Just where my head went.

1.  iPad talk continues in the Wired Campus section of the Chronicle of Higher Education with a piece titled “Classroom iPad Programs Get Mixed Response.” I suspect the debate is far from over, so don’t judge too quick.  However, I would not bet against the Apple devise.

2.  The USA Today ran a piece about student fees supporting bigger and bigger chunks of athletic budgets in a piece called “How student fees boost college sports amid rising budgets.” I am an athletic supporter (poor joke intended) but schools have to look at the burden that is being placed on students.  Fees need to be transparent to students and potential students.  Let everyone make informed decisions.

3. The University of Florida may be considering something pretty radical by conventional standards to ease overcrowding, no fall classes.  The USA Today and Inside Higher Ed had a nice piece that highlights the idea.  Students could go to class in the Spring and Summer and skip the fall.  Great idea if you are okay with the sacred cow of fall as being the beginning of the academic year.

4.  The Des Moines Register had an article that tackles public art and nudity.  I  remember dealing with a professional dance troupe doing their closing number in the nude when I was in grad school.  Times have not changed.   But public display of art that has questionable material is a little different than event where tickets are sold. Maybe throw a warning sign up each end of the hallway and then watch the traffic increase.

5. The value of a college degree is growing according to a survey.  The New York Times reported on this on September 21, 2010.  Let’s consider this good news.  Everyone would like to offer more value to their customers.

1. From the USA Today on September 16, 2010 “College bans Facebook, Twitter, all social media this week”.  The break is a time to reflect on social media in our society according the school’s Provost.   It is a small school that is causing a big splash by getting out of the social media pool for a week.
2. From Inside Higher Ed on September 14, 2010, “Women Lead Doctorates” tells the story that women are now earning more doctorate degrees than men.  The most recent study has women making up 50.4% which is only a slight majority but it is significant when you look at the trending data.  Women were 44% of doctorates in 2000. If this were a competition, I would say come on men, let’s get it together but for now I will say “Way to go ladies!”
3. From University Business on September 15, 2010, “Service Makes Sure No One Forgets at Michigan State” Students can receive text messages and email reminders of class assignments once their professor uploads the syllabus to Remind101.com. Sounds gr8 2 me
4. Inside Higher Ed goes between the sheets on September 16, 2010 with an article titled “Fear Under the Sheets.”  It’s a bedbug article so read at your own risk.
5. White House sets October 5 as the date for “White House Summit on Community Colleges.”  Jill Biden will host the event that is supposed to “to provide an opportunity for community college leaders, students, education experts, business leaders and others to share innovative ways to educate our way to a better economy.” An Inside Higher Ed has a Quick Take on the event.

We discuss the 3 Social Media takeaways so Higher Ed Can Smell Like Old Spice.

From The Chronicle on Aug 5, 2010 – Can Things Possibly Get Any Worse for the U. of Georgia.

MIT students being question in the WikiLeaks scandal. The Chronicle reported on August 2, 2010. On August 4, 2010 MIT’s The Tech has a followup to the story with additional information that clarifies exactly how the students are or in this case are not involved.

Will the single-gender bedroom fall as the last separation of the sexes on college campuses? A trend has men and women sharing rooms on a growing number of campuses. The Sacramento Bee reviews on August 4, 2010.

More considerations around e-book readers; distractions or a new tool? USA Today checked this out on August 10, 2010

The NookStudy from Barnes & Noble was released for download on Mac or PC.

From Technology Review on Aug 10, 2010 100 Students at unnamed schools will be finally testing the tablet device Kno.

From TechCrunch on Aug 6, 2010 – Bill Gates Thinks the Web Will Soon Offer the Best College Education

A followup story we covered about UC Berkeley doing DNA analysis on students from NPR on Aug 13, 2010.

There are a growing number of programs that are designed to help the learning disabled make the transition to college. The programs have increased from 22 in 2001 to more than 250 today. The USA Today explores some of these programs on August 11, 2010

Incite on how an IT Director is handling the new illegal downloading regulations on college campuses. Audio from The Chronicle on Aug 11, 2010

Higher Ed Highlight for August

Site of the Week: Paper.li

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We had to push the episode back because Nicole was at Comic-Con, however there was a panel called Comics in the Classroom showing that comics can be an effective tool in the classroom.

More iPad experiments are popping up on campuses. Wired Campus of the Chronicle takes a look on July 20, 2010.

