EDUCAUSE_SWRC08

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) has joined the lexicon of broad technology terms university leaders must now understand as they enhance campus competitiveness, innovation, and economic development. This discussion session will cover the campus drivers of CI, why it needs to be part of your long-term investment and strategic planning, and ways to frame CI’s importance when discussing the needs of scholars and researchers. Bring your experiences and thoughts to this lively discussion.

The Texas Tech Library recently opened a robust, interdisciplinary 3D Animation Lab. If offers a highly innovative blend of emerging tools and resources that enable radically new endeavors in teaching, learning, research, creativity, and collaboration in an open access environment. This presentation will address what, why, and how we did it and explore what it means.

In creating a digital library collection on World War II, Texas A&M University-Commerce discovered an opportunity to work in partnership with local museums, public libraries, and historical societies. This diverse community greatly expands our ability to preserve historical resources and make them available to scholars worldwide.

Over the past two years, the IT Marketing and Communications group at Rice University has actively searched for new methods to reach undergraduates. We ask students how they want to hear from us. Then we extrapolate the feedback we gather to guide our campaigns to reach the entire undergraduate population.

Our presentation will detail one university's experience with employing Second Life, from the initial interest and awareness stage through implementing an upper-level undergraduate course with multidisciplinary, multiuniversity, and multinational characteristics made possible through the Second Life's Web 2.0 multiuser virtual environment.