Ventures plans to create more than 50 hours of new content and to convert 38 hours of Columbia content already in MPEG2 format for the Google Video site. Content will include lectures, other course materials, and interviews in science, economy, history and world affairs. Read more at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/libraries/2007/2007-06-25.google_dkv.html.