From Campus Technology on July 20, 2010 Barnes & Noble To Release Free E-Textbook App in August. Ebooks become apps with enhanced editions!

Justice department this week announced that it is considering revising ADA regulations “to establish specific requirements for state and local governments and public accommodations to make their Web sites accessible to individuals with disabilities. Great debate in the comments below from The Chronicle on July 28, 2010

Maybe Students do care about their privacy on Facebook Quick Take from Inside Higher Ed; full story from FirstMonday on July 21, 2010

Ivory towers are being torn down as students and parents want more of a relationship with the university president. The Washington Post tells us how the presidents are getting out of their offices and around campus in an article posted on July 12, 2010

According to R&D magazine, high schools and community colleges need better relationships to cut down on the number of remedial classes that incoming students need to take to succeed at the college level. The article appears on July 15, 2010

Is College less prestigious a University? 6 state schools in Boston seem to think so & change their names.

From mstonerblog on July 28, 2010 Great examples of using Mashups in Higher Education

From LifeHacker on July 19, 2010 A website potentially could help students manage their debt more effectively

It’s the summer conference season! Here are 75+ upcoming social media & tech events

Site of the Week: Nixty

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While 1000 people is a good size, the make up of the sample pool is limited in age ranges. Can social media rot the brains of older students? Maybe the younger students have spent more time on these sites and learned how to responsibly work them into their lives. Either way, this should not be considered a free pass for students to spend all their waking moments on the social media sites. As with food, alcohol and work, gluttony is never a good thing.  But at least, we know that our brains are not being rotted by social media and will have some left over for when the zombies attack.

Gawker on July 7 advises – Poor Kids Wise Up, Skip College, but other articles say college is more about aspirations and students should not be discourage to go.

Starting this month if your institution does not do enough to stop illegal file-sharing, you may lose some federal funds. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on July 1, 2010

Context is everything, especially when dealing with a YouTube clip and sensitive subject matter like rape. Inside Higher Ed explains the situation on July 6, 2010

Glen Beck University is on its way?!?!? The radio and talk show host has introduced this service for his fans that are part of the Insider Extreme service. Inside Higher Ed reported on July 6, 2010 As mentioned on the show check out a similar site with the topic of food with Top Chef University

Technology is a great teaching tool, but if you misuse it you could be left looking like a fool. Failing to disconnect your video feed then watching some adult material while still streaming to your class might not be a good idea. Inside Higher Ed has a Quick Take on July 2, 2010

Posted on July 7, 2010 on Canada.com Should teachers use social media to connect with students? A growing debate continues.

Blackboard to Buy 2 Education-Software Companies. Reported in the Wired Campus area of The Chronicle of Higher Ed on July 7, 2010.

Higher Ed Highlight for July:

Site of the Week: Cramster

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From InformationWeek on June 25, The White House has released its 39 page draft digital id strategy.

From SearchSecurity.com, Gartner: Companies shouldn’t bother banning Facebook & social networking

Before your institution puts too many resources behind a single eReader, make sure it is accessible. The Wired Campus section of The Chronicle reviews the issue and links to the letter from the DOE. The article appeared on June 29, 2010

Slow down and actually read the words on the page. A professor becomes another voice in the cry for slower reading and increased comprehension. The article appeared in The USA Today on June 19, 2010

A cost saving measure by lawmakers is seen as an attack on academic freedom. But is asking faculty to select cheaper textbooks a good move for students or a slap to faculty? Inside Higher Ed on June 28, 2010

From The Chronicle on July 1, Colleges are ramping up efforts to connect with prospective students through Twitter—but students aren’t interested, a new study says

The differences between Facebook and Twitter from The Chronicle

Archive, analyze and export tweets with The Archivist.

A new tool to catch admissions cheaters is being tested. The Chronicle’s Wired Campus reviews the tool on June 24, 2010

Starting small may win big when it comes to entering higher education. The result might be a more effective recruiting strategy for universities. The Houston Chronicle highlights this trend on June 30, 2010.

Site of the Week: AcademicEarth

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In the cloud space Google Apps has been dominating but Microsoft seems to be gaining traction: A french business school moved from Google apps to Microsoft live@edu From ComputerWorld on June 24

Academic libraries may need to keep changing their services to keep pace with changes in technology. The Wired Campus section of The Chronicle reports on June 22, 2010.

We discuss an article from Mashable on June 25 on 5 Cool Non-Profit location tech tools and how they could potential be used in higher education.

