System Technology Plan for WA CTCs

The WA Community and Technical College system has drafted a Technology Plan to guide future system level investments and strategy for how our colleges use technology to support 21^st century learning spaces, student services and administrative applications.

What do you think? What needs to be changed? Your comments are most welcome!

Microsoft Ramps Up Its Free College E-Mail Program

Microsoft's Live@edu, a suite of online tools focused specifically toward education, has now been expanded to include Exchange Labs, which is similar to a hosted Exchange service but with prototype features that are not yet available to the general public. The move brings expanded e-mail options to campus IT departments, including 10 GB of space per account, as free added features. (from Campus Technology)

Chronicle Article.

Microsoft Shuts Book-Digitizing Project

For our Library partners...

"Microsoft announced today that it would shut down its Live Search Books and Live Search Academic programs..."

20+ Ways to Learn a Language Online

Link to ReadWrite Web Article...

Directory of 2300 Learning Tools

from George Siemens blog:

Jane Hart at Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies has been putting together a list of learning tools and technologies. Her directory now includes over 2300 tools. Great place for educators, marketers, people who are randomly bored, to get some new ideas and approaches to teaching and communicating. Jane has split the tools out in "free" and "non-free" categories.

Nonprofit Library Group Will Share Book Records With Google

In an effort to increase the visibility of libraries’ holdings on the Web, Google and OCLC—formerly known as the Online Computer Library Center—have agreed to swap data. Under the arrangement, OCLC member-libraries that have made their holdings available via Google Book Search will share their bibliographic records with Google. And Google Book Search, which contains the digitized text of more than one million books, will provide links to WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database. It is run by OCLC, a nonprofit group that promotes technology in libraries.

Other groups, too, are trying to promote libraries holdings on the Web, including Open Library and LibraryThing.—Andrea L. Foster (Chronicle)