Educause Floor Shopper: CT Exclusive: Our Product Picks

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Hardware Review

Educause Floor Shopper: CT Exclusive: Our Product Picks

9/30/2006

Want a Study Partner? IM Me

At Campus Technology, we use instant messaging on a daily basis to communicate with colleagues in the office or at home, discuss grammatical questions with fellow editors, and update co-workers on meeting times, the status of an article or project, or the day’s lunch plans. Making connections via IM is nothing new to the Millennial generation, either. So we were excited to hear that Pronto, an IM and voice chat solution from Horizon Wimba, is bringing the sense of IM as a collaboration tool into the university environment. Pronto connects to a school’s existing course management system (CMS), allowing students to add contacts to their buddy list automatically, based on who is enrolled in their courses. They can then discuss coursework with study partners via instant message or audio chat, and IM questions to professors or TAs. Sure, there are caveats to IM in the classroom; the risk, for example, of a professor losing the attention of students who are busy chatting away with their buddies. But since IM has already become a way of life for today’s students, why not harness that tool for academic benefit? Booth 1235.

Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 6.0

Xythos Software Targets Compliance and Cost

Two words we hear repeatedly in discussions of higher ed IT are compliance and cost. If these issues are high on the list of your institution’s enterprise document management concerns, check out the Xythos Software booth, where the company is featuring its new Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 6.0 and customer implementations of its Digital Locker Suite. EDMS 6.0 (pictured) is a web-based application developed in accordance with the US Department of Defense 5015.2 standard. New enterprise records management features— including enhanced auditing and configurable retention schedules—help institutions manage risk, and squarely address compliance. With more than one million licensed academic and research users, Xythos boasts an abundance of customer success stories, and cost efficiency is a recurring theme: Brigham Young University-Hawaii, for one, expects to save an estimated 25 percent in server resources for e-mail alone after deploying the Digital Locker Suite. Booth 1109.

Cisco’s Virtual Classroom Package Closes the Production Gap

There’s a lot of buzz about virtual classrooms, and conference sessions offer plenty of technical advice about how to stream lectures, or how to design courses for synchronous or asynchronous learning. But education leaders at Cisco Systems think there’s an important issue that just hasn’t been addressed until now: There’s a big leap between full-blown, sophisticated—and expensive—distance learning programs and more modest entries into that virtual world. How can you bridge the “production gap” and offer high-quality audio, video, and web conferencing, no matter what your program’s size or maturity? Cisco hopes to answer that question with its introduction of the Virtual Classroom package. Five Cisco technologies—IP videoconferencing, IP telephony, web conferencing, a digital management system, and a content engine—allow educators to ramp up production values while staying within budget. Head to Cisco’s booth to see Virtual Classroom for yourself and ask questions face-to-face. Booth 711.

Student Response G'es Virtual

Schools like the University of Akron (OH), which implemented an extensive “clicker” instruction pilot program in 2004, have been using student response systems (SRS) long enough to know that teaching with an SRS engages students, enhances learning, and improves performance. And that instant student feedback can help educators modify their lectures or presentations as they go, to maximize student interest and understanding. So, what’s on the horizon for SRS technology? We think GTCO CalComp’s Virtual PRS is an exciting new twist on SRS. Virtual PRS is a software-based solution—a virtual clicker—that allows students to respond from their computers via the network, rather than via a radio-frequencybased clicker. That means the SRS can be used both in and out of the classroom; schools can configure their networks to allow distance learners with remote access to use Virtual PRS to respond to instructor questions, participate in classroom discussions, take tests, and register their attendance. Booth 1315.