Text messages take over as the top quick communication method surpassing email and instant messaging (IM). Reported in the Wired Campus section of The Chronicle on June 17

5 Reasons Why You should use Social Media for graduate recruiting from Statmats on June 25

Follow up to Loyola Law School in Los Angeles from episode 6. It appears that several other schools have done the same thing. Inside Higher Ed on June 22, 2010 New York Times on June 22, 2010

Follow up to the story about a significant student strike at the University of Puerto Rico that we discussed in episode 12. Students gain after the strike has reached a tentative agreement New York Times reports on June 17

From the New York Times on June 25 we discuss are video games works of art?

Site of the Week: GradeGuru

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This week we review some of the rules that the Department of Education is considering to help students make informed decisions about school choices. Some of the highlights include having the schools disclose graduation rates, job placement rates and debt to income ratios.  There were multiple articles out there this week but we highlighted three: From The New York Times on June 15, 2010.  From The Washington Post on June 16, 2010.  From the Associated Press on June 16, 2010.

Don’t forget that illegal file sharing will be under closer scrutiny this fall. The DOE sent a reminder letter to institutions. Inside Higher Ed Quick Takes shared the article on June 15, 2010.

A Tariff on Plagiarism? Can a new standard be adopted across all higher education institutions to punish students that lift material? Some folks across the pond would like to set the standard. Inside Higher Ed looks at the plagiarism issue on June 16, 2010.

A blogger for the US News and World Report shared her take on the 10 Best College Websites on June 15, 2010.

Amy Bishop to face charges for the 1986 shooting death of her brother. Due to the investigation of the alleged murder of colleagues about four months ago, a grand jury has indicted Ms. Bishop for the 1986 death of her brother. The Chronicle reported on June 17, 2010.

Don’t feed the meter, instead send a text message to pay for your parking space. At least that is the intent of a computer scientist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. The Chronicle’s Wired Campus takes a look at the text to park program on June 16, 2010.

Site of the Week: Google Docs

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Follow up to last week’s lead story, Stanford is following suite and doing some DNA testing of its own. Though it is not testing all incoming students, only medical and graduate students enrolled in the School of Medicine’s summer session elective “Genetics 210: Genomics and Personalized Medicine.” Inside Higher Ed, Quick Takes reported on June 8, 2010

Alleged Harvard con artist also won admission to Stanford from Boston Globe on June 9

Legendary basketball and an even better person, Coach John Wooden passed away recently. The USA Today shares some stories about The Wizard of Westwood. A collection of ‘Woodenisms’ from ESPN

From The Chronicle on June 11 Standing Up Against Money in College Sports

From Yahoo News on June 4 Four-day school weeks gain popularity across US to save money and results in some surprising benefits.

Austin Business Journal on June 7 reports Texas higher education board launches ‘Generation TX’

Online institutions, programs and classes are growing by leaps and bounds. The experience for the on-line courses is getting better and better. We have come a long way from just pointing and clicking. The Miami Herald explores this on June 7, 2010

We’ve talked in the past about accreditation. Well it seems the House will be investigating as reported by Financial Aid News on June 11

Blind students sue over access to an online law school applications. The Chronicle’s Wired Campus printed an article on June 9, 2010.

SponsorMyDegree.com is a place where around 10,000 students try to stand out and get donors to stand up and provide donations. The Tennessean reports on June 8, 2010.

The Datatel MOX application is now live in the iTunes store. Datatel schools will begin adding their information to the application allowing anyone with the app to see news, events, maps & important numbers. There are additional features of the app that if set up by the institution can be accessed with a login and password.

Higher Ed Highlight for the month of June

Site of the Week: ShareNotes

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UC Berkeley offers to test all freshmen’s DNA in the Fall. Officials were caught off guard as to the concern about the plan. The LA Times reported on June 1, 2010.

Who Needs Google? Students Still Use Phone Hotline from NPR on June 1

Tennessee works hard to make sure most of the core curriculum will transfer between schools. Report in The Tennessean on May 31, 2010

At least 1 school is changing how they do admissions to save students from stressing out. University of Washington changes freshman admission policy reported on June 1 from Business Journal

A followup from an article we discussed in Episode 11: Students will not be punished for spelling out questionable words in their farewell edition of The Daily Utah Chronicle according to the Salt Lake Tribune on May 26, 2010

Another follow up from Episode 8: A Virginia prosecutor has apologized to The Breeze, the student newspaper at James Madison University, and agreed to pay the publication $10,000 to resolve a dispute over authorities’ seizure of hundreds of photographs of a campus party in an attempt to identify students who became violent during the event. Student Press Law Center on June 1, 2010

