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The EDUCAUSE Live! Spotlight on Identity Management series is a series that feature one or two speakers from a campus that have analyzed or solved a problem in a way that many people will find instructive.

For the past decade, campuses in the United States have been offering comprehensive communications services in campus dorms that include high-speed Internet, cable television, and telephone services (local line, long distance, and voice mail in some cases). With students migrating to other forms of personal communications such as cell phones and text messaging, campuses are reevaluating the need for telephone lines in the dorms.

In this free July 1 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Meeting Communications Needs in Campus Dorms, presenters Dewitt Latimer, deputy CIO & chief technology officer, University of Notre Dame, and Walt Magnussen, director of telecommunications, Texas A&M University, will discuss the implementations at both of their institutions. Included in the discussion will be student opinion polls, wireless alternatives, and E911 and other safety considerations.

Second Life is a virtual world with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million "residents," and a thriving economy. The ease in which users can build and modify virtual spaces has made it an attractive choice for experiments in learning space design and educational experiences such as virtual field trips or the creation of galleries to display student-created media. The 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning and how a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces.

In this free June 18 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, IPv4 Depletion and Migration to IPv6, John Curran, chairman of American Registry for Internet Numbers, will present the current IP address usage situation, give a brief history of the problem, and discuss issues regarding the migration to IPv6.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on IPv6, Internet Infrastructure, and Network Protocols.

The EDUCAUSE Live! Spotlight on Identity Management series is a six-month series that feature one or two speakers from a campus that have analyzed or solved a problem in a way that many people will find instructive.

Stanford University's registrar and IT strategist discuss their vision of the future of identity management in higher education. In this free seminar on June 11, How Today's Registrar Demands More from Identity Management Policy and Infrastructure, Thomas Black and Bruce Vincent will give some progressive perspectives on how their roles complement each other in supporting not only admissions processes but a life-long relationship between students and universities.

Planning for emerging technologies is an important part of much of the work people do supporting IT in higher education. The Horizon Report can assist with this effort, as it identifies "emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused institutions."

Multi-touch interfaces are input devices that recognize two or more simultaneous touches, allowing one or more users to interact with computer applications through various gestures created by fingers on a surface. Multi-touch technology introduces users to swipes, pinches, rotations, and other actions that allow for richer, more immediate interaction with digital content. The 7 Things You Should Know About Multi-Touch Interfaces, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how these devices and supporting applications offer diverse ways of visualizing information to improve understanding, as well as facilitating new ways to foster collaborative creation, permitting several users to work simultaneously on a single screen.

The dispute between Blackboard and Desire2Learn over patenting course management software has highlighted a variety of questions about patents and patent enforcement in higher education. What role should patents play in academia's highly collaborative, not-for-profit, revenue-strapped environment? As both producers and consumers of patented inventions, higher education has interests both diverse and deep.

In this free May 29 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Patents in Higher Education: Issues Arising from the Blackboard Case, presenters James Hilton, Vice President and CIO, University of Virginia, and Bruce Wieder, Partner, Dow Lohnes PLLC, will explore key areas of patent law and discuss higher education's options and opportunities.

In a recent survey, one-third of CIOs polled had a high-level architecture group. Of the remaining CIOs, one-third were planning to establish an architecture group in the next year or two. What role does architecture play in projects and strategic planning? Hear the perspective of an IT/enterprise architect as he talks about the practice and value of architecture. Learn about ITANA, a peer group where you can engage and learn more about architect as practiced in higher education.

In this free May 12 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, IT/Enterprise Architecture: What Is It, and What Value Does Leadership Find in Having an Architect at Hand?, presenter Jim Phelps, Senior IT Architect, University of Wisconsin–Madison, will share his thoughts about the practice and value of architecture.

As international culture and commerce become increasingly reliant on visual communications, visual literacy has developed into an essential skill for 21st-century college graduates. With advancements in technology and the digitizing of information, digital literacy has also grown in importance. Digital visual literacy (DVL) is the ability to critically analyze digital visual materials, create effective visual communications, and make judgments and decisions using visual representations of thoughts and ideas. These skills, which actively engage our cognitive processing of visual images, have evolved from concepts at the intersection of a range of established disciplines.

Ning is an online service where users create their own social networks and join and participate in other networks. No technical skill is required to set up a social network, and there are no limits to the number of networks a user can join. The 7 Things You Should Know About Ning, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how Ning allows instructors to use social networks in a neutral setting to help facilitate a strong sense of community among students and encourage personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge.

Browse the complete 7 Things You Should Know About… monthly series.

The EDUCAUSE Live! Spotlight on Identity Management series is a six-month series that will feature one or two speakers from a campus that have analyzed or solved a problem in a way that many people will find instructive.

The meaning of "student" is evolving at Duke University in response to many institutional and faculty outreach efforts. This trend is mirrored at many of Duke's peer institutions. In this free seminar on April 18, The Evolving Definition of “Student”: Identity Management at Duke University, presenters Klara Jelinkova, Director, Computing Systems, and Lynne O’Brien, Director, Academic Technology and Instructional Services, Duke University, will discuss the issues, concepts, and solutions surrounding identity management proposed and implemented at Duke University.

Today in many circles the mention of knowledge management conjures up fears of complex IT systems (often equated with failure) or a new initiative (often associated with vague requirements). How do you develop a knowledge management program that incorporates the essence of organizational learning and knowledge sharing without new tools or systems? The Johnson Space Center has embarked on such a quest to define a program that leverages the wealth of knowledge of 50 years of human space flight not only for today's workforce but also for generations to come.

In this free April 11 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Knowledge Sharing: Some Myths and Ideas, and a Little IT, presenter Jean E. Engle, Chief Knowledge Officer, NASA/Johnson Space Center, will share her thoughts on the effective development of knowledge management programs.

Google Apps is a collection of web-based programs and file storage that run in a web browser. The applications include communication tools (Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar), productivity tools (Google Docs: text files, spreadsheets, and presentations), a customizable start page (iGoogle), and Google Sites (to develop web pages). Google stores all of the files and content centrally and keeps a record of the different versions of a file. The 7 Things You Should Know About Google Apps, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how Google Apps makes sharing content as simple as granting someone access, which facilitates collaboration, peer review of academic materials, and the collective generation of knowledge.

The challenge of web accessibility raises issues of both policy and technology. Join experts in each of these two areas in this free April 4 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, The Why and How of Web Accessibility, as presenters Harry Hochheiser, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University, and Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Program, Cornell University, discuss this important topic.

Policy guru Tracy Mitrano says: "Developing a web accessibility policy has been one of the greatest but most rewarding challenges I have faced in creating an IT policy framework at Cornell. With the EDUCAUSE Live! audience, I would like to share some of the struggles and stories about that process and what accessibility, education, and the web have come to mean to me as a result."