Episode 0011, 08/17/2007
Title: Wiki college classes, dangerous flash drives, and power-hungry data centers
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 11, recorded August 17th, 2007.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information targeted at college students.
This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions for higher education.
Story 1 - Web 2.0 Campuses and Classrooms
Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks, media-sharing sites, and wikis are used by college students every day for social and classroom activities. An article in this week's ComputerWorld tells of a Boston College professor who has turned a classroom wiki into a platform on which he teaches his "Computers in Management" course. A Wiki is an online resource that allows users to post information and edit posted information, in a kind of communal quest for truth. At Boston College, students in Dr. Kane's class use the class Wiki as a textbook, a textbook that is in continual flux as the world evolves. Students also post assignments to the Wiki for other students to critique prior to submitting them for a grade. Students use the wiki to create exam questions, a portion of which Professor Kane selects for the actual exams in class. Much of this course is designed and maintained online by students in the class, with Professor Kane acting more as a guide of Internet sources than a lecturer. This Boston class may provide insight into the future of college education.
Source: Wiki becomes textbook in Boston College classroom (Computerworld)
Story 2 - Campus Concerns over Flash Drives
Most campus network administrators have an uphill battle when it comes to battling viruses, spyware, and hackers. Part of the problem is due to the thousands of flash drives that are connected to campus PCs each day. A virus lurking on any one of those flash drives could spread across the network with the click of a mouse. It works in reverse as well; a virus on the network can transfer to a flash drive within seconds of it being connected to the PC. Many businesses forbid the use of flash drives on corporate PCs in efforts to maintain a safe and secure network. But such policies aren't practical on college campuses where a flash drive is often the primary form of storage for school work. To help safeguard students and their data, many colleges are making efforts to inform students of the risks of using flash drives and impressing on them the need to back up their files. Students need to know that when they connect a flash drive to a PC in a campus computer lab, the data on that drive may be exposed to viruses, spyware, and hackers, and may become corrupt, stolen, or lost.
Sources: Colleges struggle with mandates to prohibit portable storage (ComputerWorld)
Story 3 - Data Centers Draining Power
There have been a number of articles published over the last week posing concerns over the amount of energy used by corporate and government information systems. Large server facilities, called Data Centers that store corporate data and information systems, are using unprecedented amounts of energy and are expected to double their consumption over the next five years. The U.S. government is the largest contributor to the problem accounting for about 10 percent of the nation's computer energy demands, costing taxpayers $450 million in 2006. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, data centers account for 1.5 percent of the total U.S. electricity consumption. That was $4.5 billion of energy in 2006. With concerns over global warming, sparking efforts to reduce emissions from coal-burning power plants, pressure is mounting for organizations to get green. The government and other large corporations are looking at consolidating their data centers and using newer computing and cooling technologies to reduce the burden on the environment.
Sources: Server Facilities Amp Up Energy Use (NewsFactor)
News Briefs
That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!