Ban On Ethnic Studies Divides Educators in Arizona. Listen to the interview or read the discussion from NPR on May 24

British student fined over a web site that offered to help find a love connection in the library. The site quickly became a success and just was fast was closed when university administrators asked that the student shut it down. The Wired Campus section of The Chronicle brings us this on June 1, 2010

A professor in the Department of Informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California, Irvine has written a book about her social experiences with World of Warcraft. Listen to her interview or read her book

Another ereader to hit the market. This one is called Kno. No price is given so details for the product look to be still in development

Site of the Week: FlatWorld Knowledge

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Seth Odell recently wrote a guest blog titled “5 Reasons Higher Ed can Forget about Location-Based Services” This blog gives some pretty decent reasons why schools don’t need to rush out and sign up for all the latest location-based services.

An Open Letter to the Class of 2010 (5 Tips for Financial Security) from Financial Aid News on May 28

New York Times reports on May 21 – Jobs and the Class of 2010

College Stores research says students prefer textbooks over e-textbooks. Is this the same as a fast food restaurant saying how healthy its food is? Inside Higher Ed had a Quick Take on May 26, 2010

Could this be an iPad/Kindle competitor?

According to research, today’s college students lack empathy. LifeScience.com posted article about research on May 28, 2010

From Mashable on 5/26 University of Reading’s Dr. Mark Gasson has an unusual distinction: He’s the first human to become infected with a computer virus.

Researcher’s brake lines may have been cut and the FBI is investigating. Reported in the Mercury News on May 24, 2010

Researchers Find ‘Million-Follower Fallacy’ in Twitter according to an article in The Chronicle on May 25, 2010.

Facebook addresses… wait for it… privacy.

DOH!

Ann Curry cites wrong alumni in commencement speech. Right name but wrong school. Inside Higher Ed brings the mistake to light on May 25, 2010

Site of the Week: JotForm

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Are Admission Offices too trusting? The Boston Globe looks into the issue using the Adam Wheeler case as a springboard. The article is from May 19, 2010.

Did you know you could get a Masters Degree for $5,692? Top 34 Best Online Degree Programs in Management: GetEducated.com Ranks Best Values in Online Graduate Education

Strayer University launches virtual commencement. The Business Wire picked up the release on May 19, 2010.

The velvet rope has been lifted and Google Wave has officially opened for general use. The Wired Campus section of The Chronicle reported on May 19, 2010.

From ComputerWorld on May 13, 2010: Google, Microsoft trade more blows over Docs, Office 2010

Puerto Rican students protesting budget cuts and have been on the ‘picket line’ since April 21. New York Times reports on May 20, 2010.

From CNET.com on May 21, 2010: How to delete your Facebook profile

Check your privacy settings or you could end up here!

Site of the Week: Backupify

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My thoughts are as follows: 1. If you ever joked about “the college/university would be so much easier without the students,” be careful what you wish for.  2. Communication is not a one-way street.  Both sides need to get back to the negotiation table and listen to each other.

These are just some of my quick thoughts. Let us know what you think.

From Mashable on May 13, NYU Students Raise More than $100,000 to Build Facebook Alternative

We talk about the interactive graph showing the Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

The Chronicle on May 12, Colleges ‘Freaking Out’ Over New Facebook Community Pages

From a blog post on the community at ECMU on May10, Parking Tickets As Student Records? Campuses Debate Over What Student Information Is Protected by FERPA

Two Mexican universities suspend programs with University of Arizona over immigration. Reported in University Business on May 10, 2010.

Undocumented student’s arrest called part of ‘civil rights disaster’ from CNN.com on May 16

President Obama disses iPads, iPods, Playstations and Xboxes during commencement speech. Reported on Yahoo on May 10, 2010

Are universities losing their influence in the tech world? Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus investigates on May 10, 2010

Doh!

Prank by students on the student paper has consequences. USAToday on May 7, 2010.

Site of the Week: Jing

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The iPad 3G is out and schools seemed to be divided on supporting the device. Note: The Mac OS is limited to Index 1 when the network is protected with WEP. If they set the WEP index to anything other than 1, the Mac won’t be able to connect. The iPad suffers from the same limitation. You can ask them to change the encryption from WEP to WPA

From The Wall Street Journal on May 4, Google is planning on releasing it’s own E-Book Plan & Brings in a New Sales Approach.

