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***************************************************** Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. *****************************************************
TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006 Some Faculty See Downside of Technology Yahoo to Open More Research Centers U.K. Calls on Banks to Increase Online Security New Service Hopes to Add Features to VoIP
****************************************************************** Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/DISTANCE%20LEARNING/DigitalDiploma.html> Military and the University Complex University CEO's Salary INFORMATION Cyberliberties at the top 50 universities in the United States. WHO OWNS K-12 IP Online Content? ******************************************************************
SOME FACULTY SEE DOWNSIDE OF TECHNOLOGY Despite the obvious benefits of putting lecture materials online, some faculty have seen a sharp rise in absenteeism that results from students' having access to class content over their computers. Terre Allen, a communication studies scholar at Cal State Long Beach, said that when she posted most of her notes online, attendance in her classes dropped from about 65 percent to only about 35 percent. "Too much online instruction is a bad thing," she said. Faculty at other institutions have reported similar drops in attendance when lecture notes are available on the Web, and many have adjusted their approach to teaching in an attempt to deal with the change. Some, like Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at UCLA, only post selections from lecture notes. Others have resorted to giving more pop quizzes, including test questions that specifically are not covered in the notes posted online, and offering extra credit to students who show up for class. Los Angeles Times, 17 January 2006 http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-noshow17jan17,1,3883942.story
YAHOO TO OPEN MORE RESEARCH CENTERS Yahoo has announced plans to expand its stable of research centers outside the United States, with new facilities in Spain and Chile added to the four U.S. locations. Ricardo Baeza-Yates, a native of Chile who has worked with universities in Santiago and in Barcelona, will head the new research centers. Baeza-Yates authored "Modern Information Retrieval," a highly regarded textbook on search technology, as well as other books. The center in Barcelona will operate with the Barcelona Media Innovation Centre, with support from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and other local colleges. The Santiago research center will be hosted by the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile and will work in cooperation with the Center for Web Research, which was founded by Baeza-Yates. Areas of investigation at the new sites will include Web search and data-extraction technologies. CNET, 23 January 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6029663.html
U.K. CALLS ON BANKS TO INCREASE ONLINE SECURITY The Financial Services Authority (FSA), a financial watchdog organization in Britain, has called on the country's banks to increase online security. According to the FSA, losses to online banking fraud tripled in the first half of 2005 compared to a year earlier. A study conducted by the FSA revealed that half of online banking customers are concerned about security and that three-quarters would stop banking online if they are forced to bear the costs of fraud. The group acknowledged that part of the responsibility lies with consumers, who need to understand the risks and the steps they can take to minimize them. Banks, however, must do more to increase security and to educate users, said the FSA. Some banks are piloting projects aimed at increasing online security. Lloyds TSB issued 30,000 electronic security devices that users must have to access their accounts. The devices generate new ID codes every 30 seconds and must be used in tandem with existing security measures. BBC, 23 January 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4637226.stm
NEW SERVICE HOPES TO ADD FEATURES TO VOIP A new company called Tello Corp. will begin offering a new voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service that its founders hope will alter user expectations about what the technology can do. Jeff Pulver, one of the people behind Tello, said VoIP is primarily used today simply to make inexpensive phone calls. VoIP has the potential to create a very different experience from mere calling, he said, including a sense of "presence" that comes with instant messaging. The Tello service will let users see who else is logged in, how long they have been connected, when they were last connected, and other user information. The "presence" features of the service are also likely to make it a target of privacy advocates because it can allow organizations to track the whereabouts of employees, for example. Doug Renert, chief executive of the new company, said the service is not a "Big Brother application," noting that users have the option of defeating the tools that would allow for tracking. Wall Street Journal, 23 January 2006 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113798191905653294.html
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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2006 Students Blame i2hub for Their Downloading Habits Putting a Price on Cybercrime Apple Changes iTunes in Response to Complaints
STUDENTS BLAME I2HUB FOR THEIR DOWNLOADING HABITS A group of students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are demanding that the operators of the now-shuttered i2hub pay for their settlements with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). According to Lisa Kent, an attorney at the university's Student Legal Services Office, which is representing the 42 students, i2hub deceived students into believing the service was endorsed by the university. This deception led to their believing that downloading materials over the network was legal. Unless i2hub pays the $157,500 that the RIAA is seeking from the students, the student legal office will file a lawsuit, said Kent. Charles S. Baker, the attorney for Wayne Chang, who created i2hub when he was a sophomore at UMass Amherst, rejected Kent's argument, saying that the software that Chang wrote was technically legal. "i2hub," he said, "is not responsible if your clients used the software for an improper purpose." Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, compared the students' legal argument to "a shooter deciding to sue a gun company, saying, 'The gun made me do it.'" Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 January 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006011901t.htm
PUTTING A PRICE ON CYBERCRIME A study by the FBI estimates that yearly losses to computer crimes exceed $67 billion. The study is based on the results of a survey of more than 2,000 organizations, of which 90 percent reported having suffered some form of computer attack in the previous 12 months, and 64 percent said they suffered a financial loss due to those attacks. The average financial loss was $24,000 per company. In estimating total losses, the FBI multiplied the average loss by just 20 percent of U.S. organizations because survey results are often skewed when reporting problems. Even with the significant reduction in the number of affected businesses, the total estimate was an enormous amount of money, far exceeding the $1 billion in losses each year to telecommunications fraud. Because of the relatively large sample size, Bruce Verduyn of the FBI said he believes the estimate is more accurate than other studies that have attempted to quantify losses to cybercrime. CNET, 19 January 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-6028946.html
APPLE CHANGES ITUNES IN RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS Responding to complaints that its iTunes software infringed on user privacy, Apple has made changes to the application. At issue is a feature called MiniStore, which recommends songs to users based on what they are listening to. When the new feature was released earlier this month, some users discovered that the feature transmitted information about iTunes users to Apple with unique identifiers. Those ID numbers exposed the users of the service to violations of their privacy because the iTunes software did not alert users to the feature and how it works. Critics also pointed out that Apple did not disclose what exactly it does with the data that is transmitted to the company. Apple has changed the software to include a pop-up that tells users about the feature and allows them to turn it off. Apple also said that it has not done anything with the data it has collected. Kirk McElhearn, one of the users who first reported the concerns about MiniStore, commended Apple for its response, saying it had "done the right thing." BBC, 19 January 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4627214.stm
************************************************************* MUSIC MAKES YOU SMARTER <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/> Are you interested in the research that shows how music education can make your smarter? Find all the relevant websites that help teachers integrate the internet into their music classroom. *************************************************************
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