higher education

Educause's Matt Pasiewicz has created a great visualisation of text from university home pages, using the popular webapp Wordle. What can we learn from it about the nature of the modern university? For me, one thing stands out: the single word 'Campus'. It's huge! (In descending size, the most visually prominent words in the visualisation appear to be: Students, University, College, Campus). At a time when virtual worlds are widely promoted and discussed within the educational technology community and more widely, I think the persistence of the physical and tangible within social experience is worth acknowledging. Even if we interpret university websites as propagating a particular type of 'marketing-speak' -- as telling a particular (and partial) story about the nature of the university experience, aimed at potential educational 'consumers' -- is it worth asking, what do we understand by the term 'campus', whether physical or virtual, and how does that understanding sit in relation to our concepts of 'community' and 'culture'?

President Bush signed the Higher Education Act (HEA) Reauthorization into law on August 14. The legislation authorizes the creation of a National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. The center would distribute grants to corporations, universities, and other groups that are developing technology solutions for classroom learning. However, though the Center was approved in an authorization bill, this does not mean it has received appropriations or funding.

Ithaka's research group studies how new technologies are affecting higher education and how colleges and universities can best manage these changes in four discrete program areas: providing academia with the policy basis needed to transition effectively and responsibly away from print collections and toward increasingly electronic-only collections; helping information-services organizations meet the needs of scholars by understanding their changing attitudes and practices; improving the community's understanding of how new information resources drive teaching and learning practices; and analyzing strategies for the most effective possible dissemination of knowledge from colleges and universities to researchers, students, and other learners.

EDUCAUSE is closely following developments in Congress as it continues its work on the Higher Education Act (HEA). Yesterday, a Conference Committee composed of House and Senate Members passed the latest overhaul in higher education law by a vote of 40-4. It is expected that the HEA, which will govern education policy for at least five years, will pass the full Congress on Thursday.

If the House and Senate pass the legislation this week, the Department of Education will then hold regional meetings, asking the public for feedback on how the new regulations should be implemented. EDUCAUSE will track this process and call on interested member institutions to provide feedback and play a role in this important matter.

HEA and Peer-to-Peer File Sharing (P2P).

EDUCAUSE announces a new ECAR research study analyzing a timely and complex IT issue facing higher education today. Because of the critical importance of this topic, the study report is available without charge.

This study, Higher Education IT and Cyberinfrastructure: Integrating Technologies for Scholarship, written by Mark C. Sheehan, explores higher education's involvement in five areas of research-related information technologies: high-performance computing resources, cyberinfrastructure applications and tools, data storage and management resources, advanced network infrastructure resources, and resources for collaboration within virtual communities. The study survey, developed in conjunction with Net@EDU, was completed by 369 North American colleges and universities and is supplemented by a dozen interviews with IT leaders.

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."

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.

EDUCAUSE Now is a new monthly audio podcast that covers news, resources, people, and events related to IT in higher education. The premier episode, launched last week, focuses on topics such as future learning, peer-to-peer file sharing and big broad band, the help desk in higher education IT, and more. Listen now or subscribe to the EDUCAUSE Now RSS feed.