The integration for docs.com is starting to open for users, but not for everyone.

Professor opts out of the grading business and gets great results. Inside Higher Ed on May 3, 2010

From The Chronicle Most professors use social media. Wired Campus reports on some recent survey data that has 4 out of 5 faculty using social media.

From Inside Higher Ed on May 5, Four PhD’s release their first CD inspired by canonical works of literature.

From WashingtonPost.com a new report is out on Who Borrows More for College

Virginia Commonwealth University is raising tuition 24 percent and still not closing the budget hole. University Business reports on May 3, 2010

Arkansas’ universities are only graduating less than 40% of their students. University Business and the Texarkana Gazette report on these poor numbers on May 2, 2010.

Some colleges are opting out of US News & World Report’s annual rankings. The Washington Post explored this on May 3, 2010.

Our Monthly Higher Ed Highlight: Fresno Pacific University

Site of the Week: TripIt

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This week we’ll be discussing the meltdown of higher education from a marketers perspective, NJ students utilizing Facebook to organize protests, an update on the sex tourism site scandal, we’ll take a look at how some schools are dealing with enrollment issues, why Northern AZ student will think twice about skipping class and some helpful tips if your gmail gets hacked.

From Seth Godin’s website his thoughts on the coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer) and the counter-point to Mr. Godin’s article from Dylan Wilbanks.

NJ students use Facebook to organize protest . Under the heading of putting rumors to bed, Harvard did not revoke admissions to a student that made rude remarks on Facebook. Inside Higher Ed contacted Harvard to get the whole truth and reported it on April 27, 2010.

Make sure you define your Facebook privacy! New features were announced and you are automatically opted in. To find the setting go to Account -> Privacy Settings -> Applications & Websites -> Instant Personalization Pilot Program

Following up on last weeks story, the sex tourism site from a professor in the California State University system has been taken it down according to Inside Higher Ed and report on April 26, 2010.

Even though studies show that students are taking longer to graduate, a trend toward three-year bachelor degrees is not slowing down. University Business looks at a Los Angeles Times article published on April 22, 2010.

Ann Arundel Community College is the latest two-year institution to think outside of the box to deal with ever-increasing enrollment numbers. University Business and the Baltimore Sun report on these late night activities on April 26, 2010.

Students at Northern Arizona may want to think twice about skipping classes? A new system will take attendance based upon who enters the lecture hall with their student ID. The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at this issue on April 27, 2010 in their Wired Campus area.

Nicole created a blog post on what happens if your Gmail (& other web services) gets hacked and some great resources to help if you do. First and foremost, make sure you have a strong password!

Site of the Week: Dropbox

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Surprise, surprise, there are privacy concerns about such a system. What happens if a student leaves their ID in their car, at home, or in their residence hall?  What happens if I give my ID to another student to carry with me? Can this data be used for ‘big brother’ type of evil? Is this treating students like children?

On the other hand, many professors use attendance as a factor in grading the class. There have been several studies that indicate students that make higher grades go to class more often. Isn’t this just a more efficient way of taking roll? I mean the professor could pass a sign up sheet down each row or call out names. Scanning is just more efficient.

I don’t know where I stand on this topic yet.  But I do know that students pay for classes and can always select to attend or not.  Of course, there are consequences for those actions too. Whether scanned or not, I do recommend that students always go to class, just like I did.

University of Redlands Named “Green College” by The Princeton Review The Century-Old Campus Receives Its Second National Environmental Award This Year, This Time from the Review and U.S. Green Building Council

A college professors personal sex site sparks debate reported from Inside Higher Ed on April 22, 2010

Don’t party with the student paper taking pictures. Inside Higher Ed on April 19, 2010 and from Richmond-Times Dispatch on April 17, 2010

From npr.org on April 21, 2010 An unusually large number of high school seniors this year are still waiting to find out where they’re going to college this fall, because colleges have put more of them on wait lists. Best rejection letters

Supreme Court looks at a schools policy on student organizations from USA Today April 19, 2010

A university president makes a YouTube video and learns something. Reported from The Chronicle on April 19, 2010

Colleges will need to add a Net Price calculator to their websites by 2011

The F8 Facebook conference was held yesterday and one big announcement that could be a game changer for online shared documents.

