College campuses are hothouses of data, including course schedules, degree requirements, and grades. But much of the information remains spread out across software systems or locked on university servers. Start-up companies want to pry the information loose from campus servers in order to offer personalized services that could transform the…

More faculty and administrators are seeking access to student files and class rosters and are gaining it through the proliferation of computer terminals on campus, raising the level of responsibility of registrars far above the actual level of control. An institutional approach to records security is recommended. (MSE)

A National Science Foundation project will develop the technology for exchange of scientific documents containing text, images, drawings, charts, graphs, animation, and even voice among dissimilar computers, altering the nature of research collaboration. (MSE)

Describes the increasing trend of incorporating electronic commerce methods to purchasing systems at colleges and universities. Provides examples from the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University (Massachusetts), California State University at Fullerton, and the University of California at Los Angeles. (DB)

Since 1985, the University of Missouri at Columbia's School of Journalism has been developing a high-technology environment for student work, including word processing, electronic imaging, networked personal computers, and telecommunications. Some faculty worry that the emphasis on technology may overshadow the concepts, principles, and substance…

In artificial life research, scientists use the principles of evolution to develop complex behaviors from simple elements. By creating lifelike processes, they are trying to understand real organisms and explore possibilities for life in other circumstances. Techniques used are diverse, including biological testing, robotics, and computer…

A Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) undergraduate honors course in the physics of technology, taught in a special advanced electronic classroom, uses a computer data-management program to create a "stack" of index cards, from which students can answer their own or others' questions about technology. Students learn both physics and clear…

A combination of computer, videodisk, and voice-recognition technology lets Georgetown University medical students ask questions of an electronic "patient" who appears on a television monitor and appears to respond. Students can order laboratory tests and study patient behavior inside and outside the hospital. Simulations use actors or…

The growth of computer use into all areas of academic institutions has broadened and complicated the computer operations manager's job and has brought institution-wide management responsibilities, requiring more professional development in managerial skills. (MSE)

A project at the University of California at Berkeley is aimed at creating computerized catalogs of special collections throughout the institution, from departments to museums, to improve access for both scholars and laypeople. The project combines imaging and text records. Eventually, 80 or more collections may be included. (MSE)

Increasingly, college textbooks written to the specifications of individual professors are being produced on demand by custom publishers, often prepared very quickly to contain up-to-date information. Students prefer them to photocopied packets of readings. The trend is a reaction to the emergence of information-on-demand computer networks. (MSE)

Fear of technology is seen as a growing problem in education as the use of computers expands. The anxiety associated with using computers in various common forms can cause physical symptoms, discomfort, and inefficiency. Individual counseling and group workshops can be effective treatment. (MSE)

TeleLearning System, Incorporated plans to offer correspondence courses by computer. Fifteen universities are participating in TeleLearning Network pilot programs; however, none of the courses are recognized for credit at this time. The courses combine the traditional correspondence course approach with the modern technology of…

Gallaudet University is beginning a program using computer-assisted telephone fund-raising solicitations of alumni, in a promising use of communications technology. (MSE)

Increasingly, colleges are using new technologies, often expensive, to improve fund-raising capacity among small-scale donors. Techniques include computerized screening of prospective donors based on personal information, automatic dialing and phone-bank worker training, and sophisticated direct-mail tactics. Concern about privacy and loss of the…