Episode 0059, 07/26/2008
Title/Description: Distance Ed Privacy Invasion, Big
Cable Fingers Education, New Systems on Chips
Welcome to Course
Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 59, recorded July 26, 2008. This
is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast
is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and
creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - Distance Ed
Student Authentication
One of the biggest
challenges for distance and distributed education is in providing remote
examinations in a secure fashion. Exams provided over the Internet offer
students the opportunity to use resources that might not be ethical, such as a
knowledgeable friend. For this reason, many online classes require students to
visit the campus, or a testing center to take exams in a proctored environment.
A bill making its way
through congress recognizes this problem. The 1,200-page Higher Education Act, includes a paragraph that makes schools responsible for
proving that the enrolled student is the same person who does the class work in
an online class. This statement, in a bill that will almost certainly become
law, has educators scrambling to address the issue. Some schools are
experimenting with biometrics, fingerprint scanners, Web cameras, and key
logging software in attempts to authenticate students. Others are concerned
about privacy implications. In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher
Education, Rhonda M. Epper, co-executive director of
Colorado Community Colleges Online expressed concern that these forms of
authentication may be taking a step too far into a student's privacy. Indeed,
the Chronicle article references Orwell in describing the extent to which
educators may be driven in proving that students are seated alone at their
computers doing their own assignments and taking their tests unassisted.
Source:
New Systems Keep a
Close Eye on Online Students at Home [Chronicle of Higher Ed]
Story 2 - Big Cable Points
Fingers
The FCC will soon begin
implementing regulations designed to keep the large Internet Service Providers,
sometimes known as "big cable", from interfering with the free flow
of information over their networks. This week the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association pulled US colleges and universities into the
debate. A letter from the group to the FCC states essentially that since
colleges implement policies on their networks to keep users from using
bandwidth-hogging P2P networks, ISP's should be allowed to do the same. Also,
the letter makes the inverse argument that if the FCC forces ISP's to take a
hands-off approach, colleges should have to follow the same rules. If the FCC
agrees, which is doubtful, then either college networks will open up to
pirating, or the network providers such as Comcast will be allowed to filter
Internet traffic.
Sources:
Big
Cable: FCC Internet policy should apply to colleges too [Ars Technica]
Story 3 - New system-on-chip
from Intel
This week Intel unveiled
eight new chips, that promise to expand the Internet
to all sorts of electronic devices. The chips use SoC
designs, SoC stands for
system-on-chip, a technique that consolidates four essential computer
components onto a single chip resulting in a significant savings in space and
power consumption. These SoC's can then be embedded
in a variety of electronic devices to give them processing power. In the case
of Intel's new chips, their primary purpose is to connect electronics devices to
the Internet. Intel sees its chips being used to create Internet-connected
televisions, cars, handheld devices such as cell phones, media players, and
games, digital cameras, and a host of other special-purpose electronics
devices.
Sources:
Intel Unveils
'Smart' System-on-Chip Designs [NewsFactor]
Intel
launches chips that will bring the Internet to everyday devices [Venturebeat]
And that brings us to 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 www.course.com/coursecasts. E-mail
us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com.
Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power
-- of Technology!