.EDU TECH ROUNDUP
vmn@uoregon.edu
University of Richmond Spotlights Student Research
The University of Richmond is shining a spotlight on original student research with a web page of short video clips. Go to http://research.richmond.edu/students/research.htm to watch students describe projects covering a broad range of topics, including graffiti art, Caribbean literature, carbon dioxide hypersensitivity among smokers in withdrawal, and attraction and dating in visually impaired communities.
Take a UC Berkeley Course on Google Video
UC Berkeley has the honor of being the first university to have its own page on Google Video. Six complete courses in subjects including physics, biology, and chemistry are now available to the public at no cost, along with a selection of conferences and symposia totalling over 250 hours. Attend a video lecture at http://video.google.com/ucberkeley.html
University of Wisconsin Offers Podcasting Plus Awards
The University Wisconsin at Madison has begun offering $800 Podcasting Plus awards to its instructors as an incentive to enhance their classes with video, graphics, and audio during the spring and summer of 2007. The grants are part of the Engage Program and come with as many as 12 hours of help. See http://engage.doit.wisc.edu/workWithUs/adaptation.html for more information.
Arizona State Launches Entertainment and Technology Program
Needed: Skilled techies with knowledge of entertainment industry. To help meet this need, Arizona State University has designed a new course called Entertainment and Technology, with input from a board of entertainment professionals. The new course is part of a cross-disciplinary program called EnterTech, which prepares students for work in the entertainment industry and can lead to an undergraduate certificate and eventually to a master’s degree. Check out the new program at http://www.asu.edu/clas/fms/EnterTechEntertainmentandTechnology.htm
University of Georgia Initiates Global Text Project
The University of Georgia Terry College of Business is heading up the Global Text Project, which aims to produce 1000 online textbooks especially for use in developing countries. Covering topics typically studied by undergraduates during their first two years of college, the online texts are the brainchild of UGA’s Rick Watson. When Watson couldn’t find a suitable textbook on XML, he asked his class to write one using a type of wiki software. Watson told a friend at Denver University how each class that used the text improved it, and the Global Text program was born. Read more at http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/060901_GlobalTextProject.shtml
Catch Up with EDUCAUSE
If you’re feeling the need to catch up on some of ways other educators are making use of their students’ passion for technologies and social applications such as instant messaging and video blogging, check out the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI’s) “7 Things You Should Know About...” series. In short, clearly written reports, ELI gives the basics of each technology and tells you how educators are using it in their classrooms. You’ll find the brief reports in PDFs at http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=7495&bhcp=1
Stanford’s On-Call Student Consultants Save the Day
It’s 2 a.m. and you’re in your dorm putting the finishing touches on your big video-editing project due in just hours. Suddenly, your computer freezes. Now it’s panic time—unless your dorm happens to be on a campus such as Stanford, where the university has hired technically savvy student consultants to live in the dorm and respond to computer crises night and day. Trained in psychology and technology, the on-call student consultants work for about the cost of their dorm—and the occasional batch of brownies. Read more at http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15770612.htm