Are Students Addicted to Social Media? – New UM Study

Site of the Week: Docs.com

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The first step is to make sure the Administrator of the Fan Page has a personal account with Facebook. After the user has been registered, they can then create either a Fan Page, Community or Group. In this blog post I will only be discussing set up for fan pages, but community & group do have their place but are much more limited in functionality.

Once the Fan Page is created you will want to add an image to represent your school. This will be the icon that will show in a fan’s users facebook feed when something new is posted to the page. Underneath the image is a link to Edit Page. This will be the area where new applications, administrators & rss feeds can be added to the page. While you are on this main page you will also want to write up a small blerb about your school in the left hand column and define your institutions information under the Info tab.

Clicking on Edit Page will allow you to edit all settings for the fan page, as well as allow you to add additional administrators. Once an administrator is added to the fan page, anything they post will show it is coming from the page rather the individual. I will also discuss in this blog post how to add an RSS feed to your page to keep it looking active, as well as adding HTML to a tab or wall on your page.

First lets start with adding an RSS feed to your fan page. Most schools may already be updating information on their website or portal that has an RSS feed attached. Facebook allows you through the Notes application to import that RSS feed into the fan page. So when a new item is published, not only does it update the original source, it will also publish to the fan page. Anyone that has fan’ed your page will now see that item in their Facebook feed, thus distributing the information to an even wider audience. The only limitation to the Notes application is it can only import a single RSS feed. However there are services like Yahoo Pipes that allows you to define multiple RSS feeds into a single RSS feed that can then be used in the Notes application.

Another really powerful feature to pages is the abililty to add any 3rd party Facebook applications to the page. The one that I have found most useful is Static FBML. This app was created by Facebook to allow admins to define HTML code on a tab or wall. The application is so popular it is highlighted at the bottom of the Edit page. Simply click on the link and Add to my Page and pick the page you want it to appear.

Once the FBML app is installed the application will appear on the Edit Page and allow you to define any HTML code. In my example below I am using HTML code from Datatel’s website, viewing the source for the webpage and then taking a piece of that code and adding it to the FBML application.

Once the FBML box has be defined, it can be added as a Tab (note it will show as whatever title you named it) from the Main Page or from the Boxes tab the FBML app can be added directly to the front wall (great for smaller sized pieces of code)

If you have multiple fan pages, the Favorites feature is a nice way to connect all of the pages together. Simply click Add to My Page’s Favorites from the main page and if you have administrator rights to the other page, it will show in the list.

Once you have all of your information set up on your fan page, then promoting the page is the final step. Using Facebook widgets and badges is a great way to let others know you have a fan page available for them to ‘fan’. Embedd them on your main website or portal to encourage other facebook users to support your school.

If you have any suggestions for 3rd party facebook applications or questions in general, please feel free to post them in the comments here. I love hearing how others use social sites like Facebook and I find sharing creates new opportunities for new ideas for all!

Blackboard and SunGard team up and make nice on April 8, 2010. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Blackboard-Makes-Nice-With/22399/

Professor promotes his class on YouTube with a lot of success.

From npr.org on April 15, 2010, TV’s ‘The Wire’ Gets New Life In College Classrooms

Capella University’s Latest ‘Inside Online Education’ Podcast: These regular podcasts feature interviews with Capella students, faculty and staff who share the experience of online education from a first-person point of view. They are typically about 15 minutes long and are available at http://www.capellacommons.com.

Virtual Campus Tour with Bill Gates The talks will also simulcast live on TechCrunch (UC Berkeley, 4/19) and Mashable (Harvard, 4/21). I’ll tweet more details about the live webcasts next week and will be active on Twitter

The University of Washington is leading an expedition deeper into social media and web 2.0. Inside Higher Ed explores along with them on April 14, 2010. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/14/hosein

From USAToday on April 15, 2010 LSU removes tough professor, raises students’ grades

HighSchoolSports.net Launches Free Online Video Platform for College Recruiting

Profs. want students to consider text writing l8ly. University Business and the Mercury News report on this topic on April 13, 2010.

Great blog post from Mashable listing all the upcoming conferences in the social media space.

Site of the Week: LectureFox

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The iPad is here and so are the apps for education. We discuss apps used for preparing for driving tests, explaining complex medical terms, this day in history, dictionaries, and visualizing the planets

It looks like more institutions are asking the question about giving away iPads and other mobile technology. The story appears on Inside Higher Ed.com on April 5, 2010.

“Study buddies” & TeacherMates are becoming more popular in school. Even the use of the Nintendo DS is becoming widely used in Japanese schools.

James Kohlhaas, a developer from Datatel, recently won the Microsoft KODU programming contest for his application on Xbox live. More info about Kodu development platform.

The USA Today on March 30th, 2010 took a closer look at the recent changes to student loans.

Students at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles got a grade bump for every grade for every student. Inside Higher Ed reports on this mass grade change on April 2, 2010.

Knox College in Galesburg Illinois is the Butler of commencements speakers. The New York Times explored their impressive roster in an April 4, 2010 article.

Site of the Week: YouTube.com/Edu

If interested in learning how to program an iPhone app, Stanford University has made the entire course free to download from iTunes.

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Blackboard, an e-learning company, announced an iPad application to allow students the ability to access their course material from the new device. There are several publishers of textbooks that are also lining up to have their books available on this new device. Other technology companies will line up to put their applications on this new device to attract the attention of students in colleges and universities.

I am not an expert on mobile devices, e-learning or marketing. However, I can say without a doubt that if I was a student, I would want this device. It is going to be a great e-reader. It will be a great way to do some quick research via the web. It will help students with many tasks that they need to do while in class like taking notes and accessing course material. If schools wait until the trend is fully entrenched, the next best thing will already be moving on. Students will add this new tool to their backpacks and schools should make sure they can support it. You don’t have to give it away but you do need to make sure that is useful on your campus.

3.3 million students have their loan and personal information stolen. Reported on ABCNews.com on March 26, 2010. Here is a link to the company’s website with more information if you believe you are one of the people effected.

From NewYorkTimes.com on March 30, 2010 Debt for many states is growing too big to camouflage.

iPads for everyone! Wired Campus of The Chronicle on March 30, 2010.

Is this a word of caution about e-textbooks? A study done at Arizona State University looks into print versus electronic (with a very small sample size). Published in The Chronicle on March 26, 2010.

Schools working hard to make first generation students successful. USAToday.com took a look on 3/30/10

A great article in the March edition of Inc magazine discussing some great startups from college students.

Evolve or Die OR Adapt or Decline from Inside Higher Ed on March 26, 2010.

School breaks with years of traditions and plays the national anthem before a baseball game from New York Times on March 25, 2010.

DOH!
Around 5,000 students submitted an outdated FAFSA form due to a website error. “Some 2010-2011 applicants attempting to access the FAFSA using an unsupported browser were misdirected to the 2009-2010 form after receiving a warning message indicating that their browser was not supported,”

Site of the Week: Scribd.com Documents from Scribd can be sent to any eDevice

We’d also like to thank Dan Dillon from Perceptive Software for speaking with us at this years Datatel Users Group Conference.

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Riding the health-care wave, the house has approved changes in financial aid. The bill rewrites a four-decades-old student loan program, eliminating its reliance on private lenders and uses the savings to direct $36 billion in new spending to Pell Grants for students in financial need. Reported in USA Today on March 22, 2010.

A timeline of the history of student loan reform

Abilene Christian University is trying to find out if the iPhone has an impact on higher education. Report on Networkworld.com on March 23, 2010.

Wikipedia is advocating for users to add videos to its online encyclopedia, which could give academics a new forum in which to share their multimedia work.

What is the role of the university in the new century? IE the future of education. The presentation this conversation was based on from SXSW and the actual presentation in 3 parts: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Professor at Indiana U engages students by turning his class into a game

Jane McGonigal’s outlook on gaming and how it can make us better people! Evoke is her new social online game aimed at making us better people and solving real world problems

DOH!
Reading for meaning isn’t always safe, especially for advertisements.

Upcoming HE Conferences:
Visit Joe, Jay & Nicole at the Datatel Users Group happening on March 28-31. They will be recording an episode of Higher Ed Review live!

Site of the Week:SlideShare.net

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Inside Higher Ed reported on Tuesday that Chase, the 2009′s fifth largest student lender, announced they were pulling out of the federal student loan program.

New Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act was enacted into law on Thursday. Still guess on how it might effect schools

From The Chronicle Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology was released this month by the Department of Education. This is a draft of the National Educational Technology Plan 2010 and it calls for an increased role for online learning in kindergarten through 12th grade and says colleges of education must include online learning in their curricula as well. Other proposals to expand digital learning are in the first national broadband plan, released by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. In its news release previewing the document, the FCC said it wants to give “anchor institutions” such as schools and hospitals affordable access to ultra-high-speed broadband.

Reported from the StarTribune.com: Professors are assigning students take a break from technology. Students were not allowed to use any media or gadgets that was invented after 1984.

Can a wikis slay the meeting monster? Inside Higher Ed.com asked the question on March 15, 2010.

Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, has called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to ban teams with graduation rates below 40 percent from future tournaments.

MIT has their version of March Madness

Can’t get enough of March Madness? Sprint announced the ability to watch the games on SprintTV In addition you can also download the CBS Sports NCAA March Madness on Demand and watch live video of 63 NCAA games on the iPhone or iPod touch for $9.99; there is a lite version that only shows the brackets & scoresfor free.

Upcoming HE Conferences:
The Datatel Users Group happening at the end of this month March 28-31. Joe, Jay, Brian & Nicole will be there and will be recording an episode of Higher Ed Review live.

Site of the Week:Zoho.com

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From the New York Times an article discussing how the House Democrats are desperately trying to prevent another of President Obama’s top legislative priorities, an ambitious overhaul of student loan programs from becoming a casualty of the health care battle.

Looking for a bargain in higher education? Yahoo Finance posts its list of 15 Fantastic Higher Education Value.

USA Today reports bucking the cost-cutting, budget slashing, recession spending trend, assistant football coaches are making good.

Inside Higher Ed reports Online students create student organizations to get in that desired networking, social and professional development by creating virtual clubs.

Clickers and mobile devices/apps in the classroom might help…if used properly. Published in the Tampa Tribune on March 8, 2010

The Chronicle.com reporting on the Google Book Search Case will be ruled on soon

A little old news, but Phoenix local news highlighted this story: DJ’ing for college credit? Scottsdale Community College is the first in the country to offer college credit

From ReadWriteWeb.com, Hitwise is reporting Facebook sends nearly three times as much of its downstream traffic to broadcast media websites as compared to Google News.

If you have not developed your Facebook presence, a great place to start is creating a great Facebook page

Upcoming HE Conferences:
The Datatel Users Group happening at the end of this month March 28-31. Joe, Jay & Nicole will be there and hopefully be able to record and episode of Higher Ed Review live.
EduComm 2010 at the Mirage, Las Vegas, June 7-9, announces a cutting-edge agenda focused on higher education success! Building on the breakthroughs of previous events, the EduComm 2010 program brings together top thought leaders, innovators, and speakers to present, discuss, and navigate the unprecedented challenges and opportunities shaping the future of higher education.
eduWEB July 26-28

Site of the Week: Bit.ly

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We start off this week following up a story we discussed last week. The pre-protest for the March 4th event turns ugly in CA.

Protesting across the country from students & faculty on March 4, 2010

The State House of Representatives have proposed channeling the mandatory fees students pay each quarter into the state’s general fund.

The fate of University newspapers

Another alternative for affordable college courses called StraighterLine. Students can try StraightLine for a flat $99 a month, plus $39 per course. However students should always check if these credits will transfer to the school they plan to attend.

Released on Feb 24th, 2010 the Higher Education Information Security Council 2010–2011 Strategic Plan What is HEISC? EDUCAUSE and Internet2 established the Higher Education Information Security Council (formerly the Security Task Force) in July 2000. The council works to improve cybersecurity across the higher education sector and actively promotes effective practices and solutions for the protection of information assets and critical infrastructures. Visit the Higher Education Information Security Council website for additional resources or learn more about the council’s Leadership Team and Working Groups. The Security Professional Conference will be held in Atlanta, GA this year on April 12-14 for those looking to connect with other information security professionals, security analysts and engineers, IT staff, C-level executives, and others from across the higher education community.

An interesting read about how Facebook was founded

Survey from Standford University asking students: Are you addicted to the iPhone?

Site of the Week: Twitter
Additional services to use with Twitter: Twitterfeed, Twubs and using Twitter in your Outlook

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Students Hold Funeral for Higher Education in Denver, CO. Students are trying to rally together for a massive protest on March 3.  As well as another (separate) protest on March 4th in California

Students Launch Protest of AT&T Coverage

From Financial Aid News: Students yo have a week or two left to file your FAFSA to receive maximum aid from both the government and your chosen school

The Chronicle reports Wal-Mart Grants $10 million to Institutions for first generation students.

A tuition free university? Not quite. The admission requirements.

The New York Times reported on a new tool that allows faculty to electronically rewriting E-textbooks.

The organizers of TedxFutureEd are looking for committee members & speakers. TedxFutureEd is part of  Tedx Events.

Site of the Week: TeacherTube

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